The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Review
by Joshua Ho on April 17, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S6
- Galaxy S6 Edge
System Performance Cont'd: GPU Performance
As previously mentioned, the Galaxy S6 uses a Mali T760MP8 clocked at 772 MHz, which should provide a healthy improvement in GPU performance over the Exynos 5433. To test this, we run through our standard suite of game-style GPU benchmarks. However, there are still some CPU benchmarks present within these tests such as the 3DMark physics test. In general though, a strong GPU is needed to perform well in these tests. For those interested in an architectural deep-dive of the Mali T760, I would refer to Ryan’s article on the Midgard architecture for more information.
The Galaxy S6 starts out fairly strong in 3DMark. Overall performance is boosted by a chart-topping physics score, while pure graphics performance trails a bit. In this case the S6 is roughly on par with the iPhone 6 Plus, but would have to close quite a gap to catch up to the HTC One (M9).
BaseMark X finds the S6 the runaway winner. The phone is well ahead in both the Dunes and Hangar test, beating the next-best phones (primarily Adreno 420/430 based) by 25% or more depending on the test. The increase over the S5 is especially remarkable; Samsung has more than doubled their performance in this benchmark in barely a year.
GFXBench 3.0 is another strong showing for the S6. In both offscreen tests it's 15% or more ahead of the next closest phone, which is once again the HTC One (M9). Meanwhile compared once more to the S5, Samsung's performance has more than doubled. Consequently even the onscreen tests show significant gains, as the GPU performance gain more than outstrips the additional performance required to drive the higher resolution 1440p AMOLED display of the S6.
Overall, as we can see the performance of the S6 is in line for what is expected from its Mali T760MP8 configuration. Interestingly though the phone's performance exceeds the scaling we'd expect from adding two shader cores and increasing frequency to 772 MHz, as compared to the Exynos 5433-powered Note 4 Exynos. This suggests that the Exynos 5433's GPU was bandwidth-limited to some extent, in addition to any possible thermal throttling that would occur over the course of a GFXBench run. But I suspect we'll have to save the deep dive for a future article as I can't take the review unit apart to find out.
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darkich - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
That SoC. And that storage. And that screen. And that camera. And that design and build quality...i just held this thing for the first time yesterday and was frankly smitten despite of my initial skepticism.Anyway the benchmark performance is EPIC. iPhone got thoroughly beaten throughout, (except, of course, in the on screen graphics test)
I mean this phone scores higher in Geekbench than the freaking MacBook!!!
darkich - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
Oh and using synthetic tests for the battery is an absolute horse sh!t of unbelievable proportions!Why just not go common sense and no horsesh!t, like the actual tests of endurance for calling, music, video playback, gaming and browsing??
According to GSMArena, the S6 scores over 11 hours of browsing and video playback, which is a GREAT result and perfectly on line with Samsung’s official slides.
akdj - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - link
So comment A= 'Epic benchmarks!'And comment B= 'Why are you using synthetic benchmarks?' (In essentially the ONLY B/M that's throttled by the competition?)
Cryio - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
For future smartphone reviews, please use the current photography champion, the Lumia 930, in photo comparison tests.JoshHo - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
I would love to include the Lumia 930 in photo comparisons if I had one.Dj Gains Bond - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
I have a few questions to the complainers of no removable battery and lack thereof of storage.How many times have you had to replace the battery in your s5?
How much storage were you actually buying/using?
I went from s5 to s6, Why because I'm a phone addict and I like new things.
The base s5 had 16gb while the s6 base, has 32gb. Technology moves at such a pace, either you like and use what you have or buy the newest thing. I personally don't care if it has a removable battery or storage. Heck, they have various cloud services along side the phones storage plus many other options to store things with and via the phone.
Complaining does what? Perhaps the next variants will have that but wait, at what costs. Supposedly they're making a phone with removable battery and sd card.
Sandan - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
Well...This is a phone I will not buy. No sd card or not being able to replace the battery is a deal breaker....Chaser - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
iPhones haven't had removable batteries and SD cards since creation and obviously they sell. Samsung rightfully sees that as a nitch market worth sacrificing to market a more appealing phone. Phones have all but replaced jewelry as the new social status device. People want appealing items to pull out of their pockets and display for all on the counter, table or bar. I'm sure another competitor will design a phone that will have those. So when you nerds pull out your phones you can proudly explain your joy about having a replaceable battery and SD card slots to your friends if they can stay awake that long.sevin7 - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
Excellent review. I have been a Samsung fan for a while but sadly the lack of removable battery and sd card ruins this phone for me. Once you put the phone in a case it looks very similar to the older plastic versions. I'm extremely irritated that consumers have led Samsung to make a phone that compromises everything for the sake of looks. It looks like the LG G4 is going to be my next phone.jrs77 - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
No removable battery and no mSD-slot makes this just as crap as the iPhone.I'll never buy a phone without these two critical points covered.