iPhone 4S remains the top graphically performing smartphone in the US - beats US GS3

[I.Love.Apple]

1. People said Apple wouldn't use A5 and dual core PowerVR SGX 543MP2 in the iPhone because of power consumption, but here we are with the iPhone 4S.

2. Apple will never use the Qualcomm S4 Krait in their iPhone. Never happen unless it is massively overhauled by Apple first and tailored to the iPhone.

3. I dont care about international versions. If you are in one of those markets though, more power to you.

To repeat: International Galaxy S3 is a better domestic phone than iPhone 4S.

People were hoping that APple would use iPad chip in iPhone 4S - it did not happen. And it will not happen. Otherwise iPhone would need to have a battery as big as the one in iPad

If Apple does not use S4, it is unclear if they will be able to implement LTE in their own SOC. This is highly unlikely. Then they would have to go with separate baseband chip from Qualcomm - just like they did for iPad 3. In this case, iPhone 5 may be uncompetetive in terms of battery life.

 

[Technarchy]

I don't really go by benchmarks as various ones can be swayed to either OS etc and this one left out other testing done, however in that one how is the GSII scoring higher than the III??? And which GSII did they use? I know my version is the Exynos chip which is powerful and efficient vs Snapdragon in other GSIIs.

Qualcomm GPU's are crap is why. American's get screwed.

Also, the GSII runs at a much lower resolution, so its only shifting a fraction of the pixels.

 

[oBMTo]

Like the SIII having some of the worst brightness in the market? That test?

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Here is the full review so that Apple fanboys can stop pretending that the 4S isn't trash.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6022/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review-att-and-tmobile-usa-variants

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[DodgeV83]

Convenient that the OP left out every other test that Anandtech did (and also conveniently left out the source so people can see how trash the 4S really is).

None of the other benchmarks are GPU related, this thread is about graphics.

 

[oBMTo]

 

[DodgeV83]

Qualcomm GPU's are crap is why. American's get screwed.

Also, the GSII runs at a much lower resolution, so its only shifting a fraction of the pixels.

Wow, didn't realize the S2 beats the S3 in some graphics tests! The resolution is not relevant, as the tests I posted were both done at 1280x720.

 

[Technarchy]

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Not even close to being a graphical test...

 

[I.Love.Apple]

Like the SIII having some of the worst brightness in the market? That test?

Image

Brightness is just one parameter. How often do you use your iPhone at the highest brightness level? Never? Besides, the only situation where one would need to use highest brightness is under the sun. In this case brightness helps but so do the contrast and lower reflexivity of the screen. S3 excels in those. Here is what GSMArena said about it compating S3 to HTC One X (which has a better screen than iPhone): Another area where the screens differ is sunlight legibility - the HTC One X is very good for an LCD and the excellent brightness contributes to that, but the non-reflectivity of the AMOLED screen gives the Samsung Galaxy S III the edge. In fact, the Galaxy S III emerges from our tests as the best outdoor performer we have seen to date.

 

[Technarchy]

Since thread titles don't register to you, this is a graphical thread, and fact is the S4 powered GSIII is sub iPhone 4S.

Fact? Yup

 

[I.Love.Apple]

Since thread titles don't register to you, this is a graphical thread, and fact is the S4 powered GSIII is sub iPhone 4S.

Fact? Yup

Yes. And Exynos powered GSIII is superior to iPhone 4S (in all regards not just GPU). So what's your points? If you want Internation GSIII, you can buy it here (among other places).

 

[mbell1975]

Wow, didn't realize the S2 beats the S3 in some graphics tests! The resolution is not relevant, as the tests I posted were both done at 1280x720.

LOL, what garbage. The resolution IS relevant and thats the ONLY reason the 4s beat the US version of the S3 at all!. The 4s does NOT have a 720p resolution display! Therefore it doesn't have as much work to do as the S3 which IS a 720p display because the resolution is much lower and it can accomplish its task faster. Apple still uses that outdated 960x640 junk. Come back when they have an actual HD display to test.

 

[DodgeV83]

LOL, what garbage. The resolution IS relevant and thats the ONLY reason the 4s beat the US version of the S3 at all!. The 4s does NOT have a 720p resolution display! Therefore it doesn't have as much work to do as the S3 which IS a 720p display. Apple still uses that outdated 960x540 junk. Come back when they have an actual HD display to test.

Look it up mbell2975, the tests are run at 720p, offscreen. The benchmark title clearly indicates this. Look it up if you'd like to know more.

 

[andross77]

Not surprising. Review sites slam the GSIII for stuttering, stating that the Evo 4G LTE and the HTC One X are far better Android devices.

Please link those reviews. I've read about a dozen and don't remember one saying that there was stuttering or lag in the UI of the SGS3.

Cnet praises the zippy dual-core processor.

Phandroid says it's the smoothest Android 4.0 experience on the market.

Droid-Life says "this phone flies" and "There are zero stutters, the transitions never lag and multi-tasking is a breeze."

I will stop at the first 3 reviews I read on my google search because I think you have been sufficiently owned.

 

[andross77]

But yeah, in regards to the OP, the iPhone 4s has a better gpu than the SGS3 US Variant (not the international). Sucks but that's the only thing I see lacking in this phone (for me). I still think it will be good enough to play 90% of the games i used to play on my iPhone 4s, just won't be able to do NOVA 3, MC3, etc as well

 

[daneoni]

lol. Android enthusiast ALWAYS resort to the browser benchmarks.

 

[OneMike]

Simple.

If a rival has faster performance - Specs don't matter.
If a rival has lower performance - Specs matter.

This works for all platforms be it consoles, computers, phones, TV's, fridge freezers......

True

I purchased an unlocked Galaxy S3, should be arriving any second. I got tired of my 4S and wanted something to play with till the next iPhone came out.

Forums aside though I think everyday people don't really care about specs.

 

[nfl46]

Spec whores.

I've never really been in specs; if I was, I would go crazy trying to pick the "perfect" phone with the best specs.

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True

I purchased an unlocked Galaxy S3, should be arriving any second. I got tired of my 4S and wanted something to play with till the next iPhone came out.

Forums aside though I think everyday people don't really care about specs.

Same applies for me. I may pick up the S3 tomorrow or this week at AT&T and keep it until the new iPhone comes out. I'll probably still be keeping my iPhone just for the timing being.

 

[Zaft]

LOL, what garbage. The resolution IS relevant and thats the ONLY reason the 4s beat the US version of the S3 at all!. The 4s does NOT have a 720p resolution display! Therefore it doesn't have as much work to do as the S3 which IS a 720p display because the resolution is much lower and it can accomplish its task faster. Apple still uses that outdated 960x640 junk. Come back when they have an actual HD display to test.

outdated? 720p screen literally just started coming out... before that the best andoird phones had was 960x540..

 

[Meanee]

Well, if you want to have true comparison, you need to take in account that Samsung and One X has third more pixels than iPhone. So, take all framerates you see and multiply them by 1.3 to get comparative GPU power. You will quickly see that true HD phones are graphically in same league or even superior to iPhone.

And another thing, why do Apple fans constantly have a need to justify their phone's power? Feeling a little bit threatened?

 

[matttye]

Nice! Not bad.

The most graphically intensive game I play is probably angry birds so I don't care about the gpu, but its an achievement to still be on top after a year.

 

[DodgeV83]

Well, if you want to have true comparison, you need to take in account that Samsung and One X has third more pixels than iPhone. So, take all framerates you see and multiply them by 1.3 to get comparative GPU power. You will quickly see that true HD phones are graphically in same league or even superior to iPhone.

And another thing, why do Apple fans constantly have a need to justify their phone's power? Feeling a little bit threatened?

Look it up Meanee, the tests are run at 720p, offscreen. The benchmark title clearly indicates this. Look it up if you'd like to know more.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

Two points:

1. The iPhone 4S is very powerful. In terms of raw performance, it was a huge leap for Apple, and the phone industry in general.

2. For those people that insist the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are the same...please stop with that...

I still believe that the iPhone 4S is a really small upgrade. The upgrade from the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS was (felt) much bigger. The iPhone 4S' big thing is Siri - but it's really limited (in terms of language support).

I do believe that we'll see the benefits from the iPhone 4S later this year and next year but right now, graphically intense games do just fine on the iPhone 4 as well.

-----------------------------------------
Let me put it differently why I believe the iPhone 4S is a much smaller upgrade. In a nutshell, this were the 'big things':

- Full HD 1080p video recording with stabilisation
- 8 megapixel camera
- Dual-core A5 chip with better GPU
- Siri

When the iPhone 3GS was announced, these were the 'big things':
- 3.2 megapixel camera
- Video recording
- Better CPU and GPU
- Coating against fingerprints
- Compass
- Better battery life
- Voice Control

I'm willing to give up "Compass" and "Coating against fingerprints" as 'big changes', but that leaves us with plenty of new features.

So, now why is the iPhone 3GS a big upgrade, and why is the iPhone 4S NOT a big upgrade?

Camera
First up is the camera. The first two iPhones had a 2 megapixel camera while the iPhone 3GS had a 3.2 megapixel camera. It was a necessary improvement because this 3.2 megapixel camera might seem crappy now, but back than it was a huge improvement over the iPhone 3G.

However, the iPhone 4S has an 8 megapixel camera compared to the iPhone 4's 5 megapixel camera. While I'm not against improvement, the five megapixel camera from the iPhone 4 is already quite good. And thus, on the camera side it feels like a much smaller improvement.

Video recording
The iPhone 3G does not record video. The iPhone 3GS was the first iPhone to ever record video. The video quality wasn't great when viewed on a large screen, but it finally was there. It's big to go from no video recording at all, to - well - video recording.

The iPhone 4 already did 720p HD video recording - video quality is good. I must agree that it's a good advantage that there is now 1080p video recording with video stabilisation - it is, however, not big enough for most people (not for everybody) to upgrade.

Dual-core A5 chip with better GPU
The iPhone 3G had a bad CPU and a bad GPU. The iPhone 3GS really improved on this and it delivered a much better experience. The App Store was becoming bigger and bigger, so the better graphical capabilities were a + as well.

The iPhone 4S also got a much better CPU and GPU. This time, however, it wasn't really necessary. There's a much smaller difference in performance between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, than there was between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. To give you an idea of what I mean: the iPhone 3G was driving 50 km/hour, while the iPhone 3GS was able to drive 100 km/hour. The iPhone 4 was driving 120 km/h while the iPhone 4S 'only' drives 130 km/u.

Voice Control (Siri)
I like the idea of Siri: one day being able to truly talking to your phone as if it were your assistant. In fact, it's great they are working on this but let's face it: it's still not good enough, it's not available in enough languages and some features don't even work abroad (like looking up restaurants via Siri).
And we've already had Voice Control since the iPhone 3GS.

It's improved, but it is definitely not mature enough. Not yet. Apple even advertises it as a beta product - that says enough.

Other
And that's really it for the iPhone 4S. Some other new features the iPhone 3GS got was a coating against fingerprints, a compass (which was really nice to use in the Maps application) and better battery life. Some people even report worse battery life on the iPhone 4S.

Conclusion
And that's why I find the iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S upgrade smaller than the iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS upgrade. At this point, it just isn't big enough.

But Apple is changing that...
The iPhone 4S will be much more important as soon as iOS 6 launches though - because only than, the big differences will appear. Such as turn-by-turn navigation. FaceTime over 3G.

Indeed, that's right: a full year after the iPhone 4S launched, we will see the first big benefits of owning an iPhone 4S over an iPhone 4.

-----------------
So, uhm, this was what I wanted to say. I'm sure the iPhone 4S will become more and more awesome (compared to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS) as soon as more firmware updates roll out - but right now, there isn't really a big difference.

So I would advice anyone that's buying a new iPhone, to get an iPhone 4S - but until iOS 6 launched there's practically nothing for iPhone 4 users to be jealous about.

 

[fertilized-egg]

we all know what synthetic benchmarks are worth right?) .
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For Android it's partially true that synthetic benchmark over a certain point is useless. I have a Galaxy S, which had the fastest graphic chip of its generation and it was largely wasted because there was no optimized apps for it. The only time I got to use it was emulation or running the Quake 3 port.

Certain models of Galaxy S3 have very fast GPU, but if you're the developer, you're probably not going to target a subset of a subset because there simply aren't enough Galaxy S3 with that specific chip.

 

[LSUtigers03]

But yeah, in regards to the OP, the iPhone 4s has a better gpu than the SGS3 US Variant (not the international). Sucks but that's the only thing I see lacking in this phone (for me). I still think it will be good enough to play 90% of the games i used to play on my iPhone 4s, just won't be able to do NOVA 3, MC3, etc as well

MC3 runs perfectly on my RAZR MAXX. I doubt the S3 will have any issues with high end games.

Originally Posted by OneMike
True

I purchased an unlocked Galaxy S3, should be arriving any second. I got tired of my 4S and wanted something to play with till the next iPhone came out.

Forums aside though I think everyday people don't really care about specs.

Where did you order from?

 

[DodgeV83]

Certain models of Galaxy S3 have very fast GPU, but if you're the developer, you're probably not going to target a subset of a subset because there simply aren't enough Galaxy S3 with that specific chip.

Exactly my concern. I was actually looking forward to the gaming prospects of the Android platform after seeing the S3 beat the iPhone 4S in graphical performance. This was their best shot at getting a device out there in large enough numbers that maybe some developers might keep this phone in mind when making a new app.

Unfortunately, if only certain S3's have the super fast GPU, I don't think any games will be developed specifically for just the International version.

With the iPhone there are only three currently selling versions. It is very easy for the developers to optimize for only those three, or sometimes they just choose to only support the iPhone 4 and 4S to make things easier. I have seen dramatic improvements in graphic quality from for 4 to the 4S. Note, I did not say "game performance", since the devs can still optimize for the iPhone 4, ensuring a smooth frame rate on both phones. Either way the game performs smoothly, with no frame rate drops, but with more advanced effects and higher resolution textures on the 4S.

This is similar to the Console vs PC debates of recent years. Even with lower specced hardware, when a new console is released it usually has much better graphics than the best PC games available. This is possible due to the heavy optimization, since the developers know the exact hardware the application will be run on.

Since the Samsung Galaxy is always the best selling Android phone, it was a good opportunity to create a standard high point that applications can aim for. Unfortunately, this did not happen.