Although Samsung doesn't make it official yet, it now seems to be a given that it will also produce a Galaxy S21 with SoC Snapdragon 888
There's a little mystery surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S21, the Korean manufacturer's top-of-the-line smartphone that could be unveiled any day now and will be on sale from early 2021: will there be a version of this device equipped with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC? Or has Samsung decided to produce it only with its proprietary SoC Exynos 2100?
The question arises spontaneously, as they say, because Samsung has always presented two variants of its Galaxy: the one with SoC Exynos, intended for European and Asian markets, and the one with SoC Snapdragon, intended for the American market. Everyone took it for granted that also this year the Korean giant would have continued with this industrial policy, but when Qualcomm at the beginning of the month presented the Snapdragon 888 (until the day before known as Snapdragon 875) Samsung did not appear in the list of the 11 manufacturers that will use this chip on their smartphones. Yet, apparently, the Samsung Galaxy S21 with Snapdragon 888 will be made.
Galaxy S21 with Snapdragon 888: there are benchmarks (and they are not good)
Already for weeks, on the various online benchmark platforms for mobile devices, Samsung devices equipped with the latest generation Snapdragon SoC suddenly appear. The latest appearance is a few hours ago, when on Geekbench appeared a Galaxy S21 "tagged" SM-G991U equipped with SoC "Lahaina". That is the code name used by Qualcomm for its Snapdragon 888.
This is a cell phone with 8 GB of RAM, SoC at 1.8 GHz and Android 11, a pre-production "mule" that has obtained a score of 1,075 points in single-core and 2,916 points in multi-core. In mid-November, other results had been published, again on Geekbench, related to two other Galaxy S21: one with Snapdragon 888 and one with Exynos 2100. The scores were, respectively, 1,120/3,319 points for the former and 1,038/3,060 points for the latter. Both, therefore, scored higher than the last tested specimen.
What the Galaxy S21 range will look like
SoC aside, some technical details of the new Samsung Galaxy S21 would now seem to be confirmed: 6.2-inch Super AMOLED screen at 120 Hx refresh and FHD+ resolution, with integrated fingerprint reader and Infinity-O notch, 8 or 12 GB RAM, 128 or 256 GB ROM.
The Galaxy S21's rear cameras will be three: a 12 MP wide-angle, a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle and a 64 MP tele. All will be capable of recording 4K 60fps video with stabilizer. There is also talk of video at 8K and 30 fps, but it is an indiscretion that at the moment finds little confirmation.
Not missing, on all the range S21, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, 5G connection, UWB, USB Type-C and a battery that should be 4,000 mAh with fast charging and wireless (even reverse). It remains, as we said, the doubt about the processor but, given the latest benchamark, it is now almost certain that there will be a Galaxy S21 with SD 888.