iPhone 5 Benchmarks: 30% to 160% Faster than iPhone 4S

iPhone 5 Benchmarks

With the iPhone 5 now available in many countries, it’s time to examine its performance compared to other recent iOS devices. Some benchmarks leaked before the phone’s launch, but we wanted to perform our own in-house testing.

Our iOS test bench consists of the following hardware, all running iOS 6 (note that we use the name “iPad 3” to refer to the third generation iPad, for simplicity’s sake):

  • 16 GB AT&T iPhone 4
  • 64 GB Verizon iPhone 4S
  • 32 GB Verizon iPhone 5
  • 32 GB AT&T iPad 2
  • 32 GB Verizon iPad 3

Our test software includes Geekbench for iOS 2.3.5, the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark 0.9.1, and GLBenchmark 2.5. All tests were run three times and the results were averaged. Those averages are reported in the charts below.

Geekbench for iOS 2.3.5

iPhone 5 Benchmarks - Geekbench

Geekbench only tests CPU performance and does not evalaute a platform's GPU capabilities. As a result, the iPhone 5's A6 crushes all other iOS devices, which is in line with leaked benchmarks received prior to the phone's launch.

The iPhone 5's score of 1639 represents a 115 percent increase over the iPad 2 and 3 (which have similiar CPUs, but different GPUs), and a 159 percent increase over the iPhone 4S.

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark 0.9.1

iPhone 5 Benchmarks - SunSpider

The SunSpider Benchmark tests Web Browser JavaScript performance and the hardware that powers those Web Browsers. The iPhone 5 again leads the pack, running the benchmark 31 percent faster than the iPad 3, and 44 percent faster than the iPhone 4S.

GLBenchmark 2.5

iPhone 5 Benchmarks - GLBenchmark

iPhone 5 GLBenchmark

 

The GLBenchmark stresses GPU capabilities and the iPhone 5 again beats all other iOS devices, including the iPad 3, which contains a quad-core GPU. Only in the Fill Rate test does the iPad 3 beat the iPhone 5, and then only by less than 2 percent.

This analysis only looked at the devices we had on hand, and thus did not examine the iPhone 5's performance relative to competing Android and Windows Phone devices. For those committed to iOS, however, the performance gains seen with the iPhone 5 are impressive, and users have much to look forward to as developers learn to take advantage of the phone's additional processing power.

Teaser graphic via Shutterstock.