With which processor to buy a smartphone or tablet?

Basic knowledge

Calling the chips of modern smartphones processors is not entirely correct. More appropriate is the term single-chip systems (from the English system-on-a-chip or SoC). In addition to four to eight processor cores, they include an integrated graphics accelerator, a RAM controller, a 3G/LTE modem, a Wi-Fi adapter, a GPS navigation module and optionally other components. Nevertheless, out of old habit and for ease of understanding, single-chip systems are still called processors.

The main processor architecture of smartphones and tablets is ARM, developed by the British company ARM Holdings. It does not produce chips on its own, but only licenses its developments to other vendors. So, Mediatek and Huawei produce processors according to ready-made drawings of ARM Holdings. While Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple and NVIDIA are developing their own chips compatible with the ARM instruction set.

An alternative to ARM is the x86_64 architecture promoted by Intel. x86_64 processors are more performant, but also more energy-efficient than ARM. Therefore, Intel has suffered a fiasco in the smartphone market, but at the same time feels good in the tablet segment. After all, for smartphones, it is more important to work for a long time without recharging, whereas tablets are positioned as a replacement for laptops and often high performance is required from them.

Note that in this article we will consider only current processor models and only widespread smartphones and tablets based on them. In addition to them, there are a great many other rare and even exotic chips.

Entry-level processors

Currently, the weakest ARM processor on the market is the Spreadtrum T-Shark SC8830 with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. It is used in the Samsung Galaxy J1 mini smartphone. and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite Plus 3G 8GB tablet. It has four more 32-bit (shorter instruction length, slower calculations) ARM Cortex-A7 cores (speed 1.9 DMIPS/MHz) and an old Mali-400 graphics accelerator, which handles only with new two-dimensional games or old three-dimensional ones. At the same time, the SC8830 is enough for surfing the web, watching online videos and chats. Therefore, we recommend buying for users with an extremely limited low-cost.

Paying only a little more for a smartphone or tablet, you can get a much more modern chip. Twin brothers with four already 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores (2.3 DMIPS/MHz) are Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (frequency 1.4 GHz, 28 nm process technology), MediaTek MT6735 (1.3 GHz, 28 nm) and Samsung Exynos 7570 (1.5 GHz, 14 nm). Samsung Galaxy J5 2016, Asus Zenfone Max 8GB ZC550KL, CoolPAD Torino S and Lenovo Tab 3 7 Plus 16GB are built on the first one. On the second – Meizu M2 Mini, Doogee X5 Pro and Oukitel K6000. Finally, on the third – so far only one Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime 2016.

Snapdragon 410 is better suited for 3D games, as game developers optimize their creations primarily for Qualcomm Adreno graphics accelerators. The Exynos 7570 battery consumes the least – all thanks to the 14-nm process technology (smaller transistors, lower power consumption). And MT6735 can only boast that a great many low-cost smartphones from well-known and not very Chinese brands are based on it.

Mid-level processors

ARM processors for mid-range smartphones and tablets are built on the same Cortex–A53 cores, but with a higher frequency — 2 GHz. The number of cores has been doubled to eight, which makes smartphones truly multitasking. Bright representatives of mid-level ARM chips are: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, Samsung Exynos 7880, Huawei Kirin 655 (old name HiSilicon), MediaTek Helio P10 and P20, and a newcomer to the mobile processor market – Xiaomi Surge S1.

The most optimal is, perhaps, Snapdragon 625: it has a well-optimized Adreno 506 graphics for games (pulls all modern toys at high graphics settings) and a thin 14-nm process technology, which implies good battery life of the smartphone. This chip is used in Huawei Nova Dual Sim, Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro 32GB and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X 32GB, Asus Zenfone 3 32GB ZE520KL and Lenovo P2 Dual.

Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 and Samsung Galaxy A7 2017, Huawei P8 Lite 2017 Dual Sim smartphones are built on Exynos 7880 and Kirin 655 processors, respectively. The processors are very similar in their characteristics: the 14 and 16 nm process technology is equally economical in terms of power consumption, and the integrated Mali-T800 series 3D accelerators allow you to play at least on average graphics settings.

The same Mali-T800 graphics are used in Helio P10 chips: Meizu M5 Note 32GB, Motorola Moto M Dual SIM, Sony Xperia XA Dual; P20 — Meizu M3x 32GB and Surge S1 — Xiaomi Mi-5c 32GB. That's just because of the outdated 28-nm process technology, you won't be able to play for a long time — the battery will run out.

Flagship processors

The top mobile chips at the moment are: Qualcomm Snapdragon 650/652/653, 660, 820/821 and 830/835, MediaTek Helio X20/X25/X30, Samsung Exynos 8890/8898, Huawei Kirin 955/960, Apple A10, Intel Atom X5/X7 and NVIDIA Tegra K1. They are quite different from each other in the scheme of the structure, but they are united by one thing — a relatively short time of operation without recharging, which is the price for power.

So, the six-core Snapdragon 650 (Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro 32GB, Sony Xperia X Dual) and the eight-core 652 (Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus 32GB) and 653 are based on the ARM big.LITTLE architecture: some cores are powerful energy-hungry Cortex-A72 (4.8 DMIPS/MHz), some are weak Energy-efficient Cortex-A53. Depending on the complexity of the task, the smartphone uses the first or second group of cores. The Adreno 510 graphics accelerator allows you to run all games on ultra-settings.

According to the same big.LITTLE scheme, ten-core Helio X20 (Meizu MX6), X25 (Meizu Pro 6 32GB) and X30 chips are built (a novelty, devices on it are expected in the second half of 2017). They differ from the Snapdragon 600-series with Mali-T800 graphics, slightly less optimized for games (only medium or high settings).

The Exynos 8890 (Samsung Galaxy S7 32GB), 8898 (Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus), Kirin 955 (Huawei P9) and 960 (Huawei P10) octa-cores are again Samsung exclusives (with the exception of Meizu Pro 6 Plus 64GB) and Huawei. As graphics, the older Exynos 8898 and Kirin 960 use the latest Mali-G71 (ultra-settings in games with a margin for the future). The older cores in the big.LITTLE scheme are Samsung's own M1 Mongoose (5.1 DMIPS/MHz), and Huawei has widespread Cortex-A72.

The most powerful of the most powerful are the quad-core Snapdragon 820/821 (Xiaomi Mi-5s 64GB, HTC 10 32GB, LG G5 DualSIM) and the octa-core 660 and 830/835 based on Qualcomm Kryo architecture. Their performance is as much as 6.3 DMIPS /MHz, which is a quarter faster than any competitor.

Separately from the others are Apple A10 processors (Apple iPhone 7 32GB and Apple iPhone 7 Plus 32GB), Intel Atom X5/X7 and NVIDIA Tegra K1. Apple's brainchild has two high–performance Hurricane cores and two more energy-efficient Zephyrs — both the first and the second of its own design. The powerful PowerVR GT7600 is used as graphics. Although in the case of Apple mobile devices, this is not so important, because thanks to the unified hardware and software, it is not difficult for game developers to bring their creations to the utmost smoothness even on relatively old iPhone and iPad models.

NVIDIA Tegra and Intel Atom chips are no longer used in smartphones. The former are equipped with the most powerful GeForce ULP mobile graphics on the market, so they are used in nVIDIA Shield 16GB and Nintendo Switch game consoles. The element of the second are Android and Windows tablets: Xiaomi MiPad 2 16GB, Asus Transformer Mini T102HA 64GB, Chuwi Hi12, etc.

In addition to Atom, Intel has even more powerful chips for tablets – Core M, built on a full-fledged desktop architecture Skylake or Kaby Lake. In addition to tablets, they are used in transformers and ultrabooks.

Conclusions

It is important to understand that while on smartphones and tablets (with the exception of Windows models) there are no truly resource-intensive applications. Therefore, everyone should not chase the latest and most powerful ARM processors. Even for games with three-dimensional graphics, such as GTA: San Andreas, Asphalt 8 and Modern Kombat 5, there are enough mid–level processors — Snapdragon 625, Helio P10 or the like. Such chips cope without problems even with video editing on a smartphone.