iPhone Xs and Xs Max Benchmarked: World's Fastest Phones (Again)

iPhone XS and XS Max Benchmarked: World's Fastest Phones (Again)

by Mark Spoonauer Sep 18, 2018, 3:14 AM

The world's first 7-nanometer processor in a phone isn't the breakthrough that the A11 Bionic was regarding raw performance, but it still runs circles around Android phones powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 chip in several world real-world tests and synthetic benchmarks.

The new hexa-core chip inside the iPhone XS and XS Max packs two performance cores that are designed to be 15 percent faster than its predecessor, along with four high-efficiency cores that use up to 50 percent less power, according to the company. On top of that is a four-core GPU that Apple says is up to 50 percent faster.

Here are the results so far, based on our testing. If there are any tests you would like us to run in addition to what you see here, please let us know in the comments.

Geekbench 4 (Multicore)

iPhone XS Max	11,515
iPhone XS	11,420
iPhone X	10,357
OnePlus 6	9,088
Galaxy Note 9	8,876
LG G7 ThinQ	8,566
Galaxy S9+	8,295

Geekbench 4 is a benchmark that measures overall performance, and no other phone comes close to Apple's new handsets on this test. The iPhone Xs notched 11,420, and the iPhone Xs Max hit 11,515. The older iPhone X scored 10,357, so that's about an 11 percent improvement.

There's a lot more distance between the new iPhones and Android flagships. The fastest Android phone around, the OnePlus 6, scored 9,088 on Geekbench 4 with its 8GB of RAM, while the Galaxy Note 9 reached 8,876.

Video Editing (Transcode 2-minute 4K clip to 1080p)

iPhone XS Max	39 seconds
iPhone XS	39 seconds
iPhone X	43 seconds
Galaxy S9+	2:32
LG G7 ThinQ	3:16
OnePlus 6	3:45
Galaxy Note 9	N/A*

*Doesn't support Adobe Clips app

To test real-world performance, we use the Adobe Premiere Clips app to transcode a 2-minute 4K video to 1080p. The iPhone X was miles ahead last year with a time of just 42 seconds. This time around, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max knocked it down further to 39 seconds.

MORE: iPhone Xs Max and iPhone Xs Review: This Is Obscene

The Galaxy S9+ took 2 minutes and 32 seconds to complete the task, and that's the fastest we've seen from an Android phone. The OnePlus 6 finished in 3:45, and the LG G7 ThinQ took 3:16.

App Open Times (Lower is better)

	Fortnite	Pokémon Go	Asphalt 9	Tekken
iPhone XS Max	20.8 seconds	4.9 seconds	6.17 seconds	18.76 seconds
iPhone X	26 seconds	7.2 seconds	10 seconds	19.7 seconds
Galaxy Note 9	35 seconds	7.2 seconds	9.1 seconds	29.38 seconds

One good way to measure real-world performance is to see how long it takes for a phone to load demanding apps. Because the phones have the same processor for this round, we just used the iPhone Xs Max and put it up against the iPhone X and the Galaxy Note 9.

The iPhone XS Max was faster every time, including a 15-second victory in Fortnite over the Note 9 and 3-second win in Asphalt 9. The phones were closer in Pokémon Go but the iPhone XS Max still came out on top.

3DMark Slingshot Extreme (Graphics)

OnePlus 6	5,124
Galaxy Note 9	4,639
Galaxy S9+	4,634
iPhone XS Max	4,339
iPhone XS	4,244
LG G7 ThinQ	4,201

Here's one test where the new iPhones fell behind. 3DMark Slingshot Extreme measures graphics performance by evaluating everything from rendering to volumetric lighting. The OnePlus 6 fared best in this test with a score of 5,124, followed by the Galaxy Note 9 and S9+. The iPhone XS Max and iPhone X finished behind those handsets.

GFXBench 5.0/Metal

	Aztec Ruins	Car Chase
iPhone XS Max	1,604.7 frames	1,744.44 frames
iPhone XS	1,774.1 frames	1,674.3 frames
Galaxy Note 9	851.7 frames	1,103 frames
Galaxy S9+	1,339 frames	1,783 frames

The new iPhones turned the tables on the GFXBench 5, which is longer and more intense than 3DMark Slingshot Extreme. The Aztec Ruins scene, for example, is highly detailed with complex graphics designed to stress a phone.

The iPhone XS Max achieved 1,604.7 frames on the Aztec Ruins portion of the test, and 1,744.44 frames in the Car Chase test. The Note 9 was far behind at 851.7 and 1,103 frames, respectively. However, the Galaxy S9+ edged past the iPhone XS Max on this test.

Bottom Line

Based on our testing, the A12 Bionic processor inside the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max make these the fastest phones you can buy. Android phones powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 chip are speedy but they are a step behind Apple's phones. We plan on conducting more tests, including evaluating LTE speeds on the new iPhones versus other phones, and will add the results to this report.

Credit: Tom's Guide

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bobdupuu 23 days ago

Except for games, this is important because . . .
Ronald_31 23 days ago

Silly. because it makes the iPhone easier to use, less of an interference to one's stream of thought. Every moment of delay is a potential moment for a thought to be lost, train of thought to be derailed, effort to be abandoned. Buy Android and don't just lose more of your privacy but take more timeouts for coffee, not to mention waste more time tweaking the endlessly customizable UI.
mig6220 23 days ago

When the screen resolution is that low, it frees up power to do other things.
In other news...
mig6220 23 days ago

and "endlessly customizable UI's are a waste of time.."? Wow.
99 percent of what every human does on earth is a smartphone is a waste of time. Smh
nunomiguelnobre 23 days ago

The Geekbench scores reported here are considerably higher than the ones on browser.geekbench.com and elsewhere on the web... Why is that?
bobdupuu 22 days ago

Anonymous said:

Silly. because it makes the iPhone easier to use, less of an interference to one's stream of thought. Every moment of delay is a potential moment for a thought to be lost, train of thought to be derailed, effort to be abandoned. Buy Android and don't just lose more of your privacy but take more timeouts for coffee, not to mention waste more time tweaking the endlessly customizable UI.
bobdupuu 22 days ago

Not sure what phones you have been using, but I am not aware of any discernible delays that would be revealed by the Geekbench comparisons. My thoughts do not come and go with nanosecond speed. I AM more aware of delays due to data transfer speeds. Let's see a more realistic real-world comparison of that. I am not a gamer and I do not do photo editing on my phone, so I do not have any first hand experience to offer with those. It's all about bragging rights.
bluesurfcapecod 22 days ago

The larger iPhone XS Max has a bigger battery to match its size, with a capacity of 3,174mAh.
mech986 21 days ago

Were the iPhone test done with iOS 11.4 or iOS 12? Make a difference also?
KilluaXGod 18 days ago

not as large of a jump compared to 7-> 8/X
digdouug911 17 days ago

Pretty sure all the real time delays people experience I can see is 1. transcoding video 2. waiting for data to load from your provider. That is what I saw from real world comparisons. The bench scores show one is better than the other. Havent transcoded a video on any phone ever. Even on my X.
techconc 16 days ago

Killuaxgod wrote:
"not as large of a jump compared to 7-> 8/X"

True, the change in the CPU performance was rather disappointing. Of course, the fact that Apple can basically do almost nothing with it and still have class leading performance is pretty impressive. In this case, Apple seems to have spent their focus on improving the GPU and the Neural Engine. The the shift of workloads more to machine learning and AI, it's clear why Apple is going in this direction and is again setting the standard for the industry.
therealunforgiven.kd 6 days ago

I am a Samsung person I do think apple makes some pretty good phones and they are great with software. this is 2 different OS that handles processing different. Is the benchmark really accurate not bashing at all plus the phones use different resolutions Samsung much higher. That would mean the process would be more demanding on the Samsung. SAMSUNG has a lot of running process going on for features. iPhone really don't they are more simple to use and most people like that. Do you think these differences does make a difference in the score model. What do you guys think. Please don't be mean if your android that's good and if you are iphone cool. What do u think about what I brought up not who makes a better phone.
techconc 5 days ago

Anonymous said:

I am a Samsung person I do think apple makes some pretty good phones and they are great with software. this is 2 different OS that handles processing different. Is the benchmark really accurate not bashing at all plus the phones use different resolutions Samsung much higher. That would mean the process would be more demanding on the Samsung. SAMSUNG has a lot of running process going on for features. iPhone really don't they are more simple to use and most people like that. Do you think these differences does make a difference in the score model. What do you guys think. Please don't be mean if your android that's good and if you are iphone cool. What do u think about what I brought up not who makes a better phone.

For starters, you should form your opinion based a variety of sources and benchmarks. Anandtech just posted a good article talking about the A12 chip in detail and they also perform a variety of tests. Without question, the A12 is the fastest mobile chip on the market and by a considerable margin. This isn't just true for the CPU and GPU. Other aspects are way ahead such as the ISP and the Neural Engine, etc.

Your comments about screen resolution don't apply here. Most benchmark tests are completely independent of screen resolution. Even on dedicated GPU tests where it does matter, they typically offer an "off screen" mode to again take screen resolution out of the equation. Finally, with the Xs Max, the screen is sufficiently large to also negate such comments.

As for Samsung having a "lot of processes going on", etc. Like what? How is it different from iOS? iOS also has background processes running that can impact performance.
therealunforgiven.kd 5 days ago

Anonymous said:

Anonymous said:

I am a Samsung person I do think apple makes some pretty good phones and they are great with software. this is 2 different OS that handles processing different. Is the benchmark really accurate not bashing at all plus the phones use different resolutions Samsung much higher. That would mean the process would be more demanding on the Samsung. SAMSUNG has a lot of running process going on for features. iPhone really don't they are more simple to use and most people like that. Do you think these differences does make a difference in the score model. What do you guys think. Please don't be mean if your android that's good and if you are iphone cool. What do u think about what I brought up not who makes a better phone.

For starters, you should form your opinion based a variety of sources and benchmarks. Anandtech just posted a good article talking about the A12 chip in detail and they also perform a variety of tests. Without question, the A12 is the fastest mobile chip on the market and by a considerable margin. This isn't just true for the CPU and GPU. Other aspects are way ahead such as the ISP and the Neural Engine, etc.

Your comments about screen resolution don't apply here. Most benchmark tests are completely independent of screen resolution. Even on dedicated GPU tests where it does matter, they typically offer an "off screen" mode to again take screen resolution out of the equation. Finally, with the Xs Max, the screen is sufficiently large to also negate such comments.
As for Samsung having a "lot of processes going on", etc. Like what? How is it different from iOS? iOS also has background processes running that can impact performance.

That's
Nice
I was Been nice about the whole thing I gave apple good things and samsung. This is not what I wanted they can have the crown I dont care I asked a question. That's it