Is Qualcomm thoroughly defeated by Apple in SOC?

[d5aqoëp]

At top end, A11 has no competition at least in CPU department. Qualcomm's SD845 which will be releasing next year has leaks and it just matches A9 in single thread performance.

But iPhone SE which is being sold as low end device is still faster than all the SD630 and SD430 crap Qualcomm is marketing as midrange in Android. Exynos is more or less at Qualcomm levels of performance.

What exact advancements does Qualcomm bring to table apart from X16 LTE modem and QC4?

 

[Puddled]

Its like comparing a petrol engine to a diesel engine.

 

[Rum_Becker]

A series destroys everything out there, the only saving grace with sanpdragon is that most people don't need the crazy power that the A series provides. I have both an A5 and an SE, even though the SE is more powerful I think the user experience on the A5 is better.

 

[Michael Goff]

Apple is doing amazing things in the SoC area, best work the entire company is doing.

 

[lazard]

At top end, A11 has no competition at least in CPU department. Qualcomm's SD845 which will be releasing next year has leaks and it just matches A9 in single thread performance.

But iPhone SE which is being sold as low end device is still faster than all the SD630 and SD430 crap Qualcomm is marketing as midrange in Android. Exynos is more or less at Qualcomm levels of performance.

What exact advancements does Qualcomm bring to table apart from X16 LTE modem and QC4?

everyone is thoroughly defeated by Apple because no one else controls every aspect of the hardware and software.

 

[Klyster]

At top end, A11 has no competition at least in CPU department. Qualcomm's SD845 which will be releasing next year has leaks and it just matches A9 in single thread performance.

But iPhone SE which is being sold as low end device is still faster than all the SD630 and SD430 crap Qualcomm is marketing as midrange in Android. Exynos is more or less at Qualcomm levels of performance.

What exact advancements does Qualcomm bring to table apart from X16 LTE modem and QC4?

Qualcomm doesn't bring advancements compared to A11 but it brings availability.
Can anyone but Apple use their A series SOC's?

It's great for Apple that they have the fastest chips but it means nothing to everyone else.

It's not even a compelling reason to move to an iOS based device, in my opinion. It's kinda like putting a W16 motor in a mini.

That said, I use Exynos due to my location, I don't find myself saying "I wish my CPU on my phone was faster..."

 

[Nilhum]

For anyone using Android, how does this affect them? The iPhone doesn’t even have multi-tasking to even take advantage of the powerful A chip.

Most people won’t even notice when using their phones anyway.

 

[Olganech]

At top end, A11 has no competition at least in CPU department. Qualcomm's SD845 which will be releasing next year has leaks and it just matches A9 in single thread performance.

But iPhone SE which is being sold as low end device is still faster than all the SD630 and SD430 crap Qualcomm is marketing as midrange in Android. Exynos is more or less at Qualcomm levels of performance.

What exact advancements does Qualcomm bring to table apart from X16 LTE modem and QC4?

You can run a real enterprise class Desktop OS on a SD835 for 1 thing rather than a gimped mobile OS.

 

[Rum_Becker]

For anyone using Android, how does this affect them? The iPhone doesn’t even have multi-tasking to even take advantage of the powerful A chip.

Most people won’t even notice when using their phones anyway.

I can notice it a bit, but I'm using a 7880 which is a mid tier CPU. What I notice everyday though is how much more useful Android is. Even though My iPhone SE is faster than the Android that I replaced it with, the user experience on my slower Android is way superior.

 

[widgeteer]

Qualcomm doesn't bring advancements compared to A11 but it brings availability.
Can anyone but Apple use their A series SOC's?

It's great for Apple that they have the fastest chips but it means nothing to everyone else.

It's not even a compelling reason to move to an iOS based device, in my opinion. It's kinda like putting a W16 motor in a mini.

That said, I use Exynos due to my location, I don't find myself saying "I wish my CPU on my phone was faster..."

I agree with this, and I'd add that my own experience thus far with the 8 Plus is their own software isn't optimized for that amazing chip rendering the silicon that much less interesting. It's amazing to consider that previously iOS software was such that it didn't require best in class hardware to work well. Now it seems it's *holding back* the hardware.

 

[kdarling]

everyone is thoroughly defeated by Apple because no one else controls every aspect of the hardware and software.

This has always struck me as a fan myth, arising from Jobs stealing Alan Kay's famous saying that "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware."

In fact, Apple is well known for segregating its hardware and software groups, in order to keep secrecy. Heck, with the first iPhone, the UI people never saw a real iPhone, just a box and a screen. Likewise, the hardware people only saw a gimped test UI.

iOS has to run on multiple configurations, same as Android does, so it's of course not optimized for any hardware in particular. At the same time, that's what drivers and device-specific code are for. And of course those who port Android will likewise optimize their drivers and other code for their own devices.

As for the final result, well I can take even old Android devices and flip between web pages and various apps without reloading. With my iOS devices? No.

 

[Tsepz]

For anyone using Android, how does this affect them? The iPhone doesn’t even have multi-tasking to even take advantage of the powerful A chip.

Most people won’t even notice when using their phones anyway.

Exactly.

The only area I see the benefit is in gaming and even then it's marginal.

If Apple were putting all that power to good use I'd be truly impressed but they aren't.

Look at how much better the Note 8 multitasks vs. the latest iPhone 8 Plus:

All that power but it still is more or else performing comparably to the Note8, only winning convincingly in Gaming and a Benchmark, neither are Productive.

 

[BlueGoldAce]

I believe that most of the extra processing power goes into trying to imitate Google’s technology, such as AI and photo processing, while not leveraging the cloud. Google phones don’t need as much overhead power when googles cloud does all the heavy lifting.

Gaming is unsoundly in apples favor. But most popular games run on android too, or could, because developers don’t want to exclude older iPhones from their potential purchases. There are a select few games, like the witness, that utilize the processing power. But then it’s a case by case basis if the game scales well to a touchscreen device.

 

[Michael Goff]

I believe that most of the extra processing power goes into trying to imitate Google’s technology, such as AI and photo processing, while not leveraging the cloud. Google phones don’t need as much overhead power when googles cloud does all the heavy lifting.

Gaming is unsoundly in apples favor. But most popular games run on android too, or could, because developers don’t want to exclude older iPhones from their potential purchases. There are a select few games, like the witness, that utilize the processing power. But then it’s a case by case basis if the game scales well to a touchscreen device.

And that gives Apple an advantage. Doing things on the phone is great sometimes.

 

[jamesrick80]

Don't think so..when videos like this proves benchmarks don't matter. The S8 plus is a five month old device and continues to flourish.

 

[Michael Goff]

Don't think so..when videos like this proves benchmarks don't matter. The S8 plus is a five month old device and continues to flourish.

I think that has more to do with Android needing a less powerul CPU/GPU to run and being more RAM hungry instead. iOS is more GPU bound, needs a more powerful one.

 

[BlueGoldAce]

And that gives Apple an advantage. Doing things on the phone is great sometimes.

I have to disagree.

-Google assistant is better

-google photos is class leading

-google voice recognition is markedly better

-android Auto is faster, and a all around better system.

I have an iPhone 8 plus. I am selling our note 8s. iOS has some real, distinct advantages, but so does android. My wife plans on returning here iPhone and preordering the pixel xl 2. She prefers android and Android Auto is the major thing for here.

We want unlocked phones.

I am waiting to see the pixel announcement and will make my decision now. I like both ecosystems, so it will be a fun decision to make.

 

[JediZenMaster]

everyone is thoroughly defeated by Apple because no one else controls every aspect of the hardware and software.

That's only until Google decides what it will do with HTC.

 

[Michael Goff]

I have to disagree.

-Google assistant is better

-google photos is class leading

-google voice recognition is markedly better

-android Auto is faster, and a all around better system.

I have an iPhone 8 plus. I am selling our note 8s. iOS has some real, distinct advantages, but so does android. My wife plans on returning here iPhone and preordering the pixel xl 2. She prefers android and Android Auto is the major thing for here.

We want unlocked phones.

I am waiting to see the pixel announcement and will make my decision now. I like both ecosystems, so it will be a fun decision to make.

The more that's able to be pushed to the device means bad reception is not a bad thing.

 

[thunng8]

I think that has more to do with Android needing a less powerul CPU/GPU to run and being more RAM hungry instead. iOS is more GPU bound, needs a more powerful one.

I think it is iOS optimization. Iphone 7 on iOS 10 was much faster than the s8 plus on application loading. Even my 6s plus was faster than the s8 when I had it.

I did quite a few tests on game loading performance as well as video editing/export and raw photo editing and in all cases the 6s plus on ios10 was faster (sometimes a lot faster in terms of video and photo editing).

 

[Technarchy]

Apple is 2 or more years ahead in raw computing power, but in all fairness to Qualcomm and Samsung the issues users usually encounter are the result of sloppy code and not hardware performance.

Good code takes money, talent and time. This industry moves too fast to wait for perfect code optimized for hardware that refreshes frequently.

 

[Michael Goff]

Apple is 2 or more years ahead in raw computing power, but in all fairness to Qualcomm and Samsung the issues users usually encounter are the result of sloppy code and not hardware performance.

Good code takes money, talent and time. This industry moves too fast to wait for perfect code optimized for hardware that refreshes frequently.

And yet I still wish Qualcomm had a processor as powerful as the A11.

 

[Tsepz]

Don't think so..when videos like this proves benchmarks don't matter. The S8 plus is a five month old device and continues to flourish.

All that power and yet its no better than a 5month old S8+. Oh dear.

I like how Samsung has improved TouchWiz in 2017, the transitions seem to be faster and there's less BS going on.

 

[Tsepz]

That A11 Bionic chip doesn't seem to help with Battery Life either, poor showing by all the iPhone's here (7, 8 and 8+)

 

[jamesrick80]

All that power and yet its no better than a 5month old S8+. Oh dear.

I like how Samsung has improved TouchWiz in 2017, the transitions seem to be faster and there's less BS going on.

Correct and the Samsung UX is actually beautiful and futuristic unlike some others.