Exynos 9611 Review: Can it Beat Snapdragon?

There was a time when Samsung’s mid-range & budget Processors used to be incompetent against Snapdragon.

To stay competitive against brands like Xiaomi & Realme, it was necessary for Samsung to bring better in chipsets for the budget segment.

And that’s where Exynos 9611 comes into the picture.

Samsung’s Exynos 9609, 9610 & 9611 are quite similar.

The Exynos 9610 features an overclocked CPU when compared to the 9609 while 9611 has both an overclocked CPU and an overclocked GPU. All the other major features are exactly the same.

This is why these three Samsung chips are just next to each other in our Mobile SOC Rankings.

But how well does it perform against chips like Snapdragon 665, 675, 712, 720G, Helio G70, P70, and G90T?

That’s exactly what we are going to figure out today.

But before going deep into the review, here’s a quick summary & pros. and cons. for those of you who need a quick answer.

    Exynos 9611 Specification

This processor is manufactured using Samsung’s 10nm LPE process which is Samsung’s 1st Generation 10nm Process. This is the same process that was used to fabricate 2017’s flagship chips like Exynos 8895 & Snapdragon 835.

It is superior to the process that is used in Snapdragon 665, 675, Helio G70 and G90T but worse than 10nm LPP Process (Snapdragon 710 & 712) and 8nm LPP Process (Snapdragon 720G, 730, 730G). If you want to learn more about the different fabrication nodes, then you should check out this article.

So, does that make Exynos 9611 more efficient than Snapdragon 665, 675, Helio G70 & G90T?

Well, it’s not just the fabrication process that plays a role in power efficiency but also the CPU Architecture & Frequency. While it is better in efficiency as compared to G90T, G70 & 675, the difference isn’t that great simply because while running Heavy tasks, the high frequency (2.3 GHz) negates most of the efficiency that it gained with the help of 10 nm process. But it has excellent efficiency when you’re running less-intensive tasks that will only utilize the low-power Cortex-A53 cluster.

This SOC has an Octa-Core CPU with four powerful Cortex-A73 cores for intensive tasks and four low-power Cortex-A53 cores for smaller tasks. This is a similar configuration as the one in Snapdragon 665, but in the case of Exynos 9611, the high-performance cluster is clocked at 2.3 GHz instead of 2.0 GHz (SD 665).

Coming to the GPU, we have the Mali-G72 MP3 which is also present in Exynos 9610, 9609, Helio P60 & P70. But the one in 9611 is clocked a little higher and outperforms the rest of them. This GPU is on par with Snapdragon 660‘s Adreno 512. But it is slightly behind the Adreno 610 GPU of Snapdragon 665.

You can find the ranking of all the GPUs here on this page.

The rest of the specifications & features are pretty much on par with most of the other mid-range chips from Samsung, Qualcomm, and MediaTek. You can visit Samsung’s official website if you want to go through the rest of the specs.

    Benchmark Scores

Here are some synthetic benchmarks of this chip alongside its competitors. These scores are not always realistic and don’t factor in real-world performance.

So, it is never a good idea to judge a mobile chip solely on the basis of synthetic benchmarks.

Antutu

On Antutu, Exynos 9611 scores considerably lower than 665 despite the fact that it has a better CPU. This is mainly due to the fact that 665’s GPU performance is superior. The rest of the chips including the Helio G70 (Realme C3) destroys the 9611.

GeekBench 5

Geekbench 5 judges the CPU Performance of a chip and in this test, it managed to outperform 665 in Single-Core workloads. But on the Multi-Core test, it ends up at the last position alongside the G70.

    Comparison with other SOCs

Let’s compare it with other popular SOCs from the low-end to the mid-range smartphone market.

First up we have the Helio G70.

Exynos 9611 vs Helio G70

Helio G70 has a better CPU (Cortex-A75 based) and a better GPU. On power efficiency side, 9611 is slightly ahead.

Exynos 9611 vs Snapdragon 665

It defeats Snapdragon 665 in CPU Performance while it is slightly behind in GPU Performance. Power Efficiency of both these chips is comparable while running heavy tasks but 9611 is more efficient in less-intensive tasks. When factoring in all the SOC components & features, the 9611 comes out slightly ahead.

Exynos 9611 vs Helio G90T

Helio G90T crushes it in CPU & GPU Performance by a huge margin. But Exynos 9611 is way more efficient.

Exynos 9611 vs Snapdragon 675

Snapdragon 675 has a significantly faster CPU and a slightly better GPU. In battery efficiency, 9611 is a little bit ahead.

Exynos 9611 vs Snapdragon 712

Snapdragon 712 outperforms it in all the scenarios by a big margin.

    Exynos 9611 Review

In this section, I’ll be telling my experience of using the Samsung Galaxy M30s and how well it performs in day-to-day usage. While, this is based on Galaxy M30s, you can expect a similar performance of other Exynos 9611 devices such as the Galaxy A51 and M31.

General Usage

I define general usage as using Social Media Apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Reddit alongside UI navigation, Browsing, Video Playback & Streaming. Most mid-range smartphones play extremely well in these apps and so does the Galaxy M30s.

I had no complaints here. The device was smooth and the user experience was extremely good. If you’re someone who only uses the phone for basic tasks such as these, you would be happy with your purchase.

Gaming Performance

Playing graphically-intensive games such as Call of Duty & PUBG Mobile was a good experience. There were no lags and the gaming performance was great. However, the gaming experience gets even better with more powerful chipsets like Helio G90T or Snapdragon 712 or 720G.

While it can run games without any hiccups, for someone who only cares about gaming & heavy tasks, you should go with a more powerful chip.

Power Efficiency

It has an excellent battery efficiency, in fact, one of the best in this price segment as long as you’re only running the basic tasks. While running heavier tasks, it’s efficiency is comparable to other processors in this price segment.

If you’re someone who only runs basic apps and requires a longer battery life, Exynos 9611 is one of the best options for you.

Centurion Mark

On our ranking index, Exynos 9611 has scored 103 points. This is higher than Helio P70 & Snapdragon 665 but lower than Helio G70 & Snapdragon 675. For the full SOC rankings, visit this page.

You can also check out this article to compare Mobile GPUs to find out where the Mali-G72 MP3 stands.

List of Phones with Exynos 9611 Processor:

• Samsung Galaxy M30s
• Samsung Galaxy A51
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
• Samsung Galaxy M31