Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs M1 (iPad)

We compared two 8-core processors: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (with Adreno 740 graphics) and Apple M1 (iPad) (). Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

Review

General comparison of performance, power consumption, and other indicators
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score

Key Differences

Main differences and advantages of each chip
Pros of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
  • Has a smaller size transistor (4 versus 5 nm)
  • Better instruction set architecture
Pros of Apple M1 (iPad)
  • Higher GPU frequency (~88%)
  • Performs 25% better in floating-point computations
  • Shows better (up to 15%) AnTuTu 11 score – 2027K vs 1757K

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
M1 (iPad) +15%
2027700
CPU 553922 629472
GPU 434880 687856
Memory 311861 214672
UX 456381 495700
Total score 1757044 2027700
Samples [238 tests] [9 tests]
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +19%
2385
Multi-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +65%
8775
Asset compression 218.9 MB/sec 331.8 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 145.2 pages/sec 174.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 168.3 Mpixels/sec 223.3 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 133 images/sec 192.9 images/sec
HDR 167.2 Mpixels/sec 290 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 18.8 images/sec 34.7 images/sec
Photo processing 34.5 images/sec 72.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 5.78 Mpixels/sec 9.72 Mpixels/sec
Samples 132 tests 5 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M1 (iPad) +258%
33168
Background blur 12.3 images/sec 59.4 images/sec
Face detection 5.1 images/sec 71.1 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.53 Gpixels/sec 1.09 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.56 Gpixels/sec 1.52 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.36 Gpixels/sec 1.6 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.12 Gpixels/sec 0.42 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 32.6 Gpixels/sec 107 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 2177.4 FPS 3208.4 FPS
API OpenCL Metal
Samples 66 tests Less than 3
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
M1 (iPad) +80%
1965
Score 1092 1965
Stability 67% 77%
Graphics test 8 FPS 15 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
M1 (iPad) +21%
6406
Score 5312 6406
Stability 67% 83%
Graphics test 20 FPS 24 FPS
Section 1 23 FPS 30 FPS
Section 2 20 FPS 24 FPS
Section 3 17 FPS 19 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
M1 (iPad) +38%
5045
Score 3667 5045
Stability 45% 76%
Graphics test 21 FPS 30 FPS

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
PCMark 3.0
Web score 13957 -
Video editing score 7265 -
Data manipulation score 14272 -
Photo editing score 32179 -
Writing score 17828 -
Phones tested 9 models -

Gaming

Table of average FPS and graphics settings in mobile games
PUBG Mobile 90 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Call of Duty: Mobile 60 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Fortnite 56 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Shadowgun Legends 118 FPS
[Ultra]
-
World of Tanks Blitz 120 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Genshin Impact 59 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang 59 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Device ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
1116 x 2480
-
We provide average results. FPS may differ, depending on game version, OS and other factors.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Ciciz)AnTuTu 122032599
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Ciciz)AnTuTu 122032599
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Horizon377)AnTuTu 121894819
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-22 (DiKevoLi'Phone)AnTuTu 121844320
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-21 (Mil)AnTuTu 121763249
Apple M1 (iPad)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-04 (クラ硢)AnTuTu 112074840
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-18 (Avacada)Geekbench 6 CPU2385 / 8775
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-08 (AL10)AnTuTu 112123766
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-29 (Blizz)AnTuTu 112011970

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and M1 (iPad)

CPU

Architecture 1x 3.2 GHz – Cortex-X3
2x 2.8 GHz – Cortex-A715
2x 2.8 GHz – Cortex-A710
3x 2 GHz – Cortex-A510
4x 3.2 GHz – Firestorm
4x 2.1 GHz – Icestorm
Cores 8 8
Frequency 3200 MHz 3200 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9-A ARMv8.5-A
L1 cache - 192 KB
L2 cache 1 MB 12 MB
L3 cache 8 MB -
Process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Transistor count 16 billion 16 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 8.5 W 14 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 740 -
Architecture Adreno 700 -
GPU frequency 680 MHz 1278 MHz
Pipelines 3 -
Shading units 512 -
Total shaders 1536 -
FLOPS 2089 Gigaflops 2617 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.3 -
OpenCL version 2.0 -
DirectX version 12.1 -

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance - 11 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory frequency 4200 MHz 2133 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 8x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 67.2 Gb/s 68.25 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 16 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type UFS 3.1, UFS 4.0 NVMe
Max display resolution 3840 x 2160 2732 x 2048
Max camera resolution 1x 200MP -
Video capture 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP8
- VP9
- H.264
- H.265
- VP9
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem Snapdragon X70 -
4G support LTE Cat. 24 LTE Cat. 18
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 10000 Mbps Up to 7500 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 3500 Mbps Up to 2500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 7 6
Bluetooth 5.3 5.0
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS

Info

Announced November 2022 November 2020
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number SM8550-AB APL1102
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 official site -
Successor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 - Apple M4 (iPad)
Further details
Notes on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2:
    - There's also the "Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy," which only differs by having a 160 MHz higher CPU clock and a 39 MHz higher GPU clock, resulting in 2208.8 GFLOPS for the GPU. Generally, you won't notice this difference in real-life usage, including games.

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
216 (36.1%)
383 (63.9%)
Total votes: 599

Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of M1 (iPad) and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, or ask any questions
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Avatar
Sufyan July 4, 2024 at 11:52 AM
When I try editing every single videos with same size and quality (highest quality) iPad pro M1 2021 clearly more powerful than samsung tab s9 2023 with snapdragon. I still can’t choose samsung tab s9 for it. Even my iPad and my Samsung different years produk, even my iPad M1, 3 years older than samsung snapdragon m2. But for gaming and watching any videos, yes I can say samsung tab s9 good.
+12 Reply
Avatar
Niclas May 21, 2024 at 04:19 PM
Picture from the M1 chip says Apple A Series.
+9 Reply
Serhii May 22, 2024 at 05:53 AM
Thank you for your attention and useful comment.
+2 Reply