Galaxy S9, Samsung's upcoming flagship phone, is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 845 chipset. This latest processor from leading developer Qualcomm is expected to be 25 percent better in overall performance compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 835.

Tests run by CNET on a Qualcomm reference phone confirm the claims of improved performance. The Qualcomm reference phone was subjected to a battery of benchmarking tests specifically made to measure the performance of the Snapdragon 845.

The tests involved simulating various aspects of smartphone use in the real world. These included web browsing, snapping and recording high definition images, video streaming, playback, and the like. The tests were also a way to gauge the Snapdragon 845's battery consumption.

All in all, there were twelve of these tests. The same tests were run on three current-gen phones: the Galaxy Note 8, Pixel 2 XL, and the LG V30. It should be noted that all three of these models are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

In all but four of the tests, the reference phone with the Snapdragon 845 reportedly performed 25 percent better than the other three phones.

Samsung confirmed last month that they will unveil the Galaxy S9 at the Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona on Feb. 26. The company plans on using the Snapdragon 845 to power their upcoming flagship phone.

If this is the case, then fans of Samsung can expect at least a 25 percent improvement in performance compared to the Note 8.

However, the Snapdragon 845 variant of the Galaxy S9 may not be available in all countries, as Samsung also plans to use their own processor on some S9 models. Their chipset is called Exynos, and they prefer to use utilize it in selected regions.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset was first announced in December 2017. It consists of a Kyro 385 CPU, Adreno 630 GPU, and the latest X20 LTE modem.