Galaxy Z Flip 7’s Exynos 2500 benchmarked: Front runner power or collapsible flop?

In a very first for Samsung’s foldables, the brand-new Galaxy Z Flip 7 sporting activities a Samsung Exynos cpu rather than its common Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. I’m sensibly persuaded the Exynos 2500 looks more than good enough theoretically, also if it will not fairly match the Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the Galaxy S25 collection and Z Fold 7

However the genuine evidence remains in the screening, so I have actually run the Galaxy Z Flip 7 via our common collection of standards to see simply exactly how away the leading place it actually is. For contrast, we have actually gotten arise from the most recent front runners by Apple, Google, Samsung, and the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 located in vivo’s latest front runner. Allow’s dive in.

The largest divide in mobile chipsets nowadays is in between those utilizing “off-the-shelf” Arm Cortex CPU layouts and those licensing Arm’s style to construct personalized CPUs. Apple and currently Qualcomm come under the last camp, while Google, MediaTek, and Samsung stick to their setups of Arm Cortex cores.

Historically, personalized cores have actually outshined the Cortex-X collection in single-core jobs, which consequently commonly causes solid multi-core ratings– also when up versus Cortex collections loading a lot more complete cores. That’s still real today, and it matters since while a lot of applications are multi-threaded, couple of resembled maxing out 8 or 10 cores. So single-core muscle mass still drives responsiveness and is a benefit for pc gaming.

The Exynos 2500 makes use of the very same Cortex-X925 core as the Dimensity 9400 (noted as Cortex-X5 on Samsung’s sheet). It’s not fairly as fast as Qualcomm’s Phoenix az CPU core, yet the void isn’t massive overall.

As you can see, the Exynos 2500 in the Z Flip 7 has to do with 18% slower than the 8 Elite in the S25, yet it isn’t as away the vivo X200 Pro’s MediaTek front runner. The reduced single-core rating likely boils down to clock rate (3.3 GHz vs 3.6 GHz) and some cache distinctions, yet multi-core efficiency is remarkably close.

Expectedly, the Exynos 2500’s Cortex-X tracks the personalized cores in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite and is also better behind Apple’s A18 Pro in single-core power. Regardless of having less cores, those chips’ large specific efficiencies maintains them in advance in hefty multi-threaded lots also. This implies the mainstream Galaxy S25 really outmatches the more expensive Flip 7– a minimum of in standards. Still, the Exynos 2500 and Dimensity 9400 are just around 12% slower than Apple’s finest, which is rather nippy.

One more viewpoint? The Exynos 2500 quickly gets rid of Google’s Tensor G4 by a comfy margin, with a significant 64% lead in multi-core efficiency. While defeating Google’s Tone is rarely worthwhile of an honor, it highlights that the chip is plenty quickly for daily usage.

Modern front runner chips have actually long passed the factor of just being “quickly sufficient.” Also if the brand-new Exynos does not cover the graphes, it’ll quickly deal with multitasking and future applications over its predicted seven-year software program life expectancy. For a style-first phone like the Z Flip 7, that’s perhaps ideal where it requires to be.

One specifically fascinating component of current Exynos chips is using AMD’s RDNA style for its Xclipse GPUs. It was amongst the very first to bring ray-tracing to mobile, and Samsung declares the most recent variation depends on 28% faster than previously. The Xclipse 950 GPU has actually expanded this year– going from 6 Job Team Processors (WGP) and 4 Provide Back-ends (RB) to 8WGP/8RB.

So what does that mean for real efficiency, and can it stay on top of Arm’s Immortalis and Qualcomm’s Adreno? The solution is … made complex.

Taking a look at the very first trial run by themselves, the Exynos 2500 does rather well. It matches Apple’s A18 Pro in Wild Life Extreme and also outmatches it by 17% in ray-tracing. That lands it approximately in between Apple’s chip and the also quicker Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400. Okay. Nevertheless, the Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S25 is still 43% faster at conventional rasterization, implying method greater framework prices on Samsung’s mainstream front runner.

As previously, the Exynos quickly covers Google’s Tensor G4, racking up 76% greater in Wild Life Extreme. And we have actually seldom had grievances concerning real-world pc gaming on Pixels, other than reducing setups in one of the most requiring titles. For common pc gaming, the Exynos 2500 appears plenty strong, with AMD’s RDNA doing magnum opus on ray-tracing that aids maintain it affordable with the very best.

Sadly, once the cardiovascular test start, the Exynos 2500’s efficiency goes down greatly– dropping also listed below the G4. This is likely because of the small Galaxy Z Flip 7 strangling to stay clear of getting too hot. We saw the very same point in 2015 with the Z Flip 6’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Also the Galaxy S25 control its Snapdragon 8 Elite rather swiftly. Samsung is a lot more traditional than a lot of when it come to temperature levels. Because of this, we can not attract a lot of verdicts concerning continual GPU efficiency past keeping in mind the Flip plainly isn’t constantly taking advantage of the Exynos 2500’s complete graphics prospective when points warm up.

There’s no question the Exynos 2500 is a qualified chip, completing near the top for CPU jobs and also besting the apple iphone in some GPU ratings. It’s flagship-class silicon, also if it’s not the outright fastest. Whether it’s the very best selection for the Z Flip 7, however, is much less clear.

Samsung has fairly a chipset mix in its premium items currently: the Exynos 2400e in the Galaxy S FE, the Snapdragon 8 Elite in this year’s Galaxy S and Layer front runners, and the prevalent use in 2015’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3– consisting of in the Z Flip 6.

For daily applications, the Z Flip 7 beings in the center. It’s not as stylish as the 8 Elite yet distinctly a lot more effective than the Exynos 2400e. Contrasted to in 2015’s Flip 6, nonetheless, there’s hardly any type of uplift– simply an 8% bump in multi-tasking efficiency. Rarely heading things.

Graphics perhaps repaint an also worse photo. The Exynos 2500 deals concerning an 11% ray-tracing renovation over the Flip 6, yet it’s really around 6% slower in conventional rasterization. Thermal strangling hits hard, also– both Turn designs wind up even worse off than also the budget plan Galaxy S24 FE under anxiety. That’s a testimony to exactly how hard the clamshell type aspect is for warmth. Similarly, Samsung’s case of a 28% uplift to ray-tracing over the 2400 is rather confident; our outcome is more detailed to 22% originating from the FE, and also much less from the front runner Exynos S24 design.

I can not claim for sure if the Exynos 2500 runs hotter than the 8 Gen 3, though its bigger GPU core could not aid. Regardless, it’s clear the Exynos 2500 has a lot more prospective than in 2015’s 2400, yet it’s actually simply reached 2024’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The $1,099 Z Flip 7 is successfully running last-gen efficiency– if that– specifically considering its failure to maintain power under lots.

That does not imply the Exynos 2500 is a poor suit for the Z Flip 7. It’s simply that it hasn’t meaningfully pressed the phone ahead, and effective chips constantly deal with warmth restrictions in little clamshells. Still, in 2015 we kept in mind that 8 Gen 3 efficiency was abundant for common flip-phone usage– and the Exynos 2500 will certainly deal with those very same work equally as well. It’s most definitely “sufficient,” also if that will not please every person. Directly, I would certainly like to see what the Exynos 2500’s GPU can carry out in a phone with correct air conditioning.

Whether Samsung’s Exynos-foldable wager settles could boil down to battery life. With a bigger 4,300 mAh cell and a brand-new chip, possibly the Flip will lastly easily last right into a 2nd day. That’s something we’ll need to examination, as Exynos has actually traditionally outshined competing chipsets in the power effectiveness division.