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Samsung and TSMC iPhone 6s Chips Show Smaller Real-World Battery Impacts Compared to Benchmarks

I just found out that my 6S has a Samsung chip. Kind of surprised, because my phone has great battery life. Oh, and is super fast. I have no complaints.
 
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TroyBoy30 said:
you know there are 6 version of the i5 right? they come out with an updated version every year. nothing shady about that. most people dont care or even know that they got last years chip. them simply enjoy the device


apple or any manufacturer can put whatever chip they want in the phone. They arent trying to be shady. macrumors reported way back in 2013 that apple would be sourcing the chip from 2 diff vendors. heres one from july

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/16/samsung-tsmc-begin-production-a9-chips-iphone-6s/
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Never said it was shady. That's your desire to argue (or an environment where everyone seems to want to argue) creating a bias.

I was just citing another situation where a manufacturer had used multiple CPUs in a single generation of a product. Some people were upset, it did moderately impact resale value of the perceived inferior model, and it blew over without ever being a big deal. Certainly from a legal perspective the manufacturer is free to fit any hardware into the device at any time as long as it matches the advertised specs.
 
roncron said:
1. It's plausible that Apple would knowingly use two different A9 chips with different battery life or performance. I'm sure Apple would rather use only the better one, but one manufacturer can't produce the volume Apple needs especially near launch time. The downside of using just TSMC A9 chips would be much longer wait times for people ordering phones. And most iPhone users aren't tech savvy enough to pay attention to differences between chip manufacturers.

2. It's true that the "tests" of the two chips can't be considered conclusive; more systematic testing is required before we can be sure about anything. Yet, there's only a 2-week return window. It doesn't seem right to ridicule people who paid up to $1000 for a phone for being concerned.
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agreed. Apple has done something of this sort in the past. I recall they recently used SSDs from different manufactures in the same computer model which performed measurably differently. They could have done the same with the A9 chips if both perform to specs. I'd like to see a lot more rigorous testing on this. I posted my own geekbench result earlier but one needs a large sample and identical setups to draw any firm conclusions. But if the battery life differences do come out to be substantial (half and hour or more) that is certainly a reason for concern.
The main weirdness here IMO is that Samsung chips are smaller and made using 14nm technology vs 16nm for TSMC so if anything they ought to yield longer battery life which is the opposite of what all these tests seem to indicate.
 
salamence502 said:
The radios are likely still on. You can make an emergency phone call without a SIM.
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Also, as of iOS 8.3 (AFAIK), turning on Airplane Mode no longer toggles GPS off. It is always on no matter what, which may have contributed to my problems when my phone was searching for location.
 
V.K. said:
The main weirdness here IMO is that Samsung chips are smaller and made using 14nm technology vs 16nm for TSMC so if anything they ought to yield longer battery life which is the opposite of what all these tests seem to indicate.
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The traditional logic of process shrinks can break down at this scale. In theory you're right, but you also have to worry about things like leakage when things get really small. Basically this means that your electrons are escaping through places that are supposed to be insulated, resulting in a loss of energy.
 
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Well math has beat me yet again.

In my mind I was thinking that the 15% drained vs the 14% drained during normal use makes the handsets seem very similar. However, that is not accurate. If you follow that different all the way to 0 it is a 7% difference. 7% of all day is a significant number! !
 
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I'm not sure how so many can dismiss this so easily, that's a pretty big difference in battery life for day to day use and I would think most people fit into the "heavy use" category considering all we use our phones for these days all day long.

I would love to get my hands on both variations of the phones and see for myself. And of course my phone has the Samsung chip, damn the luck!
 
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JPOWA said:
What a pointless comparison!! :rolleyes:

First we are not talking abou MS but about iPhones, so don´t be so defensive about Apple! But just for the record with Mac Office you can have it for one time fee instead of monthly payment like Windows version.
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Sure my post is pointless to you because it rebuttals your silly rant. :rolleyes:
And don't say stuff that I never even said. I was referring MS, not Apple. I'm not defending Apple. Maybe YOU should stop being so defensive. The typical reply when your post get a rebuttal, calling someone an Apple defender even though they don't mention Apple.
 
Another year, another *anything*gate...
It's more than time, apple ends with this "gate" things already lol
 
Casiotone said:
Even then, it would be possible that the TMSC and Samsung phones were assembled at different times/factories and have a different batch of batteries that have a different voltage curve and thus would yield different battery % results until the indicator is fully calibrated.
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I'm with you on that. BUT if 20 out of 40 all significantly score better, then there is likely something going on...

We should drain and charge each phone 10 times before doing the test.

Gary
 
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the problem with these tests is that the battery % meter is never accurate and has to be recalibrated every once in a while.
 
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Lrium has been pulled from the app store? WHY APPLE?? To hid this?

I used the app “System Status". it was 2.99 in the app store.
1. Open the app
2. Click on details
3. Scroll down to Device Information; Type. It will list what type of processor. I have the N66mAP = TSMC A9

Phone 6s: N71mAP = TSMC
iPhone 6s: N71AP = Samsung
iPhone 6s +: N66mAP = TSMC
iPhone 6s +: N66AP = Samsung
 
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This slightly sucks, but my iPhone 6s is so beyond perfect (Samsung chip aside) that it's not worth risking it, haha. Realistically my battery is fine. I always hope for more battery life in new iPhones, but the 4.7" model is going to need a much bigger boost to get it anywhere close to the two days I would sometimes get with my old 6 Plus. Until then I'll still have to charge it every night. Considering the iPhone 7 will probably be a little thinner (6.1mm?) and have a reduced bezel, I seriously doubt we'll see much of an increase in battery life until the iPhone 7s.

Everything else aside, I do have to wonder why the Samsung is worse? Has anyone tested to see if it's slightly faster? I thought the Samsung chip used a smaller 14nm process? Typically a smaller process means the chip is more energy efficient. I'd really like to know what went wrong here. I'm also pretty stoked that a smaller company like TSMC was able to beat out the likes of Samsung. Good job guys!

…I still can't stop laughing about how many people in the forums were returning TSMC devices in hopes of getting a Samsung!
 
Gee, the tech press has the same disease the TV and newspaper "news" has: we're back in the days of the dishonest billionaires. The Days of the Hearst press, the yellow press, now reappearing and up to its old tricks in Cable News. Whatever gets the clicks! Everything is a "-gate."
 
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So, the iPhone 6S lasts the same time as a 6. The 6S+ lasts a day and a half. "Under normal usage." If you wake up in the morning on Facebook, switch to filming a short commercial and editing it on iMovie, and then do something with Garageband, you can use it up by midnight the same day!
 
JPOWA said:
@MacRumors

How can you tell that the difference in real life is almost unnoticeable when in more than half the battery the difference is already 7%??

When the usage goes all the way down the difference should be 15-17% which represents at least 1h of usage.

This is not acceptable for a device that costs 860€ (64GB 6S) here in Europe and specially when I pay the same as everyone else and I can have an iPhone that is not the same as others.

1h-1h30 of usage is a great deal and should not be taken lightly as you are trying to do, trying to cover Apple mistake.

This is one of the worst quality control situations in Apple history!!!
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Much ado about nothing.

Why don't you wait for results from the many people who bought an iPhone 6s before making your accusations.
 
mcdj said:
Now THAT is interesting. It was there last night.
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the developer pulled it due to issues with new hardware

Dear users of Lirum Device Info,

We are aware of some serious issues or our Apps with the latest iOS models (iPhone 6S and iPad Air 2). Changes on the requirements for a new update to be approved are also delaying the development process (and our team is very small).
In face of such events, in 24 hours, we will take Lirum Device Info down from the App Store - until we can release a decent update. That will take a few months however - but then we promise an entire new user interface, faster updates when a new device model is released, and a lot of new features.

Until then, the app will continue to work on models equal or prior to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Best Regards,
Rogério Hirooka
Lirum Labs
 
JPOWA said:
@MacRumors
This is one of the worst quality control situations in Apple history!!!
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Based on anecdotal pronouncements from statistically insignificant and questionable tests. How do we know a dozen other people haven't seen the opposite result but have not bothered posting (or been re-posted) because it doesn't meet with their expectations? There are a great many variables that are not even being considered.

Seriously, folks, until some actual scientifically relevant tests have been done don't get your knickers in a knot.
 
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