Samsung Galaxy S22 looks underpowered in new benchmarks

Update: It's looking likely the Samsung Galaxy S22 will have the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, one of the five Galaxy S22 upgrades we really want to see. 

Samsung Galaxy S22 benchmarks have reportedly been found utilizing a new Snapdragon chipset. Unfortunately, these results give a poor first impression of Samsung's next flagship.

The Galaxy S22 Plus, equipped with a Snapdragon 898 chip, was discovered in the Geekbench 5 result browser by tech site Aroged. We won't keep you in suspense about the scores: these turned out to be 1,163 on the single core test and 2,728 on the multi-core test. 

Comparing this to last year's Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus (1,116 and 3,300) and the rival OnePlus 9 Pro (1,126 in single-core and 3,685), we see that while the single core result is improved a bit, the multi-core score is in fact quite a bit lower. This isn't unusual for an early test even with only a few months until launch. We'll likely see the new phone beat the older models on both parts of Geekbench 5 when we actually get to test it ourselves.

Even if the multi-core results take a big leap forward, the new Snapdragon chip will likely still be way behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max's scores of 1,720 and 4,549. It's the most powerful phone on the market right now, so Samsung will have to look elsewhere for an edge over Apple for performance.

One such edge could be included with the Exynos 2200 chip. This slice of silicon is rumored to feature an AMD GPU, a first for Samsung and possibly a huge deal for mobile gaming. It's just a shame that if the rumors bear out as is, American buyers won't be able to try this out.

The device found in the Geekbench browser is code-named SM-S906U, which marks it out as the U.S. version of the phone. Only some of the Galaxy S22 models, such as those sold in the U.S., are believed to include the new Snapdragon chip. Those sold elsewhere, such as the U.K. should instead use Samsung's own Exynos 2200 chip.

In accordance with previous rumors, the Galaxy S22 Plus in this Geekbench listing is running with 8GB RAM, the same quantity of RAM as the Galaxy S21 Plus. The phone is also running Android 12, which the S22 was pretty much guaranteed to run, in the guise of Samsung's One UI.

Outside of the performance-related rumors, we've had more Galaxy S22 rumors to dissect. The S22 Plus and the base Galaxy S22 are both claimed to be getting smaller frames (and smaller batteries as a result), but will also allegedly receive some fresh camera sensors, including a 50MP main camera and a 3x optical zoom telephoto.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra will also apparently be changing shape, getting wider and squarer in order to accommodate the rumored built-in S Pen stylus. Its cameras are thought to be remaining similar to those on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, although with renewed internals and a new high detail mode for the main 108MP sensor.

Wireless charging on the Galaxy S22 could also get a boost with it jumping from 15W to 25W, which should lead to faster charring times without the wires. 

We still have a wait ahead until the Galaxy S22 arrives. The latest release date rumor claims that January will be the month that Samsung reveals the Galaxy S21 FE, with the S22 arriving in February.