Samsung Galaxy S21 just brought a bazooka to iPhone 12 knife fight

Benchmarks for the Samsung Galaxy S21's system on chip just leaked and the Apple iPhone 12 has a heck of a fight on its hands

Samsung Galaxy S21 Apple iPhone 12
(Image credit: LetsGoDigital)

We've heard great things about the Apple iPhone 12 in terms of processor performance, with the new iPhone's A14 Bionic system on chip (SoC) reportedly smoking the best Android processor available today, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, in terms of benchmark scores. 

Indeed, the iPhone 12's scores are so high that they even put the mighty Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra in the shade, outscoring the Snapdragon 865-powered hyper-flagship almost by a scale of 2-to-1.

Samsung, though, is not sitting idle while waiting for the iPhone 12 SoC assault. And, as reported by Gizchina,  the South Korean phone maker has commissioned a super-weapon to take down the A14 Bionic and ensure Samsung Galaxy S21 ascendancy.

That's because, as early as June last year, Samsung authorised the use of AMD's cutting-edge new RDNA GPU technology to be used in its next wave of Exynos processors and the result, the incoming Exynos 1000, is truly something to behold in terms of graphics performance.

The reason? Thanks to the Exynos 1000 SoC being able to call upon the new RDNA GPU, in the Manhattan 3.1 benchmark it has reportedly posted scores that are, across the board, almost 50% higher than that capable of the Snapdragon 865's Mali-based Adreno 650 GPU and, in certain tests, almost three times higher.

For example, as the original report shows, in the Aztec ruins (High) test the frame rate the Exynos 1000 posted was 58fps, while the Snapdragon 865's Adreno 650 GPU only could post 20fps.

This will be a very welcome dispatch to faithful Android phone disciples, as it indicates that next year's Samsung Galaxy flagships will have serious processing power to call on, and be able to stand toe-to-toe with the much-hyped Apple iPhone 12 range of handsets in terms of graphics performance.

Indeed, with that amount of next-gen power to call on, we might even see Android phones outperforming the iPhone 12 in benchmarks and real-world games. Only time will tell, however if the new Exynos 1000 can match the A14 Bionic, then that will be a major leap forward for Android SoCs, as recently Apple has had top spot on lock.

The Exynos 1000 is currently scheduled for release at the end of the year, so unfortunately we won't see it in Samsung's incoming Galaxy Note 20 range of handsets. Where it almost certainly will debut, though, is in next year's Galaxy S21 flagship, which is now already looking like an essential upgrade for Samsung fans.

Robert Jones

Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.