Processors for smartphones: rating, description, specifications and reviews

When you choose a smartphone or tablet, you are probably learning its hardware characteristics. Reading the description of the processor, it is not immediately possible to understand what is meant by a designation. However, there is a certain performance rating of mobile smartphone processors, based on which you can purchase a fast device. What do these terms mean and what do you need to pay attention to?

What is a processor?

The processor acts as a transmitter. That is, it sends a request to you that you want your smartphone to perform. Early mobile phones were basically similar to traditional stationary ones. Smartphones, however, are portable computers that have telephone facilities built into the system. Under this amazing touch screen is a full-fledged computer, responsible for the operation of your applications, giving you instructions (how to operate in certain situations), GPS coordinates, and communication with others. The processor is the brain of any operation.

What is the core?

This is an item in the main processor that reads and executes instructions. The release of such devices began with single-core processors, but modern developers have created more powerful devices, including more cores in one device. This led to the emergence of dual-core gadgets. Soon there were quad-core processors (working on the basis of four cores), and today one can find hexa- (six) and octa- (eight) nuclear smartphones and tablets on sale.

What are the advantages of multiple cores?

The more cores, the faster they can handle the commands that you give to your phone. This means that several of these components will share the load among themselves and perform any work very quickly. You can upload high-quality photos or high-definition videos, and then browse your collection without pausing. Animation and video are played smoothly, without stuttering. Games do not "hang". Of course, there are exceptions, but as a rule, the more cores, the better the performance.

Will the octa-nuclear smartphone be twice as fast as the quad-core smartphone?

It's impossible. Octa-nuclear processor works faster than quad-core, only when it processes an application that uses its capabilities, or in multitasking conditions. For example, one core can process requests in a web browser, and the other can be in the standby mode. The call comes and it starts to work. As a result, your work in the web browser and your phone call will go without a hitch, but not necessarily twice as fast.

What other factors may be involved?

Multiple cores is only one of the components of a smart device (you can imagine them as a certain part of the car engine). In addition, the GPU, RAM for short-term storage, antennas for Wi-Fi and GPS, and much more are responsible for the operation of this accessory. They all work together as a unit, and all should be considered when you buy a smartphone or tablet.

What should you remember about processors?

When buying a smartphone or tablet, it is desirable to pre-examine the rating of mobile processors. Which chip is better - such a device and will be more powerful. This will give you an idea of what is capable of performing this or that device, what is the speed of its operation.

In order to make a rating of mobile processors for smartphones, it is necessary to conduct a series of tests on devices with each of them and fix general criteria for evaluating the performance, as well as make graphic manipulations. Some experts conducted such studies, and the results were quite predictable. So, the comparative table of processors for smartphones in descending is presented below.

In addition to the overall performance, the specialists also tested the GPU on devices released in 2016. The rating of graphics processors for smartphones was also compiled taking into account the performance of the graphics subsystem. The ranking for the GPU is slightly different from the general list.

Processors for smartphones: rating

Based on research, the graphical properties of the rating can be represented as follows:

1. Qualcomm 820.
2. Apple A9.
3. Samsung Exynos 8890.
4. Qualcomm 810.
5. Samsung Exynos 7420.
6. Apple A8.
7. Qualcomm 805.
8. Kirin 950.
9. Qualcomm 808.
10. Qualcomm 652.

As you can see, in the top 3 in both lists are the same components. Thus, the best processors for smartphones, whose rating is presented in the article, coincide in all parameters: both in graphics performance and in the results of common tests.

Therefore, it is important to get an idea of what devices are running these processors. So, you can find in the following devices Qualcomm Snapdragon 820:

• Sony Xperia X Performance.
• Samsung Galaxy S7.
• Xiaomi Mi5.
• Letv V MAX Pro.
• LG G5.

Depending on the place of purchase, Galaxy S7 can be equipped with Samsung Exynos 8890 instead of the above component, which still significantly wins among competitors. It is also worth noting that the computing power of all devices today is very high. For this reason, buying a modern smartphone, you will not notice a significant drop in performance, even if it is not too powerful. Even Chinese processors for smartphones, whose rating will look very different, will completely suit you with quick work. Only if you care about the smallest specifications or plan to install and use highly specialized large applications, these results can help you make a decision when buying a device.

Choosing a mobile phone

Recently, many smartphone manufacturers have released their new products, which, of course, make the user feel a certain confusion in choosing. In connection with the release of new devices are changing and processors for smartphones, whose rating is difficult to update. For example, last year Apple A9 ranked first in all comparative lists, and then Hisilicon Kirin 950 pressed it. Today, Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung are fighting for the championship with varying success.

Performance evaluation

As the performance rating of the chips has already shown, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor took the first place and showed much more power than the Apple A9. In addition, Samsung Exynos 8890 also has good results, and its performance is already close to A9.

The recently launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 and 650 also feature high functionality and power. Qualcomm 652 is already close in its parameters to the model 810 in performance. Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 has already surpassed the model 808, which leads the market for smartphones of the middle class. Since MediaTek MT 6797 phones are not currently available, and only models released in previous years can be found on the market, the rating of MTK processors for smartphones is no longer relevant.

GPU Performance Ranking

In recent years, smartphones are paying increasing importance to the performance of the GPU, as it is closely related to the passage of games and work with images in the mobile phone, and this has a direct impact on the real experience of users. At present, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (Adreno530) is highly productive in this respect. Samsung Exynos 8890 (Mali-T880 MP12) is almost equal to Apple's A9 on power, as already noted. As for the Hisilicon Kirin 950 (Mali-T880 MP4), which is well known to everyone, its GPU performance is not good enough, and the test results are similar to Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (Adreno418) and Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (Adreno510).

In fact, the performance of the graphics chip is also directly related to the screen resolution of your smartphone. Currently, the main resolution is 1080P, and the 2K indicator has become a trend of development of high-end smartphones. However, without the support of a powerful GPU, even such a high resolution will still lead to degradation of the device.

Of course, the factors that determine mobile phone performance are much greater than the CPU and GPU values. However, it is necessary to fully realize that nothing, except powerful chip performance, is the basis of a smoothly functioning device. Without support for high performance, any user experience will be "empty". This can be described as an old proverb: "You can not do anything out of nothing."

The above information affecting processors for smartphones, the rating of which is presented above, can not be regarded as a permanent rule. Today, regularly released new devices that have more and more powerful technical characteristics.

From these data to date, you can find out that Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 takes the lead on performance. Despite the fact that Apple has not released new processors, the overall performance of the Apple A9 is still strong. If we consider Samsung's Exynos 8890, its parameters are approximately equal to A9 in total.

Devices running on the Apple A9 are the iPhone 6S and the iPhone SE, which are considered to be among the most rated and fashion devices.

Exynos Samsung 8890 takes a strong third place in this ranking and is inferior to competitors quite a bit. He managed to outrun a lot of devices made from other components. Currently, of the devices produced with this chip, you can find only Samsung Galaxy S7.

The Kirin 950 processor also has very good performance for a long time. Moreover, earlier he headed the ratings of components due to his excellent characteristics. However, this performance assessment was constantly decreasing, as more sophisticated devices began to appear on the market. Devices running on this processor are Huawei P9, Huawei Mate 8, Huawei P9 Max.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 offers quite good general characteristics. It was highly appreciated in its time and to this day is one of the most used elements in various devices. Smartphones equipped with it are successfully sold in many countries of the world today, including HTC One M9, Lumia 950 XL, Nexus 6P, OnePlus 2.

Exynos 7420 in its time was strongly underestimated, despite the fact that its parameters differ in decent power. Despite the low ratings, phones with it are popular, especially Samsung Galaxy S6 and Meizu Pro 5.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 and 650 are the processors used in smartphones of middle price class. Despite the low positions in the rating, they are actively used in the production of gadgets. To date, there is no question of removing from production such models of smartphones as Samsung Galaxy A9, Sony Xperia X and Xiaomi Redmi.