The Chipgate controversy upsetting iPhone 6s owners over the past 48 hours is completely overblown, Apple said this afternoon, claiming battery life on iPhone 6s units varies only slightly.
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners have discovered that devices with a TSMC A9 chip get considerably better battery performance than ones sporting an A9 made by Samsung, based on GeekBench 3 scores and some real-world testing. However, Apple says that “manufactured lab tests” that continuously run a heavy workload don’t represent the iPhone 6s’ true capabilities.
Here’s Apple’s full statement on Chipgate:
“With the Apple-designed A9 chip in your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you are getting the most advanced smartphone chip in the world. Every chip we ship meets Apple’s highest standards for providing incredible performance and deliver great battery life, regardless of iPhone 6s capacity, color, or model.
Certain manufactured lab tests which run the processors with a continuous heavy workload until the battery depletes are not representative of real-world usage, since they spend an unrealistic amount of time at the highest CPU performance state. It’s a misleading way to measure real-world battery life. Our testing and customer data show the actual battery life of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, even taking into account variable component differences, vary within just 2-3% of each other.”
Real-world testing on the Samsung A9 and TSMC A9 chips revealed that while the differences in battery performances wasn’t as dramatic as perceived by GeekBench scores, the TSMC chips do get 5 percent to 12 percent more battery life during heavy everyday usage. However, if you’re using your iPhone 6s less frequently, you’re unlikely to notice much difference.
The TSMC A9 chip isn’t the only variable in these tests, though, so it’s very likely that something else could be to blame for the slight difference in battery life. Cult of Mac spoke with Joshua Ho at AnandTech, who told us there are many other possible causes.
“It’s just as possible that Samsung A9 is worse at dealing with heat than the TSMC version even if both start at the same power level because Samsung has smaller die size, therefore more power is concentrated in a smaller die area, thus increasing temperatures,” Ho said. “Higher average temperatures can easily lead to worse performance as the nature of semiconductor physics is such that power draw increases with temperature on any chip.”
There are tons of other examples that could be pointed to, but for now, most users can rest assured that they’re getting the best iPhone ever made, no matter which company made the processor inside.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
16 responses to “Apple denies Chipgate means iPhone 6s battery woes”
Hmmm, Apple uses two different suppliers for the same chip design and their’s a big stink about it, yet Samsung was selling two different brands of two different chips in some of their high end phones and no-one says a thing about performance and battery performance differences. between an Exynos chip vs a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip.. Get over it. any differences are going to inconsequential.
in Apple, the end user have no way to choice
You always have a choice, don’t buy an Apple phone.
so most users won’t see a difference, but if I want to see a lot of movies or use heavy apps my iPhone may have a less battery life if it uses a Samsung chip? really Apple!!!
such as playing game or 4k video recording ….
You are equating watching movies and recording video with high continuous processor workload, which may not be the case.
I hope somebody comepare the runtime at GPS navigation, non-mp4 file playing, playing game demo such as GTX bench, 4K video recording time, so call, real world but higher AP load situation test.
I feel apple think as just read email, web reading, twittering, blogging are only the real world usage. it is so disapointed
Why don’t you see what YOUR real world battery life is? If you are unhappy with it, then return the phone. I see you complaining a lot in this thread, but have you actually been unhappy with the battery life of your phone, or are you just unhappy because some articles on the internet told you to be unhappy? If you are really unhappy, then I would return the phone and find one that you are happy with.
“incredible performance ” it is an wrong wording, if enjoy its “incredible performance”, will use much higher battery usage with Samsung AP….
I remember when Apple computers had 40MB hard disks. From a number of suppliers…. Apple partitioned them to the same size, even though some had 43MB of space. It was a well known trick to use a program that re-partitioned the hard drive – everybody was happy.
Today some folks get x hours battery lifte, (a 40MB drive), some get a 43MB drive – Apple has only promised a 40… everybody is upset….
Chip of different procedure won’t drain your battery, high temperature will. Intensive usage will result in high temperature. You’ll not keep your device in high temperature environment for more than 6 hours in your daily life. And that’s the real reason behind such difference.
Battery life is affected by lots of issues, and one of them is temperature. Performance varies of both chips and battery when operating in hight temperature, and the result is case by case. It’s ultimately ridiculous to make any conclusion based on such a tiny amount of sample, tested under extraordinary conditions.
So yes, you’re testing it wrong, scientifically. Go reading some books about solid electronics.
I think most people understand this but it still comes down to the fact that in some scenarios, one chip gives you more bang for your buck the other does. Apple folk are more likely than any to care about this given the emphasis placed on buying “the best” experience for their money.
That and the higher heat of the Samsung chip will result in a faster (perhaps marginal but still existent) degradation of the phones components.
Electronic components varies from one chip to another. Sometime the difference of average performance is significant between shipments. A good design will consider tolerance. Components fall into the tolerant range will be accepted. It’s not practical and not possible to pick individuals of top performance among a shipment of same model.
This is similar to when Macbook owners were getting different results based on whether the computer came with an LG or Samsung display. It sucks as a consumer when there is such a disparity and you can’t select the exact one you want. Maybe it’s a consequence not being able to find a supplier that has capacity to make ALL the chips for a specific model, but you would think that Samsung would be capable of doing it.
Not going to lie, the circumstances amuse me. The Samsung made A9 has poorer performance than the non Samsung made A9. Clearly Samsung is trying to sabotage Apple from the inside… of it’s phones. /s