A year ago, it seemed that we would no longer see Samsung on Exynos , because the Korean company released the Galaxy S23 on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for all markets. However, in 2024, the proprietary processors returned. Now those wishing to get a Samsung flagship will again have to face a choice: is it better to buy a Galaxy S24 on Exynos or Snapdragon ? Let’s try to give a comprehensive answer by studying the tests that the owners of new smartphones on different processors managed to conduct.
What processor does the Galaxy S24 run on?
In most countries of the world, including Russia, the majority of Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ smartphones are supplied with the Exynos 2400 processor. At the same time, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is sold everywhere with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset on board. By the way, we talked about its differences from the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in a separate article.
Despite the widespread use of Exynos 2400 in the two younger models, the basic Galaxy S24 on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is officially sold in the US and Canada. These versions of the smartphones have already been brought to Russia, and now, if desired, you can buy a Galaxy S24 on Snapdragon by choosing one of the offers on Yandex Market and other sites. But is it necessary to experiment, or is it better to limit yourself to a smartphone on Exynos 2400 ?
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or Exynos 2400 – Which is Better
To understand whether the Galaxy S24 is better on Snapdragon or Exynos , first of all you need to compare the processors, fortunately their manufacturers have long published a list of technical characteristics. We will turn to it.
| Characteristics | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy | Exynos 2400 |
|---|---|---|
| Number of cores | 8 | 10 |
| Kernel architecture | 1xCortex-X4 (3.39 GHz) 3xCortex-A720 (3.15 GHz) 2xCortex-A720 (2.96 GHz) 2xCortex-A520 (2.26 GHz) | 1xCortex-X4 (3.21 GHz) 2xCortex-A720 (2.9 GHz) 3xCortex-A720 (2.6 GHz) 4xCortex-A520 (2 GHz) |
| Graphics Processor | Adreno 750 (1000 MHz) | Xclipse 940 (1009 MHz) |
| RAM type | LPDDR5X (4800 MHz) | LPDDR5X (4200 MHz) |
| Technological process | 4 nm (TSMC) | 4 nm (Samsung) |
Oddly enough, the main difference between Exynos 2400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the process technology. Yes, both chips are made using the 4 nm standard, but the second is manufactured at the Taiwanese TSMC plant. In the text about how Samsung ruined smartphones on Qualcomm processors , I already talked about how TSMC is better than Samsung. Other differences between Exynos and Snapdragon follow from this .
The lower transistor density of chips made at the Samsung plant leads to increased heat generation, which forces the company to programmatically limit the hardware power. But in the case of the Exynos 2400 processor, the Koreans took an interesting step: they reduced the CPU clock frequency, while installing more cores. How this feature affects the work – tests will show.
Galaxy S24 Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Exynos 2400 Benchmarked
Comparing the Galaxy S24 Plus on Exynos 2400 and Galaxy S24 Ultra on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is not entirely correct, since these are different devices. Fortunately, the authors of the YouTube channel Booredatwork.com got hold of a Galaxy S24+ smartphone on two different chips, and really revealed the differences.
In benchmarks , the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor showed a barely noticeable advantage
: it scored higher in GeekBench 6 and Wild Life Extreme Test. The Qualcomm chip also performs slightly better in games, demonstrating, for example, 90-120 fps in World of Tanks, while the Exynos 2400 version sags under loads to 80 fps.
However, Qualcomm’s advantage in the Galaxy S24 is not as significant as it was in the Galaxy S21 series, where the Exynos version completely lost all tests. In addition, the authors of the YouTube channel Booredatwork.com noted the identical case temperature of both devices after gaming loads, and the Snapdragon version lost more energy during testing (50% versus 47%).
What is the reason for such an insignificant difference? One could assume that Samsung has finally made a normal Exynos processor . However, in the text about Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, I already noted that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is inferior to other smartphones on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in terms of performance. It is unclear what this is due to. Perhaps Samsung itself has introduced software restrictions to level the difference between Exynos and Snapdragon.
Which Galaxy S24 is better to buy: Snapdragon or Exynos
Be that as it may, Samsung on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is slightly better suited for performing resource-intensive tasks. However, the price of this version of the smartphone is predictably higher. So, if the Galaxy S24 on Exynos 2400 costs from 71,990 ₽, then the version on the Qualcomm processor – from 78,990 ₽. A similar situation with the Galaxy S24 Plus smartphone : two different versions are sold for 85,990 ₽ and 89,990 ₽, respectively.
It might make sense to pay extra for the Galaxy S24 with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. But don’t think you can cheat the system. In everyday tasks, the difference between the devices with different chips is not noticeable, and in games, Qualcomm’s advantage is not so great that you can’t count out the Exynos version.
