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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Buk Lau - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Then do you think there'll be a second opinion review on these two? Because now there's a clear divide among AT's reviewers on how to evaluate the quality of still images. Either you guys can conform to a more uniform standard or it should be noted that the evaluation of these are still quite heavily subjective. I just don't think there's should be that many inconsistencies if you guys are only publishing one cumulative review for each devicefanofanand - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
Excellent, honest answer. People need to keep in mind that a LOT of stuff when it comes to tech (GUI etc.) comes down to subjective preference. Josh clearly likes Apple products and it shows in his reviews. Some won't like it, others will. It's near impossible to have a 100% objective review. I abhor the time to publish as of late, but for the most part their reviews are still second to none. For the most part.ikjadoon - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
"Given that these devices have locked bootloaders it's difficult to really go deep and try to figure out exactly what's causing these issues, but it's likely that Samsung Mobile has the engineering staff to do this and resolve these issues as a 600 USD phone really shouldn't be performing worse than a 400 USD phone."And this is the crux of the problem Android market in 2016! A 50% increase in price...means maybe a 10% decrease in performance?
We talk about the Android ecosystem giving choices (and I've benefited from that choice, having owned 4 Android devices from 3 different manufacturers)....price and performance should be related.
At a certain point (certainly when you get closer to $1,000), these devices should be making meaningful upgrades over cheaper brethren.
Otherwise...what are we paying for? Maybe Samsung's relatively good update support? Water-proofing?
theduckofdeath - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Just in time for the Galaxy Note 7 release!By the way. Has this site ever delved into the extreme energy usage accompanied by excellent performance numbers when benchmarking apps are running on the iPhones? Or is that kind of cheating only an issue when it's done by a random Android OEM?
MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
As an LG G4 owner, I find it odd that its wifi browsing battery score is worse than the LTE. My experience has been the opposite for the many months I've operated the device.theduckofdeath - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
I guess the reviewer screwed this up like most other things when reviewing non-Apple products. Samsung phones use LTE and Wifi simultaneously by default when you enable Wifi.I mean, the review just reeks of nias with a natural negative stance to anything not Apple. Hopefully this will be the last review posted by Joshua. If not for his persistent bias towards anything not-Apple but for the disgracefully delayed post of this review. The phone is almost six months old and it's the biggest selling phone of the year....
theduckofdeath - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
*biasMatt Humrick - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
The purpose of these specific battery tests is to measure the difference in battery life when using WiFi vs. LTE, which is why we do not run it with them on simultaneously.Matt Humrick - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
I've updated the G4's LTE battery life. The first time I ran the G4 was before we established our target value for signal strength, and the value I used was too strong. I need to rerun the Nexus 6P too.Bonedatt - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
"I’m left wondering what Samsung would be capable of if they cared about getting things right even if no one would notice the extra frame drop or 50ms of roam latency".... This is how I feel about Samsung too. I've never owned an iPhone but I just have this feeling that Samsung continues to hold back. Either that or they don't do a good job in showcasing their efforts