Samsung Galaxy S6 Active review: The triathlete

Performance

Like the regular Samsung Galaxy S6, the Active variant packs the highly capable Exynos 7420 chipset. It's the first SoC to be built on a 14nm fabrication process (Snapdragon 810 is on 20nm), which should reduce power usage. That in turn reduces the dreaded thermal throttling that was a major issue in the Exynos vs. Snapdragon debate recently.

Exynos 7420 and Snapdragon 810 are not that different in terms of processor, both use a big.LITTLE setup with four Cortex-A57 cores at 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.5GHz. The GPU is a Mali-T760 from ARM and it shares 3GB of RAM with the processor.

The Galaxy S6 Active runs a 64-bit version of Android 5.0.2 and all eight of its cores are 64-bit capable. This is good for the future, but for now 32-bit apps run just fine - in fact, AnTuTu 5 offered both options. It returned equal scores in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes, matching the rest of the Galaxy S6 family, and crushing the Snapdragon opposition.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  70938
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  70053
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  69396
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  55195
• HTC One M9
  51427
• Huawei P8
  50876
• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803
• LG G4
  49295
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  47067

Basemark OS 2.0 paints a similar picture. Once again, Samsung Galaxy S6 Active keeps pace with its siblings.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  1826
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  1769
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  1650
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  1572
• HTC One M9
  1526
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1509
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  1345
• Huawei P8
  1056

Looking at just the CPU performance at GeekBench 3, we see a massive advantage in multicore performance. The Snapdragon 810 runs its CPU cores a little slower (0.1GHz), but that's far too little to account for the difference. Basemark OS 2.0 confirms both the single-core and multi-core difference.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  5246
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  5215
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  5095
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  3772
• HTC One M9
  3761
• LG G4
  3509
• Huawei P8
  3380
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  3080

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  3497
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  3489
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3372
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  2480
• HTC One M9
  2401
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  2351
• Huawei P8
  2111
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1967

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  18536
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  16986
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  16856
• Huawei P8
  14046
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  10146
• HTC One M9
  10128
• Motorola Nexus 6
  9915
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  8720

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active has a QHD screen - 1,440 x 2,560px. That's around 80% more pixels than a 1080p screen. Offscreen tests normalize resolution at 1080p so you can compare raw performance, while on-screen tests predict real-world gaming performance.

Basemark X considers only off-screen results and predictably gives the win to the Galaxy S6 Active.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  59
• HTC One M9
  49
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  46.5
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  45
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  40.9
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• LG G4
  34.5
• Huawei P8
  10

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One M9
  50
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  46.8
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  39
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  38
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  26.6
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  25
• LG G4
  24.7
• Huawei P8
  10.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  26
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  24
• HTC One M9
  23
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  20.7
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  18
• LG G4
  14.9
• Huawei P8
  5.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One M9
  24
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  20.5
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  14
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  11.4
• LG G4
  9.4
• Huawei P8
  5.7

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  27188
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  27169
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27046
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  23334
• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• HTC One M9
  19848
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  18971
• LG G4
  15090
• Huawei P8
  6307

For web browsing performance we used the Internet app (stock web browser), as Samsung sprinkles proprietary optimization magic that's not available in Chrome or the vanilla Android browser. Once again, Samsung Galaxy S6 Active proved worthy of its flagship pedigree.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  3975
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3989
• LG G4
  4085
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  4154
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  4745
• HTC One M9
  5500
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  5763
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Huawei P8
  11867

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  2718
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  2702
• Sony Xperia Z3+
  2337
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active
  2321
• LG G4
  1990
• HTC One M9
  1681
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  1487
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1447
• Huawei P8
  764

There is no other way to cut it - Samsung Galaxy S6 Active is one of the most powerful smartphones you can buy at the moment. Like the regular Galaxy S6, the newcomer laughs at just about every benchmark test out there.