Exynos is set to beat the best Snapdragon for the first time. Samsung achieved unexpectedly brutal results

Exynos has long been a sore spot for Samsung. Its own chips regularly lagged behind Snapdragons, and Galaxy owners spent years finding out which variant was sold in their country. According to leaked internal measurements, this could change – the upcoming Exynos 2700 is said to beat Qualcomm in all monitored disciplines. But it’s precisely at the word “internal” that we must pause.

Figures that would make Samsung happy

The information was reported by the South Korean economic daily Seoul Economic Daily, citing industry sources. According to them, the Exynos 2700 in the Geekbench 6.5 multi-core test surpassed the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 by 19% and the more expensive Pro variant by 9.5%.

For graphics, the lead in absolute terms is more modest – roughly 5% above the Pro version. More interesting, however, is the second measurement, where both chips were given a power consumption ceiling of 2.5 W. There, the difference jumped to 22% against the Pro version and 24% against the base model, which would mean Samsung is addressing efficiency, not just peak performance for charts.

Power consumption data also corresponds to this. During a simulation of typical phone usage, the Exynos was expected to draw 161 mA compared to 185 mA for the competing chip. And thirdly, AI: when generating responses on the Llama 3.1 8B model, Samsung was reportedly 18% faster.

And now for the part that cannot be skipped

Let’s be frank: this is a company evaluating its own silicon against a competitor’s product, on hardware inaccessible to outsiders, in tests it designed itself. The measurement conditions, software version, and chosen workload are entirely in the hands of the one publishing the results.

Moreover, Samsung has a history in this regard. Promising values from early measurements for previous Exynos generations repeatedly dissipated once the chip made it into a production phone and had to sustain performance for more than a few minutes. Higher temperatures and poorer long-term stability were the usual outcome.

Why Exynos matters so much to Samsung

The motivation is largely economic. Qualcomm is raising the prices of its flagship chips, and Samsung’s mobile division can acquire its own silicon significantly cheaper. Exynos currently powers approximately 16 to 18% of Samsung phones, and the company would like to increase that share.

The second reason lies beyond mobile phones. The Exynos 2700 is to be manufactured by Samsung Foundry using the second generation of the 2-nanometer SF2P process, and a successful flagship chip is the best calling card a foundry can offer to potential external customers.

The chip is speculatively linked to the Galaxy S27 series. However, whether these figures will be confirmed outside of Samsung’s laboratory will only be known when phones with Exynos 2700 undergo independent tests by editorial teams worldwide. Until then, consider it a company presentation, not a measurement result.

When buying a Galaxy, do you care if it has an Exynos or a Snapdragon?

Sources: GSMArena, Smartprix, AndroidPure