Forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 Benchmarks Leak

Samsung is gearing up to release its next big flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7, on the eve of the Mobile World Congress tradeshow next month. But as is usual with flagship product releases in this info-overloaded age, a few tidbits of intel have leaked out ahead of the official reveal.

The latest leaks purporting to detail the S7 are benchmark scores for the single core and multi core variants of the phone, picked up by a Hungarian Android blog.

So how does the forthcoming SGS7 stack up against last year’s model, based on these leaked benchmarks?

Last year’s single core Samsung Galaxy S6 (pictured above) obtained a Geekbench score ranging from around 1250 to 1450, while the multi-core flavour clocked in the region of 4200 to 4800. But the forthcoming SGS7 Geekbench score leak pegs performance at 1873 (single core) and 5946 (multi-core) for the next-gen handset — so a considerable step up in the performance stakes for both variants.

That said, benchmarks don’t necessarily paint an honest picture of smartphone performance. And Samsung has previously been accused of rigging benchmark scores for its flagship smartphones by optimizing performance on known benchmark software… So while the leaked scores sound impressive — the multi-core variant apparently topping the current list of benchmarked Android devices — the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say. (For a little comparative context, here are iPhone 6S benchmarks.)

Other details that can be gleaned from the leak include that the SGS7 is running Android 6.0.1, and has an eight core chipset — presumed to be Samsung Exynos, given those eight cores — running at 1.59Ghz. RAM looks to be 4GB. So pretty much as you’d expect.

Prior leaks relating to the forthcoming SGS7’s features have suggested it will have a pressure-sensitive screen (to play catch-up with Apple’s 3D Touch feature on the iPhone 6S); and a new high-speed charging USB Type-C port for even faster full day charging.

Camera improvements are also slated, with low light performance enhancements and hardware that’s flush with the back of the phone, so no lens bulge.

Either way, there isn’t much time left to wait to find out — with about a month to go until Samsung’s big reveal. Whether a new Galaxy flagship can sustain its fortunes in an increasingly competitive Android OEM smartphone space remains to be seen.

Samsung’s operating profit declined for seven consecutive quarters before last October’s third-quarter earnings finally returned it to growth. Keeping that momentum going will be key for the company in 2016, making the SGS7 a very important release.