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These iPhone XS vs S9 vs OnePlus 6 benchmarks test A12 Bionic as the killer chipset

by Daniel Petrov / Sep 25, 2018, 5:07 AM

These iPhone XS vs S9 vs OnePlus 6 benchmarks test A12 Bionic as the killer chipset

A lot of you already have in their hands the world's first phones that carry processors crafted by the 7nm production node method. Yes, we are talking about Apple's new iPhone XS and XS Max.

Apple's proprietary chipset architecture is tailor-made for its mobile operating system, so it has a real performance advantage before, say, off-the-shelf Snapdragons of this world, even when the production node was 10nm in Apple's previous A11 Bionic processor.

With 30%-300% better scores than the best Androids, A12 Bionic is now the chipset to beat

In fact, Apple's processors are so powerful that the company deliberately throttled them significantly when an iPhone battery degraded below a certain threshold, so as to avoid random reboots by peak power requests, resulting in the #battterygate brouhaha. On the plus side, it brought on $29 battery replacements for older models, a perk that is now coming to an end.

With the introduction of the A12 Bionic, even though it is made by the TSMC foundry with the first generation of the 7nm node, instead of with Samsung's superior extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the performance gap is expected to become even wider. By how much?

Well, we put the new iPhones with the freshly squeezed A12 Bionic chipset, through some mobile benchmark testing, and the dry synthetic numbers show it will be the phone processor to beat now, like the A11 before it.

Apple iPhone XS vs iPhone X vs... iPad Pro

Apple touts just 15% performance increase over the A11 Bionic processor cores but adds 50% faster graphics with the new, fourth GPU core, and lossless memory optimization. As you can see below, in some of the comprehensive all-rounder benchmarks like AnTuTu the recorded increase in performance can reach the whopping 60%, as in iPhone XS vs iPhone X.

We put the two-year-old iPhone 7, from which people are most likely to be upgrading to the XS, just for giggles, and the difference is 200%+ in favor of the A12. Coupled with the performance-optimized iOS 12, this year's iPhones should perform smooth as silk.

AnTuTu Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 358091 Apple iPhone XS Max 336882 Apple iPhone X 224538 Apple iPhone 8 Plus 220618 Apple iPhone 7 168795 Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch 223751
JetStream Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 267.92 Apple iPhone XS Max 265.74 Apple iPhone X 218.98 Apple iPhone 8 Plus 224.62 Apple iPhone 7 144.71 Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch 202.11
GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 on-screen Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 59.7 Apple iPhone XS Max 59.3 Apple iPhone X 58.75 Apple iPhone 8 Plus 59.3 Apple iPhone 7 59.1 Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch 28
Geekbench 4 single-core Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 4806 Apple iPhone XS Max 4821 Apple iPhone X 4244 Apple iPhone 8 Plus 4243 Apple iPhone 7 3464 Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3929
Geekbench 4 multi-core Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 11416 Apple iPhone XS Max 11299 Apple iPhone X 10401 Apple iPhone 8 Plus 10330 Apple iPhone 7 5605 Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch 9288

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Apple iPhone XS vs Galaxy S9 vs LG G7 vs OnePlus 6

On the whole, this is not a fair fight for Androids, as not only are we comparing 10nm vs 7nm processors, but also custom chipset architecture optimized for an in-house operating system, against a smorgasbord of chippery and interface overlays.

Still, the best Android has to offer now does synthetics on par with last year's iPhones, while the new XS and XS Max blow them out of the water. The performance difference is largest in browser benchmarks, up to 300%, while in multi-core tests the A12 Bionic is just 30% ahead of the best Androids can muster, arguably on account of Apple's throttling shenanigans.

This extra power should be most noticeable in gaming or browsing activities, but the everyday interface grind and app transitions would get a worthy boost, too.

AnTuTu Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 358091 Apple iPhone XS Max 336882 Samsung Galaxy S9 244207.33 LG G7 ThinQ 239753.5 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 244787 OnePlus 6 260353.5
JetStream Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 267.92 Apple iPhone XS Max 265.74 Samsung Galaxy S9 61.834 LG G7 ThinQ 88.304 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 63.24 OnePlus 6 88.123
GFXBench Car Chase on-screen Higher is better	Samsung Galaxy S9 25.66 LG G7 ThinQ 20 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 26 OnePlus 6 30
GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 on-screen Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 59.7 Apple iPhone XS Max 59.3 Samsung Galaxy S9 43.33 LG G7 ThinQ 31.66 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 56 OnePlus 6 50
Geekbench 4 single-core Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 4806 Apple iPhone XS Max 4821 Samsung Galaxy S9 3709 LG G7 ThinQ 2439.5 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 3612 OnePlus 6 2413.66
Geekbench 4 multi-core Higher is better	Apple iPhone XS 11416 Apple iPhone XS Max 11299 Samsung Galaxy S9 8814.66 LG G7 ThinQ 8793 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 8927 OnePlus 6 8929

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72 Comments

1. Well-Manicured-Man

Posts: 702; Member since: Jun 16, 2015

Good job, Apple. A12 is certainly a beast. I am curious to see whether Huawei can really compete with its new chip set. Qualcomm and Samsung certainly cannot.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 5:16 AM 6

4. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

Haha i saw how you edited a long comment on a short one just so you could be the first one to post!! Not making fun of you. Only saying I saw that.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 5:20 AM 6

6. Well-Manicured-Man

Posts: 702; Member since: Jun 16, 2015

Of course. I am smart. I gave you a like.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 5:21 AM 1

11. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

I did too :)

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 5:26 AM 0

40. Atechguy0

Posts: 918; Member since: Aug 03, 2018

So if the A12 is certainly a beast in your words. Then why doesn't Apple support real multitasking and split screen multitasking? If it has all this extra CPU and GPU processing power, then why doesn't any iPhone offer real multitasking and split screen multitasking? This is just BS. You cannot use the excuse of the screen being to small anymore. The XS Max 6.5" display is very large. It's almost the size of 7" tablets. So I guess it's the fast single tasking iPhone once again. What a joke

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 7:43 AM 7

70. Well-Manicured-Man

Posts: 702; Member since: Jun 16, 2015

I don't understand your comment. Are you trying to say that since Apple doesn't offer multi tasking or picture in picture the A12 is not a beast? I can tell you why Apple is not offering split screen and picture in picture on the iPhone: It is because they want you to buy their iPads too. Apple wants you to buy iPhone, iPad and a Mac. It sucks I know but as long as the competition cannot offer an equivalent offer like the iPhone, Apple does get away with its strategy. I see only Microsoft in the position to challenge Apple because Microsoft has the Software Know How to challenge Apple but Microsoft is just not doing it.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 1:01 PM 2

72. bucknassty

Posts: 1350; Member since: Mar 24, 2017

its a 2021 feature... it will be an innovation... just gotta wait

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 1:50 PM 3

83. wie155

Posts: 38; Member since: Sep 24, 2012

Atechguy0, your comment make me laugh. I am not defending Apple, but the A12 beats all SoC in the market right now in term of Single-core and Multi-core. But Apple decided not to include the split-screen feature to the iPhone, may be because they think it is not necessary for average consumer, even Google think so(see Android 9, it is harder to activate the split-screen). Split-screen feature is available on iPad so it is not SoC related.

posted on Sep 27, 2018, 1:57 AM 0

9. Papa_Ji

Posts: 855; Member since: Jun 27, 2016

I don't need benchmarks... Ineed real life performance and SD845 can easily match A12. https://youtu.be/emPiTZHdP88 Next-generation Qualcomm and Samsung will easily kill A12 in real life performance.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 5:25 AM 25

18. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

Well you're right about that. Real life performance is all that matters

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 5:36 AM 0

76. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

Speaking of, what the heck happened to iOS' optimization? iOS used to run much better than Android in similar or even inferior hardware. But now, only runs similar despite having superior hardware?

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 8:00 PM 2

77. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

iOS 11 crippled the Idevices' performance and Apple did it deliberately. It was also coz of 3 gb ram iphones lost in speed tests. While previously 3gb ram was more than enough, the bad optimization of iOS 11 required phones to have atleast 4GB. Which they now have. iOS 12 fixed many, many performance issues though. But now the reason you don't see iPhones destroying other phones in regular app opening speed tests is because of 4 major reasons: -Apps don't seem to be utilizing all the power of the A chips at all times. -Sometimes it's the less powerful cores of the A12 doing the work and not the bigger, more powerful ones. -Android phones have also gotten snappier and more powerful over the years. -Oneplus

posted on Sep 26, 2018, 7:13 AM 0

79. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

Good explanation. That last item though lol You could include the Pixel series in there

posted on Sep 26, 2018, 5:16 PM 1

81. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

I would have but its slower due to sd 835 and many people, incl. MKBHD, have complained about it's performance issues. And Oneplus 6 has been the king of speed tests this year, and we have yet to see if it can defeat the iPhone Xs. That's why I included Oneplus instead of Pixel.

posted on Sep 26, 2018, 6:09 PM 0

78. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

By the way, where have you been all this time, man? I was wondering that. Coz you seem to be a great, unbiased guy!

posted on Sep 26, 2018, 7:15 AM 0

80. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

Got a new job, got pretty busy. Hey you're great too, I said in the past that you're one of the most unbiased people here, still think it's true.

posted on Sep 26, 2018, 5:18 PM 1

82. AmashAziz

Posts: 2931; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

Congrats on that new job! I hope you do well man. And thanks for those kind words. I appreciate your positive opinion about me...!

posted on Sep 26, 2018, 6:11 PM 0

31. Well-Manicured-Man

Posts: 702; Member since: Jun 16, 2015

Yea right.... that is why a modern flagship needs 6gb to 8gb ram.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 7:16 AM 2

35. AronWunarso

Posts: 244; Member since: Feb 21, 2016

I don't see why a phone need that much RAM... 4/6 GB is enough for today's app.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 7:32 AM 0

42. Atechguy0

Posts: 918; Member since: Aug 03, 2018

Not for VR or AR headset apps. Which Apple still hasn't reached yet.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 7:50 AM 0

43. worldpeace

Posts: 3135; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

Nope, 4GB isn't enough, you'll need to re-launch some apps after keeping ~10 apps in background.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 7:54 AM 0

55. xfire99

Posts: 1206; Member since: Mar 14, 2012

RAM speed is always faster then internal storage. Cache/multitasking loves RAM!

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 9:52 AM 1

46. cmdacos

Posts: 4250; Member since: Nov 01, 2016

If your modern flagship doesn't truly multitask background apps then yes all you need is 4GB.

posted on Sep 25, 2018, 8:35 AM 0

65. luis.aag90

Posts: 277; Member since: Aug 12, 2014

More RAM doesn't provide better performance, it'll just enable more apps to remain open. Of course there are faster RAMs than others but all flagships use DDR4 RAMs so real life performance relies a lot more on the SoC and optimization