Samsung Galaxy S4 Processors: Exynos 5 Octa Superior To Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, According To Antutu Benchmark

The Exynos 5 Octa CPU has been hailed as one of the “most superior” processors on the market, but how does it fare against its closest relative, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset, which is featured in the U.S. variant of the Galaxy S4? Benchmark comparisons suggest the Exynos still reigns supreme.

Exynos vs. Snapdragon: First and Second Place

SamMobile’s insiders recently performed an Antutu benchmark for a GT-I9500 Galaxy S4 handset, which is equipped with the Exynos 5 Octa, but no LTE capability. The device scored a whopping 28,018 points, surpassing a GT-I9505 Galaxy S4 handset equipped with the Snapdragon 600 and LTE capability, which was tested on the same benchmark, by more than 5,000 points. This means we will see faster processing speeds in the Galaxy S4 Exynos variant.

The Galaxy S4 Snapdragon variant scored 23,607 points on an Antutu benchmark performed by GSM Arena. While surpassing a number of rival smartphones, such as the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and LG Optimus G Pro by several thousand points, the facts simply show that the Exynos 5 Octa’s extensive eight-core chipset produces more power at 1.6GHz than the quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor at 1.9 GHz.

Even with both the Exynos and Snapdragon variants topping benchmarks, most of us won’t get our hands on the fastest variant in the Galaxy S4 family. South-Korea based Samsung has reserved the SHV-E300S variant of the Galaxy S4, equipped with the Exynos 5 Octa clocking in at a lightning fast 1.8 GHz and LTE capability, for its home country. With this nice power boost to its eight-cores, it's likely that upon its release, the Korean variant of the Galaxy S4 will be the fastest phone on the planet.

Samsung Galaxy S4: Will Variant Differences Really Matter?

SamMobile insists consumers shouldn’t be upset if the Exynos 5 Octa variant won’t be available in their country as there is no difference in performance when it comes to day-to-day tasks, as most people use their phones. Where we will see a difference is when using apps that exert a lot of processing power. The Exynos 5 Octa variant will also see better power efficiency due to its ARM big.LITTLE technology.

Developers will likely favor the Exynos variant while your average user should fare well with the Snapdragon variant, though we’re quite sure everyone will be jealous of the Korean variant. Keep in mind that the Snapdragon 600 processor is an upgrade from the Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon chipset found in the U.S. variant of the Galaxy S3, and the Galaxy S3 overall was lauded as the best phone of 2012. The Galaxy S3 also had an international version, equipped with a quad-core Exynos 4 chipset.

Samsung Galaxy S4: Huge Sales Expectations

Reports indicate that the Snapdragon variant of the Galaxy S4 will make up 70 percent of Galaxy S4 handsets available in its initial release. Samsung is expected to ship 10 million handsets primarily, with the Snapdragon variant going to America and Europe while the Exynos variant will go to Asia and Africa. Eventually, some countries like Poland, Germany and the UK will receive the Exynos variant after the initial Snapdragon release. Consumers in countries providing only the Snapdragon variant should be able to buy the Exynos variant from overseas after a time, though rumors suggest that some carriers won’t support software updates for the undesignated version.

Logistics aside, Samsung seems confident that the Galaxy S4 will perform well in all markers. According to recent reports, the company plans to ship 80 million handsets in 2013, which is not far off from the 100 million handset sales goal that was projected previously, but still lofty. The Galaxy S3 has sold over 50 million handsets since its May 2012 release, with 30 million handsets sold in 2012.