Samsung Galaxy S5 mini review: Big enough

Synthetic benchmarks

Processing is one of the key areas where the Galaxy S5 mini differs from the S5. Instead of the potent Snapdragon 801 chip with 2GB of RAM the Galaxy S5 mini has to make due with the Exynos 3 Quad 3470 chipset with 1.5GB of RAM, a quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A7 processor and the Mali-400MP4 GPU.

The chipset doesn't sound bad on paper and should be on par with the Snapdragon 400 found in many of the Galaxy S5 mini's competitors. It will be interesting to see how the graphics performance is between the Mali and Adreno GPUs.

Before we dive in we want to disclose that we tested the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini with the anti-cheat version of Basemark X and we can safely confirm the device didn't attempt cheating in any of the tests.

First off we're looking at CPU-intensive benchmarks. The Basemark OS II test will shine a light on single and multi-core performance. The overall score puts the Exynos 3 Quad below the Snapdragon 400 of the HTC One mini 2. Interestingly the breakdown between single and quad-core performance shows a better score for the Snapdragon cores.

GeekBench 3 is an all-round test and is cross-platform which allows us to see how the Galaxy S5 mini fares against the Apple iPhone 5s. The Galaxy S5 mini didn't really get off to a good start and wound up in last place, behind the LG G2 mini, the HTC One mini 2 and the Moto G.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• HTC One mini 2
  517
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  419

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  1353
• HTC One mini 2
  1304

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  5283
• HTC One mini 2
  5182

GeekBench 3

Higher is better is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  3214
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• Motorola Moto X
  2123
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  1937
• HTC One mini 2
  1526
• LG G2 mini
  1123
• Motorola Moto G
  1120
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  1123

Graphic tests show a good score for the Mali-400MP4 inside the Galaxy S5 mini. It scored well on both the offscreen and onscreen T-Rex tests - around the same as those from its direct rivals. Gaming graphics benchmark Basemark X showed a very good score, dumping the Adreno rivals in its dust.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  31.3
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• Sony Xperia Z1
  23
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• Motorola Moto X
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4
• LG G2 mini
  5.8
• HTC One mini 2
  5.8
• Motorola Moto G
  5.6

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  48.4
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• LG G2 mini
  14.9
• HTC One mini 2
  11
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  9.3

Basemark X

Higher is better is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  2665
• HTC One mini 2
  1650
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1066

The next tests show how the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini performs in JavaScript and HTML 5. In both tests the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini performs around the same level as its rivals.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  4911
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• HTC One mini 2
  15684
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  15885

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  1364
• HTC One mini 2
  945
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  861

The scores above show that the Exynos 3 Quad inside the Galaxy S5 mini is around the same level of performance as the Snapdragon 400 and that the Galaxy S5 mini was on par with the LG G2 mini, HTC One mini 2 and Moto G.

In real world usage the Galaxy S5 mini is nice and responsive. There are hints here and there that the device isn't on par with the Galaxy S5 flagship, but things were snappy to launch and we can't complain about the overall performance of the Galaxy S5 mini.