Samsung Galaxy xCover (Extreme) Review

The Samsung Galaxy xCover uses a Marvell PXA968 chipset that comes with a single core CPU clocked at 800 MHz and a Marvell GC800 GPU. Backing this up is 512 MB of RAM. This is the first known phone to run this specific Marvell chipset. It is also the first recognisable Android phone from the big players to not run a Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia or Samsung chipset.

If you are also an Android or mobile enthusiast and have any suggestions as to how to improve my benchmark methodology feel free to email me at [email protected].

From testing CPU performance seems to be a tad stronger than the older generation Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 era chipset that is found in the HTC Wildfire S. In Linpack and Antutu the Xperia Active with its stronger Snapdragon S2 chipset comfortably beats the xCover by just shy of 300% and 50% respectively.

GPU performance seems to be somewhere on the upper end in the gap between the Adreno 200 and Adreno 205 mobile GPUs. The Marvell GC800 GPU in the xCover was able to grab a win in Nenamark2 but was comfortably beaten in GL Benchmark 2.1 by the Xperia Active.

The xCover’s hardware performance is neither poor but also not overly great. I could also say with confidence that it has the weakest hardware of the IP67 certified Androids.

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