When Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 collection in early September, the corporate launched the A18 Professional chip as “the quickest CPU in any smartphone.” The A18 chip that powers the non-Professional iPhone 16 fashions needs to be virtually as quick.
However I knew going into the Glowtime occasion that I might not purchase an iPhone 16 Professional this yr. As a substitute, I selected the iPhone 16 Plus, with the A18 Professional’s chip being the least of my worries. I wished a bigger display, higher battery life, Apple Intelligence, and the Digital camera Management button.
I took the iPhone 16 efficiency with no consideration, trusting the A18 could be an important improve from the iPhone 14 Professional’s A16 Bionic. It could be an improve that I wouldn’t discover on the subject of velocity. As a substitute, I counted on it to ship quick AI and improved vitality effectivity.
A number of weeks later, I don’t have Apple Intelligence as a result of it’s not out but, and Europe should wait even longer. Nevertheless, the iPhone 16 Plus battery is nearly as good as I had hoped.
Additionally, we lastly have a velocity check involving the iPhone 16 Professional Max and Galaxy S24 Extremely to find out which telephone is the quickest. The outcomes are extremely predictable for the present state of the cellular business.
The iPhone 16 Professional Max benchmarks show that Apple is correct to label the A18 Professional chip because the quickest within the business. The Galaxy S24 Extremely can’t match it, and neither can some other 2024 Android flagship. However as I preserve telling you, benchmarks gained’t let you know the complete story.
The Galaxy S24 Extremely won’t carry out as nicely in these benchmarks, however you gained’t understand it’s slower in actual life than the iPhone 16 Professional Max, if that’s even the case. You’d have to make use of each gadgets to see the variations, if any.
Additionally, crucial factor to recollect is that the majority smartphone customers gained’t want that high efficiency. I depend myself in that group. I don’t play graphic-intensive video games, nor do I want the highest processing energy that the A18 Professional can ship. Put otherwise, I might have simply stored utilizing the iPhone 14 Professional with out skipping a beat.
This brings me to one in all my favourite velocity checks for brand new smartphones, the one which PhoneBuffs runs for all-new flagship releases. The most recent model of the comparability entails The iPhone 16 Professional Max and the Galaxy S24 Extremely.
As I stated earlier than, the outcomes are predictable. What I meant by that’s that the iPhone would absolutely win. However it would solely “win” by a really small margin, contemplating how extremely quick mid-range and flagship telephones have develop into—so small that it doesn’t even matter.
As you possibly can see within the screenshot above, the iPhone 16 Professional Max and Galaxy S24 Extremely completed the primary spherical virtually concurrently. Within the second spherical, the iPhone beat the Galaxy telephone by a few seconds.
The outcomes mimic the iPhone 15 Professional Max vs. Galaxy S24 Extremely velocity check from earlier this yr, however they’re even nearer. The Galaxy S24 Extremely has benefited from software program optimizations since its launch, so the efficiency increase is comprehensible.
What do these rounds imply, and the way do they replicate real-life use? Nicely, the primary lap consists of every telephone opening the identical suite of apps for the primary time. Some apps are easy apps that don’t require numerous processing. Others are extra taxing for the CPU, and the checklist consists of video games.
The primary spherical is the one which issues, and the iPhone virtually all the time wins this spherical. The iPhone 16 Professional Max did it, too, however the margin is within the milliseconds.
The second lap consists of opening the identical apps from RAM. The iPhone 16 Professional Max has 8GB of RAM, whereas the Galaxy S24 Extremely options 12GB. The iPhone wins by lower than two seconds right here, displaying that iOS 18 is extra optimized than Android 14. It might get barely higher.
What PhoneBuff does with these checks is to duplicate real-life use. We open apps on a regular basis and transfer from one app to the following. Some keep in reminiscence, others don’t. That’s the velocity we care about, having the ability to get shortly from one app to the following and have the smartphone do no matter we want it to do.
The velocity check reveals you wouldn’t be incorrect to purchase both system when you want a quick flagship and don’t care concerning the working system. That stated, the Galaxy S24 Extremely’s successor is a few three months away. That mannequin will function a barely sooner chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
