The iPhone 5 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Vivek Gowri on October 16, 2012 11:33 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone 5
Six Generations of iPhones: Performance Compared
Section by Anand Shimpi
Cross platform smartphone benchmarks are interesting, but they do come with their own sets of issues. Before we get to that analysis however, let's look at how the iPhone's performance has improved over the past six generations. Luckily Brian has a set of all of the iPhones so he was able to run a few tests on all of the devices, each running the latest supported OS.
We'll start with SunSpider 0.9.1, our trusty javascript performance test:
The transition from iPhone to iPhone 3G shows you just how much additional performance you can squeeze out of simply a software change. There's likely even more that could be squeezed out of that ARM11 platform, unfortunately newer versions of Safari/iOS aren't supported on the iPhone 3G so we're left with a runtime that's around 37x the length of a single run on the iPhone 5.
The rest of the devices support and run iOS 6, so we're at least on a level software playing field. The performance boost from one generation to the next is quite significant still. Going by this chart alone, the best balance of minimal upgrades and maximum perceived improvement would be from the original iPhone to the 3GS then again from the 3GS to the 5.
The BrowserMark results tell a similar story. The jump from the ARM11 based iPhone/iPhone 3G to the 3GS running iOS 6 is huge. Both the 4S and 5 offer doublings in performance, albeit for different reasons. The 4S delivered a doubling thanks to a doubling of core count and a move to the Cortex A9, while the iPhone 5 doubled performance through a much higher clock speed and microarchitectural improvements.
Finally we have Geekbench 2, which only runs on the iOS 6 supported devices so we say goodbye to the original iPhone and iPhone 3G:
None of the jumps looks as dramatic as the move to the iPhone 5, but we already know why. The Swift CPU architecture does a great job improving memory performance, which shows up quite nicely in a lot of the Geekbench 2 subtests.
On the PC side we often talk about 20% performance improvements from one generation to the next being significant. It's clear that the mobile SoC space is still operating along a hyper Moore's Law curve. The rate of progress will eventually slow down, but I don't see that happening for at least another couple generations. The move to ARM's Cortex A15 will be met with another increase in performance (and a similarly large set of power challenges), and whatever comes next will push smartphones into a completely new category of performance.
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medi01 - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
1) Compare ipad2's gamut, cough2) Check values on toms
http://media.bestofmicro.com/3/4/331888/original/g...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ipad-3-benchma...
Unlike anand, toms was beyond primitive contrast/brightness benchmarking for quite a while.
thunng8 - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
Not sure if I should trust Tom's figures compared to Anands's.In any case, both show the ipad3 has higher gamut, especially in sRGB.
steven75 - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
I think what you meant to say is that AMOLEDs win on black levels and that's about it. LCDs still win in accuracy and most importantly ability to see them in outdoor settings.KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Not even close. Even the better Android displays like the Galaxy S3 has a PenTile display. Despite having more "pixels" it actually has fewer subpixels than the iPhone does. Unless you have bad eyesight the S3 display looks really bad in comparison, and this is before we get to even worse smartphone displays out there by HTC, etc.Sufo - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Old pentile displays were visibly jaggy on vertical lines - even my old lumia 800 exhibited this to some extent. On the GS3 tho, it is not noticeable and it has nothing to do with eyesight.Your comment makes it sound (to someone who has seen many different smartphone displays in person) as though you haven't spent much time with the GS3 (read: many smartphones) at all. Simply mentioning that is uses pentile subpix config, from you, sounds like regurgitated information. Not only that, but you seem to gloss over the many benefits that amoled panels bring. It's arguable that these benefits are more important than an accurate colourspace on (specifically) a mobile phone - although it is ofc entirely subjective.
This brings me to the last tell of ignorance I noted; your mention of HTC. Have you used a One X? For those who do not like amoled panels, the display on the one x is perhaps nicer than both the gs3 and the ip5. Ofc you may say Android is not your cup of tea, and that's a perfectly justifiable stance, however it has nothing to do with display tech.
tl;dr You sound like you don't know what you're talking about
KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
I do know what I'm talking about given that I've seen many smartphones, and I've calibrated my share of desktop displays to sRGB.Differences in display tech aside, Android phones have never gotten color profiles right, EVER. They're almost always oversaturated, have too much contrast, and are inaccurate. Anand even posted a difference in color accuracy between several devices, and the profile for the S3 is totally what I expected.
The S3 really doesn't look good, period, but then again there are people who argue that TN panels are just fine against IPS. I'm used to hearing nonsense on forums when it comes to display from people who don't know what to look for.
KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
BTW, apologies if that came out harsh, but the difference in color and contrast accuracy between something like the S3 and a properly calibrated device is a night and day difference to me. I'm pretty sensitive to display quality though; my main desktop display at home is still an NEC and my plasma is a Pioneer Elite (RIP)rocketbuddha - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
For Android you have the following 720p HD DisplaysSLCD - HTC Rezound (2011 tech)
SLCD 2 - HTC One X, Sony HD
HD SAMOLED Pentile - GS3, Galaxy Nexus, Moto Razr HD
HD SAMOLED RGB - Galaxy Note II
True IPS LCD - LG Optimus 4X, Optimus G
Super IPS LCD -Asus Padphone, Sharp phones etc
So you have big set of choices. If dark contrasts are important then SAMOLED is the way to go. SAMOLED RGB over SAMOLED Pentile.
If overall color and whites are important go with SLCD2.
IPS LCDs are the closest to the Retina Display and u have a choices there too. You can pick and choose what is good for you and have alternatives.
Spunjji - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
The HTC One X has what is hailed to be one of the best LCD smartphone displays out there. Your claim is invalid.Similarly, the Galaxy Note 2 has an AMOLED display without PenTile. Sure, it's lower density, but one does not hold a 5.5" screen so close to one's face.
medi01 - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
""The iPhone 5 display is better than any current Android display.""Why don't you go hit your dumb head with something heavy, ipad would do?