Galaxy Z Flip 7 Battery Test Shows Exynos is Catching Up

Exynos has made significant progress in recent years, and PhoneBuff’s latest battery test shows just how much. The Galaxy Z Flip 7, which runs on the Exynos 2500, almost matched the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered S25 Ultra. That’s despite a sizeable difference in battery capacity. Quite clearly, Samsung’s efforts are paying off, aided by Google’s software optimizations.

The “new” Exynos isn’t that far behind Snapdragon

Discovered by Wvisionvreator on X. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 (4,300mAh) was only 41 minutes behind the S25 Ultra (5,000mAh) in PhoneBuff’s battery test. It achieved over 11 hours of active time and 27 hours of total runtime. During my testing, I achieved over 7 hours of usage, with continuous cellular service throughout the day. This shows how much Samsung has improved the efficiency of its Exynos chips.

PhoneBuff’s Battery Test Results

If you recall, Samsung didn’t launch a flagship Exynos processor in 2023. The company’s in-house chips had too many issues, so it went back to the drawing board and came up with a much-improved Exynos 2400 last year, shipping it with the Galaxy S24 and S24+ in some markets. It marked the beginning of Exynos’ resurgence, with the 3nm Exynos W1000 wearable chip demonstrating Samsung’s commitment to expanding the Exynos ecosystem.

With the Exynos 2500, Samsung has taken another important step in the right direction. While it may not match the raw power of the best Snapdragons, the company has clearly improved the efficiency of its chips. The latest Exynos will provide Samsung with valuable insights for further optimizations down the line.

Core changes to Android 15 have contributed to Samsung’s success

Starting with Android 15, Vulkan is now the preferred API system-side. This is significant because Vulkan delivers performance comparable to, or better than, the older OpenGL API while being more efficient. With the new API implemented system-wide on One UI 7, numerous Galaxy users on Reddit have reported notable performance improvements on their devices, dating back to the Galaxy S21 series.

Is Snapdragon in danger?

Around the 7:50 mark in PhoneBuff’s battery test, he notes that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 lasted 33 minutes longer than the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Several factors potentially contribute to this, including the larger display and the absence of a vapor chamber, which may lead to heat impacting battery performance. However, with Android 16 and One UI 8 optimizations, I expected the Fold 7 to do better.

While Snapdragon may not be in danger just yet, Qualcomm is going to face a strong competitor in the near future and potentially lose its biggest customer (Samsung). There are already rumors of the Galaxy S26 Pro and S26 Edge running on the Exynos 2600 in some markets. If anything, it signals Samsung’s growing confidence in Exynos. Slowly, its users are steadily embracing this shift. The notion that Exynos is weaker than Snapdragon doesn’t mean Exynos is a poor chip, and Samsung is determined to prove it.