Earlier this week, a handset believed to be the basic Samsung Galaxy S23 appeared on Geekbench with an impressive set of benchmark numbers for a pre-release phone which gave the iPhone 14 a run for its money.
Now another device — SM-S918U (opens in new tab) — has appeared on the benchmarking site, and it’s one that SamMobile (opens in new tab) believes to be the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Given the listed internals are identical — the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and 8GB RAM — the numbers are as close as you would expect. The S23 Ultra achieves a single-core score of 1,521 and a multi-score one of 4,689.
But while these are a big improvement on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (which managed scores of 1,240 and 3,392, respectively), they’re not as impressive as the upcoming virtually identical numbers on the basic S23 for one simple reason: the competition for the Ultra variant is considerably tougher.
It’s no Pro
When we covered the S23’s scores, we noted that it eclipsed the iPhone 14’s multi-core performance (4,553), even if it was behind on the single-core metric (1,727). That’s important as the Samsung Galaxy S23 will likely be in the same ballpark as the basic iPhone 14 in terms of price when it arrives on store shelves.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, if past form is anything to go by, will go toe to toe with the iPhone 14 Pro, and that uses Apple’s faster A16 chip. Our benchmarks gave the A16 scores of 1,891 in single-core and 5,469 in multi, leaving even these impressive S23 Ultra numbers in the dust.
The iPhone 14 Pro starts at $999, with the iPhone 14 Pro Max going for $1,099. For comparison’s sake, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has an MSRP of $1,199. With prices going up across global supply chains, it wouldn’t be surprising if the S23 Ultra added a few more dollars to that, too.
Of course, a smartphone is about more than just its raw speed, and Samsung will likely justify the cost with extras Apple just can’t match, like S-Pen support and a rumored 200MP camera.
And, truth be told, these benchmarks are more for bragging rights than any real, noticeable performance advantage in day-to-day use. Both will run the latest apps fluidly for years to come, and you wouldn’t notice a difference unless you had the two side by side.
All the same, if these benchmark numbers don’t improve with optimizations closer to release, it looks like the best Android phones will continue to lag behind Apple’s flagships in terms of raw speed for at least one more generation.
Next: Here are the 5 biggest rumors so far on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
