Galaxy S4 benchmarks almost twice as fast as the iPhone 5

galaxy s4 iphone 5

As most of you know already, Samsung unveiled its highly anticipated Galaxy S III successor last week, the S4. The handset will sell head-to-head against the iPhone 5 until Apple releases its next-gen smartphone, which is expected sometimes this summer.

While the jury is still out on which handset provides the best user experience — easy-of-use, reliability, etc — the S4 is certainly looking better on paper. It has a sharper screen, a bigger battery, and according to new benchmarks, a much, much fast processor…

Primate Labs, the firm behind the Geekbench ranking system, has analyzed Geekbench 2 scores for the Galaxy S4 (via MacRumors), comparing it to a number of other smartphones including the HTC One, LG Nexus 4, BlackBerry Z10 and yes, the iPhone 5.

benchmark s4, htc one, iphone 5

Notice that the processor in the tested Galaxy S4 is of the Snapdragon quad core variety. This is actually the less-powerful chip of the two that will be shipping with the handset, as some countries will be getting an S4 with Samsung’s 8-core Exynos processor.

That being said, higher processor speed doesn’t always equal a better user experience or faster performance. Apple’s vertical integration of hardware and software, for example, allows it to squeeze more power out of its processors, with much greater efficiency.

It’ll be interesting to see how the two handsets — the S4 and the iPhone 5 — compare to each other in real world use. But unfortunately, we probably won’t see those tests for a while. Samsung says the new Galaxy phone won’t start shipping until the end of April.