Depending on where you live, you've got access to one of two variants of the Galaxy S9/S9+ – one that's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 processor and another that uses Samsung's own Exynos 9810 chipset. Reports came out earlier this month highlighting the Exynos version's considerably worse battery performance compared to the Snapdragon one, and since then, users have been demanding answers from the company.
A little less than two weeks since a light was shed on the matter, a Samsung spokesperson commented on it, saying –
The Galaxy S9 is a reimagined smartphone designed to provide the best experience possible. Battery discharge time is dependent upon each user's specific installed apps and settings, as well as other environmental factors. Both processors go through strict and rigorous testing considering real life usage scenarios, in order to provide the same top-of-the-line experience regardless of processor. Samsung is committed to delivering consistent battery performance over the lifecycle of the phone to provide users with an optimal experience.
In other words, Samsung's saying that the Exynos Galaxy S9 is fine and that the shorter battery life is a non-issue.
Daniel recently wrote a great explainer highlighting why the Exynos chip is delivering consistently poor longevity, and it essentially boils down to the 9810 being incredibly fast but up to 50% less power efficient when compared to other mobile processors.
As noted in that piece:
The reason for Samsung's poor showing isn't because the Exynos 9810 is a bad chip, or even that it's inherently power-hungry; it appears that Samsung merely programmed the core scheduler poorly, resulting in clock speeds and voltage settings that aren't appropriate for the task at hand.
With all that said, it doesn't sound like Samsung's rushing to come up with a fix for the Exynos variant of its latest phone. People who live in regions where that's the version sold are simply out of luck this time around, and those with the Snapdragon model can gloat about their longer endurance.
If you have an Exynos Galaxy S9/S9+, what do you think about Samsung's stance here?
