Samsung's Galaxy S II Preliminary Performance: Mali-400MP Benchmarked
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on February 14, 2011 12:38 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Arm
- Orion
- MWC 2011
- Galaxy S II
- Exynos
- Mali 400
- Mobile
- Trade Shows
There's a lot of speculation about the SoC used in Samsung's Galaxy S II, thankfully through process of elimination and some snooping around we've been able to figure it out.
We know for sure it's not NVIDIA's Tegra 2 or Qualcomm. That leaves Samsung or TI. A quick look at GLBenchmark2's output gives us the GPU string: ARM Mali 400. TI's OMAP 4 uses a PowerVR SGX, so it's out of the running. This leaves one and only SoC: Samsung's own Exynos 4210 (formerly Orion).
Exynos has two ARM Cortex A9 cores running at 1GHz. As a result, general performance of the Galaxy S II is competitive with phones based on NVIDIA's Tegra 2. The Galaxy S II runs Android 2.3.1 compared to 2.2.1 used by the Tegra 2 phones, and as a result has better Javascript performance which we see in some of our benchmarks.
| Physical Comparison | |||||||||
| Apple iPhone 4 | Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate | LG Optimus 2X | Motorola Atrix 4G | Samsung Galaxy S II | |||||
| Height | 115.2 mm (4.5") | 106.17 mm (4.18") | 123.9 mm (4.87") | 117.8mm | 125.3mm | ||||
| Width | 58.6 mm (2.31") | 63.5 mm (2.5") | 63.2 mm (2.48") | 63.5mm | 66.1mm | ||||
| Depth | 9.3 mm ( 0.37") | 9.91 mm (0.39") | 10.9 mm (0.43") | 10.95mm | 8.48mm | ||||
| Weight | 137 g (4.8 oz) | 127 grams (4.5 oz) | 139.0 grams (4.90 oz) | 135.0 grams | 116 grams | ||||
| CPU | Apple A4 @ ~800MHz | 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird | NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core Cortex-A9 (AP20H) @ 1 GHz | NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core Cortex-A9 (AP20H) @ 1 GHz | Samsung Exynos 4210 Dual-Core Cortex A9 @ 1GHz | ||||
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 535 | PowerVR SGX 540 | ULV GeForce @ 100-300 MHz | ULV GeForce @ 100-300 MHz | ARM Mali-400 MP | ||||
| RAM | 512MB LPDDR1 (?) | 512 MB LPDDR1 | 512 MB LPDDR2 @ 600 MHz data rate | 1024 MB LPDDR2 @ 600 MHz data rate | 1GB | ||||
| NAND | 16GB or 32GB integrated | 2 GB, 16 GB microSD (Class 2) | 8 GB integrated (5.51 GB internal SD, 1.12 phone storage), up to 32 microSD | 16 GB integrated, up to 32 microSD | 16 GB integrated, up to 32 microSD | ||||
| Camera | 5MP with LED Flash + Front Facing Camera | 5 MP with auto focus and LED flash | 8 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 1080p24 video recording, 1.3 MP front facing | 5 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 720p video recording, VGA MP front facing | 8 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 1080p video recording, 2MP front facing | ||||
| Screen | 3.5" 640 x 960 LED backlit LCD | 4" Super AMOLED 800 x 480 | 4" IPS LCD 800 x 480 |
4" PenTile LCD 960 x 540 |
4.3" Super AMOLED Plus 800x480 |
||||
The GPU accelerated UI used in Android 2.3.1 makes the Galaxy S II feel a bit faster than the Tegra 2 phones, however that's not always the case. While web page loading feels comparable between the Atrix 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S II, Tegra 2 appears to handle flash a bit better than Samsung's Exynos.
This is a pretty significant difference in our Flash benchmark, however it does translate into a somewhat less smooth experience when scrolling around web pages with Flash.
We managed to run GLBenchmark2 on the Samsung Galaxy S II and compared it to our recently reviewed/previewed Tegra 2 smartphones.
The Mali-400 MP performs pretty well in GLBenchmark2, however it's still a bit behind NVIDIA's Tegra 2. Note that the Galaxy S II runs at 800 x 480 so its direct competitor in this case would be the Optimus 2X. These results don't tell us a lot about the GPU's performance other than the combination of hardware and drivers isn't quite up to par with what NVIDIA has today - at least under GLBenchmark2. There's so much that can be done with driver optimizations that it's difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions yet.
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anexanhume - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
So glad to see it's not a PenTile. TouchWiz still begs to be rooted, unfortunately. I hope the carriers have sense enough to ask for all 4 buttons on their models.Alexstarfire - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
I wouldn't mind them dropping the search button. I don't see the point in having it. It's not a basic function. Perhaps that's just cause I rarely use search though.bplewis24 - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
I used to think the same thing for about the first 9 months I owned my phone. Then one day I basically had an epiphany, and began using it probably 30-40% of the time that I wake my phone up from sleep mode.IMO, a significant reason for owning an Android phone is because of the Google, Universal Search functions.
Brandon
mwarner1 - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
The Galaxy S II button layout is precisely the same as my UK Galaxy S - I think it is only the US variants that have a different button layout.As MWC is held in Europe and all European carriers will have the World version of the Galaxy S II (i.e. not a Customised version as released by US carriers) it makes sense that the buttons are laid out as shown at the show.
To be honest I like the physical home button on the Galaxy S I and am pleased it has translated over to the Galaxy S II. I have not really missed the search button.
Acrono - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
I think some of the screen resolutions on that table of physical comparisons are wrong.VivekGowri - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Fixed the Atrix 4G, the rest looked right to me.zorxd - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
From samsung's web sitehttp://galaxys2.samsungmobile.com/html/specificati...
Quad-band UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
125.3X66.1X8.49mm
4.3" WVGA SUPER AMOLED Plus (not 4")
1GB RAM
VivekGowri - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Thank you, updated :)sarge78 - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Also from the website...Samsung Dual Core Application Processor*
* May not be applicable in some regions.
Guess it's not quite ready yet, some markets could get a tegra 2/Hummingbird SoC.
fujii13 - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Samsung, stop trying to win the "Thinnest phone in the world" award and just give me a bigger damn battery. Thanks.