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.
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sevenmack - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
Not for me and not for many people who buy phones on contract. My two-year contracts usually end in October, months after many phones are released. Knowing how well phones are peforming out of the box matters no matter when they come out. So the review is timely for many of us out there.Additionally, as I have experienced latelywith two LG G4s dying bcause of motherboard issues, you may find yourself in the market for a new phone at an unexpected time. Again, the review is timely for me and for other people.
Finally: Testing a phone properly takes time. The reality is that the reason that so many other outlets released their reviews so quickly is because they aren't doing much of anything to put the phones through the paces. The average smartphone review is shallow, superficial and uttlerly devoid of objective data.
Anandtech does it differently -- and I appreciate that. You may not. That's your problem and you can take your eyeballs elsewhere.
virtuastro - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Front Camera Aperture Size is F/1.7 not F/2.2. Might be typo. Or maybe is it on international phone? Anyway not bad review but I still keep my GS6 for great camera at low-light no pixels issue just a bit over-saturated but it can be do quick editing.hans_ober - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
No Soc /Exynos deep-dive?JoshHo - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
It should be coming but I'm not sure when Andrei will finish it.Mark W 52 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Read this article about these two phones, your conclusions and characterized poor battery of the Nexus 6P is definitionally NOT CONSISTENT with the findings of this other write up.
http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-ed...
Mark W 52 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
I would definitely rather have and recommend a "pure vanilla Android experience" over the bloated touch wiz skin that Samsung puts on their phones. I had an old S3, and had to drop it over two years ago when it couldn't be updated and got stuck on 4.3 Android. Samsung and T-MOBILE could not agree on the terms and conditions even though Google told me that the the phone could have gone to 4.42. And, Samsung takes forever to update their devices. On the other hand, updates from Google have recently been monthly. Big difference,. I'm sticking with Google phones from now on.fanofanand - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
The monthly updates are security updates. Important, no doubt, but they are not OS updates. I would never buy a non-Nexus phone because I value the security updates as well as the OS updates, but don't be confused on what is being updated.erple2 - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
True, but the security updates are actually the important ones. OS updates are nice and all, but the reason I've been nexus only since the Nexus 4 is for security updates.InspectHerGadget - Sunday, July 31, 2016 - link
I agree. I think waiting for the latest OS update is frustrating. The fragmentation of Android is a major issue especially if you are waiting for a bug fix. I had one on my Note 5 on the photo app where it went into the digital zoom rather than taking the photo. I had to close then reopen the camera app before I could take the photo. It did this only occasionally but often enough just the same.pav1 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
This review is too late. Too darn late, to be precise. I bought the s7 for the camera and am disappointed.