There are two SoCs now in the Android budget space that have found their way into a lot of phones. These are Snapdragon 439 vs Mediatek Helio G35. Xiaomi currently uses the Snapdragon 439 (SD439) for the Redmi 7A, Redmi 8 and Redmi 8A. Xiaomi also uses the G35 for its successor, the Redmi 9C.
I have seen a lot of people who are torn between buying the Redmi 8 and the Redmi 9C. So this post should help you decide which one to get if you are one of such persons.
Snapdragon 439 vs MediaTek Helio G35 Specs
| Specs | Snapdragon 439 | Helio G35 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU cores |
|
|
| GPU | Adreno 505 | PowerVR GE8320 |
| Process | 12nm Samsung | 12nm TSMC |
| ISA | ARMv8 | ARMv8 |
| Bench |
|
|
| RAM | LPDDR3 (800MHz) | LPDDR4x (1600MHz) |
| Storage | eMMC 5.1 | eMMC 5.1 |
| ISP | – | – |
| NPU | Hexagon 536 | – |
| Camera | 21MP | 25MP |
| Video | 1K@30fps | 1K@30FPS |
| Display | 1920 x 1200p | 2400 x 1080p |
| Network |
|
|
| Bluetooth | 5 | 5 |
| WiFi | 5 | 5 |
Microarchitecture
The SD 439 is built using 8 A53 cores arranged in a 4+4 big.LITTLE setup with an Adreno 505 GPU. The big cores are clocked at 2GHz and the small cores at 1.45GHz.
The Helio G35 has 8 A53 cores all clocked at 2.3GHz with a PowerVR GE8320 GPU.
Based on what you’re seeing, you’d expect the Helio G35 to outperform the Snapdragon 439 and you’d be wrong. Both SoCs actually perform at the same level with the Snapdragon 439 actually doing slightly better despite having the weaker specs. This is due to the better optimization that it enjoys.
Read: SNAPDRAGON 665 vs HELIO G70
Instruction Set Architecture
The SD439 is built on the now-dated ARMv8-A while the G35 is designed on the current ARMv8.2-A.
*The G35 is miles ahead here.
Size
Both the SD439 and the G35 are built on the same 12nm die size. This means that they should both have the same level of efficiency and battery consumption, although the G35 could consume more battery.
GPU
The SD439 comes with the Adreno 505 which runs at 450MHz while the G35 ships with the PowerVR GE8320 which runs at 680MHz. On paper, the Adreno 505 is better but the G35 according to Mediatek, has the Hyper Engine.
This engine should help boost game performance and improve network connectivity with games while reducing latency. The Helio G35 has better CPU cores. The SD439 on the other hand enjoys a lot of optimization from developers.
RAM
The SD439 uses LPDDR3 which runs at 800MHz. The G35 on the other hand comes fitted with the more powerful LPDDR4x which runs at a blazing 1600MHz.
*The G35 would handle multitasking, app switching, etc. much better than the SD439.
Read: Top 100 Smartphone GPU Rankings
Storage
Both SoCs use eMMC 5.1
*So that is a tie.
ISP
The SD439 uses an unknown Spectra ISP with Hexagon 536 for machine learning. The SD439 can handle camera resolutions of 21MP while the G35 can do slightly better at 25MP. Both SoCs can record videos of 1K at 30fps and play them back at 1080p (60fps). The maximum display resolution that SD439 can support is 1920 x 1200, while the G35 supports 2400 x 1080p.
*It is a close one, but the point goes to the G35.
Connectivity
The SD439 uses the Snapdragon X6 which is a cat. 5 modem with uplink speeds of 75Mbps and downlink speeds of 150Mbps. The G35 on the other hand has a generic cat. 7 modems with uplink speeds of 150Mbps and downlink speeds of 300Mbps. They both use Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 5.0.
*The G35 takes this one.
Benchmarks
On GeekBench, the SD439 has scores of 199 (Single core) and 795 (Multicore). The G35 has a score of 189 (Single-core) and 810 (Multi-core). On Antutu, the Snapdragon 439 with a score of 150,067 has a very slight lead over the Helio G35 (144,387).
Date
The SD439 was announced in June 2018 (2 years and 5 months) while the G35 was only released in June of 2020.
Final Say
This one is a very tight one and whichever one you want will be highly dependent on you.
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[…] with at least 4 A53 CPU cores clocked at 2.0GHz and a decent GPU. Examples include Helio P22, G25, G35, SD 439, Unisoc T606 and SC9863A. There’s also the Exynos 850 amongst […]