Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Now it's time to complete our raid deep into the rear of smartphones. Hopefully no one will mind the emphasis on gaming performance and connectivity.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Compare branded chipsets of smartphone manufacturers:

  • Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 620, 650, 655, 658, 659, 930, 950 and 960
  • Samsung Exynos 3475 , 7420, 7570, 7870 7880, 8890 and 8895
  • Xiaomi Surge S1

Menu:

  1. CPU and GPU
  2. RAM and ROM
  3. Modems
  4. Conclusions + table

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Kirin 620

The HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipset is used in the Huawei Y6 II, P8 Lite and Honor 4X smartphones.

The chipset is manufactured according to the 28 nm process technology. The CPU part consists of eight Cortex A-53 cores, all of which operate at a frequency of 1.2 GHz. The performance of one core can be compared with MediaTek MT6735, and in multi-threaded tests the chipset is only slightly inferior to MT6753.

The GPU is represented by the good old ARM Mali- T450 MP4 . The solution is old, apparently for the sake of saving energy, the nominal frequency of 700 MHz (in MT6592) was lowered to 500 MHz. The performance of such a solution is extremely low and is approximately equal to the Mali-T720 MP2 , which will allow you to play WoT Blitz only on the lowest graphics settings.

Kirin 650

The chipset is found in smartphones Huawei Honor 5C, Honor 7 Lite and P9 Lite.

Unlike its predecessor, the manufacturing process uses a 16-nm process technology. The CPU is represented by two clusters of Cortex A-53, with four cores each. The first quartet operates at 1.7, the second at 2.0 GHz. In multi-threaded tests, the CPU is not inferior to the Snapdragon 625/626.

The chipset employs GPU ARM Mali-T830 MP2 (600 MHz). You won't be able to play Wot Blitz at maximum settings, the performance of the Mali-T830 MP2 is approximately equal to the old Adreno 320 or the newer Adreno 505 .

Kirin 655

The chipset is installed in smartphones Huawei Honor 6X and 8 Lite, Nova Lite.

The Kirin 655 is the overclocked version of the 650. The frequency of the performance cluster Cortex A-53 is raised by 100 MHz and now stands at 2.1 GHz. The frequency of the Mali-T830 MP2 video processor can reach 900 MHz. The chipset still does not meet the definition of 'gaming', which is especially surprising given the price tags for smartphones with its participation from 12,750 rubles.

Kirin 658

The chipset is installed in the smartphone Huawei P10 Lite.

This is an even more heavily overclocked version of the Kirin 650. The Cortex A-53 cluster frequencies are 1.7 and 2.35 GHz. Extreme overclocking has borne fruit, in the multi-threaded test Kirin 658 is on par with Snapdragon 820.

GPU ARM Mali-T830 MP2 clocked at 900 MHz. This is still not enough to play WoT Blitz at maximum graphics settings.

Kirin 659

HiSilicon Kirin 659 is installed in the only phone on the market – this Huawei Nova 2.

There is no official information at the time of compilation of the material, we can only assume further overclocking of the Kirin 650.

Kirin 930

The chipset is installed in the smartphone Huawei P8.

The 28 nm technical process and the classic ARM big.LITTLE architecture of two clusters (four cores) Cortex A-53, operating at frequencies of 1.5 and 2.2 GHz, are used. The processor part of the 'flagship' chipset is 5-10% weaker than that of the later Kirin 650 when testing one core, but in multi-threaded mode it is not inferior to it.

The ARM Mali-T628 MP4 video processor operates at 680 MHz. The performance is at the level of the ancient Adreno 320 or the modern Adreno 505. The solution is not a game one.

Kirin 950

Kirin 950 is represented by smartphones Honor 8, V8, Magic and Mate 8.

The CPU of the chipset is made according to the 16 nm technical process and is a modern design of two clusters (four cores each) Cortex A-53 and A-72. The A-53 cores operate at 1.8 GHz, the A-72 cores at 2.3 GHz. In multi-threaded tests, the CPU is only twenty% weaker than the Snapdragon 835.

The reference ARM Mali-T880 MP4 was used as the GPU. Kirin 950 is undoubtedly a gaming solution and will allow you to play all modern games at maximum settings.

Kirin 960

The chipset is installed in a large number of smartphones, prices for which start at 25,000 rubles. Among them: Huawei Honor 8 Pro, 9, V9, P10 and P10 Plus, Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro.

Kirin 960 is a modern flagship Huawei. Unfortunately, it was not possible to reliably establish the applied norms of the manufacturing process. The CPU part is represented by two clusters of four cores. In the economy cluster, the Cortex A-53 cores operate at 1.8 GHz, in the performance cluster, the A-73 cores operate at 2.4 GHz. The CPU performance in both modes (single thread and multithreading) repeats the results of Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. It is noteworthy that the promise of ARM Cortex about the superiority of the A-73 cores over the A-72 by 30% did not come true. Either the Kryo cores in the 835 are also based on the Cortex A-73.

ARM Mali G71 MP8 is used as a graphics accelerator. Gaming capabilities exceed Mali-T880 MP4 by about 25%, the solution can be called gaming. Separately, we note the support for the Vulcan API.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Samsung Exynos 3475

The chipset is installed in smartphones Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016), J2 SM-J200F and SM-J200H.

The CPU part is represented by four Cortex A-7 cores operating at a frequency of 1.1 GHz. There is a GPU, but Samsung does not provide any data. Test programs show ARM Mali-T720 is present. All in all, the chipset resembles the illegitimate child of the Snapdragon 210 (CPU) and MediaTek MT6737 (GPU). The gaming performance is extremely low, I'm not sure about the fundamental possibility of running WoT Blitz on smartphones with this chipset.

Samsung Exynos 7420

The chipset is installed in smartphones: Samsung Galaxy A8, Note 5, S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge +, Meizu Pro 5.

The CPU is represented by two clusters of four cores each. The energy efficient Cortex A-53 cores run at 1.5 GHz, while the more powerful A-57 runs at 2.1 GHz. The chipset is manufactured according to 14nm standards. The single core performance is roughly the same as the Snapdragon 650. In multi-threaded mode, the chipset's CPU sits between the Snapdragon 625 and 820.

GPU presented by ARM Mali-T760 MP8 , which is faster (according to tests) Mali-T880 MP4 by 32%. The chipset can be called a gaming one.

Exynos 7570

The budget chipset is installed in smartphones: Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) and Xcover 4.

The CPU includes one 4-core Cortex A-53 cluster. The core frequency is 1.4 GHz. GPU – ARM Mali-T720. This is the twin brother MediaTek MT6737, which compares favorably with its 14nm manufacturing process. However, this does not affect the gaming performance, it is still low.

Exynos 7870

Smartphones with this chipset: Samsung Galaxy J5 and J7 (2017).

The chipset is made using the 14 nm process technology, includes eight Cortex-A53 cores, operating at a frequency of 1.6 GHz.

GPU – ARM Mali-T830 MP1. The chipset is not a gaming one, its performance is enough to bypass the Mali-T720 or T760, but that's all. Based on the characteristics, the chipset is very similar to MediaTek MT6753.

Exynos 7880

The chipset is installed in the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and A7 (2017) smartphones.

The chipset is based on a CPU with eight Cortex A-53 cores, clocked at 1.9 GHz. Manufacturing process 14 nm.

The GPU is an ARM Mali-T830 MP3 , which in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics test (1280 × 720 offscreen) repeats the results of the Adreno 506 one to one. This is a direct competitor and an analogue of Snapdragon 625.

Samsung Exynos 8890

Exynos 8890 is found in smartphones: Meizu Pro 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

The CPU is made up of two clusters. And if one contains the usual Cortex A-53 (1.6 GHz), then in the second cluster the cores are designated as 'Custom Core' (2.3 GHz). According to the text on the corporate website, Samsung redesigned the processor part from scratch, introduced its own forecasting unit, its own dispatcher for heterogeneous computing and achieved a performance increase of 30-40% compared to the seventh Exynos series (apparently 7880). I would especially like to note that in the same cluster, one or two 'Custom' cores can independently raise the clock frequency to solve a resource-intensive task. In other words, if the load goes to two threads, then two of the four cores will raise the clock frequency, and the rest are in economical mode. This has never happened before. The technical process has not changed, it is still 14 nm.

GPU presented by ARM Mali-T880 MP12 . This GPU is only 8% (3D Mark) behind the Adreno 530 (Snapdragon 820), offering excellent gaming performance.

Samsung Exynos 8895

The top chipset at the moment is installed in smartphones Samsung Galaxy Note 8, S8 and S8 +.

This is Samsung's first 10nm chipset. Four 'Custom' cores and four Cortex A-53s operate at 2.3 and 1.7 GHz. According to the benchmark results, the Exynos 8895 CPU is equal to the Snapdragon 835, both in single core tests and in multi-threaded load.

An ARM Mali-G71 MP20 is installed as a video processor. In various test modes, this video processor lags behind the Adreno 540 in the range of 8-23%. This is enough to play any game at any setting.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Xiaomi Surge S1

There is only one smartphone with this chipset on sale – Xiaomi MI5C.

There is no official information about the chipset at all. The diagnostic software shows two clusters of 4 Cortex A-53 cores, which operate at 1.4 and 2.1 GHz.

The integrated GPU is not known at all, experts suspect ARM Mali-T860 MP4. WoT Blitz at maximum graphics settings runs with 24-26 FPS, but short-term freezes do happen. The chipset can be called conditionally gaming.

The disadvantages of the chipset include refusal to start a productive cluster while surfing the Internet, i.e., in his opinion, opening heavy Internet pages is not a burden. But this is not so. This may give the impression that the smartphone is slow.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

There is little official information on Kirin, so I'll just list what is known:

Kirin 620 RAM LPDDR3, 800 MHz frequency.

Kirin 650 RAM LPDDR3, frequency 933 MHz.

Kirin 655, 655, 658 and 659 are LPDDR3.

Kirin 930 Dual-channel LPDDR3, 800 MHz.

Kirin 950 – LPDDR4

Kirin 960 – LPDDR4

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Exynos 3475 – LPDDR3.

Exynos 7570 – LPDDR3, drive – E.MMC 5.0.

Exynos 7870 – LPDDR3, drive – E.MMC 5.1.

Exynos 7420, 7880 and 8890 – LPDDR4, support for both E.MMC 5.1 and UFS 2.0 drives.

Exynos 8895 – energy efficient and fast LPDDRx RAM is used. Work with drives is carried out according to E.MMC 5.1 or UFS 2.1 standards.

Third-party customers can use the support of two storage standards at once and install cheaper (and slower) permanent memory modules in their smartphones. Samsung probably won't do that.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

The Surge S1 chipset uses LPDDR3 RAM, the frequency is unknown.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Kirin 620

The built-in modem downloads and sends information over the LTE channel over Cat4, i.e. 150 Mbit / s and 50 Mbit / s. This is where the scant information from Huawei ends. You could see the characteristics of smartphones with this chipset, but friends, we don't know for sure, maybe Wi-Fi modems and GPS receivers are soldered on the motherboard and are different in different smartphones.

Kirin 650

The LTE modem in the chipset complies with Cat7, i.e. downloading is carried out at a speed of 300 Mbit / s, and sending is 100 Mbit / s.

Kirin 655, 655, 658 and 659

There is no official information from the manufacturer. Apparently this led to a whistle in the specifications of smartphones on store shelves. For example, Huawei Honor 8 Lite promises to work on Cat6, and Honor 6X only on Cat4. Both smartphones are powered by Kirin 655.

Kirin 930 and 950

Chipsets are equipped with modems that transmit information over Cat6, i.e. download 300 Mbps, send 50 Mbps.

Kirin 960

The chipset is equipped with a modern LTE modem, which downloads files via Cat12, and sends via Cat13, respectively, 600 and 150 Mbit / s.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Exynos 3475

The chipset supports LTE, download and upload speeds correspond to Cat4 and are 150 and 50 Mbps, respectively.

Exynos 7420

We could not find official information.

Exynos 7570

The chipset has an LTE modem that works over Cat4, i.e., the download / upload speed is 150/50 Mbps.

Navigation is provided by GPS, GLONASS and Beidou support.

Exynos 7870

The modem operates in Cat6 mode, download 300 Mbps, send 50 Mbps.

Satellites – GPS, GLONASS and Beidou.

Exynos 7880

The modem integrated into the chipset provides information transfer over the LTE channel via Cat7, download 300 Mbit / s, sending 100 Mbit / s.

Out of the box, the chipset supports GPS, GLONASS and Beidou navigation.

Exynos 8890

An LTE modem is installed, similar to that in the Kirin 960. We have LTE Cat12 for downloading (600 Mbps) and Cat13 for sending (150 Mbps).

Exynos 8895

The LTE modem corresponds to the best on the market, download is carried out over Cat16 1Gbps, sending Cat13 is 150 Mbps.

Navigation – GPS, GLONASS and Beidou.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

The presence or absence of an integrated modem cannot be confirmed or denied.

Review of Samsung branded mobile chipsets, Huawei and Xiaomi

Instead of a conclusion, I would like to say the following. It is impossible to make a comparative table of chipsets based on their performance. And this is due to the use of an extensive component base (in addition to the chipset) that the manufacturer uses. Wherever possible, the conditional 'KitKong' will supply LPDDR3 RAM instead of LPDDR4, a slow drive instead of a fast one, and will not care about chipset cooling at all. The comparison table can be updated only by setting points for each specific smartphone, which is physically impossible. Also, keep in mind that different games load the chipset differently. These arguments should lead you to the idea that you need to carefully study the reviews of specific smartphones.

However, the general impression can be obtained from the attached table below, where the ratio of GPU to ARM Mali-T880 MP4 as a percentage is shown as an estimate of the chipset's performance in 3D applications. The 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited test was used in the '1280 × 720 Offscreen' mode. Why this particular test? With the screen off, the GPU is not limited by the frame rate (60 Hz) when the screen is refreshed and shows the maximum results. And this is the only test that all reviewers passed (except for Surge S1), this is the main argument.

Chipset Those

with
nm

CPU GPU LTE
Loading-
dispatch
Geekbench
Single Core
(CPU)
Geekbench
Multi Core
(CPU)
ARM Mali-
T880 MP4
one hundred%
Qualcomm
1 210 28 4x A-7 Adreno 304 150/50 300 1013 17%
2 410 28 4x A-53 Adreno 306 150/50 516 1322 19%
3 425 28 4x А-53 Adreno 308 150/75 654 1803 20%
4 430 28 8x A-53 Adreno 505 150/75 625 2728 46%
5 435 28 8x A-53 Adreno 505 300/75 654 2549 46%
6 615 28 8x A-53 Adreno 405 150/50 638 2370 42%
7 616 28 8x A-53 Adreno 405 150/50 688 2938 42%
8 617 28 8x A-53 Adreno 405 300/100 698 2092 42%
9 625 14 8x A-53 Adreno 506 300/150 884 4262 66%
10 650 28 2x A-72
4x A-53
Adreno 510 300/100 1458 2869 108%
11 652 28 4x A-72
4x A-53
Adreno 510 300/100 1462 3427 108%
12 653 28 4x A-72
4x A-53
Adreno 510 300/150 ? ? 108%
13 820 14 4x Kryo Adreno 530 600/150 1662 4021 169%
14 821 14 4x Kryo Adreno 530 600/150 1831 4369 169%
15 835 10 8x Kryo Adreno 540 1024/150 1906 6491 304%
MediaTek
16 6737 28 4x A-53 Mali-T720 150/50 546 1503 16%
17 6737T 28 4x A-53 Mali-T720 MP2 150/50 677 1889 17%
18 6750 28 8x A-53 Mali-T860 MP2 300/50 605 2387 49%
19 6753 28 8x A-53 Mali-T720 150/50 653 2505 17%
20 P10 28 8x A-53 Mali-T860 MP2 300/50 729 2825 fifty%
21 X10 28 8x A-53 PowerVR G6200 150/50 913 4247 53%
22 P20 16 8x A-53 Mali-T880 MP2 300/50 839 3837 67%
23 P25 16 8x A-53 Mali-T880 MP2 300/50 840 3903 67%
24 X20 20 2x A-72
8x A-53
Mali-T880 MP4 300/50 1594 4211 one hundred%
25 X25 20 2x A-72
8x A-53
Mali-T880 MP4 300/50 1674 4419 one hundred%
26 X30 10 2x A-73
4x A-53
4x A-35
IMG PowerVR 7XTR-
MT4
450/150 2100 5761 240%
HiSilicon Kirin
27 620 28 8x A-53 Mali-T450 MP4 150/50 564 2452 26%
28 650 16 8x A-53 Mali-T830 MP2 300/100 745 3126 48%
29 655 16 8x A-53 Mali-T830 MP2 ? 784 3290 48%
30 658 16 8x A-53 Mali-T830 MP2 ? 913 3460 48%
31 930 28 8x A-53 Mali-T628 MP4 300/50 760 3211 58%
32 950 16 4x A-72
4x A-53
Mali-T880 MP4 300/50 1726 5379 one hundred%
33 960 ? 4x A-73
4x A-53
Mali-G71 MP8 600/150 1859 6356 183%
Samsung Exynos
34 3475 28 4x A-7 Mali-T720 150/50 350 1171 16%
35 7420 14 4x A-57
4x A-53
Mali-T760 MP8 ? 1237 4958 125%
36 7570 14 4x A-53 Mali-T720 150/50 631 1856 16%
37 7870 14 8x A-53 Mali-T830 300/50 734 3740 19%
38 7880 14 8x A-53 Mali-T830 MP3 300/100 775 4098 65%
39 8890 14 4x CC
4x A-53
Mali-T880 MP12 600/150 1852 5358 154%
40 8895 10 4x CC
4x A-53
Mali-G71 MP20 1024/150 2006 6703 184%
Xiaomi Surge
41 S1 ? 8x A-53 Mali-T860 MP4? 785 3426 ?

Related materials:

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  • Chipsets in smartphones from 8,000 to 12,000 rubles
  • Chipsets in smartphones from 5,000 to 8,000 rubles
  • Snapdragon 210 vs MediaTek 6737

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