Controlled Testing Supports Apple's Claim of Nearly Equal iPhone 6s Battery Life With TSMC and Samsung Chips

[ulyssesric]

Got the feeling that the geekbench test, stays in the same CPU/die area, doesn't look for outside interupts, by not having outside components on. That may trip up some very precise edge cases.

Also, In a mobile chip, having the screen and LTE on means it normally would be going into low power mode (because few mobile apps and desktop apps actually work in those cases!). Nobody's doing raytracing or heavy encoding on their phone WHILE in airplane mode! This is what that stupid screen off, LTE off test is basically simulating.

OK. So there is indeed a trigger that will set CPU to operate in different modes. In that case, I'd say Geekbench is meaningless when you're comparing two devices with different CPU model.

As far as I know, Geekbench doing the battery test by keeping CPU usage at the same level continuously. If CPUs would operate in different mode, the computing performance must be different too. Which means the computing tasks they'd finished in a same period of time are also different. It's not the case in real world, since one may only use his phone to accomplish some tasks, the faster CPU can operate, the shorter time it would take.

I'd say they should assign the same amount of tasks for each devices, and compare both the battery lasting time and total task counts.

 

[Zwhaler]

MKBHD posted a video about it...

 

[Rogifan]

Consumer reports testing basically agrees with Apple.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/battery-tests-no-chipgate-problems-165402920.html

 

[kvnt]

Video link:

The above test (non-Geekbench) was on continuous web page viewing (Google Analytics), with all components on, the TSMC power advantage drop to only 7.34% or 9%, in the range of single digit percentage I had guessed, because other iphone parts combined consume much more power than A9 alone.

For example, if A9 constitutes only 15% of total power consumption, 15% out of 40% TSMC advantage is only 6%.

The Geekbench battery results reached 40% in TSMC’s favor, when testing A9 alone, that is, tested with other components (display, wifi, cellular) off.

The above non-Geekbench test of continuous web page viewing, with all components on, more or less, confirms the Geekbench results.

Summary:

40% TSMC advantage on A9 alone, without the influences of other parts; dropped to 7-8% on the entire iphone (including the power consumption of all components).

BTW, Apple’s official statement of 2-3% difference may be correct, after all. Continuous web page viewing generates only 7.34% delta. Since very few keep re-loading web pages, the actual experience of Internet browsing may indeed render no more than 2-3% differences.

 

[roeiz]

http://www.cultofmac.com/392650/chipgate-debunked/

so what's with this? seems legit enough.. did i miss a dedicated thread?

 

[kdarling]

All these tests are bogus unless they used the same battery. And even that's not a perfect solution.

The same model of battery can vary in output from nearly identical all the way up to almost 20%.

Making all the other factors the same, is meaningless unless the power source is set to act the exact same as well.

 

[ulyssesric]

http://www.cultofmac.com/392650/chipgate-debunked/

so what's with this? seems legit enough.. did i miss a dedicated thread?

That's a story about review of review of Consumer Report's test.

As I've said, CPU power usage is insignificant as all other components drain even more power. The difference is only noticeable when you put your device in unnatural status. Also, tests based on only few samples is not trust worthy.

I'd also suspect the difference in Geekbench test is due to misinterpret the CPU usage. That is, TSMC and Samsung CPUs are not doing the same amount of tasks during the test. TSMC's process is not THAT advanced comparing to Samsung; 16nm and 14nm won't make such huge difference. Someone would argue that TSMC claimed their leakage current is 20% lower; they misunderstood what "leakage current" is.

The "leakage current" in silicon process is the current flows between Source and Drain terminal of a transistor while the transistor is switched off. In ideal state the leakage current should be zero, as you may expect that no current should flow to the lightbulb when you turn off the switch on the wall. However, in the scale of 20nm-or-less, electrons will occasionally "warp" to another side. This phenomena is called "channeling effect". Warped electrons will form current, which is the "leakage current".

Leakage current is typically only in the level of microamp per chip. Which is about 0.001% to 0.0001% of currents drained during normal operation. You don't need to be a mathematicians to calculate the result: better leakage control WON'T contribute to 40% difference in overall power usage.

If you're working at the electronics industry, you'll know the whole thing is just an urban-legend. However, it's really hard to explain that to someone who has no background knowledge.

 

[nia820]

I've been critical of Apple these days especially with the buggy iOS 8 and 9 and this horrible El Captain update which has been wrecking havoc on my mbp.

But this is one thing which I think is ridiculous for people to get up in arms about. You got fools swapping out phones in hopes of getting a TSMC chip phone. People had fine battery life until they found out they got a samsung chip and now all of a sudden they have horrible battery life.

People need to get a grip

 

[JackANSI]

I'm a combat veteran who served in Iraq in 2004. I can assure you this isn't a real issue. At least not one to stress and worry about. Now I can discuss a real issue, but I don't think you would want to hear the details.

False equivalence
Moral high ground
Red herring

We aren't talking about anything beyond the phone. Thanks for proving my point though. You Apple apologists will do anything to avoid the truth. My offer is sound, no one has dared accept because they don't want a Samsung chip. Not one single Apple fanboy defending the difference in power consumption has been willing to take on a samsung chip in their own phone. The issue is real.

Invoking your service to somehow prove a point is offensive to those of us that served and choose to not bring it up to gain the favor of others.

You've earned an ignore.

 

[Aloft085]

False equivalence
Moral high ground
Red herring

We aren't talking about anything beyond the phone. Thanks for proving my point though. You Apple apologists will do anything to avoid the truth. My offer is sound, no one has dared accept because they don't want a Samsung chip. Not one single Apple fanboy defending the difference in power consumption has been willing to take on a samsung chip in their own phone. The issue is real.

Invoking your service to somehow prove a point is offensive to those of us that served and choose to not bring it up to gain the favor of others.

You've earned an ignore.

I'll gladly take a Samsung chip. My phone should arrive on Thursday. Whatever it is, I'll keep it. Honestly, you people ridiculous. You lack any sort of perspective. Have fun crying over what chip you have while the rest of us enjoy our phones.

 

[ulyssesric]

False equivalence
Moral high ground
Red herring

We aren't talking about anything beyond the phone. Thanks for proving my point though. You Apple apologists will do anything to avoid the truth. My offer is sound, no one has dared accept because they don't want a Samsung chip. Not one single Apple fanboy defending the difference in power consumption has been willing to take on a samsung chip in their own phone. The issue is real.

Invoking your service to somehow prove a point is offensive to those of us that served and choose to not bring it up to gain the favor of others.

You've earned an ignore.

I've just received my iPhone 6S and I don't even bother to guess what's inside. The whole story is nothing but urban legend. What you asked is beyond science but spiritual. I'm Ph.D candidate in EE and I worked in electronics industry for decades. I only believe in science.

 

[roeiz]

I've just received my iPhone 6S and I don't even bother to guess what's inside. The whole story is nothing but urban legend. What you asked is beyond science but spiritual. I'm Ph.D candidate in EE and I worked in electronics industry for decades. I only believe in science.

lol, yea seriously, just use the phone and forget about this crap.

 

[JackANSI]

I'll gladly take a Samsung chip. My phone should arrive on Thursday. Whatever it is, I'll keep it. Honestly, you people ridiculous. You lack any sort of perspective. Have fun crying over what chip you have while the rest of us enjoy our phones.

You don't even know what chip you will have... The offer is for a known TSMC device. Please learn how to read.

 

[JackANSI]

I've just received my iPhone 6S and I don't even bother to guess what's inside. The whole story is nothing but urban legend. What you asked is beyond science but spiritual. I'm Ph.D candidate in EE and I worked in electronics industry for decades. I only believe in science.

Dismissing the point doesn't make it go away. It's simple, but I'll explain it for the slow kids...

Known TSMC device traded for my known Samsung one. No one wants it. Why? The battery issue. No matter how small you want it to be, it is a big enough issue that no one nutted up to take it on.

Boom.


Edit: Mine gets returned tonight or tomorrow morning. Once there is more stock I'll keep returning until I get a TSMC one.

 

[Aloft085]

You don't even know what chip you will have... The offer is for a known TSMC device. Please learn how to read.

I know what your stupid offer is for. I'm replying that it *doesn't matter* what chip I get. Get that through your head. You're thinking that a person with another chip is going to willingly trade with you? No. That has nothing to do with what chip is in the phone. I don't trust a stranger enough to want to trade phone with them under any condition. That involves significant risk. You'd have to pay me for taking that risk. Welcome to economics 101.

Again, anyone who is basing their purchasing decisions off of a single benchmark, which is quite likely erroneous, is a complete moron. You're just going "OMG this number is higher than this other number! OMG!" You don't even have a clue what the numbers actually mean. Did I mention that I have an electrical engineering degree from a top 5 school? I'm guessing you don't.

 

[NoahK17]

I've saved over 10,180 minutes of Safari browsing since October 21, 2015 due to my TSMC chip! Woo!