Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) review: A-lister

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) is powered by Snapdragon 652 chipset - our first encounter with Qualcomm's star mid-range powerhouse. There should be an Exynos-powered A9 in some regions too, but our test unit is based on the S652.

So, what makes this chipset so special? It uses Cortex-A72 cores (four of them), this is the successor to the A57. They are paired with four A53 cores for power efficiency. That's better than the S810 and Exynos 7420 (which had 4x A57 + 4x A53) and a match for the Kirin 950 in the Huawei Mate 8.

What stops the S652 from being a flagship chipset is the old manufacturing process - 28nm (S8xx are built at 20nm, the S820 on 14nm). This limits the clocks speeds to 0.5GHz less than the Kirin chipset.

We should note that our experience with new 600-series Snapdragons (even the S615) is that they don't heat up much, compared to the S810, despite the difference in nanometers.

Anyway, the new chipset also brings Adreno 510, the next-gen GPU from Qualcomm, which promises up to 40% speed improvements and up to 40% power reduction. It also supports Vulkan, the new low-level API based on AMD Mantle.

Let's start with general performance. AnTuTu 6 shows a close to double improvement over the Galaxy A7 (2016) and almost matching the Exynos 7420 in the Meizu Pro 5 (but not in the Galaxy Note5). Basemark OS II 2.0 thinks the Exynos is further ahead, but it pushes the S808-powered LG V10 below the A9.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  91609
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  89345
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  81615
• LG V10
  67547
• Meizu Pro 5
  67531
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  64591
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  35134

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2040
• Huawei Mate 8
  2017
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  1880
• Meizu Pro 5
  1837
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1529
• LG V10
  1383
• Oppo R7 Plus
  968
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  931

CPU performance actually trumps the S810-based Nexus 6P on multi-threaded workloads. The low(ish) clock speed keeps the Cortex-A72 from shining in single-core tests, but it did beat the LG V10's A57 core.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  6323
• Meizu Pro 5
  5578
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  5124
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  4759
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4539
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  4226
• LG V10
  3607
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3204
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  3039

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  7332
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  6745
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  6014
• Meizu Pro 5
  5760
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  4455
• LG V10
  4261
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2872
• Oppo R7 Plus
  2707

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  41897
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  28360
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  22334
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  21809
• Meizu Pro 5
  21416
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17661
• LG V10
  17127
• Oppo R7 Plus
  16784

GPU performance is double - or more! - what the Galaxy A7 (2016) puts out. The Adreno 510 looms close to the Adreno 418 used in the LG V10. Even the Huawei Mate 8, a CPU benchmark star released in November, struggled to open up a lead.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  25
• Meizu Pro 5
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  21
• Huawei Mate 8
  18
• LG V10
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  13
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  6
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  5.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Meizu Pro 5
  25
• Huawei Mate 8
  18
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  13
• LG V10
  9.5
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  6.4
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6.3
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  5.7

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Meizu Pro 5
  14
• Huawei Mate 8
  10
• LG V10
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.3
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2.9

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Meizu Pro 5
  14
• Huawei Mate 8
  11
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  6.7
• LG V10
  5.7
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  3.1

Only the most powerful GPUs of the previous generation top the Galaxy A9 (2016) GPU, which offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  26281
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  22825
• Meizu Pro 5
  20038
• Huawei Mate 8
  15593
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  15290
• LG V10
  15161
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  5695
• Oppo R7 Plus
  5349
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  5210

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  504
• Meizu Pro 5
  409
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  316
• Huawei Mate 8
  311
• LG V10
  297
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  253

We had some reservations about the S615 chipset used in other Galaxy A series - they did okay on CPU and general tests, but 3D games had to sacrifice either frame rate or graphics quality (or both).

The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016), however, holds its own against flagships not even 6 months old (without getting hot under the collar either). Now we wish Samsung used the Snapdragon 652 chipset throughout the A (2016) line.