A Geekbench score for the iPhone 14 Pro Max with the new A16 Bionic chip has revealed little performance improvement compared to the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max from last year.
A Geekbench test result for iPhone15,3, the identifier for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, shows the new iPhone with a single-core score of 1879 and a multi-core score of 4664. The iPhone 13 Pro scores 1707 in single-core and 4659 in multi-core, only being marginally slower than the latest high-end iPhone.
The most significant new feature of the A16 Bionic chip is that it's the first chip from Apple based on the smaller 4nm process. The A15 Bionic chip, like Apple's M1 and M2 Apple silicon chips for the Mac, is based on the 5nm process.
Despite the smaller jump in performance that some may have hoped, Apple says the A16 Bionic chip is "the fastest chip ever in a smartphone." The A16 Bionic has a more powerful GPU that can provide up to 50% more memory bandwidth for graphics-intensive games. The A16 Bionic also has a new 16-core Neural Engine to power advanced machine learning tasks. In the CPU, the A16 Bionic features the same 6-core count as the A15 Bionic, but Apple says it's a "new 6-core CPU."
Update: This article has been updated to note that the Geekbench result is for an iPhone 14 Pro Max, not an iPhone 14 Pro. Both devices use the same A16 chip, however, so their scores should be similar.
Tuesday September 9, 2025 10:59 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Both devices feature a new aluminum unibody design, with the Ceramic Shield now protecting both the front and back sides. Apple says the front side is now Ceramic Shield 2, which offers 3x better scratch resistance, while the rear Ceramic Shield is advertised as 4x more resistant to cracks compared to the back glass on previous...
Tuesday September 9, 2025 8:55 am PDT by Jordan Golson
Apple's "Awe Dropping" event kicks off today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, where we're expecting to see the iPhone 17 lineup, several updated Apple Watch models, and the third-generation AirPods Pro unveiled, and perhaps some other announcements.
Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company's TV app across various platforms. We will also be updating...
Tuesday September 9, 2025 12:23 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple continues to phase out the physical SIM card tray on iPhones, with the latest models relying solely on eSIM technology in more countries.
The new iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max support eSIMs only in these countries and regions, according to Apple:
Bahrain
Canada
Guam
Japan
Kuwait
Mexico
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Un...
Apple today unveiled the iPhone Air, an all-new kind of iPhone featuring an ultra-thin design.
The iPhone Air is just 5.6mm thick, making it the thinnest iPhone ever. The frame is made of titanium with a polished mirror finish. The device features Ceramic Shield 2 with 3x better scratch resistance and 4x better crack resistance, on both sides of the device for the first time. Apple says that ...
Apple is preparing to launch two versions of the AirPods Pro 3 over 2025 and 2026, according to a Weibo leaker.
Yesterday, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to debut the AirPods Pro 3 this year. They could arrive as soon as this week at Apple's "Awe dropping" event.
Crucially, Kuo added that Apple is planning to introduce a successor to this year's AirPods ...
Tuesday September 9, 2025 1:25 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has confirmed the battery capacities for the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models that were announced earlier today.
Apple is required to publish energy labels on its iPhone product pages in the EU, and they reveal the official mAh battery capacities for the devices.
Here are the battery capacities for each model, according to Apple:
iPhone 17:...
They improved most in power efficiency, which I’d actually prefer at this point. Let’s be honest, even an Iphone XS doesn’t feel sluggish. When’s the last time you used an iPhone that did??
More important than always squeezing more horsepower out of the chip is also the battery life - and that’s again increased. I don’t think any other phone lasts this long and has this much horse power at the same time.
Looks like Moores Law is already catching up with Apple Silicon. But here I am on a plane using an iPhone X with an A11 chip. Who am I to complain really. These phones are so super fast that you get one, it’s gonna last you years. I am still using a 6s at home with a A9 as a backup phone. Apart from the sucky battery life, it’s still super fast.
But I think the SoC has reached a point now for Apple where it’s pretty much a solved problem. The issue is unleashing the existing power of what’s already on the market. So software and efficiency is really where it’s at.
Besides 5nm to 4nm, shouldn’t be that surprised. If A17 Bionic goes to 3 NM, might see some dramatic raw performance. But again, who is Apple competing with here? It’s certainly not Android phones, it’s obviously itself.
That's a 10% jump in single-core performance - the metric that is going to make the most difference in day to day usage of the phone. I'll take a quiet multi-core year if we get major energy consumption and heat-output reductions as a result. Also, we know when it comes to the M3, multi-core performance scales almost linearly by just packing in more cores, so I'm not concerned for Apple Silicon on the Mac.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
