When Apple announced the iPhone 16 series in early September, the company touted the A18 Pro chip as “the fastest CPU in a smartphone.” The A18 chip in non-Pro iPhone 16 models should be about the same speed.
But going into the Glowtime event, I knew I wasn’t going to buy an iPhone 16 Pro this year. Instead, I chose the iPhone 16 Plus, with the A18 Pro’s chip the least of my worries. I wanted a bigger screen, longer battery life, Apple Intelligence, and a Camera Control button.
I took the iPhone 16’s performance for granted and believed the A18 would be a great upgrade from the A16 Bionic in the iPhone 14 Pro. Speed-wise, it’s an upgrade I don’t notice. Rather, they expected faster AI and improved energy efficiency.
A few weeks later, I don’t have Apple Intelligence. Because it hasn’t been released yet and Europe will have to wait even longer. However, the battery on the iPhone 16 Plus was as expected.
We’ll also eventually conduct a speed test covering the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra to determine which phone is the fastest. The results are incredibly predictable given the current state of the mobile industry.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max benchmark proves that Apple is right in labeling the A18 Pro chip as the fastest in the industry. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is no match for it, and neither are the other 2024 Android flagships. But as I’ve said many times before, benchmarks alone don’t tell the whole story.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra may not perform as well on these benchmarks, but you won’t notice that it’s actually slower than the iPhone 16 Pro Max. If there is a difference, you should use both devices to see the difference.
Also, the most important thing to remember is that most smartphone users don’t need that high-end performance. I count myself in that group. I don’t play graphics-intensive games and don’t need the full processing power the A18 Pro can offer. In other words, I could have continued using my iPhone 14 Pro non-stop.
This is one of my favorite speed tests for new smartphones. phone buff It runs on an all-new flagship release. The latest version comparison includes iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra.
As I said before, the results are predictable. In other words, the iPhone always wins. But considering how incredibly fast mid-range and flagship phones have become, you can only “win” by a very small margin. It’s so small that it doesn’t matter.
As you can see from the screenshot above, the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra finished their first round around the same time. In the second round, the iPhone beat the Galaxy phone by a few seconds.
This result mimics speed tests of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra from earlier this year, but it’s even closer. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has benefited from software optimizations since its launch, so the performance boost comes as no surprise.
What do these rounds mean and how do they replicate real-world usage? The first lap consists of each phone opening the same suite of apps for the first time. Some apps are simple apps that don’t require a lot of processing. Others are CPU intensive, and the list also includes games.
The first round is important, and the iPhone almost always wins this round. Similar results were obtained with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but the margin is in the order of milliseconds.
The second round consists of opening the same app from RAM. The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with 8GB of RAM, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with 12GB of RAM. The iPhone wins here by less than 2 seconds, showing that iOS 18 is more optimized than Android 14. It could be improved a bit.
what phone buff What these tests do is recreate real-world usage. We open apps all the time and move from one app to the next. Some are memorable, some are not. We’re all about speed, being able to quickly move from one app to the next and letting your phone do everything you need to do.
Our speed tests show that if you want a fast flagship and don’t care about the operating system, you can’t go wrong with either device. However, the successor to the Galaxy S24 Ultra is about three months away. This model will be powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which is a slightly faster chip.
