The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge Review: Part 2
by Joshua Ho on July 5, 2016 8:00 AM ESTSystem Performance Cont'd
Now that we've gone over the more general purpose system benchmarks we can focus on new benchmarks that emphasize GPU performance much more strongly. For the most part we haven't had huge issues here like we've had with good CPU and general performance benchmarks, but it's important for us to keep our benchmarks up to date in terms of workload balance and overall performance.
One of our first new benchmarks designed to better test the GPU is 3DMark's Sling Shot ES 3.1 test, which is designed to test a GPU's performance when the application is either using OpenGL ES 3.1 or Metal. As one can see, the Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890 have basically comparable GPU performance in this test and in the physics test as well. Once again we're seeing how core count and clock speed are basically the primary determinants of performance in the physics test when the device isn't strongly limited by thermals. I wouldn't draw any real conclusions from this as generally game CPU code can extract ILP unlike what we're seeing in this test.
In this test we start to see that the Mali GPU in the Exynos 8890 and the PowerVR GPU in the A9 are providing a noticeable advantage over the Snapdragon 820's Adreno 530 to a noticeable extent.
With GFXBench we can see that in Car Chase and Manhattan the Adreno 530 actually manages to pull away. However, because we have basically zero architecture disclosure on the Adreno 530 there's really no way for us to explain what's going on here and why. The reasons for the difference in performance could be related to drivers or architecture or architecture implementation and in the absence of information it's probably best to avoid making blind guesses. Regardless of these details, the Snapdragon 820's GPU should be more than enough for playing the latest games, but unless you use Samsung's automatic game optimizer system to set render resolution to 1080p it won't do as well as the iPhone 6s but given that most Android games target a much lower spec level it's likely that you won't have any problems given that the Adreno 530 is on the bleeding edge for Android SoCs.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
266 Comments
View All Comments
OscarK - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
This is a great article Joshua. It's strange that people would complain, thinking that it is bias simply because you stated the truth and didn't blindly praise it's camera like other reviewers whom somehow have become the embodiment of the likes of Steve McCurry. They might as well say it's bias towards the g5 which you stated is a better still camera (maybe they have some enmity with apple. I don't know). I for one like properly exposed natural photos. I will be getting the one plus 3 though. Loved the review on it.barn25 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
I don't know how you all wasnt able to test the 8890 version when pretty much all variants of it support almost all US LTE bands.Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
Because I have that unit and I'm on a different continent and I can't achieve good signal conditions to be able to do a apples to apples comparison to other devices. I'll do 820 vs 8890 comparisons under my network but the values will not be representative to other devices.SunnyNW - Thursday, July 7, 2016 - link
Just a question...but could you guys realistically not ship it back and forth within the four months or so that it took for this review?Jodiuh - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
I usually never post about this and I OWN an iPhone, but FOUR MONTHS for a review when you guys only took one week for the last iPhone?I don't know what has happened to this site, but it seems to take forever to get reviews out now if we even get them.
And it's not just cell phones, there's still no 1080/1070/480 reviews either.
:-(
DCide - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
"... as soon as I start looking closer at everything I start to see cases where Samsung just doesn’t seem to care enough. Everything about the phone seems to be targeted towards being a great experience for the first week or two of ownership ..."Spot on! This is exactly how I've seen Samsung mobile devices for a number of years now - I've just never seen it in print before!
This is exactly why I ultimately exclude Samsung from consideration whenever shopping for an Android device.
TheITS - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
This review managed to find only metrics in which the S7 can be directly compared to every other phone and then tells us that the phone as a whole is average. Where is the testing of the unique features it brings to the table like VR and water resistance? The camera is so fast why isn't there a comparison to see if it can capture lifes more transient moments than the rest of the phone market? People want to know whether it's a phone worth buying and living so please next time explore everything the phone can do and not just where it overlaps.I can see that there is a lot of content in the review but it's a shame that the reviewer doesn't seem to have identified what Samsung were trying to do as a whole with the total experience and whether they hit the mark.
theduckofdeath - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
That is unfortunately what Anandtech has been about for about a decade.raptormissle - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Takes 3 months to review an Android phone yet iPhones get the red carpet treatment around here at anandtech. The old boss must be still calling the shots. Even mechanical keyboards have a higher priority around here.watzupken - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
"The Galaxy S7 is clearly packed with features and ticks all the right boxes, but as soon as I start looking closer at everything I start to see cases where Samsung just doesn’t seem to care enough. Everything about the phone seems to be targeted towards being a great experience for the first week or two of ownership"Despite the review turning up very late, i.e. at least 4 months late, I still appreciate the objective reviews from the site. I have to agree what is mentioned in the conclusion based on my experience with Samsung products over the years. I was actually contemplating to try out the S7 to see if anything changed, but I think I will skip it.
One honest feedback to folks at Anandtech: Objective reviews are highly appreciated, but they need to be fast as well. Using this article as example, 4 months into the product launch means most people have purchased the product, which greatly diminishes the value of the review.
Thank you folks.