Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660 Comparison – One Sided Battle?

Samsung keeps launching new processors in its Exynos lineup every year, but we rarely see phones from Samsung with the newer Exynos processors. For some reasons, the company keeps using older processors like the Exynos 7870 in its budget phones. But it looks like Samsung has understood that to compete with the like of Xiaomi, Honor, etc. in the budget segment, it has to launch some really good value for money phones.

Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660
Exynos 7904 is the latest Exynos 7 series processor

The all-new Galaxy M10 and M20 are the latest budget offerings from Samsung, and the Galaxy M20 features the Exynos 7904 processor which was announced in January 2019. So, it is the first phone from Samsung with the latest Exynos 7 series processor.

Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660
The Galaxy M20 features the Exynos 7904 processor

Now, the price of the Galaxy M20 starts at Rs 10,990 in India and goes up to Rs 12,990. Around this price, we have phones like the Realme U1, Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, Realme 2 Pro, etc. that packs some really solid specs. In this article, we are going to compare the Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660, and in the end, you will see that this was simply a one-sided comparison.

Still, since most of you guys want to know how both the chipsets compare, here is a quick comparison based on their specifications and the benchmark scores.

EXYNOS 7904 VS SNAPDRAGON 660 – THE SPECIFICATIONS 

Samsung Exynos 7904Qualcomm Snapdragon 660
Manufacturing Process14nm14nm
CPU64-bit
2x1.8GHz Cortex-A73 + 6x1.6GHz Cortex-A53
64-bit 8x Qualcomm Kryo 260 CPU
CLOCK SPEEDUp to 1.8 GHz
Up to 2.2 GHz
GPUMali-G71 MP2Qualcomm Adreno 512 GPU
CAMERAUp to 32 MP single camera
Up to 16 MP dual camera
Up to 16 MP dual camera
Up to 24 MP single camera
VIDEOUp to 4K 30fps encoding and
decoding with HEVC(H.265),
H.264 and VP8, and decoding with VP9
Up to 4K UltraHD capture @ 30 FPS
Up to 1080p video capture @120 FPS
Up to 4K Ultra HD video playback
H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), VP9, VP8
DISPLAYUp to Full HD+ (2400x1080)Full HD 2560x1200
WQXGA
CONNECTIVITYLTE Cat.13LTE Cat.13

THE CPU 

Core arrangement on the Exynos 7904

Let’s start off with the CPU and how the cores are arranged. Both are octa-core chipsets meaning both have eight cores in total. But, it all comes down to how the cores are arranged. When it comes to the Exynos 7904, there are two high-performance Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and six power-efficient Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.6GHz.

On the other hand, the Snapdragon 660 has an octa-core Kryo 260 CPU which has four semi-custom high-performance Cortex-A73 cores, and four semi-custom power-efficient Cortex-A53 cores in an arrangement called big.LITTLE arrangement. So, since there are more high-performance cores in Kryo 260, the overall CPU performance of the Snapdragon 660 is way better than the Exynos 7904, and that’s something which you will see in the benchmark scores.

WINNER – SNAPDRAGON 660

THE GPU

Just like the CPU, the GPU is also one of the important parts of the SoC. The Exynos 7904 from Samsung has the Mali-G71 GPU which is a 16nm GPU with frequency up to 770MHz. The Adreno 512 on the Snapdragon 660 has a frequency up to 850MHz & it is based on 14nm architecture whereas the Mali-G71 on the older 16nm architecture. So here again, the Snapdragon 660 takes the lead.

WINNER – SNAPDRAGON 660

THE CAMERA SUPPORT

Exynos 7904 supports triple rear cameras

One thing that you should understand is that the Exynos 7904 is not a big upgrade from the previous Exynos 7885. The CPU, the GPU, etc. remain the same. The only thing that’s changed is the camera support. The Exynos 7904 supports up to triple cameras on the back, something that even the Snapdragon 660 misses out. So, the Exynos 7904 is the only processor right now for sub Rs 15,000 phones that supports triple rear cameras.

Moreover, the Exynos 7904 can support to 32MP single rear camera whereas the Snapdragon 660 supports only up to 24MP. Again, it comes down to the ISP and all that related stuff so nothing can be said about the camera quality, etc. based on just the specs of the SoC.

WINNER – EXYNOS 7904

THE VIDEOS

Both the Exynos 7904 and the Snapdragon 660 support up to 4K recording at 30fps so there is nothing unique when it comes to video recording.

WINNER – IT’S A TIE

Just like the videos, both the Exynos 7904 and the Snapdragon 660 support the LTE Cat.12 and LTE Cat.13 for uplink and downlink respectively. So, there is no major difference regarding the connectivity options.

WINNER – IT’S A TIE

EXYNOS 7904 VS SNAPDRAGON 660 – THE BENCHMARKS

Now, let’s talk about the benchmark scores since a lot of you guys might be interested in these. As the title of this article says, you will now see how this is a one-sided battle when it comes to benchmark scores.

Starting with the Exynos 7904, the processor scores around 107K on AnTuTu benchmark as shown in the screenshot above. This is a score similar to the Snapdragon 636 so just based on AnTuTu score, you can say that the Exynos 7904 is nowhere near the Snapdragon 660. Anyways, on Geekbench, the Exynos 7904 scores 1314 on the single core and 3982 on multi-core which is a pretty average score for a budget processor.

Exynos 7904 on Slingshot Extreme

Finally, on the Slingshot extreme, the Exynos 7904 scores 580 for the Open GL ES 3.1 and 1,101 for the Vulkan.

Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660
Snapdragon 660 benchmark scores

Coming to the scores of Snapdragon 660, the AnTuTu score is around 138K which is around 20K points higher than the score of Exynos 7904. As for the Geekbench score, the Snapdragon 660 scores around 1590 on single core and 5594 on multi-core. Finally, on the Slingshot Extreme, the Snapdragon 660 scores 943 on OpenGL ES 3.1 and 1,125 on Vulkan.

EXYNOS 7904 VS SNAPDRAGON 660 – CONCLUSION

Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660
Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660

Well, as you saw in this quick comparison of the Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 660, the Snapdragon 660 is way better regarding the performance. The Exynos 7904 is a processor that you can compare to the Snapdragon 636, not the 660. In our next article, we will be comparing the Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 636 so stay tuned.

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