2020 is the year of the Midrange segment. No two SoCs typify this more than the Snapdragon 720G vs Helio P95.

Qualcomm and MediaTek are cutthroat competitors in the midrange market. When the Helio G90T was released to great fanfare in 2019, Snapdragon soon replied with the SD720G in Jan 2020 which became an instant hit. Mediatek fired back the next month with the Helio P95.

The SD720G can be found on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S and 9Pro while the Helio P95 powers the all-new Oppo A93. Intending buyers may be wondering, which phone is the better phone in terms of performance, gaming, heating, app switching/multitasking, battery conservation, network and connectivity, etc. A lot of the aforementioned are dependent on the SoCs used. So without wasting further time, let’s look at SD720G vs Helio P95.

Snapdragon 720G vs Helio P95

Microarchitecture

The SD720G is an octa-core SoC with a 2+6 big.LITTLE arrangement of 2 Kryo 465 Gold (A76) cores running at 2.3GHz and 6 Kryo 465 Silver (A55) cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The Helio P95 is also an octa-core SoC with the same 2+6 big.LITTLE of 2 cortex A75 (2.2GHz) and 6 cortex A55 (2.0GHz).

The SD720G has better “big” cores and would handle heavy tasks and apps better. The P95 on the other hand may seem faster because it has faster “small” cores for normal light tasks such as watching movies etc.

*Point goes to the SD720G.

Instruction Set Architecture

They are both built on the ARMv8.2-A ISA

*so this is a tie.

Size

The transistors on the SD720G are 8nm while those on the Helio P95 are 12nm.

*This means that the SD720G will be cooler, heat less, be more efficient, and conserve battery better than the Helio P95.

Read: Introduction to Smartphone SoCs 2 (CPU cores)

GPU

The SD720G comes with the Adreno 618 GPU which is much better than the PowerVR GM9446 on the Helio P95.

*The Adreno 618 together with the CPU cores on the SD720G will handle games better and faster than the Helio P95.

RAM

Both the SD720G and the Helio P95 come with LPDDR4X RAM modules but the SD720G has the faster RAM which is clocked at 2133MHz as compared to the 1866MHz on the P95.

*This means that multitasking and app switching as well as loading times will be faster on the SD720G.

Read: How to read smartphone processor specs

Storage

The SD720G and the P95 both use the UFS 2.1 storage option. In addition, the P95 supports eMMC 5.1.

*So point goes to the P95 for having more storage options.

ISP

SD720G comes with Spectra 350L on board as well as Hexagon DSP 692 for AI and machine learning. Mediatek on the other hand did not name their ISP but they did say that there is APU 2.0 on board. APU stands for AI Processing Unit.

This means that SD720G supports maximum camera resolutions of up to 192MP. The P95 on the other hand maxes out at 64MP. They both record 4K video at 30fps but while SD720G can play 4K video back at 30fps, the P95 can do it at 60fps.

*SD720G may not be able to playback 4K video at 30fps but it has the better ISP so it takes this point.

Maximum Display Resolution

Both can display video at a resolution of 2520 x 1080p.

*It is a tie here.

Modem and connectivity

The SD720G has onboard an X15 modem which has uplink speeds of 150Mbps and downlink speeds of 800Mbps. The P95 has a generic cat.12 modem with uplink speeds of 150Mbps and downlink speeds of 600Mbps.

Both SoCs have WiFi 5 but the SD720G steps ahead with Bluetooth 5.1 while the P95 uses version 5.0.

Benchmarks

On GeekBench, the SD720G has scores of 574 (single-core) and 1719 (multi-core). The P95 stays behind with scores of 399 (single core) and 1507 (multi-core).

With the addition of GPU test scores on Antutu, the gap between both SoCS is widened further to 281040 (SD720G) and 211053 (P95).

*SD720G is the clear winner in terms of performance.

Age

Both SoCs were released this year with the SD720G being announced in January and the P95 showing up in February.

Final say

SD720G is better. No contest.

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