Anandtech review of the S9/S9+ shows S845 is much faster than E9810

[TiM3SH1FT]

Very interesting read!
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12520/the-galaxy-s9-review

 

[iamnotkurtcobain]

If Samsung doesn't fix this I'll sell my S9

 

[TMCThomas]

Really wanted to buy one but I'm not going to as long as this issue is not fixed.

 

[lopri]

Fix what? It looks like any performance "fix" will be accompanied by loss of battery life anyway. There is a slim possibility that scheduler/governor could be improved somewhat, but that will not change the underlying hardware characteristics that much, meaning the gain from such a fix will not be significant and you will still pay a hefty battery cost..

 

[Sachinfan]

Like i said in the comments there, i believe most of the deductions from that test will not impact your day to day life. Information is great, but one must know when you need a "summary" and when a "thesis"

I am still buying this beauty next month and i am sure i would be satisfied.

 

[madnav]

Fix what? It looks like any performance "fix" will be accompanied by loss of battery life anyway. There is a slim possibility that scheduler/governor could be improved somewhat, but that will not change the underlying hardware characteristics that much, meaning the gain from such a fix will not be significant and you will still pay a hefty battery cost..

Whenever a load is transferred from LITTLE cores to the big cores, SD845's big cores start at the max frequency while E9810's big cores start at the lowest frequency (and then increase gradually if load continues to be active).

If the load is of a longer nature (beyond 450ms iirc) then E9810 wins the race; but for short and burst loads the SD845 wins the race due to starting at max frequency.

So no, scheduler fix will not improve just somewhat; it will improve the performance substantially.

Sure, that might come with a battery hit since it will be a choice between 'a longer running load at lower power' vs 'a shorter running load at high power'; we will know better about battery drains when we get results from having used such a scheduler.

 

[htcplussony]

The way that exynos takes that long to ramp up the cpu, its like the only way one ever gets to 'experience' it in full speeds is synthetic benchmarks.

 

[Nurmi_CEO]

I was pumped coming from Snapdragon devices and thought the general consensus was that Exynos chips were typically better than Snapdragon. I'm saving to buy the Exynos version, but then a few of the big Youtubers ran speedtests of SD845 and 9810 and it seemed like the 845 generally performed better.

And after reading the anadtech article and battery life being worse (which is huge to me because I want the regular S9 and not the plus) I guess Snapdragon all the way.

 

[jrharvey]

I was pumped coming from Snapdragon devices and thought the general consensus was that Exynos chips were typically better than Snapdragon. I'm saving to buy the Exynos version, but then a few of the big Youtubers ran speedtests of SD845 and 9810 and it seemed like the 845 generally performed better.

And after reading the anadtech article and battery life being worse (which is huge to me because I want the regular S9 and not the plus) I guess Snapdragon all the way.

I think general every day battery life depends on a lot more than just benchmarking. I have both the exynos and snapdragon S9 with me right now and the exynos gets better battery life after 1 day of use. I just got the phone yesterday but both starting with a 100% charge and using both pretty equal amounts and doing testing and web surfing etc... my exynos has about 10% more right now. Driving to work yesterday my SD845 phone drained 14% with the screen off and not even music playing. Honestly coming from a Pixel 2 XL they both kinda suck hard on battery life. The SD version was dying in half a day of light use for me. I got through the rest of the day yesterday with the exynos which is doable but ill have to keep chargers all around to make sure it stays charged on heavy use days.

Edit: On a side note if you decide to get the exynos and you use T-Mobile you may want to wait because I get horrible reception and slow internet speeds. I dont know why sicne it supports every band for LTE except 71 but the snapdragon version is significantly better and much faster on tmobile network. Maybe there are settings I can change. IDK.

---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:53 PM ----------

On a side note if you decide to get the exynos and you use T-Mobile you may want to wait because I get horrible reception and slow internet speeds. I dont know why sicne it supports every band for LTE except 71 but the snapdragon version is significantly better and much faster on tmobile network. Maybe there are settings I can change. IDK.

 

[Nurmi_CEO]

I would really like to have Band 71. I thought I saw a post from someone who was getting conflicting answers from Samsung if B71 was in the international unlocked version. However then he posted and said he received it and sure enough found B71 in it. But now it's looking like I'll just bite the bullet and get the T-Mo SD845 version. Would have be nice to have an unlocked bootloader.

 

[jrharvey]

I would really like to have Band 71. I thought I saw a post from someone who was getting conflicting answers from Samsung if B71 was in the international unlocked version. However then he posted and said he received it and sure enough found B71 in it. But now it's looking like I'll just bite the bullet and get the T-Mo SD845 version. Would have be nice to have an unlocked bootloader.

How can you find out if it has Band 71 on it? I can test side by side my US and international verison and the US version gets about 30-40mbps and right beside it is the international getting about 1.5-3mbps max. Soemthing is obviously wrong with the settings or the radio on the international to be doing that bad on tmobile. Its not bad location. Something is just missing either software, hardware or settings but I just odnt know. Id love to make this thing work.

 

[Nurmi_CEO]

I think general every day battery life depends on a lot more than just benchmarking. I have both the exynos and snapdragon S9 with me right now and the exynos gets better battery life after 1 day of use. I just got the phone yesterday but both starting with a 100% charge and using both pretty equal amounts and doing testing and web surfing etc... my exynos has about 10% more right now. Driving to work yesterday my SD845 phone drained 14% with the screen off and not even music playing. Honestly coming from a Pixel 2 XL they both kinda suck hard on battery life. The SD version was dying in half a day of light use for me. I got through the rest of the day yesterday with the exynos which is doable but ill have to keep chargers all around to make sure it stays charged on heavy use days.

Edit: On a side note if you decide to get the exynos and you use T-Mobile you may want to wait because I get horrible reception and slow internet speeds. I dont know why sicne it supports every band for LTE except 71 but the snapdragon version is significantly better and much faster on tmobile network. Maybe there are settings I can change. IDK.

---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:53 PM ----------

On a side note if you decide to get the exynos and you use T-Mobile you may want to wait because I get horrible reception and slow internet speeds. I dont know why sicne it supports every band for LTE except 71 but the snapdragon version is significantly better and much faster on tmobile network. Maybe there are settings I can change. IDK.

How can you find out if it has Band 71 on it? I can test side by side my US and international verison and the US version gets about 30-40mbps and right beside it is the international getting about 1.5-3mbps max. Soemthing is obviously wrong with the settings or the radio on the international to be doing that bad on tmobile. Its not bad location. Something is just missing either software, hardware or settings but I just odnt know. Id love to make this thing work.

You'll have to look through the forum here. I have other things going on, but I remember someone created a thread and stated that it did. I have no further info.

 

[Snaqejack]

Well, it's not like the phone is slow in any way so stop making a chicken of a feather.

Skickat från min SM-G960F via Tapatalk

 

[metal450]

I can test side by side my US and international verison and the US version gets about 30-40mbps and right beside it is the international getting about 1.5-3mbps max.

I've been holding out on an upgrade for the S9, but this is concerning (I use T-Mobile).

Snapdragon is a non-option for me as having proper backup (aka Titanium) is IMO a bare essential. Now after having seen reviews that the S9 Exynos' battery life is even worse than the S8's, I'm wondering if I should just get the S8 instead. Anyone have any thoughts - S8 Exynos or S9 Exynos? If that Anandtech article's results are at all representative of what to expect, does it not seem silly to pay more for a newer phone that's a *downgrade* in battery life? Or maybe I just need to wait a bit longer for the kinks to get worked out? I mean, if it can really only do 1.5mbps on T-Mobile...ummm....

 

[jrharvey]

I've been holding out on an upgrade for the S9, but this is concerning (I use T-Mobile).

Snapdragon is a non-option for me as having proper backup (aka Titanium) is IMO a bare essential. Now after having seen reviews that the S9 Exynos' battery life is even worse than the S8's, I'm wondering if I should just get the S8 instead. Anyone have any thoughts - S8 Exynos or S9 Exynos? If that Anandtech article's results are at all representative of what to expect, does it not seem silly to pay more for a newer phone that's a *downgrade* in battery life? Or maybe I just need to wait a bit longer for the kinks to get worked out? I mean, if it can really only do 1.5mbps on T-Mobile...ummm....

Ok well I did so many things to try and fix this and SOMETHING worked. Im now getting pretty much full speed although still not quite as good as teh US version for some reason although very very close. I went to Tmobile and got a new sim card in case this one was damaged or soemthing. i also played around with the APN settings and restarted several times. Something jolted the phone into working. SO when I test the two phones side by side now the US version might get 21mbps and the international 18mbps. Again the US will get 31mbps and the international 26mbps. US 13mbps and international 11mbps. The US version is always just slightly ahead. I drove around town and found some low reception spots where the US version was getting 2mbps and the international was crawling at .65 mbps. Out of probably 30 different test I did driving around I think only 1 time the international got better speeds and it was like 31mbps vs the US getting like 28. Id say its usable for sure but here is where it might matter most. I was in a bad reception part of town in a big mall type building and I rarely ever get service there. You have to stand next to a window to get any bars at all. The US version could barely get a connection but it did get something. The international didnt see anything until I completely left the building. Coming from a google pixel 2 XL that phone was about the same as what the US version of the galaxy s9 got. I walked all around the building and saw similar results. We dont even have band 71 in my city and that is the ONLY band that is missing from the international version that I have. Theoretically the international version SHOULD be performing the same however ive done plenty of test I can pretty much say in my case the international is slower.

Ironically the International version has been killing the US version in battery life. Im very happy about that. In standby mode the US version seems to drain very quickly for me while the exynos seems to just barely sip power. I can go an hour in standby and only use 1-2% while the US version can easily use 8% just sitting there and not doing anything. This morning I woke up and cleaned the house and both had 100% when I started. I didnt touch the phones at all. Both on wifi. About an hour later the exynos was at 98% and the US was at 93%. Both phones have the same apps and theoretically the same services running. The international actually SHOULD have more running in the background since my allo accound and texts/calls go to that phone and my wifes sim is in the other phone.

 

[metal450]

Im now getting pretty much full speed although still not quite as good as teh US version for some reason although very very close.

Well that's relieving to hear. 1 of my 3 concerns ticked off the list!

I was in a bad reception part of town in a big mall type building and I rarely ever get service there. You have to stand next to a window to get any bars at all. The US version could barely get a connection but it did get something. The international didnt see anything until I completely left the building.

Damn, that's definitely an issue, especially since I live in a very low-signal part of town (in the mountains). I wonder how Exynos S8 vs Exynos S9 does in this regard...or if anyone else has any similar experiences as you...

Ironically the International version has been killing the US version in battery life.

Super odd, considering that's the exact opposite of what all the reviews seem to be saying! I'd be curious if anyone else could replicate this result - or again, to see something similar with Exynos S8 vs Exynos S9...

One more question: have you been able to get T-Mobile Wifi calling on the Exynos S9? I'm guessing not, but here in my low-signal area that's pretty essential. I figure someone on here will eventually work it out, but I was just hoping it might somehow already be up & running

 

[jrharvey]

Well that's relieving to hear. 1 of my 3 concerns ticked off the list!



Damn, that's definitely an issue, especially since I live in a very low-signal part of town (in the mountains). I wonder how Exynos S8 vs Exynos S9 does in this regard...or if anyone else has any similar experiences as you...



Super odd, considering that's the exact opposite of what all the reviews seem to be saying! I'd be curious if anyone else could replicate this result - or again, to see something similar with Exynos S8 vs Exynos S9...

One more question: have you been able to get T-Mobile Wifi calling on the Exynos S9? I'm guessing not, but here in my low-signal area that's pretty essential. I figure someone on here will eventually work it out, but I was just hoping it might somehow already be up & running

I agree the battery life thing is very odd when you look at the word around town about the exynos. I think all that talk is sparked by the Adandtech review of the two phones and what you have to consider is those are synthetic benchmarks and they were also dealing with the snapdragon S9+ and the exynos S9 so completely different screen sizes and battery sizes. Now they used the cpu efficiency to come up with this idea that the exynos would theoretically perform worse than the snapdragon but thats all synthetics. I saw many online reviews of the battery life from the exynos and snapdragon versions and compared them and took a leap of faith that the exynos would be better. That was before the anandtech review came out. Thank god I was kinda right because battery life could not have been worse than my snapdragon s9 which just seemed to kill battery even when screen off and idle. Maybe its just my unit was bad but who knows. My review of battery life is strictly based on normal every day use and not synthetic benchmarks that nobody just does all day every day. Benchmarks are nice but they dont do crap for how you actually use the phone.

 

[metal450]

I agree the battery life thing is very odd when you look at the word around town about the exynos. I think all that talk is sparked by the Adandtech review of the two phones and what you have to consider is those are synthetic benchmarks and they were also dealing with the snapdragon S9+ and the exynos S9 so completely different screen sizes and battery sizes. Now they used the cpu efficiency to come up with this idea that the exynos would theoretically perform worse than the snapdragon but thats all synthetics.

For me that particular comparison is irrelevant, because a Snapdragon is non-unlockable -> non-backupable -> non-option. I was concerned about the results showing Exynos S9 is even inferior to Exynos S8.

And I agree that every-day use is what matters, not synthetics. However, I would also assume that synthetics would have *some* correlation to real-world; obviously they aren't a perfect representation of it, or they may exaggerate the difference, etc. But it's pretty surprising to find the exact opposite result. Makes me wonder if the S8 vs S9 result could be backwards too...

 

[exocetdj]

Give me an exynos over a snapdragon anyday.

Im more than happy with a small loss of performance over not being able to unlock my bootloader and customize to my hearts content.

My s9 plus is a very good upgrade on my s8 (now with the wife)

Im not even going to read this article as its a moot point tbh. Real world performance wise, this phone blows anything else i have used out of the water.

Yes with both battery and performance abd despite it being an exynos lol.

 

[BackDaws]

Performance is excellent with my galaxy s9 it's just battery I wish was better.