Except for Apple, other mobile phone brands do not necessarily use only one processor. For example, Samsung has its own Orion processor, but many models will still be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Huawei also has its own Kirin processors, but this year there are also many models using MediaTek processors. Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo mainly use Qualcomm and MediaTek processors. As for which processor is better, it cannot be generalized and needs to be discussed based on the actual situation. Apple A Processor The most powerful processor currently recognized is Apple's A series. Its performance is generally half a generation ahead of Qualcomm and one generation ahead of Kirin. This is mainly because Apple's A-series processors generally do not use too many cores, and the single-core performance is very powerful, while the iOS system is mainly single-threaded. Therefore, A-series processors can exert strong capabilities when paired with iOS.
But Apple’s A-series processors are not without their shortcomings. For example, in order to accommodate more transistors, they gave up the integrated baseband chip. Therefore, the iPhone's processor uses an external baseband, which consumes high power and easily generates heat during game play. If the heat is not dissipated in time, the temperature will cause the processor to slow down and the system will become laggy. Therefore, the gaming experience of the two generations of iPhone X and iPhone XS is not as good as that of Qualcomm processor phones of the same period. In addition, Apple basically has no ability to develop baseband chips and can only rely on basebands from Intel and Qualcomm. This also results in the average network signal quality of Apple mobile phones and the Internet experience is not as good as Qualcomm and Kirin processors. Moreover, Apple is also the latest among mainstream mobile phone manufacturers to enter the 5G era. The iPhone 12 that supports 5G functionality will not be released until September 16, 2020. Huawei's Kirin processor Huawei's Kirin processor is not as good as Qualcomm and Apple in the same period in terms of performance, mainly because Kirin uses the public version of the ARM architecture. Although the performance of the CPU and NPU is strong, the performance of the GPU is weak. Therefore, Kirin is not as good as Qualcomm Snapdragon in the same period in terms of gaming and running scores, but the gap in daily use is not big.
The main advantage of Huawei Kirin is also its network function. For example, Kirin 990 5G inherits the 5G baseband chip, while Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 in the same period is still a plug-in baseband. Therefore, the overall power consumption of Kirin 990 5G is lower, and mobile phones equipped with it do not require a large battery to ensure daily battery life. Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile phones basically have large batteries of more than 4500mAh, which also leads to the common problem of thicker and heavier Qualcomm 5G mobile phones. Qualcomm Snapdragon processor The advantage of Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is that its architecture is often ahead of Huawei Kirin in the same period, and its GPU performance is even better. In addition, mainstream mobile games will be optimized specifically for Qualcomm processors, so the mobile gaming experience with Qualcomm processors will be better.
The shortcomings of Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 have been mentioned earlier, that is, it uses an external baseband, which consumes a lot of power, generates a lot of heat when playing games, and has insufficient battery life. In addition, Qualcomm’s 5G function needs to be compatible with American millimeter wave technology, but my country’s 5G does not use millimeter wave. Therefore, Qualcomm's 5G network wastes some performance and is not as practical as Huawei 5G. MediaTek processors MediaTek processors are characterized by basically sufficient performance and relatively cheap prices. For example, this year's Dimensity 1000 Plus is basically on par with the Huawei Kirin 990 5G in terms of hardware parameters, and the price of mobile phones equipped with this processor is generally around 2,500 yuan, which is much cheaper than the Huawei Kirin 990 5G mobile phone. However, there will be problems with MediaTek processors that are not fully optimized. After all, major mobile phone manufacturers have always relied on Qualcomm processors. The cooperation between the system and MediaTek processors is not perfect, and there are problems with high power consumption and high heat generation. Moreover, MediaTek’s most powerful Dimensity 1000 Plus still only supports UFS2.1 and LPDDR4X memory combinations, but does not support UFS3.0 and LPDDR5, so there is a performance ceiling. In general, different brands of processors have their own characteristics. If you are an Apple mobile phone user, you can only use the A-series processor and have no other choice.
Huawei users mainly use Kirin processors. Although Huawei also uses MediaTek, most of them are mid- to low-end models. OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi have both Qualcomm and MediaTek processors, but MediaTek processor models are relatively cheaper. Which one to buy mainly depends on the purchase budget.