iPhone 5s "Blows Everything Away"

[Velin]

iPhone A7 Chip Benchmarks: Forget the Specs, It Blows Everything Away

We just ran benchmarks on Apple's new iPhone 5S, revealing that, yup, this is the dopest smartphone silicon ever made. This thing freaking churns, crushing every other smartphone out there on both computational power and graphics. But if you look at common specs like core-count and clock speed for the hardware, you'd never know it.

By now, it's no mystery that specs aren't the whole story. Intuitively, we know that the quality of a smartphone is just as reliant on its industrial design and the quality of the software it runs. But it goes deeper than that: the traditional "specs" distract us from what a gadget's guts actually do, and from a technological point of view, they distract us from the advancements that are actually making a product better.

Apple's iPhone design is a masterpiece, and iOS 7 shows that Apple's got a mastery of operating systems as well, more or less. What's not as well-known is that Apple's a leader on guts as well. Here's a look at what the guts can do and how Apple beat the pack. . . .

And the iPhone's graphics performance is spectacular: 37-frames per second, more than twice the iPhone 5's 14 fps. It'a also significantly faster than the next-best US smartphone, the Motorola Moto X, which clocks in at 25 fps. In short, the iPhone 5S's graphics powers are ready for the craziest games that'll be coming out in the years to come. . . .

These aren't the only benchmarks out there, but they're reflective of what nearly all tests are finding: The iPhone 5S has the best measured performance of any phone.

The truth about cores, clock speeds, and battery life . . .

Here, we check back in with AnandTech, where Anand Shimpi drops knowledge. Turns out the specs we're getting fed by manufacturers are a bunch of bull—or at least only tell a small fragment of the story. "I always thought the transition from 2 to 4 cores happened quicker in mobile than I had expected," . . . .

Apple's an early-adopter—of silicon design

So how is Apple getting much better performance than everyone else? With the iPhone 5's A6, Apple turned to custom-designed chips with custom-designed cores based on ARM designs to improve results. With the A7, Apple continues this trend by adopting industry-leading technology.

What Apple's 64-Bit Architecture Really Means For Your iPhone

So let's turn to one spec Apple did announce on stage: The new 64-bit CPU, which replaces the 32-bit predecessor. This is the key, but not in the way you might think it is. As Anand and others point out, 64-bit transition doesn't really start making a difference until Apple starts building phones with more than 4GB of RAM, which based on current trends, won't happen for years.

The reason Apple's 64-bit future-proofing matters today is that it requires Apple to adopt an entirely new underlying processor architecture. A7's CPU ditches the 20-year-old foundation of the ARMv7 "instruction set" (ISA) , and goes with the ARMv8 design, which was released in 2011 and represents an entirely new system. . . .

According to Gruber's frequently reliable sources, switching to ARMv8 is responsible for a 15-20-percent improvement in performance while simultaneously improving battery life.

Apple is the first to implement ARMv8, and it makes total sense that this newer technology is producing better results than the older technology. But you won't see that show up on most spec sheets. Without going down another rabbit hole, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that the new supercharged GPU owes its impressive performance to a GPU no one else has used yet.

Sometimes people like to harp on Apple for stagnating, but the company's progress under the hood shows that it's just not true. For all the huge specs (and huge screens) Apple's competitors like to throw around, Apple remains a year ahead on the only metric that really matters: How well the phone actually performs.

Gizmodo iPhone 5s

 

[Advil]

lol gizmodo...

 

[silver8ack]

This is why I buy apple products. The stuff works and works well. They don't shove numbers or features down your throat. They just do what they do pretty darn well. If you don't like it, buy a spec monster and lead a life of frustration and envy.

 

[MRSucks]

Tee-hee.

 

[user-name-here]

lol gizmodo...

Not sure why the "lol" since Gizmodo was the one who had the balls to bring us the iPhone 4 leak, regardless of the consequences. I have nothing but respect for them personally.

 

[HishamAkhtar]

I don't get it. Is Gizmodo suggesting all Android OEM's are lying? Or producing quad core phones but under-utilizing them to preserve battery life?

The 5s sounds impressive but I think it's performance is being a little exaggerated. That said, Apple has really stepped up iOS's pure computing power since they starting designing their own SoC.

 

[Travisimo]

Gotta love all the pissing matches... as an iOS and Android user myself, I don't have to defend any of my purchases or pick sides. However, it does make sense that Apple puts some major processing power in this phone since it has to last a full year before it gets replaced. Just wait a month or two when the next latest Android phone comes out that beats the iPhone 5S is the benchmarks. Then all the Android fans will be the first to pat themselves on the back.

In reality, I think it's becoming more clear that none of that really matters. What matters is how your phone actually performs for the tasks you need it to do. Even when the Android phones beat Apple with raw specs, the iPhone still feels more responsive. What Android has not yet been able to match is the quick touch response time that Apple achieves on the iPhone. When you touch something on the iPhone or scroll with your finger, it responds more rapidly that anything on Android (though Android has definitely improved in this area).

Right now, I'm rocking a Moto X on AT&T and an iPhone 5 on VZW (soon to be iPhone 5S). I feel these are the best Smartphones out there in terms of user experience. I don't care that there's faster Android phones out there in raw specs - the Moto X just has the best performance -> user experience IMO.

I would recommend a Moto X or iPhone to anyone out there looking for the best of the best in terms of user experience.

 

[lordofthereef]

Not sure why the "lol" since Gizmodo was the one who had the balls to bring us the iPhone 4 leak, regardless of the consequences. I have nothing but respect for them personally.

Gizmodo is just about the last resource I would go to for true, unbiased Apple information. LolGizmodo" was probably meant to signify this.

Not saying they are wrong. But they also haven't really said a bad thing about Apple. And there are plenty of things to be said.

 

[tymaster50]

So basically, the only thing is TouchID and a camera.

 

[Velin]

Reading is not your strong suit.

 

[megapopular]

Not sure why the "lol" since Gizmodo was the one who had the balls to bring us the iPhone 4 leak, regardless of the consequences. I have nothing but respect for them personally.

I don't think they anticipated any consequences and I think they regret it each year as they have to quasi blog since they're shunned from some of the biggest tech announcements year after year after year.