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Compact Galaxy S20 finally appears with 12GB RAM, benching against S20+

By Daniel Petrov

Published: Jan 16, 2020, 9:06 AM

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Compact Galaxy S20 finally appears with 12GB RAM, benching against S20+

After thoroughly previewing the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the S20+, finally it's time for the smallest and cutest member of the pack, the 6.2" Galaxy S20, to pop up somewhere. Denoted with the SM-G981U model number, the same that it appeared with at the FCC in the US last week, the Galaxy S20 will most likely be a value-for-money juggernaut, so its performance matters.

Powered by the same Snapdragon 865 or Exynos 990 processing power as its larger brethren, the S20 munchkin will by no means be a slouch. In fact, MySmartPrice just alerted us that it leaked on Geekbench with the whopping 12GB RAM under the hood, indicating a top-of-the-line performance and confirming the rumors that all members of the S20 family will ship with 12 gigs as standard.

While it benches less than the S20+, denoted with the SM-G986U model number, these are most likely still engineering pre-release versions with non-retail software, so we wouldn't put much hype in the numbers, given that the S20 still lifts around the Snapdragon 855+ mark with this clock frequency.

The most exciting part for us is that the Galaxy S20 will be the most compact phone in its specs juggernaut class, what with the 5.97 x 2.72 x 0.36 inches (151.7 x 69.1 x 9.1 mm) size. That's about the volume of the Galaxy S10, and that one is by no means a large phone for today's standards.

Compare that to the dummy of the Galaxy S20 Ultra when put next to the Galaxy Note 10+, and you'll see the ocean of size difference between the smallest and largest members of the S20 family. Moreover, the aspect ratio of the display has grown taller now, up to 20:9, which makes the S20 Ultra all the more gargantuan to look at.

Now, the only thing left is to wait for the eventual Exynos 990 version of the Galaxy S20 phones to be benchmarked as well, so that we can compare the two processors and see which will come on top. Samsung's Exynos model will have the advantage of an integrated 5G modem, whereas the Snapdragon 865 has to have Qualcomm's X55 one tacked on in addition to the processor chippery.

Here are the main differences of the new Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865 processor when compared to their predecessors in phones like the S10, or against Apple's finest for the moment A13.

Snapdragon 865 and 855+ vs Exynos 990 vs Apple A13 specs comparison

	Exynos 990 (Galaxy S20)	Snapdragon 865 (Galaxy S20)	Snapdragon 855+	Apple A13
Production process	7nm+ EUV	7nm (TSMC N7P)	7nm (TSMC FF)	7nm (TSMC N7P)
Processor cores	2x Exynos M5 2x Cortex A76 4x Cortex A55	1x 2.84GHz A77 3x 2.42GHz A77 4x 1.8GHz A55	1x Kryo 485 Gold (custom Cortex-A76) @ 2.96GHz 3x Kryo 485 Gold (custom Cortex-A76) @ 2.42GHz 4x Kryo 485 Silver (custom Cortex-A55) @ 1.80GHz	2x Lightning @2.66GHz 4x Thunder @1.7GHz
GPU	Mali-G77 MP11	Adreno 650 at 587MHz	Adreno 640	Apple custom quad-core
Modem	Exynos 5123 (Category 24) Downloads up to 7.3Gbps (mmWave), 5.1Gbps (sub-6GHz), or 3Gbps (4G LTE), 8xCA Uploads: up to 422 Mbps	X55 5G modem add-on up to 7 Gbps over 5G, and 2.5 Gbps download speeds on LTE	Snapdragon X24 LTE (Category 20) Downloads: up to 2Gbps, 7xCA Uploads: up to 316Mbps X50 5G modem add-on	Intel XMM7660 (Category 19) Downloads: up to 1.6Gbps, 7xCA Uploads: up to 225Mbps
AI co-processor	Yes, dual-core NPU	Yes	Yes	Yes, octa-core Neural Engine
Video encode	4K HDR at 150fps 8K HDR at 30fps	8K HDR	4K HDR10+	4K HDR at 60fps
Misc.	UFS 3.0 storage support for up to 2.9GB/s speeds LPDDR5 memory support Single-camera up to 108MP 120Hz display refresh rate	LPDDR5 memory support	4K HDR Bokeh Video 8K 360 VR video playback Always-on noise cancellation Dual-frequency GPS	Computational photography Machine learning capable of 1 trillion operations per second

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.