U.S. buyers of the 5G Galaxy S21+ could end up happier than buyers in most other countries

Just a couple of days ago, a tweet from tipster Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) suggested that Samsung’s 5nm Exynos 2100 chip will outperform the first 5nm Snapdragon chip, the 875. Both are expected to be powering flagship phones early next year. This would be the opposite of what happened this year when the Snapdragon 865 outperformed the Exynos 990. That is why Samsung broke with tradition by featuring the Snapdragon 865 on all Galaxy S20 models except for those in Europe. Typically, Samsung would use its chipset on all Galaxy S models except those in the states and in China. Samsung’s Exynos team in South Korea was said to be “humiliated” by the decision this year to use U.S. designed chips with the units sold in South Korea.

Back in September, SamMobile found a Geekbench benchmark test for a Samsung device with the model number SM-G996B powered by the Exynos 2100 SoC. That means that there is a good possibility that the phone being tested was the Galaxy S21+ model. The “B” at the end of the model number seems to indicate that this is the European variant of the flagship powered by the Exynos 2100. If true, it means that Samsung is apparently returning to the traditional use of its own chips for the vast majority of Galaxy S handsets being released.

The European Galaxy S21+ powered by the Exynos chip scored 1038 in the single-core test and 3060 for multi-core. Another Geekbench benchmark test dated yesterday was discovered by SamMobile and the model number, SM-G996U, indicates that the unit tested is a U.S. version of the Galaxy S21+. Thus, we are not surprised to see it powered by the Snapdragon 875 chipset (which does have its codename Lahaina included in the Geekbench test). Qualcomm’s chip, contradicting Ice Universe’s tweet, outscored the Exynos 2100 by tallying 1120 and 3319 for single-core and multi-core results respectively.

Of course, the Exynos benchmark test is almost two months old and Sammy could have made some changes since then that would change the results. We should also point out that the more recent test revealed that the Galaxy S21+ will have 8GB of memory although other configurations with more memory will no doubt be available.

Reuters has said that the new Galaxy S21 phones will be released “as early as late January.” Tipster Jon Prosser sees a January 14th unveiling with pre-orders starting the same day; Prosser expects the new flagships to be released on January 29th.