Samsung and Qualcomm are two giants of the Smartphone world who despite being bitter rivals, also work for one another. Today I want to talk about a brief history of Samsung Exynos vs Qualcomm Snapdragon.

Samsung is a household name from back in the day. I loved their products in the past a lot. I had that slide to open phone from around 2008 and it was gorgeous. There was nothing then that was available to java phones that it couldn’t do.

Samsung products also carry a lot of prestige too. Both then and now. While Nokia had a rugged feel and huge battery reputation, Samsung was the more sleeker and felt more premium. Even today, the feeling of using a Samsung phone still tickle a lot of people’s fancy. Lots of people would rather buy a low end branded Samsung A or J series device than to get a better option at the same price point. That would tell you that they have a strong brand name.

Samsung Exynos

They also make their own SoCs and brand them Exynos

Once upon a time, Exynos chipsets were seen for a brief period as the best in the Android space.

There are some people who still strongly hold on to that notion till now.

Competing with Samsung’s Exynos from back in the day in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.

Samsung’s first SoC was made in 2000 and used in T-mobile’s Sidekick phone, but they did not release their first Exynos chipset till 2009.

Qualcomm Snapdragon

Qualcomm released their first Snapdragon SoC in 2007.

While Snapdragon quickly partnered with Google, Acer, Toshiba and HTC, Samsung preferred to keep their Technology for themselves. By 2012, the Snapdragon S4 (Krait core) had taken a dominant share from other Android system-on-chips like Nvidia Tegra and Texas Instruments OMAP which caused the latter to exit the market.

All this while Samsung were quietly building and upgrading their Exynos.

Samsung then was the largest shipper of Smartphones worldwide and so couldn’t really keep up with the demand of chipsets for their phones and so they decided to sign an agreement with Qualcomm to give them their flagship SoCs to cover the shortfall.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 was the first device by Samsung to come with both Exynos and Snapdragon SoCs and so it continued until 2013.

Snapdragon fails and Exynos rises

The Snapdragon 808 and 810 were a disaster. They suffered from overheating, thermal throttling and battery consumption issues. They were so bad that Samsung refused to use Snapdragon SoCs for their Samsung Galaxy S6 phones as well as the Galaxy Note 5.

At this point, Samsung Exynos had the best SoCs in the Android space and Qualcomm’s reputation had taken a huge hit.

In 2016 though, Qualcomm went back to the drawing board with a huge focus on optimization. They built this new SoCs from the ground up using only their parts or buying companies that made parts and taking their technology. From CPU cores, to GPU, to ISP, to Modems etc. They made it all and branded it too.

Qualcomm bounces back

That same year, the Snapdragon 820 was released. It was a welcome development for the company and they soon followed with the Snapdragon 835.

Samsung quickly included Snapdragon 835 on it’s latest Flagship of that year, Samsung Galaxy S8.

Since then, it has been a slippery slope for Exynos. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon has been beating it year after year after year.

Several Samsung Exynos vs Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship SoC comparisons have been held over the years. Snapdragon always comes out as the winner.

A lot of consumers have complained that even though Samsung charges equal prices for both phones, the ones who get the Exynos variant feel cheated.

To buttress this point, Samsung has fired and disbanded it’s R& team that makes its custom Exynos cores. The company is now set to use IP cores from ARM and it also has an agreement with Nvidia for it’s GPUs.

How that may turn out remains to be seen.

The Future

Qualcomm have already dropped the gauntlet by releasing the Snapdragon 888. The SD888 is already turning heads so whatever Samsung have got better match up to it. That is if Samsung wants Exynos to remain relevant in the Smartphone world.

https://inquisitiveuniverse.com/2021/01/06/the-rivalry-between-qualcomm-snapdragon-and-samsungs-exynos-a-brief-history/

Qualcomm's sha no wan give up. Imagine Glo were into chipset production, even 16bits UNISOC would have been 10x faster than best Glo chipset

I believe the woeful performances of the snapdragon 810 and 808 processors did good to the Mid range market. I think Qualcomm had to win people's confidence back and so decided to release a really powerful mid range processor in the Snapdragon 650/652, it was a huge success.

Why spambot ban Oga GPtech na?

Honsule abeg come and chain these bots oh

atheistandproud:
Why spambot ban Oga GPtech na?

Honsule abeg come and chain these bots oh

Thanks oga atheistandproud and oga honsule, never even knew I was banned .

Gptech:

Thanks oga atheistandproud and oga ho.nsule, never even knew I was banned .

Welcome back sir.

theFilmtric:
Exynos is no where near SD

theFilmtricsay

a failed attempt at comedy

theFilmtricsay

Odẹ boy. Who talk say Exynos is near SD?

sagieramos:
Odẹ boy. Who talk say Exynos is near SD?

the first statement was directed to/at the Topic in question Not you obviously

theFilmtricsay

Thefilmtric and sagieramos

E yaff do biko

This your comparison is like someone comparing Toyota to Benz..
SD anytime any day

Topmaike007:
This your comparison is like someone comparing Toyota to Benz..

SD anytime any day

Lol no. Not exactly.

There are people on this Nairaland who would pick a Samsung A50 with Exynos 9610 over a Redmi Note 9S with Snapdragon 720G.

People rate Exynos very highly because it was very good before.

atheistandproud:


Lol no. Not exactly.

There are people on this Nairaland who would pick a Samsung A50 with Exynos 9610 over a Redmi Note 9S with Snapdragon 720G.

People rate Exynos very highly because it was very good before.

I get am before no be property jare...

Topmaike007:
I get am before no be property jare...

Lol

No let them hear you oh

Exynos is a low budget MTK!

Please don't quote me because I'm having headache on my left leg...

smartty68:
Exynos is a low budget MTK!

Please don't quote me because I'm having headache on my left leg...

This one weak me.

Gptech:
I believe the woeful performances of the snapdragon 810 and 808 processors did good to the Mid range market. I think Qualcomm had to win people's confidence back and so decided to release a really powerful mid range processor in the Snapdragon 650/652, it was a huge success.

This is the truth. The whole bloody truth.

exynos 9810 vs sd 845

who wins

iTroll:
exynos 9810 vs sd 845


who wins

845 wins although the 9810 has better CPU cores but flops at GPU.

Very educative thread. Love it.

gameboy727:
Very educative thread. Love it.

I'm glad you do.

atheistandproud:


Lol no. Not exactly.

There are people on this Nairaland who would pick a Samsung A50 with Exynos 9610 over a Redmi Note 9S with Snapdragon 720G.

People rate Exynos very highly because it was very good before.

Who are the people?

Topmaike007:
I get am before no be property jare...

smartty68:
Exynos is a low budget MTK!

Please don't quote me because I'm having headache on my left leg...

sagieramos:

Odẹ boy. Who talk say Exynos is near SD?

Y'all are really amusing me. So what y'all gonna be saying about the Exynos 1080 or even the just announced Exynos 2100?

Gptech:
I believe the woeful performances of the snapdragon 810 and 808 processors did good to the Mid range market. I think Qualcomm had to win people's confidence back and so decided to release a really powerful mid range processor in the Snapdragon 650/652, it was a huge success.

@Gptech Look, you all shouldn't be taking sides here. We're the consumers here, competition is never a bad thing (look at Intel before the return of AMD).
Competition is good for everybody. It drives costs down and brings about innovation (compare the smartphone scene and the difference between phones of the year 2017-2018 and 2020-2021).
Exynos is Qualcomm's biggest rival after MediaTek. Qualcomm have basically been sitting on their asses. For example, they were smug about the Snapdragon 765G being the chip to take 5G mainstream. Then Mediatek began their attack with the Dimensity series and now they were the ones that brought 5G to even lower price points.

thepoweruser:

Y'all are really amusing me. So what y'all gonna be saying about the Exynos 1080 or even the just announced Exynos 2100?

let's wait till SD announce there flagship too

thepoweruser:

@Gptech Look, you all shouldn't be taking sides here. We're the consumers here, competition is never a bad thing (look at Intel before the return of AMD).
Competition is good for everybody. It drives costs down and brings about innovation (compare the smartphone scene and the difference between phones of the year 2017-2018 and 2020-2021).
Exynos is Qualcomm's biggest rival after MediaTek. Qualcomm have basically been sitting on their asses. For example, they were smug about the Snapdragon 765G being the chip to take 5G mainstream. Then Mediatek began their attack with the Dimensity series and now they were the ones that brought 5G to even lower price points.

No, I am not taking sides even though I have my personal preference. Competition is favourable to consumers as you rightly said ; that's what we need to get the best value for money. If not for Exynos that outperformed Snapdragon in that fateful year, I believe we would be getting performances of at least 3 years ago in 2021 phones. MediaTek currently is doing great! They are the ones actually putting the likes of Qualcomm on their heels, if not we would have been made to pay with an arm for recent innovations like 5G.

theFilmtric:
Exynos is no where near SD

theFilmtricsay

a failed attempt at comedy

theFilmtricsay

Exynos 2100 will shock you.

thepoweruser:

Y'all are really amusing me. So what y'all gonna be saying about the Exynos 1080 or even the just announced Exynos 2100?

Thank you. Someone said Exynos is low budget MTK.

People will just open their mouth waaaa and be talking off point.

Rareoil:

Exynos 2100 will shock you.

This is theFilmtric Same way SD/MTK Dimensity would in their coming flagship releases

theMagnet:

This is theFilmtric
I was banned
Exynos is inferior to Mediatek because Samsung is just using exynos to make extra profit
If you wanna know ask a person using an Exynos Variant and another person using a SD variant and another person using a MTK chipset of that Price range its always Inferior
Even Huawei's HISilicon is better
Check out this thread » https://www.nairaland.com/6257777

Brov that was then, Exynos 2100 is as fast as snapdragon 888 now.