Apple sourced the chips from two manufacturers in an attempt to reduce the supply problems that are normally a hallmark of iPhone launches. The model using Samsung’s chip finished with 55%.
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Initial investigations suggested that both makes of A9 chip performed pretty similarly with no significant differences in the speeds of operations when the chips are tasked.
“It seems Samsung customers are becoming more loyal to the brand”, said Ashley Turner, co-founder and director of CompareMyMobile.
At least this was until recently where a Geekbench 3 benchmark made its way on Reddit (via MacRumors), in which it shows an iPhone with the A9 made by TSMC lasting nearly 2 hours longer than the one made by Samsung. If both chips have an identical microarchitecture, the smaller transistors of the Samsung chip should result in lower power consumption and heat generation. There are two separate processors on the 6s & 6s plus which are manufactured by TSMC & Samsung. Ten minutes of 4K video capture later, both phones are down an additional 9%, and an iMovie export of the same 4K video leaves the two devices at 60% vs. 66%.
And despite the apparent increase in Samsung loyalty, a survey by the comparison website discovered that 21% of smartphone users were switching from Samsung devices to the iPhone 6s, while 45.7% were already iPhone users. This shouldn’t really be an issue and so far most benchmarks don’t show that there is too much of a different. After this, a larger stock of the devices will be available for purchase in November. It’s worth noting that, with such a small sample size, it’s hard to be certain that it’s the SoC causing the battery life difference, though different CMOS processes do certainly have very different power and performance characteristics. Let us talk more about this.
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Apple has had something of a chequered past when it comes to dual-sourcing components for its products. One of the two providers of the ground-breaking vibration component, AAC Technologies, was apparently unable to consistently provide reliable parts, leading Apple to drop it as a supplier and scrap a few completed watches.
