Report Falsely Claims Galaxy S6 is Faster than iPhone 6

We love iPhones for a multitude of reasons. They are simple, stylish, and technologically advanced. Other phones from competition like Samsung have the similar qualities as well. What sometimes divides people between iOS and Android phones are the specifications of the device. People have been taught assume that more processing power equals faster speeds, but these specifications can lie.

If you were to look at the iPhone 6’s raw numbers compared to the Samsung Galaxy S6’s, you would most definitely assume that the Samsung Galaxy S6 would blow the iPhone out of the water in performance benchmarks.

Specifications you read on paper do not always reflect the performance you’ll find first hand when actually testing out these phones. Anyone would guess that the Samsung Galaxy S6 would beat out the iPhone 6 in real-world tests as well intense graphic capability tests. Tom’s Guide recently published an article stating that the Samsung Galaxy S6 did in fact blow the iPhone 6 out of the water, however these results were completely skewed.

In a report by Apple Insider, it is alleged that the popular tech website Tom’s Guide, published an article stating that the Samsung Galaxy S6 was the fastest phone on the market. It turns out, that this proclamation is completely false. Tom’s Guide handpicked specific performance benchmark scores that would make it appear that the Samsung Galaxy S6 performed better than the iPhone 6.

One test that was especially damning was ran using FutureMark 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited. It is alleged that this particular benchmark testing application runs great on Android devices, but isn’t optimized for iOS. This benchmark-testing app is a favorite among Android fans as it consistently gives the iPhone a terrible score, while the Android device will show amazing results.

In more reliable tests, the iPhone 6 performs equally as well as the Samsung Galaxy S6, and often better.

One reason for the amazing performance of the iPhone 6 is the simple fact that it is running iOS. iOS has been heavily optimized for speed, battery life, and reliability. Much in the same way Macintosh computers are built, iPhone’s run smoothly even during intense activities.

Another reason the iPhone 6 produces great benchmark scores are its two processing cores, which are better optimized than the Samsung Galaxy S6’s eight cores. Apple Insider does a great job of explaining this phenomenon. They state that Apple uses both cores in unison, and can switch either one off when usage is unnecessary. This gives the iPhone 6 a great balance of performance and battery life.

The reason why Samsung’s 8 cores don’t run as efficiently as the iPhone 6’s 2 cores, is described perfectly by Apple Insider when they write

“…the 8 core design also trades off the ability to use more of the chip most of the time, because it devotes more surface area to more, smaller cores. Because most tasks can only use a single core at once, this means Apple’s two large A8 cores can devote half of the CPU chip area to single core tasks. Samsung not only leaves one set of four cores idle, but also quarters up the remaining in-use chip surface area to deliver a smaller single engine for most of the tasks a smartphone user actually does in the real world.

So while “8 cores” might sound impressive, it actually doesn’t mean it can do four times (or even twice) the work of a dual core chip. In fact, in single core operations, Apple’s A8 in iPhone 6 is actually 40 percent faster than the Exynos 7 in Samsung’s Galaxy S6, according to Geekbench 3.”

In some tests, the iPhone 5s actually outperformed the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Android is not as polished as iOS making it more buggy, therefore Android phones are also more likely to crash. Because of this, Android devices have been known to be the budget friendly alternative to the iPhone. Interestingly enough, the slower performing Samsung Galaxy S6 costs more money than the iPhone 6.

Be careful with the information that you consume, as some information can be deceitful. Handpicked information can skew the results of certain performance tests making it appear to the average eye that one product is inherently better than another.

The iPhone 6 is coming close to its first birthday later this year. It’s exciting to see an “older” device edging out newcomers in the smartphone market. Even with less robust hardware, the iPhone running on iOS still manages to come out on top. It’s safe to say that the iPhone 6 will be a great running phone for years to come.