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Could A8X have been designed for iPhone 6 Plus?

T

TheDeviceUser

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
589
72
U.K
Just a little theory. It's been long said that the iPhone 6 Plus does experience some lag, some have called it 'The iPhone's iPad 3'. Therefore, could it have been possible that Apple was intending to also fit the iPhone 6+ with an A8X chip as well as the iPad Air 2? Yet it wasn't ready in time, since iPhone's go into production far earlier than iPads?

What do people think?
 
Everything is should've and could've... Just enjoy your damn phone.
 
TheDeviceUser said:
I've got a 5s.
Click to expand...

The 5s is a great device. I loved every single min of it. I say just buy whatever is out man. Life is too short to over analyze things. You will always say what if this have that this should've been this on everything. It's a cat and mouse thing, that's how technology is.

The 6 series is a great iteration of the iphone just like any other series were beforehand. Worse case scenario, you can sell it and get money back and get the newer iphone. That's what's great about the iPhone's, resale value is excellent. Good luck brah :cool:
 
TheDeviceUser said:
Just a little theory. It's been long said that the iPhone 6 Plus does experience some lag, some have called it 'The iPhone's iPad 3'. Therefore, could it have been possible that Apple was intending to also fit the iPhone 6+ with an A8X chip as well as the iPad Air 2? Yet it wasn't ready in time, since iPhone's go into production far earlier than iPads?

What do people think?
Click to expand...

I doubt it, the A7 powers the iPad Air which pushes far more pixels than a 6 Plus, and it is fine.

FYI, the iPad Air resolution is similar in pixel count to those 1440p screens the high end Androids are using.

The lag from what I gather is because the iPhone 6+ upscales 3x to 1242x2208 then downscales to 1080p on the 6 Plus, which is why, in theory, the 6 is actually a better performer than the 6 Plus for apps that use UIKit scaling. A8X wouldn't necessarily render the GUI elements significantly faster given that the cores are identical, only clocked higher.

For gaming or apps that do not use UIKit, the 6 Plus should run smooth as silk.
 
themyst said:
I doubt it, the A7 powers the iPad Air which pushes far more pixels than a 6 Plus, and it is fine.

FYI, the iPad Air resolution is similar in pixel count to those 1440p screens the high end Androids are using.

The lag from what I gather is because the iPhone 6+ upscales 3x to 1242x2208 then downscales to 1080p on the 6 Plus, which is why, in theory, the 6 is actually a better performer than the 6 Plus for apps that use UIKit scaling. A8X wouldn't necessarily render the GUI elements significantly faster given that the cores are identical, only clocked higher.

For gaming or apps that do not use UIKit, the 6 Plus should run smooth as silk.
Click to expand...
I don't have an iPad air. But from a lot of the lag threads in reading the first ten air experienced many of the same lag spots as does the 6 plus. Again, i have zero first hand experience with the air. My plus came with the lag first experience I've ever had in an iPhone to date.
 
lordofthereef said:
I don't have an iPad air. But from a lot of the lag threads in reading the first ten air experienced many of the same lag spots as does the 6 plus. Again, i have zero first hand experience with the air. My plus came with the lag first experience I've ever had in an iPhone to date.
Click to expand...

Like I said, its because of UIKit.

I bet this is usually when you're browsing around in some app (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) and not when you're in an app that is rendered with the Metal API. If you want to test this, go to app store and find a game/app that uses the Metal API.
 
The X series generally run hotter and need the surface area of the iPad to disperse heat. Anandtech did some testing that showed even the Mini throttled itself which is bigger then the 6+ obviously.

And if it was redesigned it wouldn't be an A8X anymore.

Although it has more pixels I believe we are still dealing with software issues when it comes to stuttering with the UI with the 6+. I don't see a reason the A8 can't handle what its doing fairly easily.
 
themyst said:
Like I said, its because of UIKit.

I bet this is usually when you're browsing around in some app (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) and not when you're in an app that is rendered with the Metal API. If you want to test this, go to app store and find a game/app that uses the Metal API.
Click to expand...

I've had Apple maps in the combination of the music app (streaming iRadio) crash my phone. I have had lag when swapping a video in safari from portrait to landscape. Still others are having issues with spotlight (which I seem to have somehow avoided).

Facebook has had terrible lockups too; I will get the spinning icon at the top noting that data is in use, but no buttons work until it sorts itself out, not even home button. Of everything I've listed, that's the only third party app that I have had problems with that I can recall.
 
lordofthereef said:
I don't have an iPad air. But from a lot of the lag threads in reading the first ten air experienced many of the same lag spots as does the 6 plus. Again, i have zero first hand experience with the air. My plus came with the lag first experience I've ever had in an iPhone to date.
Click to expand...

iPad Air has lag (low frame rate) issues. For ex. rotation in spotlight is choppy. Unfortunately, even the iPad Air 2 has those issues which is ridiculous and Apple should be fixing it ASAP :eek:
 
TheDeviceUser said:
Just a little theory. It's been long said that the iPhone 6 Plus does experience some lag, some have called it 'The iPhone's iPad 3'. Therefore, could it have been possible that Apple was intending to also fit the iPhone 6+ with an A8X chip as well as the iPad Air 2? Yet it wasn't ready in time, since iPhone's go into production far earlier than iPads?



What do people think?
Click to expand...


The iPad handled 2048 X 1536 fine with the A7. It will be OK for the 6 Plus with less resolution.
 
TommyA6 said:
iPad Air has lag (low frame rate) issues. For ex. rotation in spotlight is choppy. Unfortunately, even the iPad Air 2 has those issues which is ridiculous and Apple should be fixing it ASAP :eek:
Click to expand...

Again, I haven't really used either. I am not an iPad guy. I find it ridiculous that my $900 phone has lag on stupid stuff out of the box. Being an iPhone guy (Have had all but the 5C, if that even counts), this is the first lag I have ever experienced on a launch device. Used to be a thing iOS diehards made fun of Android users for...
 
haruhiko said:
The iPad handled 2048 X 1536 fine with the A7. It will be OK for the 6 Plus with less resolution.
Click to expand...

The iPad rendered objects natively at 2x through UIKit... the 6+ renders objects at 3x then downscales to 1080p, which is nowhere as efficient.
 
lordofthereef said:
Again, I haven't really used either. I am not an iPad guy. I find it ridiculous that my $900 phone has lag on stupid stuff out of the box. Being an iPhone guy (Have had all but the 5C, if that even counts), this is the first lag I have ever experienced on a launch device. Used to be a thing iOS diehards made fun of Android users for...
Click to expand...

Apple ain't what they used to be. Jobs would make sure everything was perfect with ridiculous demands, Cook is content with pushing things through that are "good enough".

This isn't saying I prefer any vendor over another, just a neutral third party observation.

To be fair, my iPad Mini 2 seems to be running well on iOS 8. I don't have a 6+ to compare with, so I can't really comment on anything but theoretical stuff.

----------
lordofthereef said:
Solution: Let's run iPad apps ;)
Click to expand...

I wish it were that simple! How would the iPhone downscale the iPad apps to a 1080p screen? Apple screwed the pooch by picking a non-uniform resolution for the 6+ that completely goes against their design philosophy.

Unless devs are going to code all 6+ apps with custom objects in OpenGL, it's kind of a "it is what it is" type deal.
 
themyst said:
Apple ain't what they used to be. Jobs would make sure everything was perfect with ridiculous demands, Cook is content with pushing things through that are "good enough".

This isn't saying I prefer any vendor over another, just a neutral third party observation.

To be fair, my iPad Mini 2 seems to be running well on iOS 8. I don't have a 6+ to compare with, so I can't really comment on anything but theoretical stuff.

----------



I wish it were that simple! How would the iPhone downscale the iPad apps to a 1080p screen? Apple screwed the pooch by picking a non-uniform resolution for the 6+ that completely goes against their design philosophy.

Unless devs are going to code all 6+ apps with custom objects in OpenGL, it's kind of a "it is what it is" type deal.
Click to expand...

The first iPad was released in early 2010 with only 256MB of RAM and 2 months later, the iPhone 4 was introduced with 512MB of RAM. Same situation under Jobs.
 
haruhiko said:
The first iPad was released in early 2010 with only 256MB of RAM and 2 months later, the iPhone 4 was introduced with 512MB of RAM. Same situation under Jobs.
Click to expand...

Yeah the first iPad became obsolete pretty quick. Touche.
 
I think if Apple had the iPhone 6+ screen at 2048x1152 instead of 1920x1080 life would be allot easier...I don't think that resolution would be hard to get at the display size since its a somewhat common resolution and they already got their weird 1334x750 displays for the iPhone 6....
lordofthereef said:
I've had Apple maps in the combination of the music app (streaming iRadio) crash my phone. I have had lag when swapping a video in safari from portrait to landscape. Still others are having issues with spotlight (which I seem to have somehow avoided).

Facebook has had terrible lockups too; I will get the spinning icon at the top noting that data is in use, but no buttons work until it sorts itself out, not even home button. Of everything I've listed, that's the only third party app that I have had problems with that I can recall.
Click to expand...
I noticed this with my iPhone 6 initially....I then got updates for facebook and a ton of other apps...facebook would literally crash my entire iPhone at times...but mostly it would do what you described with no buttons working and then either decide to work or crash...it just seamed like it was unoptimized for the hardware and the version of iOS.

themyst said:
Yeah the first iPad became obsolete pretty quick. Touche.
Click to expand...
Lol I remember buying it when it came out [the first iPad] and feeling how obsolete it was....about 9 months later I ditched it when I got a new MacBook, gave it to my sister and it was fine for her who then gave it to my mom and it was a real trooper but towards the end it lagged so hard....
 
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themyst said:
Yeah the first iPad became obsolete pretty quick. Touche.
Click to expand...

Took out mine yesterday and was surprised by how thick and how heavy it was. Not to say it only received two iOS updates (capped at 5.1.1), comparing with 4 for the iPad 2.
 
nateo200 said:
I think if Apple had the iPhone 6+ screen at 2048x1152 instead of 1920x1080 life would be allot easier...I don't think that resolution would be hard to get at the display size since its a somewhat common resolution and they already got their weird 1334x750 displays for the iPhone 6....

I noticed this with my iPhone 6 initially....I then got updates for facebook and a ton of other apps...facebook would literally crash my entire iPhone at times...but mostly it would do what you described with no buttons working and then either decide to work or crash...it just seamed like it was unoptimized for the hardware and the version of iOS.


Lol I remember buying it when it came out [the first iPad] and feeling how obsolete it was....about 9 months later I ditched it when I got a new MacBook, gave it to my sister and it was fine for her who then gave it to my mom and it was a real trooper but towards the end it lagged so hard....
Click to expand...

Yeah, if 1242x2208 was the 6+ resolution, these lag issues wouldn't be as prevalent. Perhaps they're saving this for the 6S+?
 
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