We just saw how incredibly far the iPhone’s display has come in seven short years. But if you think that’s impressive, check out how far the actual speed of the iPhone has come from the iPhone 2G to iPhone 6 Plus.
YouTube channel EverythingApplePro has posted a video showing a speed comparison of every iPhone ever made: the iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5c, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus.
They run each iPhone through the gamut of tests, from power-up to app launching. And surprisingly, the fastest iPhone is still the original one released back in 2007. Amazing, huh?
…
Psych! Obviously, we’re kidding: The iPhone 6’s A8 SoC beats the pants off every iPhone chip that came before it. But it’s still amazing to see just how much Apple has shredded Moore’s law over the last seven years with their work on the iPhone.
Source: YouTube
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
28 responses to “Watch every iPhone ever race each other in a speed-test showdown”
Nice. I am still on my 4s until my 6 Plus arrives. The iPhone does a great job of “keeping up”.
I upgraded from a 4S to the 6 and it is amazing how Apple has progressed. Great video with real information.
In the test, is the 4S running iOS 7 or the new iOS 8?
I’ve read several times that iOS 8 makes the 4S run extremely slow.
If the test 4S has been updated and is running iOS 8 in the test perhaps I will take the chance and update mine to iOS 8.
I would say iOS 8 if it was freshly restored to its latest.
And it is very true. iOS 8 kills speed and performance of the 4S. Something I’m seeing quite commonly, as well as my parents having issues. They’re ready to upgrade thank goodness ;)
Lol don’t you see that Apple tampers their later products to get people to upgrade, iPhone 4s is more than powerful enough to handle today’s software but it doesn’t handle it very well due to the disgusting way of which Apple treats its customers. I myself am moving from Apple to android not just because of this but because iPhone 6 uses technology from 2012
I’m keeping my sweet little 4S until it won’t work anymore, or they make something smaller than a 6. The 6 is too big for me.
Smaller than the 6? You mean like the 5, 5s and 5c?
Unless the iPhone 6 turns out to not sell as well as the previous smaller versions (which isn’t likely), they probably won’t be making any more iPhones smaller than the 6. The Plus option may be discontinued, but 4.7″ will likely be the standard for iPhones going forward. MAYBE we’ll see the iPhone Mini some day, but I wouldn’t count on it.
“Between these devices” – when comparing only two items, the preposition is “between,” but when, as here, there are more than two items, it should be “among” or “amongst.”
like anyone cares
People who are educated and who care about the English language do :)
Still working with my 4S for another year until the 6 gets improved and they release the iPhone 6s & 6s+ (I know sounds silly, who knows what they are going to call it). I say keep your phone until you can’t update iOS anymore. So if you had a iPhone 4 this year, I would recommend an upgrade to the 6, next year the 4S to the 6S. Basically every 4 years.
For all intents & purposes, you can barely run iOS8 on the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 (the oldest “compatible devices”). Those carrier upgrades every two years are awfully useful for refreshing your device on 2 year cycles.
I am almost 100% sure the speed will get better on the 4S and iPad 2 as the bug fixes are released for iOS 8 (8.0.x/8.1.x). Plus I live in Canada, which only recently changed their terms to 2-years; previously 3-years, when I bought my 4S. So the 2-year upgrade option wasn’t an option for me. I believe devices like the 5s and newer should be able to get a good 4-year run out of them. It’s hard to believe a device as fast as the 5s will be as slow as the 4S is on it’s 4th birthday. I mean if you take the 3G on it’s latest update, and the 4S on it’s latest update, the 4S is faster, so the 5s should be even faster at that point, no? But yet our standard of speed on phones is always increasing, yet it has to hit a cap somewhere down the line. Well I’m going to stick to keeping my iDevices until it can’t be updated anymore. :)
Hate to burst your bubble, but considering this is the first time apple is still signing for ios 7 at the same time as ios 8 (ie you can actually downgrade for the first time) I’d say that’s not a good sign for the eldest device compatibility. Seems to me they’re leaving some small leeway to revert to ios 7 for people so disappointed by the sluggishness of ios 8 on their old devices.
Huh, maybe you’re right, maybe Apple is realizing their screw up. Oh well.
The expression is intents and purposes.
Well, on my Xperia Z (4 x 1.5 GHz) score is like 502/1498)… Strong force inside those Apple chips is.
That is very interesting information, thank you for sharing. This just shows how iOS is the superior operating system over Android and other mobile OS’. iOS’ efficiency and power is way above any other OS.
no, they just have stronger single core performance. Ever heard of amd vs intel?
“Watch every iPhone ever made get unlocked with one long gesture”
This did not happen anywhere in the video, far as I could tell. Cult of Mac descending into Upworthy.com style misleading taglines?
0:43
Looked away for one second an missed it – thanks for the correction!
its first iPhone 5s power on 2nd iPhone 6 3rd iPhone 6 plus
What is the name of the app that test the spec of the devices?
haven everyone realise that they are just putting in minimum effort to earn maximum income? OMG! they all are the same and look the same other than it being faster with the new chip.
Which company will want to produce a new and slower device? -.-
Ooohhh… iphone 6 & 6 plus is really fast. It bends fast too! Lol… peace iphone fans! I love iphone, but i hope they make iphone 6 and 6 plus just a little bit more durable.
No offense but….
Don’t you need to breathe…?