The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra will likely be the first major phone of 2022, but new benchmark scores might dampen early hype.
According to leaked Geekbench scores, as first reported by MySmartPrice, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which goes by model number SM-S908B, pulled in single-core and multi-core scores of 691 and 3,167 respectively.
On the bright side, those numbers came from a device running the Samsung Exynos 2200 processor. The U.S. version of the Galaxy S22 Ultra is likely to utilize the Snapdragon 898, which has fared better in early testing according to leaked benchmarks.
Current leaked Snapdragon 898 Geekbench scores show 1,211 and 3,193 for single-core and multi-core performance, respectively. Keep in mind, though, that Samsung's bespoke SoC (system-on-chip) is rumored to sport AMD graphics.
The scores above pale in comparison to the Apple A15 Bionic, found in the iPhone 13. When we tested the A15-powered iPhone 13 Pro Max, we recorded scores of 1,720 (single core) and 4,549 (multicore) on Geekbench 5. That's far ahead of whatever Samsung and Qualcomm are currently cooking up.
Either way, per the Geekbench leak, the S22 Ultra had 8GB of RAM, which is low for a top-end Samsung flagship. There's likely a higher RAM variant in the works, just as it's likely that any pre-release phone that shows up on Geekbench now will be more finely tuned for performance once it's time to launch the phone.
The Exynos 2200 chip itself allegedly has a prime core clock of 2.5GHz, and three performance cores clocked in at 2.52GHz. There are four efficiency cores as well, clocked in at 1.73GHz.
The Exynos 2200 will likely be in both the standard S22 and Plus variants as well, at least for global markets. However, Qualcomm says it expects to have its chips in half the Galaxy S phones Samsung releases in 2022 — which some people are taking as a sign that the Snapdragon 898 could appear in Galaxy S22 models outside the U.S.
All Galaxy S22 phones are expected to ship with Android 12 with Samsung's One UI 4.0 out of the box when they land — reportedly in February of 2022. Samsung has not officially confirmed the S22's existence, though it usually releases a new flagship phone in the first three months of a new year.
