The iPhone 6 Review
by Joshua Ho, Brandon Chester, Chris Heinonen & Ryan Smith on September 30, 2014 8:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone 6
CPU Performance
Now that we have a good idea of what the A8 SoC looks like, we can talk about performance. While we covered this in the preliminary article, it’s worth going over again. For those that are unfamiliar with our test suite the CPU-based tests are mostly browser-based benchmarks. Once again, although I’m not quite happy with the state of benchmarking things we’re getting close to a more platform-agnostic solution.
For the most part, the A8 SoC performs admirably despite the relatively low (1.38 GHz) frequency and half the cores when compared to competing SoCs. It seems that this is mostly building upon the lead that A7's Cyclone CPUs began. It remains to be seen if other SoC manufacturers will catch up in their CPU architecture at one point or another (NVIDIA's Project Denver in particular is interesting), but for now Apple seems to be quite far in the lead in CPU performance.
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cheinonen - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
If means if you run them at maximum volume and you have a passage of music that is at 0dBFS (absolute maximum) then they can clip. However, if you look at something like the Galaxy 5S, the iPhone 6 can be a few levels below maximum volume and still have more power output into a 15 Ohm load. Only the HTC M8 so far does more power into a 15 Ohm load.0dBFS and maximum volume likely don't occur all that often (and for the sake of your hearing, they really shouldn't), but if they do the iPhone 6 will clip. However, the only phone so far that won't clip and produce that kind of power output is the HTC M8, so it's not really a huge negative, it just shows that HTC really built a great headphone amp.
Hxx - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
thanks Chris that makes more sense. I only run the usual itunes type music on my IP5 and I doubt ill be running into this clipping issue. Just noticed my IEMs were rated at 16 ohms and wasn't sure what to think especially since I already preordered the 6. Thanks again man. Great article.Calista - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
Would say it's the first iPhones I have felt tempted to buy. Great camera, battery-life in place, speedy SOC and iOS can for the first time in five years compete with Android. It's truly a complete package. Of course, we should expect one of the most expensive phones to also be one of the best.SunLord - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
God that is an ugly ass phone... Those thick white lines on the back make it look god awful should've kept it to how the 5s did it with a white top and bottom. Did they fire everyone who designed the 5s and replace them with retarded color blind spider monkeys? At least the 5s in gold looked goodkyuu - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
"I've always felt like the HTC 8X had one of the most compelling shapes for a phone, and the incredibly thin feel of the iPhone 6 definitely reminds me of that."Uh, what? The iPhone 6 is not shaped like the 8X. It's just a really thin, flat slab. The 8X has a countered back.
Not sure what's to like about the iPhone 6's design, btw. It's just a really unnecessarily thin piece of slick metal. I don't get it.
JoshHo - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
To clarify that comment, it's really the thin feel of the edge. The 8X really felt razor-thin at the edge, and the iPhone 6 has a similar feel at the edge.kyuu - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
I see, that makes a little more sense. Thanks for the clarification. Probably should clarify the wording in the article to make it clearer that you're referring to the edge rather than the overall shape of the phone.solarisking - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
You guys completely glossed over the Qualcomm modem. Didn't even put the part number in there (9625). I'm wondering what bands to these iPhone support? Do they all have the exact same chip? Exact same hardware for each service and the only difference between them is which SIM card they are provisioned with? Also, why not go with the even newer and smaller 9635? The 9625 was announced in friggin 2011 and sampled in 2012 with quantity available in 2013. Yeah, the 9635 has more features than they need but it's still newer and smaller, i.e. uses less battery.NEED MORE INFO!!!
solarisking - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
In this thread: tons of angry Samsung owners wishing Apple would bend to their will.araksonofthunder - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
Amazing. A phone review with everything except how it performs as a phone. You know, that thing you do when you speak into the device and your voice comes out of another device thousands of miles away.