Samsung was nowhere near the likes of Xiaomi, Honor, Realme etc. last year regarding the budget value for money smartphones but this year, the company wants to change all that. The Samsung Galaxy M10 and M20 are the latest additions to the budget segment from the company, and unlike previous budget phones from Samsung, these provide some really good value for money.
For the first time in the past few years, Samsung has kept the price so aggressive to give a competition to Xiaomi and other companies in the budget segment. We all know that in India, the budget segment is the one where we see the most competition. Impressive specs and aggressive pricing is what most of the Chinese brands follow, and that’s why they are on the top when it comes to the budget smartphone market.
Samsung announced the Exynos 7904 processor especially for the Indian market in January this year and soon, the Galaxy M20 was launched with the same processor. This is something that we haven’t seen from Samsung in a long time since the company was using the old Exynos 7870 in all of its budget and mid-range phones in the past few years.
The Samsung Galaxy M20 starts at Rs 10,990 in India and at the similar price, Asus has launched the cheapest Snapdragon 632-powered phone, the Max M2. So, how does the Exynos 7904 compares to the Snapdragon 632? Is it better or still lagging behind the Snapdragon processors? Well, that’s what we are going to find out in this article as we will compare the Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 632.
EXYNOS 7904 VS SNAPDRAGON 632 – THE SPECIFICATIONS
| Samsung Exynos 7904 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 | |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing Process | 14nm | 14nm |
| CPU | 64-bit 2x1.8GHz Cortex-A73 + 6x1.6GHz Cortex-A53 | 64-bit 8x Kryo 250 CPU up to 1.8GHz |
| CLOCK SPEED | Up to 1.8 GHz | Up to 1.8 GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G71 MP2 | Adreno 506 |
| CAMERA | Up to 32 MP single camera Up to 16 MP dual camera | Dual ISPs support up to 24 and 13+13 MP dual camera |
| VIDEO | Up to 4K 30fps encoding and decoding with HEVC(H.265), H.264 and VP8, and decoding with VP9 | 4K Ultra HD @ 30 FPS |
| DISPLAY | Up to Full HD+ (2400x1080) | Up to FHD+ |
| CONNECTIVITY | LTE Cat.13 (DL) LTE Cat.12 (UL) | LTE Cat.12 (DL) LTE Cat.5 (UL) |
THE ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of any processor is one of the deciding factors of the performance and the power efficiency of that chipset. Flagship processors have already gone down to 7nm architecture for one reason only – the performance and the power efficiency. The Exynos 7904, as well as the Snapdragon 632, are both 14nm processors so just based on the architecture, it is hard to say which one is better. Hence, regarding the architecture, this is a tie.
WINNER – THIS IS A TIE
THE CPU
Ok, this is one is interesting. The Exynos 7904 is an octa-core processor, and so is the Snapdragon 632. But, the Exynos 7904 has two high-performance Cortex-A73 cores at 1.8GHz and six power-efficient Cortex-A53 cores at 1.6GHz. As we said in all of our previous comparisons of the Exynos 7904, this processor is not that powerful as the Snapdragon 636 or 660 but is very power efficient due to more power efficient cores.
Snapdragon 632 comes with custom octa-core Kryo 250 CPU that has 4x Kryo 250 Performance Cores (Cortex-A73 based) clocked at 1.8GHz and 4x Kryo 250 Efficiency Cores (Cortex A-53 based) clocked at 1.8GHz. So, while the arrangement of the cores is the same, the Snapdragon 632 has an edge due to the higher clock speed of the efficiency cores.
WINNER – SNAPDRAGON 632
THE GPU
One thing that you need to understand is that despite the name, the Snapdragon 632 is not the successor to the 630 but more of an upgrade to the Snapdragon 625 since it has the same core arrangement and, as we will talk in this section, the same GPU. The Snapdragon 632 has a 14nm Adreno 506 GPU with a frequency of 600/650MHz.
On the other hand, the Exynos 7904 has a 16nm Mali-G71 MP2 GPU with a frequency of 770 MHz. So, as the frequency shows, the Mali GPU on the Exynos 7904 seems better than the Adreno 506. But, the Adreno 506 also has better architecture, so maybe in some cases, it performs the same as the Mali-G71 MP2.
WINNER – EXYNOS 7904
THE CAMERA SUPPORT
One thing that makes the Exynos 7904 better than other processors at this price is the camera support. The Exynos 7904 supports up to three rear cameras. This means it is the only processor at this price that supports triple rear cameras. Talking about the single camera support, the Exynos 7904 supports up to the 32MP single rear camera. Also, it supports up to 16MP Dual cameras.
On the other hand, the Snapdragon 632 supports only up to two rear cameras and that too up to 13MP +13MP. This processor supports up to the 24MP single rear camera. Both the processors support 4K 30FPS recording.
So yes, regarding the camera support, the Exynos 7904 is a clear winner.
WINNER – EXYNOS 7904
CONNECTIVITY
Despite the fact that the Snapdragon 632 is not that old, it still uses LTE Cat.12 for Downlink and LTE Cat.5 for Uplink. On the other hand, Samsung’s Exynos 7904 uses LTE Cat.13 for Downlink and LTE Cat.12 for Uplink. Hence, in the case of the connectivity as well, the Exynos 7904 is better.
WINNER – EXYNOS 7904
EXYNOS 7904 VS SNAPDRAGON 632 – THE BENCHMARKS
Like we do in all our comparisons, let’s now talk about the benchmark scores of both the processors and see which one scores higher. Starting with the AnTuTu score, the Exynos 7904 scores around 107K which is a pretty respectable score despite the fact that it is nowhere near the score of Helio P60, P70 and the Snapdragon 660. On Geekbench, the Exynos 7904 scores around 1314 on single core and 3982 on multi-core.
On SlingShot Extreme, the Exynos 7904 scores 580 for the Open GL ES 3.1 and 1101 for the Vulkan. So, those were the scores of Exynos 7904 in a couple of benchmark platforms.
As we said above, the Snapdragon 632 is an upgrade to the Snapdragon 625, but it looks like what Qualcomm claims is somewhat right. The Snapdragon 625 used to score around 60-65K on AnTuTu benchmark, but when it comes to Snapdragon 632, it scores around 102K. So yes, there is a huge improvement in the performance of Snapdragon 632 when compared to the Snapdragon 625.
Also, the difference is not that big when compared to the AnTuTu score of Exynos 7904, so that’s interesting considering that the Exynos 7904 also has the high-performance Cortex A73 cores.
On Geekbench, the Snapdragon 632 scores around 1255 on the single core and around 4800 on multi-core. Now, this is getting interesting. The multi-core score is higher than the Exynos 7904 by around 900 points! We don’t know if this is because Qualcomm has done some really impressive work on improving the Snapdragon 632’s performance or Samsung didn’t focus much on improving the performance of Exynos 7904.
On SlingShot Extreme, the Snapdragon 632 scores around 526 for Open GS ES 3.1 and 460 for Vulkan. So, in this case, the Exynos 7904 is a clear winner.
EXYNOS 7904 VS SNAPDRAGON 632 – THE CONCLUSION
As you saw, the Exynos 7904 is better than Snapdragon 632 when we talk about the specs on paper. But, when it comes to benchmarks, the Snapdragon 632 takes the lead in some cases like on Geekbench. So, it all comes down to the real world usage. Again, we have always said this, and we will say this again – The benchmark scores don’t always reflect the real world performance for the processors.
What do you think? Which processor would you choose if you have to pick one among the Exynos 7904 and the Snapdragon 632? Do let us know via the comments section.