Dual core iPhone 5s beats quad-core 'droids in speed test

happygeek 0 572 Views

Which? magazine the new Apple iPhone 5s to be the fastest smartphone of all in the latest round of processor benchmarking tests, despite it having less cores that rival handsets. Not only was the 5s almost twice as fast as the iPhone 5 in testing, but also around 50% faster than the Samsung Galaxy S4. In fact, the iPhone 5s is the fastest smartphone Which? has ever tested.

According to the Geekbench-powered lab tests that Which? applied to a range of flagship smartphones, replicating real-world tasks and producing a weighted score measured against a Mac Mini with an Intel Core i5 processor with a baseline of 2500 points, the iPhone 5s truly is the sprint champion in terms of raw speed with a score of 2561. This despite it having 'only' a dual-core processor, albeit a 64bit one, compared to the quad-cores implemented in some of the competition.

Here's the full results table:

Apple iPhone 5s - 2561
LG G2 - 2355
Samsung Galaxy S4 - 1939
HTC One - 1805
Apple iPhone 5c - 1281
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini - 1135
HTC One Mini - 880

Of course, although there is a vast variation between the first and last scores in that results table, the truth of the matter is that any of those handsets, no matter whether they are powered by a dual-core chip or a quad-core one, no matter if it's an Android OS or iOS delivering the user experience, will be plenty fast enough to do just about anything that the average smartphone user requires.

Dani AI

Generated

flagged the Geekbench headline and pointed out the obvious takeaway — the iPhone 5s scored very well. That result is worth noticing, but it is only one piece of the picture. The test emphasizes CPU microbenchmarks (especially single‑thread work) and a high single‑core score does not automatically mean a phone will feel faster in every real task.

Benchmarks vs real use: most mobile UIs and many apps do a lot of work on the main/UI thread, so single‑core IPC and compiler/OS optimizations matter. Things that Geekbench doesn’t show well include GPU performance, disk I/O, memory bandwidth, thermal throttling under sustained load, and battery behavior — all of which shape real user experience. Also, platform differences (runtime, system libraries, scheduler) can tilt synthetic results without changing day‑to‑day responsiveness.

Practical checklist for readers and devs:

  • For buyers: test the phone on the tasks you care about (web browsing, camera burst, app launch, games) and check sustained performance after 10–15 minutes of heavy use.
  • For developers: profile the app’s main thread and reduce blocking work; move heavy tasks off the UI thread and reuse buffers/objects to avoid GC or allocation stalls.
  • Compare peak vs sustained scores and look at GPU/graphics tests if gaming matters.

Quick dev tip (Android): to time a cold app launch from the host:

adb shell am start -W com.example.app/.MainActivity

In short: the 5s headline is real, but use targeted tests and profiling to decide what matters for your workflow or purchase decision.

Member Avatar for Kelly Burby
Kelly Burby 44 Posting Pro

Well i guess the answer is yes Apple has beat quad core droid's !!

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