Video: Galaxy S10e versus iPhone XR benchmarking showdown

AppleInsider

The next phone to slide across our desk is the Galaxy S10e, the lower-cost flagship from Samsung. Watch, as we pit it against against Apple's own budget device in this latest showdown.

iPhone XR and Samsung Galaxy S10e

Apple's iPhone XR is now around six months old, but it still has impressive specs. Inside the iPhone is Apple's A12 Bionic processor and 3GB of RAM.

The Galaxy S10e is using an eight-core Snapdragon processor in the US, and is packing 6GB of RAM.

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We ran a slew of different benchmarking tests with both phones, designed to test everyday performance, the limits of the GPU, browser capabilities, and more.

The tests

To kick things off, we started with the Geekbench 4 rest which runs a series of tasks that attempt to simulate real-world usage. Our iPhone XR used only for testing purposes, and not a "daily driver," blew away the S10e on the single-core with a score of 4821 against 3416. Multi-core was less decisive. The S10e earned 10517 and the iPhone earned 10374, just barely falling behind the 8-core Snapdragon.

Geekbench 4 results

For comparison, our S9+ earned 2007 and 8307 on the single and multi-core tests respectively.

AnTuTu results

Onto the AnTuTu benchmark test, the Galaxy S10e bested the iPhone in each of the four categories -- CPU, GPU, UX, and memory. The total score was 355124 for the S10e and against the iPhone's 312159.

AnTuTu browser results

When we moved on to browser tests, we started with the AnTuTu browser JavaScript benchmark. Our iPhone XR garnered a 45888 which swamped the 36519 that the S10e managed.

In the now-retired Octane 2.0 test, which also tests browser performance, the iPhone pulled a 40873 which was significantly above the 23990 put forth by the S10e.

GFXBench results

Lastly, our final graphics test was the GFXBench benchmark. Here, the iPhone's integrated GPU was able to get 2373 frames in the latest Aztec Ruin (High Tier) test and 38 FPS. The same test on the S10e only showed 1662 frames, 26 FPS. This is much lower than the S10+ earned. Additionally, we consistently got "out of memory" warnings on certain tests when running on the S10e.

Who to pick?

As we were with the S10+ benchmarks, the results were impressive. The iPhone still performed well despite its relative age.

The results here are impressive -- for both handsets. Apple's iPhone held its own, winning in multiple categories -- particularly on the browser side -- despite being six months old. On the other hand, the Galaxy S10e pulled some great numbers that show significant growth over the previous S9.

Where to buy

The Samsung Galaxy S10e can be ordered from Samsung directly, as well as at Samsung authorized dealers, such as B&H Photo and Amazon.com. Prices start at $749.99; however, shoppers can also save up to $550 with an eligible trade via a Samsung rebate.

Meanwhile, the following carriers are also offering incentives on both Apple and Samsung devices:

Carrier deals:

• AT&T Wireless: Get up to $1,000 in bill credits with Galaxy S10 preorders.
  
• Verizon Wireless: Get up to $300 off iPhones with an eligible trade.
  
• Sprint: Lease the latest Galaxy and get a Galaxy S10e for free.

Stay tuned to AppleInsider for further tests and comparisons between Apple and Samsung's flagship devices.

donth8

Still a flawed test. GFXbench needs to be run in offscreen mode to be fair to both handsets. Also your iPhone is throttling in Geekbench. Multi core score should be over 11000.

lkrupp

And what, exactly, do these tests have to do with real world usage and user experience? 

hexclock

lkrupp said:

And what, exactly, do these tests have to do with real world usage and user experience? 

Nothing really, but it’s still interesting to see what the hardware is capable of. 
In my “real world”, iOS beats Android no matter how the tests come out. 

guscat

I just ran Geekbench 4 on my iPhone X, and these were my results:

dhawkins541

"The iPhone still performed well despite its relative age."

Only in modern age can we imply a phone is old ish when it was only released in October and its March. As others have said their Geekbench score seems flawed since it’s  lower than I’ve ever seen on mine and others running the A12 chip. 

Jhosea

My XR

mcdave

Is AnTuTu that relevant a benchmark?  Around half its weighting is the graphics test which uses the (near-defunct on iOS) OpenGL.  Why does its web benchmark not concur with others? Is it avoiding Nitro or & SafariViewControllers?  Octane and Speedometer show a very different picture.

Where are the video transcode tests?

mcdave

hexclock said:

lkrupp said:

And what, exactly, do these tests have to do with real world usage and user experience? 

Nothing really, but it’s still interesting to see what the hardware is capable of. 
In my “real world”, iOS beats Android no matter how the tests come out. 

But it doesn’t even show that, it shows how well each run benchmarks.

chasm

To be entirely fair, it would be interesting to see the S10 score with Samsung's own Exynos chip, which it can't use in North America because Qualcomm is a bully. But even with the caveat that benchmarks don't always correlate to real-world usage, the iPhone XR basically kicks the crap out of the Snapdragon S10, despite the Snapdragon's enormous advantage in cores and RAM. As noted above, the AnTuTu test (the only one where the S10 edged out) doesn't correctly measure iPhones due to the deprecation of OpenGL.

LOVE the warning on the S10 shown in the photo of the AnTuTu test results. That's the (real) whole story right there.

hexclock

mcdave said:

hexclock said:

lkrupp said:

And what, exactly, do these tests have to do with real world usage and user experience? 

Nothing really, but it’s still interesting to see what the hardware is capable of. 
In my “real world”, iOS beats Android no matter how the tests come out. 

But it doesn’t even show that, it shows how well each run benchmarks.

But...but... yeah, I can't think of anything.

JustSomeGuy1

AI, this is starting to get embarrassing. You need to do better. You completely ignored the comments on your previous flawed benchmark article, and you're making the same mistakes here.

GeorgeBMac

lkrupp said:

And what, exactly, do these tests have to do with real world usage and user experience? 

Very little...

"real world usage and user experience" are mostly a function of software and ecosystem rather than hardware (assuming that the hardware is decent).

It is why I keep saying that all the comparisons between hardware are misdirection because, what sets Apple products apart and above from others is not its hardware but its software and ecosystem.  But those are hard things to evaluate because they are subjective and qualitative rather than quantitative.