As Samsung is rolling out its flagship Galaxy Note 4 worldwide, it looks like Malaysians are getting the Exynos variant as seen from its SIRIM’s database listing. A lot of people are hoping that we are getting the Snapdragon 805 variant which has a Quad-Core processor clocked at 2.7GHz. So is having Exynos instead of Snapdragon processor a big deal? From the looks of it, it could be a better option between the two.
The Galaxy Note 4 Exynos variant (N910C) uses one of the newer Octa-Core processors from its latest Exynos 5 line up. Like the recently announced Galaxy Alpha, the latest Exynos 543X series uses a smaller 20nm fabrication process. As comparison, the current Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 is still on 28nm.
What that smaller number means is that its transistors are packed more closely and in theory, should provide better performance and power efficiency. The Galaxy Alpha runs on an Exynos 5430 which consists of 4x Cortex A7 cores at 1.3GHz + 4x Cortex A15 cores at 1.8GHz.
Meanwhile the Exynos 5433 that’s found on the Note 4 Exynos variant is running on a newer 4x Cortex A53 cores at 1.3GHz + 4x Cortex A57 cores at 1.9GHz. According to the guys at Anandtech, a source code reveals that the Exynos 5433 is a 64-bit processor, which is a first for an Android flagship.
Surprisingly Samsung isn’t shouting about it and there’s a good reason for that. Apparently the processor will be locked to 32-bit for now but there’s a possibility of it being enabled with Android L or when the need rises.
In terms of performance, benchmark figures from Antutu suggests that the Exynos 5433 is superior than the Snapdragon 805 processor. Even in the graphics department, the Snapdragon 805’s Adreno 420 GPU appears to lose out to the ARM Mali-T760 GPU that’s mated with the Exynos 5433.
So far there’s no tests on battery life yet but if it’s as frugal as the Galaxy Alpha, the Galaxy Note 4 could be an enduring device to use with its 3,220mAh battery. In the mean time, do check out our hands-on and first impressions with the Galaxy Note 4.
