First Galaxy S20 vs Galaxy S10 benchmark score pits Snapdragon 865 vs 855

Qualcomm revealed at the 865's unveiling that it is done with TSMC's second-generation 7nm process, the same one that allowed Apple to cram 8.6 billion transistors in its A13 chipset in the iPhone 11 series. 

The Exynos 990 that will be powering the global Galaxy S20 models, however, has Samsung's 5G modem integrated while for Snapdragon 865 the X55 modem comes as a separate entity that manufacturers can tack on for easier onboarding of the complicated 5G connectivity.

Thus, we are going to see a real competition in the world of mobile processing units this year, as Samsung's Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865 chipset lines will be done at separate foundry production facilities but on the same second-gen 7nm process. The Snapdragon 855 that is in the Galaxy S10 for the US is done at the first-gen 7nm production node, while Exynos 9820 for the global versions is on 8nm.

Qualcomm promised up to 25% performance gains at the same clock speeds between 855 and 865, and thus, the Galaxy S20 will eventually thus have a chipset that is much faster than the fastest Android chips at the moment, with the corresponding graphics subsystem gains. 

The big bump, however, is in the value-added features like multi-mode 5G, high-res camera support, or up to 144Hz display refresh rates. Here is a quick comparison table with all the known Snapdragon 865 features against the Exynos 990 and some other notables.

 

Galaxy S20+ vs Galaxy S10 benchmarks, Snapdragon 865 vs 855 score

 

While a 25% performance gain is nothing to sniff at when compared to Snapdragon 855, the added value of today's chipsets are not the clock speeds - they are high enough as it is - but rather the accompanying features and especially the modems now that we have 5G connectivity to support, too.

Based on the Snapdragon 865 and Exynos 990 specs alone, we can deduce that, yes, the Galaxy S20 will indeed sport a 108MP camera, have fast DDR5 memory, and a display refresh rate of 120Hz.

Moreover, Samsung's finest for the spring season would be capable of smooth 8K video recording, and up to 7.5Gbps download speeds on mmWave networks like Verizon's 5G. All specs that you don't even have on your high-end laptop at home, and sound pretty crazy to have in your phone, but may very well become reality before March has rolled out in earnest.