CPU and GPU aren't everything (and the CPU was 70% faster -- not just a small bump). Retina display is a huge hardware upgrade, camera was significantly improved (5MP, 720p video, and flash), a gyroscope was added, noise canceling mic was added, and RAM was significant since even the iPad didn't have 512 back then.
That phone was a more significant upgrade over the 3GS than the 5 was over the 4S or 6 over the 5S
Again, from a tech spec perspective, it was not. I meant CPU and GPU specifically with regards to the "chip set". Certainly there were other improvements from a feature perspective that were significant, and I already agreed with you on that.
For you perhaps the CPU & GPU are not everything, but my whole point was that is not the case for many iPhone users. There are a large portion of iPhone fans who desire faster phones. It is erroneous for some people to suggest that the "S" models offer "nothing" or "marginal" upgrades. They bring the largest tech jumps.
The 4 was not 70% faster than the 3GS. How did you arrive at that number? Using a geekbench CPU benchmark? Because that actually shows the 3GS had about 70-75% the CPU (single core) speed of the 4. There were other benchmarks that also demonstrated, at the time when the 4 was a new device, that it was not a big jump from the 3GS...mostly due to the using "similar" chips.
A "100%" increase in power is a 2-fold increase in power, for reference. The 4 had higher clocked chips, 800 MHz to the 3GS's 600 MHz - which certainly makes a difference.
But paired with the retina display, both phones were fairly even when it came to real world performance - WiFi aside (as the 4 has a much better WiFi chip than the 3GS). In fact, the 3GS ran iOS 5 and especially iOS 6 better than the 4 at times - known anecdotally amongst 3GS users when it came out. That likely has a lot to do with the limited features on the 3GS but the point is, it was comparable in real world performance. Many people are not aware as to how similar the CPU/GPU were in the 3GS and the 4.
Consider that, the 3GS even with half the ram, had a 25-30% slower CPU and almost identical GPU, yet had to power 4x *less* pixels to worry about than the iPhone 4 and its amazing retina display did, and it is understandable how the 3GS could outperform the 4 in real world settings, at times.
The 5 brought its own set of features over the 4S and did offer a solid chipset upgrade, unlike the 6 over the 5S.
I think you misunderstood my original post - the point was in the very last paragraph. I am well aware as to how significant the retina display was in the 4. The iPhone 4 was, after all, my first iPhone and I chose it over the 3GS for a reason. But I am not ignorant to the fact it was not a jump at all in CPU/GPU
The largest CPU/GPU jumps have always come with the "S" models, and the hope is that it does not change for the 6S. Many posters are brushing off the 6S as "yet another tiny spec bump" whereas that is simply not the truth about "S" models. As they have the same case designs, the need to bring value in some tangible way, and that tends to be improved features and much more powerful phones.
