If you’re looking to buy one of the best phones on the market then you’ll want to gather as much context as you can – in which case the latest benchmark head-to-head between Apple’s iPhone 16 and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE might be of interest.
According to tests run by GSMArena (via SamMobile), Samsung’s more affordable handset beats out the Apple phone in the Solar Bay graphics benchmark, which tests ray tracing – a more realistic way of rendering light and shadow in games.
Specifically, the test puts the Apple A18 chip inside the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus up against the Samsung Exynos 2400e, which is a tweaked version of the chip found in the Galaxy S24 and the Galaxy S24 Plus in certain regions.
Head to our iPhone 16 review and Galaxy S24 FE hands-on pages and you’ll see these phones are going to set you back from $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 and $649 / £649 / AU $1,099 respectively, with the same amount of storage, so there’s quite a price jump.
What these benchmarks mean
It’s important to emphasize that the A18 chip beats the Exynos 2400e in most of the general benchmarking tests run by GSMArena – and quite comprehensively. There’s no doubt that overall, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are the faster phones.
The Apple handsets also win out when it comes to the Wild Life Extreme benchmark, a more complete graphics test. So why does ray tracing matter? It suggests Apple still has some work to do on gaming performance – and that the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE might be more powerful in certain areas than you would expect, given its price tag and specs.
You do actually get hardware acceleration included on the Exynos 2400e, which is manufactured in partnership with AMD, despite the lower price. What’s more, when it comes to any kind of measurement in these benchmarks, the Galaxy S24 FE isn’t far behind the more powerful Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus options.
It’s a somewhat surprising result for the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE to beat the iPhone 16 in any department – even if it’s only in one benchmark – and suggests the Samsung handset might be worth adding to our best gaming phone list as a mid-range option.
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