A detailed report on AppleInsider has found graphics performance on the Galaxy S6 to fall not only far behind the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but in some cases even behind the iPhone 5S. It’s a landslide victory.
The tests use Kishonti Informatics’ respected GFXBench (v3.0.2) and use OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0 benchmarks. The benchmark uses game-mimicking graphics to attain their results and is often seen as one of the more reliable tests for indication of real world performance.
Most notably AppleInsider claims that “In terms of fps [frames per second], the latest benchmarks show that Samsung’s new ‘Exynos 7’ powered Galaxy S6 drops down to 15 fps—just 78 percent of the frame rate of iPhone 6 Plus—in the same test [OpenGL ES 3.0 3D].”
But hang on a minute, didn’t Samsung just score a major performance win over Apple less than one month ago? Yes, but with a vital caveat…
Chipset Vs Smartphone
What the tests at the beginning of March found were that Samsung’s new Exynos 7420 chipset, which is at the heart of both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, hammered the Apple A8 which is inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The problem? That was just a test of the chipset, not the chipset inside the phone. So what is AppleInsider pinning the massive turnaround on? Screen resolution.
In a nutshell: it takes a vastly greater overhead to drive the QHD (2560 x 1440) panels inside both new Samsung phones. The panels may be more power efficient, but that’s separate to the demand they place on other components.
Then again isn’t all this just an Apple dedicated site pushing an agenda? Possible, but I don’t think so.
Previously AppleInsider discovered the iPhone 6 Plus’ bump to a 1080p resolution led to dramatically less graphics performance than the 750p iPhone 6. In fact the iPhone 6 Plus was actually beaten in some graphics tests by the 640p iPhone 5S. Hardly a winning pro-Apple result and one that opens up the old argument about pros Vs cons in smartphone display resolutions.
After all why spend all that time coming up with a faster chipset if you’re just going to cripple it with a 2560 x 1440 pixel (577 PPI) display? The iPhone 6 has 3x less pixels to drive which gives it an enormous advantage. It’s an unfair fight Samsung couldn’t win, so why give the Galaxy S6 such ridiculous overhead in the first place? This isn’t a pound-for-pound competition.
Then again not everything is quite as it seems…
Specification Wars Are Stupid
While quite rightly calling out the idiocy in the collective obsession with smartphone specifications, AppleInsider actually neglects to ask the more basic question: how fast does each phone feel on its own platform?
A fun, if unscientific, test by AndroidGameE found that the Galaxy S6 actually performs real world UI tasks faster than the iPhone 6. Something it documented in the video below:
There are too many differentials here to give them a great deal of credence (not least differences in app optimisation on each platform), but it does illustrate a broader point: if your phone feels fast and operates quickly, does it really matter where it places on a benchmark graph, let alone a spec sheet?
Resetting The Narrative
Then again what we do have is an Apple PR win. Something that’s been in scant regard since the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 launched.
Samsung has even grabbed the photography spotlight despite Apple’s massive iPhone camera campaign shortly before the new Galaxies launched. Samsung has also reported pre-orders for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have topped 20 million.
All of which sets things up rather nicely. Apple is breaking records and Samsung looks to be back on track. Companies always up their game when a main rival is on form, so as long as that remains the case the future for both Apple and Samsung looks set to be very exciting indeed…
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