Galaxy S21 Ultra: Exynos 2100 version has better battery life than Snapdragon 888 model, tests reveal

The Galaxy S21 series, like many of Samsung’s flagship smartphones, was released with two different processor variants—one that’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, and the other by Samsung’s own chipset, the Exynos 2100. Traditionally, Exynos chips have performed poorly compared to their Qualcomm counterparts, but Samsung has spent a lot of time talking up the capabilities of the Exynos 2100—promising improved overall performance thanks to the new 5nm EUV process.

Of course, real-life performance can differ greatly from promised results. As such, the folks over at PBKreviews took it upon themselves to pit the Exynos-powered version of the Galaxy S21 Ultra against the (more popular) Snapdragon-powered variant. The results? Well, they’re rather surprising, given how Exynos chips have generally offered poorer battery life than Snapdragon equivalents.

Have a watch:

The video is made up of a battery drain test that lasts for about 30 minutes, with PBKreviews separating the test into a number of stages. This includes stress and performance tests, with both S21 Ultra displays set to the maximum brightness. Adaptive brightness support was turned off during the test, along with other battery-saver settings.

At the end of the test, the results were clear: the Exynos 2100-powered Galaxy S21 Ultra had better battery life, finishing the test with 89 percent of juice left in the 5,000mAh battery. The Snapdragon 888-powered Galaxy S21 Ultra, on the other hand, finished with 87 percent of battery left. It sounds like a narrow margin—and it is—but it’s a significant milestone for Samsung and its much-maligned chip, certainly.

Battery life isn’t the only aspect of the test where the Exynos 2100 won. The battery stayed at a lower temperature on the Exynos-powered S21 Ultra at 40.3°C by the end of the challenge. The Snapdragon 888 version, in contrast, was 2.4°C hotter at 42.7°C at the end of the test—a difference that should not impact performance in a perceivable way for most users. Still, lower battery temperatures generally mean better power efficiency and a longer overall battery cycle, so this is a win for Samsung and the Exynos team.

All in all, the Exynos 2100 has performed admirably, which should come as good news to Malaysia and other regions that get Samsung’s in-house chipset on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. We’ve also covered a real-world comparison of the aforementioned chipsets with regards to performance (scroll down to the related reading section below)—which also saw a very strong performance from Exynos chip.

If this has won you over, official pricing for the Galaxy S21 series in Malaysia is as follows:

– S21 (8GB RAM + 256GB storage) – RM3,699
– S21+ (8GB RAM + 256GB storage) – RM4,299
– S21 Ultra (12GB RAM + 256GB storage) – RM5,299
– S21 Ultra (16GB RAM + 512GB storage) – RM5,899

To find out more, click here.

Related reading