What appears to be a legitimate benchmark of an iPhone 7 Plus with an A10 Fusion processor has been spotted on Geekbench, and its performance scores are impressive. The A10 Fusion in the iPhone 7 Plus outperforms all existing iOS devices equipped with A9 and A9X processors, including the iPhone 6s, the iPhone SE, and the 9.7 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models.
The iPhone 7 Plus received a single-core score of 3233 and a multi-core score of 5363. Comparatively, the iPhone 6s Plus averages a single-core score of 2407 and a multi-core score of 4046, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which has the highest-clocked A9X chip, has an average single-core score of 3009 and an average multi-core score of 4881.
The iPhone 7 Plus is approximately 33 percent faster than the iPhone 6s when it comes to both single and multi-core scores, and approximately 7 percent faster than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro on single-core tests and nearly 10 percent faster on multi-core tests.
Apple's A10 chip is running at 2.23 GHz, which is potentially under-clocked because rumors suggested it would be capable of running at 2.4 to 2.45GHz. The A9X in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro runs at 2.2GHz, while the A9 in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus runs at 1.8GHz.
In marketing materials, Apple says the A10 Fusion chip is the most powerful chip ever in a smartphone, running two times faster than the iPhone 6 with graphics performance that's up to three times faster. In Geekbench tests, the iPhone 7 Plus did indeed double the performance of the iPhone 6 Plus on both multi and single-core tests.
The A10 Fusion built into the iPhone 7 is a four-core processor with two high-power cores for handling system intensive tasks and two high-efficiency cores that kick in for less intensive processes to save battery life. Apple says that the iPhone 7 should offer approximately two hours more battery life than the iPhone 6s on average and the iPhone 7 Plus should offer approximately one hour of additional battery life compared to the iPhone 6s Plus.
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker.
According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 12:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
The next-generation low-cost iPad will use Apple's A19 chip, according to a report from Macworld. Macworld claims to have seen an "internal Apple code document" with information about the 2026 iPad lineup.
Prior documentation discovered by MacRumors suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and...
Thursday December 11, 2025 4:19 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's next-generation Studio Display is expected to arrive early next year, and a new report allegedly provides a couple more details on the external monitor's capabilities.
According to internal Apple code seen by Macworld, the new external display will feature a variable refresh rate capable of up to 120Hz – aka ProMotion – as well as support for HDR content. The current Studio...
At this point, these numbers (for any phone benchmark) are meaningless. The real world observational differences in typical day to day use would be unnoticeable.
There was a time you'd see a difference, but over the last 5 years phones are so fast, no one will see any kind of difference.
The A9 is still faster than the Snapdragon 820, and now this.
But because Apple doesn't change the phone's shape, it is clear that Apple is not INNOVATIVE! Apple should be like Samsung, putting random features like iris scanner (that is more cumbersome to use). That's innovation!
My 6s Plus and iPad 9.7" Pro are both so fast already that I find myself not totally frothing at the mouth for this. Sure I'll always take more speed, but for the first time ever, I'm not impatiently awaiting the speed upgrade. In fact, I'm asking myself if I'll even notice the additional performance. There is absolutely NOTHING slow about my current-gen devices.
And I've owned every iPhone since the 3G, and most prior generation iPads, and this was never true before. In comparison the iPhone 6 was kind of a dog, and the page and app reloads annoying. But not anymore with the A9/A9x.
The fact that Apple took it such a huge step further with the 10 is nuts in the best way possible. I love it. I also dig that they both boosted performance and efficiency with the lower powered cores. Nice move.
