Snapdragon 425 Review and Antutu Benchmark Score

In case you’re planning to buy a Snapdragon 425 smartphone, this review will help you make the right choice. The Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform is a System-on-Chip by Qualcomm which was announced in February 2016. A lot of popular entry-level smartphones that are launched in 2017 are powered by it. Some of these popular phones are Xiaomi Redmi 5A and 4A, Redmi Y1 Lite, LG K8 (2017), Moto E 4th Gen (US), Samsung Galaxy On5 G5510, and Vivo Y53. It is a 64-bit Quad-Core Processor capable of giving a smooth and lag-free experience on low-budget devices.

I believe that the processor of a budget-friendly smartphone plays a more important than the ones in the flagship. This is because the flagships are powered by powerful processors and the difference in their performance has only a minor impact on daily-life usage. Snapdragon 835, Apple A11 Bionic and the Exynos 8895 are all great chips. However, when we talk about a low-budget CPU, their performance can sometimes lead to lags and poor user experience. But the Snapdragon 425 is once such processor that delivers great performance without burning a hole in your pocket.

    Processor Specification

Name Snapdragon 425
Brand Qualcomm
Type Mobile SOC
CPU Bit Architecture 64-bit
No. of Cores 4 (Quad-Core)
Core Configuration 4x Cortex-A53 at 1.4 GHz
Manufacturing Process 28nm LP
GPU Adreno 308
Memory Type Single-Channel LPDDR3
Memory Frequency 667 MHz
Fast Charging Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0
Modem X6 LTE
DSP Hexagon 536
VoLTE Support Yes
Storage Type eMMC 5.1
Max Camera Megapixels 16MP
Video Playback Up to 1080p
Max. Display Resolution 1280×800

Qualcomm announced this processor in 2016 alongside the Snapdragon 625 and 435. And all three of these processors have been some of the most popular SOCs of 2017. It is a 64-bit Quad Core Processor. All four cores have the same configuration and that is ARM Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at a frequency of 1.4 GigaHertz. The CPU clock speed and cores are sufficient for performing basic tasks without any concern. It is fabricated using the 28nm LP Process which is not that great for power consumption but good enough for an entry-level CPU. Moving onto the Graphics, it has the Adreno 308 GPU that can run most of the games at 720p without any issues.

Snapdragon 425 devices have a Single-Channel LPDDR3 RAM and they can support Fast Charging with the help of Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0. However, for low-budget devices, it is highly unlikely that the phone manufacturers will provide fast charging support. It has the Qualcomm’s X6 LTE Modem that can give a maximum download speed of up to 150 Mbps. The Modem also supports VoLTE and has LTE Category 4. The Storage Type is eMMC 5.1. It uses a Dual ISP and the maximum camera it can use is of 16 MP.

    Snapdragon 425 Benchmark

We generally don’t see a very high benchmark score in low-budget devices and the same is the case with this one. The average Antutu Benchmark of Snapdragon 425 is around 30-35k points. However, I believe that benchmarks shouldn’t be the only criteria to understand which processor is more powerful. It is always possible for a device with the lower score to outperform the one that scores higher. Anyway, the benchmarks do give a fair idea of the raw CPU performance without considering the real-world situations.

Antutu Benchmark

Antutu Score of Snapdragon 425 Processor

This graph shows the Antutu score of Xiaomi Redmi 5A, Vivo Y53, and the Micromax Canvas Infinity. Xiaomi Redmi 5A scores 35,416 points on Antutu while the Vivo Y53 and Canvas Infinity obtain a score of 34,365 and 31,086 points respectively. This is a decent score for this budget and slightly better than similar processors like the MediaTek MT6737. On average you can expect a score around 30-35k from phones running on this SOC.

GeekBench 4 Score

GeekBench Score of Qualcomm Snapdragon 425

GeekBench 4 is another popular benchmarking tool and the above score belongs to Xiaomi Redmi 5A. On Single-Core, the score is 684 while it is slightly below 2K on Multi-Core performance. Once again in the benchmarks, the Redmi 5A seems to have a slight edge over phones that have processors like the MT6737.

    Real-World Performance Review

I’ve already mentioned my opinion of this processor based on the benchmarks and specification and now here’s a review on the basis of real-world performance. This section is the most critical one as it is going to discuss on what to expect from your smartphone with daily-usage. Apart from the SOC, there are many other factors that influence a device so make sure to check out every aspect before you purchase a device.

Pros
  • Best for Low-End Devices
  • Good for Gaming
Cons
  • Not Power Efficient
  • Not for Power Users

General Performance

Snapdragon 425 is a decent CPU for general smartphone usage. This includes Web Browsing, using Social Media Apps, Media playback, and Multitasking. As long as you have a device with at least 2GB RAM, you shouldn’t expect too many issues with multitasking. The touch responsiveness and speed in basic use will be fast enough but not as good as mid-range and high-end phones. This chipset is definitely not for heavy users who run tasks that demand heavy processing power. Cortex-A53 CPU at 1.4 GHz isn’t that powerful but sufficient to complete most of the tasks without any issues or lags.

Gaming Experience

As this chipset only supports a maximum resolution of 1280×800 pixels, it’s actually a good thing because the Adreno 308 GPU isn’t powerful enough to play games at 1080p. Nevertheless, it will easily run most of the games at 720p without any difficulty. In fact, if gaming is your priority and you have an extremely low budget, then you can blindly go for it. You can also check out the gaming review on YouTube by GeekyRanjit here. But for even better gaming performance and that too 1080p, I’ll recommend getting at least a Snapdragon 625 device.

Battery Efficiency

The battery efficiency or the power efficiency is decent but not too great. The 28nm LP manufacturing process is not that efficient but that’s the best you can expect from a low-budget device. The battery capacity of a particular device also plays an important role here. Once again, I’ll recommend the Snapdragon 625 (or an even better processor) if you’re a power user and need more efficiency.

Price-To-Performance Ratio

The starting price of some of the phones like Xiaomi Redmi 5A is even less than $100 and that’s one of the biggest advantages of this SOC. It is totally worth spending the money on. But there are also a lot of devices based on the same processor that cost a lot higher and I cannot say the same thing for those phones.

Ratings

Ratings
  • Performance
  • Gaming
  • Efficiency
  • Price-To-Performance
4

 

    Final Suggestion

I highly recommend this Processor if you’re buying an entry-level smartphone in 2017 or 2018. Snapdragon 425 is one of the best SOC Qualcomm has designed for low-end devices. Even though we cannot call its performance and power efficiency ‘awesome’, but that’s the best we can get for this price. For a slightly higher budget, you always have better choices like Snapdragon 435, 450, and 625. Do check out the comparison between SD 425 and 435 here.

Also, make sure that you check out the battery, camera performance, and other features before you buy a device. And make the right choice on the basis of your priorities. Not everyone uses their phones the same way and give priority to those features that are most important to you.

List of Snapdragon 425 Smartphones:

  • Xiaomi Redmi 4A
  • Xiaomi Redmi 5A
  • Motorola Moto E 4th Generation (US Variant Only)
  • Samsung Galaxy On5 G5510
  • Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Lite (Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A)
  • Vivo Y53
  • ZTE Blade A512
  • Asus ZenFone 4 Max ZC520KL
  • LG K8 (2017)
  • Micromax Canvas Infinity
  • BQ Aquaris U Lite
  • Huawei P9 Lite Mini
  • Vivo Y55s
  • Coolpad Cool Play 6C
  • Swipe Elite Sense



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