You might choose Exynos over Qualcomm in the Galaxy S7

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is next up on the hype train, especially since new info and benchmark results from the Samsung Exynos 8890 processor catapulted the unconfirmed handset into the limelight. Obtaining record-breaking scores on Antutu and GeekBench, the Exynos 8890 SoC right now seems like the top-notch mobile SoC on the market and it’s going to be powering some units of the Galaxy S7. Not the U.S. or Chinese ones, though. Samsung might be poking fun at the U.S. market with the Galaxy S7 by launching it with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 CPU on board, as a kind of revenge for people initially criticizing the move to turn away from Qualcomm’s hardware for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 line-ups.

The Galaxy S7 release should come around in March 2016, if Samsung keeps its release cycle, but more recent rumors suggest that we might see the handset unveiled as early as January 2016. With the new benchmark results for the Exynos 8890 posted on GeekBench and Antutu databases, hype about the handset seems to be growing as it usual does when we’re getting close to a product launch. News reports about the performance of Samsung’s new chipset have been flowing, and most of them praising the scores the SoC was apparently getting. However, we won’t be getting an accurate reading of how good that chipset actually is until we see it work in the Galaxy S7.

When the South Korean company launched the Galaxy S6 and fans realized it did in fact move away from the Snapdragon 810 CPU, some of them didn’t like it. Regardless of the good reports about the Exynos 7420 CPU, Android fans felt a bit threatened by the change – with good reason. With the Galaxy S6, the company let go of many features that were considered trademarks of the Galaxy S line-up, such as waterproof certification, removable battery, removable storage, durable design, etc. Straying from the norm even further was unusual, and the company got a good deal of negativity over it.

Nonetheless, the company confirmed that it wouldn’t be using in-house chipsets in the Galaxy S7 in the U.S. and China, but did not offer any details as to why it made the decision. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 will be the driving force behind U.S. and Chinese variants of the Galaxy S7 and when that news first broke, people were pretty delighted. Qualcomm made a good name for itself with the Snapdragon 801, 615, 805 and 808, but failed to meet expectations with the 810, Benchmark  tests of the Snapdragon 820 are promising so far, and people were delighted to hear it would be featured in the next Samsung flagship.

They might regret that once the Exynos 8890-bearing variant of the phone gets its first reviews online – if the current benchmark scores end up reflecting reality with real life performance, that is. Fortunately, benchmarks are not always right. Most likely, both the Snpadragon 820 and Exynos 8990 chipsets will be powerful and the Galaxy S7 will provide the same user experience regardless of CPU manufacturers. Nonetheless, Samsung’s chipset sounds pretty darn amazing and it might end up dethroning Qualcomm (not that it’s sitting that well).

Right now, it would be unfair to say either of these processors is inferior since real-world tests have not yet been performed. However, the benchmarks do offer some insight into how much Samsung has improved over the past couple of years – and how much it has expanded. If real tests do reflect the record-breaking score of the CPU, Qualcomm might see itself in trouble.