Snapdragon 8150 benchmark suggests 2019 Androids could outpower iPhone XS

Most of 2019's Android flagships are likely to use a new top-end chipset from Qualcomm, and based on an early benchmark it could be more powerful than any existing mobile chipset.

While we were expecting Qualcomm's next flagship chip to be called the Snapdragon 855 (up from the Snapdragon 845 in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and other handsets), this leak lists it as the Snapdragon 8150, adding credence to earlier reports from WinFuture that the naming scheme might be changed.

More importantly, the benchmark – which was taken from AnTuTu and shared on Weibo (a Chinese social network) – reveals a score of 362,292, which is far higher than any other Android chipset result.

On AnTuTu's site the top Android phone is the Kirin 980-powered Huawei Mate 20 Pro, with a score of 309,628. The Snapdragon 845 version of the Galaxy Note 9 meanwhile scores 283,248.

This is one very high score. Credit: Weibo / Fertilizer

This is one very high score. Credit: Weibo / Fertilizer

Simply the best

The iPhone XS with its A12 Bionic chipset comes closer, but still falls slightly behind with a score of 352,405, which is the highest score of any device currently shown in AnTuTu's rankings.

The Snapdragon 8150's GPU score of 156,328 is also around 20% higher than the Snapdragon 845's GPU score, all of which means this could be the best-performing smartphone chipset of 2019, at least until Apple's next one launches.

The Weibo source also says that the Snapdragon 8150 has an unusual core configuration, with one high performance core, three medium cores and four energy-efficient ones. That's both different to the configuration of most smartphone chipsets and – as GSMArena notes – different to earlier leaks about the chipset.

As such we'd definitely take this entire leak with a pinch of salt, especially as the AnTuTu listing is just a screenshot that could easily have been faked. But we're expecting Qualcomm to announce its new chipset soon, so it wouldn't be surprising if benchmarks were starting to appear.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.