Leaked benchmark reveals Samsung’s Galaxy S10 is slower than iPhone XS

Samsung will reveal everything there is to know about the Galaxy S10 on Feb. 20.

But as always, so much about Samsung’s next flagship Android phones (yes, we’re expecting at least three versions) has already leaked. The latest details to drip out: the Galaxy S10 might not be as powerful as the iPhone XS.

A Geekbench score logged on Feb. 3 suggests at least one of the Galaxy S10 phones will fall short of the iPhone XS’s performance. 

The benchmark entry, which is believed to have come from Samsung’s entry-level S10, tentatively called the “S10e” or “S10 Lite” recorded a single-core score of 4,472 and multi-core score of 10,387. 

Both scores impressive and suggest Samsung’s own Exynos 9820 chipset, which will power some versions of the S10 (the others will reportedly use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855 chips), will close the performance gap with Apple’s own A12 Bionic chip inside of the iPhone. 

The scores, however, clock in just below the iPhone XS and XS Max, both of which scored higher when we last benchmarked them at launch in November. The iPhone XS and XS Max scored 4,821 and 4,774 on the single-core CPU tests, respectively. On the multi-core test, both of Apple’s phones also logged higher scores compared to the alleged S10e, with 11,392 and and 11,380, respectively. Even the iPhone XR scored higher than the alleged S10e with 4,773 on the single-core test and 11,301 on multi-core.

“Samsung will need to come up with compelling reasons to get consumers to upgrade.”

If the Geekbench entry is genuine, the S10e will sport 6GB of RAM, which could give it the sustained speed and fluidity so many phones lack. Unlike on iPhone, Android requires far more RAM to maintain smooth performance. 

One need only look at the impressively smooth OnePlus 6 and 6T, which sport anywhere between 6GB to 10GB of RAM, to see how much of a difference more RAM makes. Less RAM can also ruin a great phone; a good example is the Google Pixel 3, which has received widespread complaints for becoming noticeably slower only a few months and software updates after launch.

That said, Geekbench scores aren’t everything. For most people, the most important things to consider on the new Samsung phones will be the cameras, battery life, and price.

Samsung can release more models, cram in up to 1TB of storage, include 5G, and impress with screens with “hole punch” (might I suggest “mole” as a better and easier-to-say term?) camera cutouts, but as smartphone sales flatten and decline for everyone from Apple to Samsung, the company will need to come up with compelling reasons to get consumers to upgrade.

A phone with a foldable display might be one way to get consumers excited about phones again, but the often boring basics are increasingly what matters most even if they don’t make for buzzy headlines.

Everything on the S10 (all models) should become clear on Feb. 20. Mashable will be on the ground at the Unpacked in San Francisco to bring you everything from Samsung’s 10th anniversary event for its Galaxy phones.