The Galaxy S20 Ultra has yet to surpass Apple's latest iPhone in performance. However, the gap between the Android phone hero and Apple's pace-setting flagship is narrower than it was before Samsung's latest model. [The Galaxy S20 Ultra, along with the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20 Plus, is expected to arrive in stores on March 6 and is available for pre-order now.

Like the other members of the S20 family, the Galaxy S20 Ultra runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 system-on-chip. The Kryo 585 CPU in this new chipset promises 25% better performance and 25% more power efficiency than last year's Snapdragon 855. Qualcomm claims that the Adreno 650 GPU in the Snapdragon 865 will improve graphics rendering by 25% over the previous generation.

Along with the faster processor, the Galaxy S20 Ultra also has 12 GB of RAM. Last year's Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus had 8GB on the base model (although you can also purchase the S10 Plus with 12GB of memory).

According to our tests, the Snapdragon 865-powered Galaxy S20 Ultra is the best performing Android phone ever, beating last year's pace-setting device in most benchmarks. And while the A13 processor Apple is using in its iPhone 11 lineup is still putting up better numbers, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is at least on the same level. (Previously, Android phones have been lucky to be in the parking lot outside the ballpark.)

Let's take a closer look at the Galaxy S20 Ultra's benchmarks.

Geekbench 5 is a good indicator of a phone's overall performance, and the Galaxy s20 Ultra scored outstanding numbers in this test. Samsung's new phone recorded a single-core score of 805 and a multi-core result of 3,076.7. Compared to the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, which is powered by a Snapdragon 855 processor comparable to the S20 Ultra's 12GB of RAM, Samsung's old phone's single core score was 736 and the multi-core result was 2,691. This means that the Galaxy S20 Ultra improved these numbers by 9% and 14%, respectively.

The performance gains are even greater when comparing the Galaxy S20 Ultra to phones with less memory: the Pixel 4 XL has a relatively modest 6GB of RAM, along with a Snapdragon 855 chipset. The Google smartphone's multi-core score was 2,582, so the Galaxy S20 Ultra outperformed that result by 19%.

What the Galaxy S20 Ultra can't do is match the numbers put up by Apple's A13 Bionic processor-based phones. running Geekbench 5 on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the Apple phone outperformed the Galaxy S20 The iPhone 11 Pro Max's multi-core score of 3,517 is nearly 13% higher than the Galaxy S20 Ultra's figure.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra's numbers fell short of the high scores obtained when we tested a reference device powered by the Snapdragon 865 in December. That device was within 2% of the iPhone's Geekbench 5 score. We imagine that Samsung has made some tweaks to the chipset so that it can deliver solid performance while keeping the 6.9-inch handset powered.

But the story here is how much better the Galaxy S20 Ultra is than the iPhone compared to last year's top Android phones. The OnePlus 7T, for example, produced the best multi-core result of any Android device we've seen in 2019 at 2,759, but the iPhone 11 Pro Max still outperformed it by 27%. the Galaxy S20 shortens this lag considerably.

We saw more evidence of the gains made by Samsung in our preferred real-world test using Adobe Rush. This test measures the time it takes to transcode 4K video to 1080p after applying effects and transitions.

Apple's phones have historically smoked all opponents in this test, with the iPhone 11 Pro Max completing the task in just 45 seconds; the Galaxy S20 Ultra did so in 1 minute 16 seconds; and the Pixel 4 did so in 1 minute 31 seconds.

Still, it's a solid result for the Galaxy S20 Ultra, considering the track record of the major Android phones in our test: the Pixel 4 took 1 minute 31 seconds to transcode its video clip, and the Note 10's time was 3 seconds slower. In other words, the new processor and additional RAM in the Galaxy S20 Ultra shaved 15 to 18 seconds off the time of last year's flagship Android device.

As with other benchmarks, the Galaxy S20 Ultra showed a decent increase over last year's top Android phones, but the iPhone is still leading the pack. in GFXBench's Aztec Ruins Vulcan test (off-screen), the S 20 Ultra produced 1,319 frames, or nearly 21 frames per second. iPhone 11 Pro Max was far ahead at 1,657 frames, or 25 fps.

But let's compare the Galaxy S20 Ultra's numbers to those of other Android flagships, though the OnePlus 7T and Galaxy Z Flip both use the graphics-enhancing Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, Their respective scores of 1,169 and 1,124 frames lag behind the S20 Ultra's results. The Note 10 Plus also lags behind in this area with 1,058 frames at 15 fps.

One would expect a new flagship smartphone to outperform last year's model quite handily, and in that respect, the Galaxy S20 does just that. And while Samsung's phone is comparable to the top iPhone models, some might have expected the $1,399 price tag to close the performance gap even further--especially with the A14 chipset that will likely be included in this fall's iPhone 12 models, which will set a new standard From.

Still, the improvement achieved by the Galaxy S20 Ultra in some real-world tests is encouraging. And given the major camera improvements Samsung has introduced to the S20 Ultra, performance is only part of the picture to justify the phone's four-figure cost.