iPhone 14 Pro's A16 Bionic Outperforms Latest Snapdragon 8 Chip Coming to Android Phones Later This Year

[FastLaneJB]

Apple's hardware continues to be impressive, but most users probably care most about the power efficiency.

Comparing benchmark scores has become a bit of a pointless exercise, really, when we're completely honest. They are all overpowered for what you really need in a phone.

Actually in mobile devices extra speed can also equal better battery life. It’s basically called the race to idle.

As an example and completely made up numbers here but if you have a chip that draws 2,000mw under load and takes 10 seconds to render a webpage. That’s 20,000mw consumed.

Now you have a faster chip. It might also draw more power so maybe 2,500mw under load but can render that webpage in 6 seconds. It’s going to consume just 15,000mw to do the same work.

Obviously if you use this extra power for games and max the SOC out you’ll have higher performance for a shorter period of time on the second chip. But outside of gaming, pretty much everything you do on a phone can benefit from getting the SoC to idle faster. A small power increase in the chip to do that can actually still result in better battery life.

 

[leman]

Actually in mobile devices extra speed can also equal better battery life. It’s basically called the race to idle.

As an example and completely made up numbers here but if you have a chip that draws 2,000mw under load and takes 10 seconds to render a webpage. That’s 20,000mw consumed.

Now you have a faster chip. It might also draw more power so maybe 2,500mw under load but can render that webpage in 6 seconds. It’s going to consume just 15,000mw to do the same work.

Obviously if you use this extra power for games and max the SOC out you’ll have higher performance for a shorter period of time on the second chip. But outside of gaming, pretty much everything you do on a phone can benefit from getting the SoC to idle faster. A small power increase in the chip to do that can actually still result in better battery life.

That’s exactly what Apple is doing with A15 and A16.

 

[podycust]

Tbh honest who cares what about comparing it to a year or two old A14 or A15. Which most iPhone users would have in a non pro model. Not that would be more impressive if a standard iPhone model SoC could beat it not just the pro models

 

[leman]

Tbh honest who cares what about comparing it to a year or two old A14 or A15. Which most iPhone users would have in a non pro model. Not that would be more impressive if a standard iPhone model SoC could beat it not just the pro models

As mentioned previously, Snapdragon 8 gen 2 is A14 level. It’s only faster in multi core thoughtput because it has two more performance cores. Not that this metric is particularly useful for a phone anyway. Nobody uses a phone as a data-crunching workstation.

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

These comparisons maybe a little premature considering it is an unannounced Android handset.

We have no idea whether it is properly optimised either? Although having said that.

I don't believe anyone in this forum is expecting Qualcomms latest snapdragon chip to rival the A16 Bionic in terms of speed and raw power.

 

[falkon-engine]

Apple’s phones are overpowered and Apple’s pace of performance improvements is declining. Maybe next year with 3 nm designs we’ll see a big jump. But what do we really do with an 1875 single core score? I think it’s good to see Qualcomm steadily advance.


Snapdragon is much better than it was 2 years ago with 1000 single and 3000 multi. Slower than iPhone yes but much faster than 2 years ago.

 

[Searing]

The speed difference between this chip and Apple is almost nill. That's a large improvement from Snapdragon since the disastrous Samsung chips launched last year.

When you take in to account the fact that the iPhone 14 is behind a year versus the PRO (which pisses me off to no end) and Snapdragon phones will be CHEAPER than the 14, there is no difference anymore. That massive lead was squandered by Apple. I don't think any Android buyer sees any difference.

Gaming is bad on iPhones as the thermal cooling is limited and the screen dims, and the GPU Qualcomm uses is faster also. So yeah.

Sad. I'd like to see Apple do more but they've become lazy and give us one year old chips and don't improve much anymore. Just more ugly notches everywhere on every product, even the ones that shouldn't have it (Macbook Pro especially).

I might be switching back. The iPhone 14 was a crazy disappointment to me.

 

[Searing]

Apple’s phones are overpowered and Apple’s pace of performance improvements is declining. Maybe next year with 3 nm designs we’ll see a big jump. But what do we really do with an 1875 single core score? I think it’s good to see Qualcomm steadily advance.


Snapdragon is much better than it was 2 years ago with 1000 single and 3000 multi. Slower than iPhone yes but much faster than 2 years ago.

Exactly. 1000 to 1500 in one year is a huge jump. No more Samsung fabs thank goodness.

 

[Searing]

Don't forget the iPhone 13 is $999 CAD for example. Still more than the Oneplus might be with the latest chip. Samsung who knows.

 

[GuruZac]

While the performance is appreciated, there’s not much software wise in iOS that takes advantage of the raw performance of the A16. It just gives you plenty of headroom for years of use. Snapdragon CPUs have been plenty fast for years as well. Talk of performance between smartphones is a moot point in 2022.

 

[mdridwan47]

So much power. So little to do.

 

[FastLaneJB]

That’s exactly what Apple is doing with A15 and A16.

Yeah exactly. Was just pointing this out when people say phones are already fast enough that increasing the speed of them can also improve battery life. I don’t think anyone would say we have enough battery life yet. Yes might be able to get through a day but before smart phones we could get through a week on a mobile. I’d love to see some of the battery chemistry improvements along with chip improvements to get us at least to charging every 3 - 4 days kind of deal. So when away from power for longer might not need a battery pack.

 

[GuruZac]

Qualcolmm is in better in AI. Apple needs a new core design in CPU, GPU and NPU ASAP.

Huh?? Please elaborate how the industry leader in silicon needs a redesign ASAP.

 

[snipr125]

The A16 now needs to go into an iPad. Based on the trends, it looks like the iPad Mini 7 is in line to get it next.

 

[trhoffmann]

I’m perfectly satisfied with the performance of the A12 in my iPhone XR.

 

[IIGS User]

I am not wanting it to get me to the moon so who cares about how fast it's processing chip is...big deal.

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) that went to the moon had 4KB of core rope memory (that's KILO bytes for you youngin's) and operated at 1.02 Mhz clock speed.

Darn thing was an electric slide rule.

Any smart phone produced in the past 15 years is Skynet on steroids compared to this thing.

BTW, this sort of thing is a hobby of mine. I am a space program fan AND have been fascinated by old computers since I was in college.

 

[JamestheCharming]

Funny that you only mention CPU in favor of Apple, because 8 Gen 2 has surpassed and has better GPU performance than A16. It embrasses Apple. Because there is barely an improvement from A15 to A16 in terms of GPU.

 

[SactoGuy18]

The problem for Android: the very architectural design of the OS makes it not that great for CPU processing power. Because iOS is highly optimized for the Apple SoC's, that's why in terms of raw processing power, the iPhone will way out-perform any Android phone.

 

[Kazgarth]

At least they have WiFi 7.

We still don't have even WiFi 6E on iPhones.

 

[SactoGuy18]

At least they have WiFi 7.

We still don't have even WiFi 6E on iPhones.

WiFi 7 won't release until 2024. I expect the iPhone 15 to get WiFi 6E, probably the last to do it due to waiting for a less power-hungry chip for WiFi 6E support.

 

[dabi]

The huge performance gap, despite the same price, is one of the big reasons that pushed me to switch to iOS, lol. It's crazy how Android manufacturers charge flagship prices for iPhone X equivalent performance.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

Apple's hardware continues to be impressive, but most users probably care most about the power efficiency.

Comparing benchmark scores has become a bit of a pointless exercise, really, when we're completely honest. They are all overpowered for what you really need in a phone.

Not a dig on you, but it's so funny to hear this from android fan boys... they went from "Rawr, quad core, 8gig of ram, suck it" to "whatever, it's just a phone, don't need all that performance" almost overnight.

 

[erikkfi]

Competition is good.

 

[anticipate]

These comparisons maybe a little premature considering it is an unannounced Android handset.

We have no idea whether it is properly optimised either? Although having said that.

I don't believe anyone in this forum is expecting Qualcomms latest snapdragon chip to rival the A16 Bionic in terms of speed and raw power.

Apple is a software and hardware company. They have inferior hardware for example on their Mac Studio compared to a tricked out PC, yet can keep up or exceed vastly hotter and larger PCs in things like Video editing (but not gaming). Apple's coding efficiencies way outweigh any hardware advances they may (had) have in the areas their hardware work best.

This has always held true in mobile as Android manufacturers throw hardware at the problem and often are slower than Apple with 1/2 the RAM, etc.

Qualcomm is catching up but that's very healthy for the market. We WANT this. We want everyone to stay on their toes! Healthy competition is why capitalism works.

I stay with Apple because I am deep in the ecosystem, but also the stuff lasts and is extremely well built and supported. I don't have to worry if I need it fixed, or if the latest software will be supported. Apple's stuff is good for 5-7 years, easily. It holds value. It has a vast support network. And it gets 80% of the profits worldwide, so apps on it are ALWAYS the newest and most supported by devs. It is often the fastest hardware wise... but not always. Because there are other factors.

This whole Apple is falling apart stuff is abject nonsense. Boo hoo they aren't 3 years ahead anymore. They also haven't moved to 3nm yet. And they're still ahead.

 

[d686546s]

Not a dig on you, but it's so funny to hear this from android fan boys... they went from "Rawr, quad core, 8gig of ram, suck it" to "whatever, it's just a phone, don't need all that performance" almost overnight.

People collectively have short memories. I vividly remember my fellow Apple fans to be all about "user experience" and "optimisation" in the early years of the iPhone and PowerPC on the Mac, to almost instantly switch to a manic obsession with benchmark scores as soon as Apple pulled ahead.

The saying about glass houses comes to mind for some, although also no personal dig on you. I don't know you!