Can Apple close the gap to the S6's hardware?

[skratch77]

Here is my gs6 run.I'm lucky and have a very good binned cpu in my phone and runs cold and dosnt throttle as much and let's big little architecture do it's thing and run all the cores the best it can while staying in it's power tdp envelope.thanks for reminding us how awesome the gs6 cpu is that it can compete with tablet SoCs while running in a thin cell phone

 

[khha4113]

Another place that Apple are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition is in their NAND flash used in their iPhones and iPads. Not a single competitor has anything that can match the level of perfromace Apple has on their devices.

The read speeds of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus and iPad Air 2 hover around the 250MB per second mark. As you can see in the image bellow, the competition are not even competition when it comes to matching Apples perfromace. Samsungs new phones (S6 and S6 Edge) are faster (and again, 7 months newer than Apples devices) but will still only hit around 200MBps, 20 percent slower than the 7 month old iPhone. (Link: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9146/the-samsung-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-review/7)

I feel that in a mobile device, NAND perfromace is much more important than SoC perfromace, as for the majority of time, we all base how a phone or tablet perfroms based on how fast an App launches, or the device boots up... as we rarely render high quality video on out devices.

Cherry pick, aren't you?

You also left out rolleyes what Anandtech commented on the program was used.

The Galaxy S6 performs rather impressively in our standard storage test, but not as fast as one might have hoped. This is due to the nature of the Androbench 3.6 test, which only tests a single IO thread, which won’t use the UFS storage of the Galaxy S6 to its full extent. In order to see the kind of difference that UFS really makes, I ran the same test again on Androbench 4.x, which does support multiple IO threads. However, as our iOS storage test and Androbench 3.6 don’t support more than a single IO thread we will continue to present both results for now.

Here, with Androbench 4

 

[C DM]

My thinking is that a pretty good percentage did not even upgrade to an IPhone 6 and rather keep what they have for their use with the functions I listed, also throw in using it as a music player.

Everything else they already have an IPad or laptop. Bet a large number of folks have one or the other. Imagine that, using the iPhone the way I described.

Given the record sales the new iPhones always have after they come out, seems like a lot of people upgrade (since it clearly can't be just simply huge numbers of new people getting the phones all the time).

 

[I7guy]

At this point, the hardware is sort of whatever. It'd be great if Apple finally offered a front facing camera higher than the pathetic 1.2 MP; it'd be great if Apple finally offered a higher MP count than 8 (sounds like they're going to 12MP); it'd be super great if there was more RAM for those who browse with multiple tabs; wireless charging or quick charge would make things more convenient for people; and etc.

But that's sort of not as important compared to the real "catching up" that Apple needs to do: SOFTWARE.

-Apple Maps is still pretty poor (compared to Google Maps).
-The stock keyboard is mediocre. Cannot keep up with fast thumb tapping, and doesn't offer gesture typing out of the box. Third party keyboards... have all the bugs been hammered out?
-Allow a bit more freedom and customization. Let us choose what toggles we want in Control Center and where. I don't use AirPlay; let me take it out.
-If you're allowing us to set third party keyboards, why not allow us to set third party other things? Google Maps for navigation would be great.
-Give us access to files
-Give us full email attachments.
-Let me share to more things than just Twitter and Facebook. (On Android, not only can you share to anything; it remembers what you share to the most and keeps it near the top).
-Let us access Siri hands-free anytime, instead of only when it's plugged into the car (talk about a half baked feature).
-Let me update software over data, instead of only on WiFi.
-Let me make App Store purchases without forcing me to use a password each time. Let me have the option to turn that safety feature off. I'm an adult. Let adults manage their own phone and expenses like they do other accounts.
-Let's have true multitasking (the RAM would help this).
-Make going back more consistent. I can't stress how much this bothers me when I use my iPhone after using Android. Navigating through iOS is so inconsistent: sometimes the back button is upper left or right, or lower left or lower right, or lower center. Sometimes I can gesture and other times I can't. Utterly frustrating.
-Organize that Settings page. It's a mess. And make Settings more consistent, too. Sometimes Settings are in the app, sometimes they're in the iOS Settings. What's with that?
-Extra little conveniences like double tap to wake and whatnot would be nice.
-And so forth...

There's probably more I can add if I thought about it.

There is still plenty Android can improve on, too, but I feel like iOS has far more room to go than Android. I said this before, Android is approaching desktop-like powerful (I can essentially minimize apps in TouchWiz, or resize the app window which is very desktop-like, and still be able to do things in the background and foreground). Whereas iOS is still a glorified app drawer. The "world's most advanced mobile operating system" just doesn't feel that advance.

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Just to give an example of Android approaching desktop-like capabilities (Galaxy S6):

Yesterday, I was on Chrome on my phone chatting with a customer service rep for an issue. They asked me for the order number, and I didn't have it but I didn't want to risk losing the chat window if I exited out of Chrome (sometimes that happens cause these chat boxes are finicky). What do I do? I minimized Chrome (I think it's called "Pop Out" feature in TouchWiz? Not sure), and in the background, went to my Gallery where I had screen grabbed the order number earlier, saw it in the background, and just went to Chrome in the foreground and typed it out for the CS rep. Boom. I re-enlarged Chrome to full screen and carried on. Didn't skip a beat. Simple, fast, effective, powerful.

(Now that I think about it, split screen would have worked too!)

Invariably turned into an Android vs IOS comparison. Be that as it may; those who like choices, there are plenty out there for everybody. You workflow doesn't "work" on IOS, go to Android, doesn't work on Android, go to windows.

My workflow doesn't have the same constraints as yours and even if it did, the iphone 6 allows a call to be put in background with the ability to talk and surf. If today I wanted a real computer for being able to do anything anywhere I would get a surface to add to my arsenal. At least I could run all of the windows programs I have on my desktop.

Apple will do what apple does best, which is taking what's available and raising the bar, similar to what apple did with touch id.

I'm sure the 6s and 7 will address some of your hardware "concerns"; although I very much doubt apple will turn IOS into a clone of android with a feature for feature match.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Cherry pick, aren't you?

Image

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You also left out rolleyes what Anandtech commented on the program was used.



Here, with Androbench 4

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I stated in my post that the new phones are capable of 200MB, but that is still 20% slower than the now 7 month old iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Here's a link to help increase your reading skills: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/study/reading

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I'm not really liking this hostile part of Macrumors named 'Alternatives', I'll be leaving to the more civilised parts of the site

 

[skratch77]

I stated in my post that the new phones are capable of 200MB, but that is still 20% slower than the now 7 month old iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Here's a link to help increase your reading skills: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/study/reading

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I'm not really liking this hostel part of Macrumors named 'Alternatives', I'll be leaving to the more civilised parts of the site

Here is my "new phone" hitting 328mb/sec and not the 200 that you claim.waiting for your responce to the many gs6 geekbench numbers I posted earlier also.

Try not to cherry pick biased benchmarks from apple owned annandtech also.

 

[SusanK]

Users shouldn't care about profits though, they shouldn't really care about sales volume either

So many people on macrumors with the shareholder point of view, I can't believe all of you own significant enough stock to brag about how much profit Apple makes on each device. Gloating about that as a consumer just boggles my mind.

A voice of reason. Refreshing! I don't know why posters boast about company profits. I speculate that it is an attempt to rationalize the decline in Apple quality.

I'm a shareholder. I fell in love with the Mac years ago. Apple was out of favor. I loved the Mac so much I thought others may too. I bought a few shares. No big deal, just a few shares.

Steve returned and Apple was back on the map. Things just kept getting better. I love everything Apple produced. My purchases were only limited by my budget.

Apple had a few stock splits so I had a few more share. I was a very satisfied end user who owned some stock.

Steve died. New guy started dumbing things down to make more profit. Software went live before it was ready. Subordinates were required to take the blame or be fired. You know this story. No need for a rehash from me.

The transition after Steve's death dragged me kicking and screaming from a hugely please Apple consumer to someone who watches the share price daily while I unwind my position in Apple.

I liked it much better when going to the Apple Store was a wonderful adventure and I loved everything there. Now I hope the stock price does not tank until I'm out.

I liked it better the other way. I can buy stock in any company. No company thrilled me like Apple did. I really wish the emphasis was on products not profits.

Steve was amazing but he's 0 and 2 for CEO picks.

 

[I7guy]

I stated in my post that the new phones are capable of 200MB, but that is still 20% slower than the now 7 month old iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Here's a link to help increase your reading skills: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/study/reading

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I'm not really liking this hostel part of Macrumors named 'Alternatives', I'll be leaving to the more civilised parts of the site

Probably mean to say "hostile" or maybe "more spirited".

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Here is my "new phone" hitting 328mb/sec and not the 200 that you claim.waiting for your responce to the many gs6 geekbench numbers I posted earlier also.



Try not to cherry pick biased benchmarks from apple owned annandtech also.

All these scores are great and all when they show phones are faster or slower on paper but how does this all relate to real world use? Would I be able to send an email faster, open Facebook up quicker or what? Smartphones these days are all pretty quick. I'll be honest I can play about with my fathers iPhone 5 and not notice any visible difference in the speed of opening apps when compared to my iPhone 6. I'm sure there are subtle differences but I doubt most users are looking for them. We often see geek bench scoring bounded around in discussions but it often seems more like todger waving than useful to the end user to me. Perhaps the guys who time their tasks for reassurance enjoy the stats and if that is the case, great.

 

[I7guy]

A voice of reason. Refreshing! I don't know why posters boast about company profits. I speculate that it is an attempt to rationalize the decline in Apple quality.

I'm a shareholder. I fell in love with the Mac years ago. Apple was out of favor. I loved the Mac so much I thought others may too. I bought a few shares. No big deal, just a few shares.

Steve returned and Apple was back on the map. Things just kept getting better. I love everything Apple produced. My purchases were only limited by my budget.

Apple had a few stock splits so I had a few more share. I was a very satisfied end user who owned some stock.

Steve died. New guy started dumbing things down to make more profit. Software went live before it was ready. Subordinates were required to take the blame or be fired. You know this story. No need for a rehash from me.

The transition after Steve's death dragged me kicking and screaming from a hugely please Apple consumer to someone who watches the share price daily while I unwind my position in Apple.

I liked it much better when going to the Apple Store was a wonderful adventure and I loved everything there. Now I hope the stock price does not tank until I'm out.

I liked it better the other way. I can buy stock in any company. No company thrilled me like Apple did. I really wish the emphasis was on products not profits.

Steve was amazing but he's 0 and 2 for CEO picks.

Well that's an interesting twist and you may be part a few lone voices who bemoan the decline of apple, while selling your stock at a profit.

People care about products, valuation, revenue, because they are all indicators that provide some insight as to how a company is doing. Peter Drucker 101. I think there is an estimate there are 500 million idevices out there, that's a lot of opinions and yours that says apples focus is on profits is just one of the many. If they didn't have a product there would be no customer base, no revenue and your stock price would tank. And it seems like the new ceo of apple is mostly universally loved. I say mostly because there are some people who are still stuck in the SJ era.

 

[skratch77]

All these scores are great and all when they show phones are faster or slower on paper but how does this all relate to real world use? Would I be able to send an email faster, open Facebook up quicker or what? Smartphones these days are all pretty quick. I'll be honest I can play about with my fathers iPhone 5 and not notice any visible difference in the speed of opening apps when compared to my iPhone 6. I'm sure there are subtle differences but I doubt most users are looking for them. We often see geek bench scoring bounded around in discussions but it often seems more like todger waving than useful to the end user to me. Perhaps the guys who time their tasks for reassurance enjoy the stats and if that is the case, great.

I'll remember this post when the iPhone 6s comes out and beats the gs6 and the forum will fill with posts about bragging on how fast the iPhone is.

When apple is on top they gloat and brag and when samsung is on top they say who cares bla bla

So one way its not even funny

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I'll remember this post when the iPhone 6s comes out and beats the gs6 and the forum will fill with posts about bragging on how fast the iPhone is.



When apple is on top they gloat and brag and when samsung is on top they say who cares bla bla



So one way its not even funny

You can remember it all you want but my point will still stand won't it?

It'll just be a load of people yet again saying 'the iPhone 6S is fractionally faster than the S6 na na na na naaaa!'

You seem to think I am only targeting Samsung when my point was all phones in general. This is the problem with threads like these, it always has to turn into a competition when in reality they are just mobile phones that pretty much all do the same thing. We have preferences for OS, handsets but these can't be the same for everybody. It's times like this the chest pumping has to be pointed out.

 

[Vegastouch]

I'll remember this post when the iPhone 6s comes out and beats the gs6 and the forum will fill with posts about bragging on how fast the iPhone is.

When apple is on top they gloat and brag and when samsung is on top they say who cares bla bla

So one way its not even funny

That is very true and surely what happens in here. However, for me, i dont care at all about benchmarks. If what you did can get me better battery life and remove the bloat, id surely care more about that than a benchmark score being higher.
I know the newest iphone will maybe be faster than teh GS6 is now and thats fine but the S models dont really add much and iOS will still be the same boring, feature lacking OS as it always has been so regardless of a benchmark score it might have, ....ill still say, who cares to it just as i am to the benchmarks of the GS6 now compared to the current iPhone.

 

[I7guy]

That is very true and surely what happens in here. However, for me, i dont care at all about benchmarks. If what you did can get me better battery life and remove the bloat, id surely care more about that than a benchmark score being higher.

It's happening with the S6 right now, when the next iphone comes around and the same thing happens with the next iphone...it's going to be like: "them people are at it again?"

 

[Dmunjal]

I'll remember this post when the iPhone 6s comes out and beats the gs6 and the forum will fill with posts about bragging on how fast the iPhone is.

When apple is on top they gloat and brag and when samsung is on top they say who cares bla bla

So one way its not even funny

Doesn't Apple usually time the Note release with the iPhone fall release? I'm sure the Note will perform better than the S6.

 

[AppleRobert]

Given the record sales the new iPhones always have after they come out, seems like a lot of people upgrade (since it clearly can't be just simply huge numbers of new people getting the phones all the time).

We will never be able to do anything but speculate but I believe lots of new people got the new iPhone because they were waiting for a larger size.

 

[mi7chy]

I'd say that the most advanced parts of the industry allways come from Apple in terms of their iOS Devices CPUs. They offer equal perfromace to Octa Core Android devices, but with lower clock speeds and lower core count along with pretty much no throttling.

A8 is a slow poke compared to Exynos 7420. Stockfish chess game engine on A8 scores 1260K while Exynos 7420 scores 1834K on Droidfish using the same Stockfish engine so about 46% faster. Amazing it's even faster than Intel Core M in my Thinkpad Helix2 tablet.

Exynos 7420

 

[Vegastouch]

We will never be able to do anything but speculate but I believe lots of new people got the new iPhone because they were waiting for a larger size.

I believe that too. I was even intriqued more than i have been but in the end, the OS still wasnt up to speed but the screen size at least led me to check it out where i havent at all the past 4 years.

 

[SusanK]

Well that's an interesting twist and you may be part a few lone voices who bemoan the decline of apple, while selling your stock at a profit.

People care about products, valuation, revenue, because they are all indicators that provide some insight as to how a company is doing. Peter Drucker 101. I think there is an estimate there are 500 million idevices out there, that's a lot of opinions and yours that says apples focus is on profits is just one of the many. If they didn't have a product there would be no customer base, no revenue and your stock price would tank. And it seems like the new ceo of apple is mostly universally loved. I say mostly because there are some people who are still stuck in the SJ era.

The greed at Apple is a turnoff. I phoned the local Apple store for info on a repair. I used the line that rings in the back of the house. I spoke to a staffer briefly and was transferred to Apple Care.

Apple Care rep took an accusatory tone with me when I asked about the repair. "Did you damage it? Was it dropped?" Before he could build up a full head of steam I told him the Mac is out of warranty. The proposed work is customer pay.

At that point the AC rep became very concerned and wanted to be very helpful, schedule (hard sell) the repair immediately. I thanked him and said I would call back.

The work was done at MicroCenter.

 

[I7guy]

The greed at Apple is a turnoff. I phoned the local Apple store for info on a repair. I used the line that rings in the back of the house. I spoke to a staffer briefly and was transferred to Apple Care.

Apple Care rep took an accusatory tone with me when I asked about the repair. "Did you damage it? Was it dropped?" Before he could build up a full head of steam I told him the Mac is out of warranty. The proposed work is customer pay.

At that point the AC rep became very concerned and wanted to be very helpful, schedule (hard sell) the repair immediately. I thanked him and said I would call back.

The work was done at MicroCenter.

Everybody's experience is different. As for corporate greed, Apple clearly does not lead the pack in that arena. When your company has 500million customers it's hard to keep everyone happy. And frankly before I call apple greedy, I would look at the fortune 500 and find the companies that are altruistic.

Ultimately companies that don't care about their customers, like BB, are doomed. But apple has a long way to go before that happens.

 

[SusanK]

Everybody's experience is different. As for corporate greed, Apple clearly does not lead the pack in that arena.

This site is about Apple. Not a Fortune 500 forum.

 

[C DM]

The greed at Apple is a turnoff. I phoned the local Apple store for info on a repair. I used the line that rings in the back of the house. I spoke to a staffer briefly and was transferred to Apple Care.

Apple Care rep took an accusatory tone with me when I asked about the repair. "Did you damage it? Was it dropped?" Before he could build up a full head of steam I told him the Mac is out of warranty. The proposed work is customer pay.

At that point the AC rep became very concerned and wanted to be very helpful, schedule (hard sell) the repair immediately. I thanked him and said I would call back.

The work was done at MicroCenter.

Seems like stories like that are more exceptions rather than the rule basically.

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This site is about Apple. Not a Fortune 500 forum.

What does that mean? This particular subforum is actually about more than Apple, that's pretty much the point of it given that "alternatives" is right in its name.

 

[SusanK]

Seems like stories like that are more exceptions rather than the rule basically.

Just curious as I am not in the habit of phoning AC. Does the AC rep get the serial number of the device? That would determine if the Mac was in warranty.

Thanks

 

[Abazigal]

Can Apple close the gap to the S6's hardware?

A voice of reason. Refreshing! I don't know why posters boast about company profits. I speculate that it is an attempt to rationalize the decline in Apple quality..

I don't care about profits for profits' sake. But after years and years of hearing android fanboys go on and on about how Apple is doomed, it's refreshing to finally have the hard concrete data to show the world that this is obviously not the case.

How many years in a row has it been since they have been dead wrong? Why are these people still insisting in blindly criticizing Apple?

The truth is, being wrong about Apple’s future often stems from being wrong about Apple’s past. If you can’t appreciate what led to Apple's past successes, it’s tough to see the future ones.

I notice a consistent pattern in Apple’s critics. Those that understand Apple the least, criticize Apple the most. If they want me to believe that they understand the reasons why Apple will fall, first demonstrate to me that they understand the reasons why Apple grew at all and grew so tall. Until then, I’ll remain skeptical of the doomsayers.

And I will never stop trying to get them to shut up. One troll at a time.

 

[jamezr]

Can Apple close the gap to the S6's hardware?

I don't care about profits for profits' sake. But after years and years of hearing android fanboys go on and on about how Apple is doomed, it's refreshing to finally have the hard concrete data to show the world that this is obviously not the case.

How many years in a row has it been since they have been dead wrong? Why are these people still insisting in blindly criticizing Apple?

The truth is, being wrong about Apple’s future often stems from being wrong about Apple’s past. If you can’t appreciate what led to Apple's past successes, it’s tough to see the future ones.

I notice a consistent pattern in Apple’s critics. Those that understand Apple the least, criticize Apple the most. If they want me to believe that they understand the reasons why Apple will fall, first demonstrate to me that they understand the reasons why Apple grew at all and grew so tall. Until then, I’ll remain skeptical of the doomsayers.

And I will never stop trying to get them to shut up. One troll at a time.

Nice rant but I haven't heard one person in this thread say in any shape or form say that Apple was doomed.