The Apple A15 SoC Performance Review: Faster & More Efficient
by Andrei Frumusanu on October 4, 2021 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Apple
- Smartphones
- Apple A15
Conclusion & End Remarks
Today’s investigation into the new A15 is just scratching the tip of the iceberg of what Apple has to offer in the new generation iPhone 13 series devices. As we’re still working on the full device review, we got a good glimpse of what the new silicon is able to achieve, and what to expect from the new devices in terms of performance.
On the CPU side of things, Apple’s initial vague presentation of the new A15 improvements could either have resulted in disappointment, or simply a more hidden shift towards power efficiency rather than pure performance. In our extensive testing, we’re elated to see that it was actually mostly an efficiency focus this year, with the new performance cores showcasing adequate performance improvements, while at the same time reducing power consumption, as well as significantly improving energy efficiency.
The efficiency cores of the A15 have also seen massive gains, this time around with Apple mostly investing them back into performance, with the new cores showcasing +23-28% absolute performance improvements, something that isn’t easily identified by popular benchmarking. This large performance increase further helps the SoC improve energy efficiency, and our initial battery life figures of the new 13 series showcase that the chip has a very large part into the vastly longer longevity of the new devices.
In the GPU side, Apple’s peak performance improvements are off the charts, with a combination of a new larger GPU, new architecture, and the larger system cache that helps both performance as well as efficiency.
Apple’s iPhone component design seems to be limiting the SoC from achieving even better results, especially the newer Pro models, however even with that being said and done, Apple remains far above the competition in terms of performance and efficiency.
Overall, while the A15 isn’t the brute force iteration we’ve become used to from Apple in recent years, it very much comes with substantial generational gains that allow it to be a notably better SoC than the A14. In the end, it seems like Apple’s SoC team has executed well after all.
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techconc - Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - link
Agreed. Google did some early pioneering work with computational photography. However, unlike you, I don’t think most Android users understand just how far Apple has pushed in these areas, especially with regard to real time previews that require more processing power than is available on Android devices. This year’s “cinema mode” is just another example of that.Apple focuses on features and then designs silicon around that. Most others see what’s available in silicon and then decide which features they can add.
Nicon0s - Saturday, October 16, 2021 - link
>I don’t think most Android users understand just how far Apple has pushed in these areas, especially with regard to real time previews that require more processing power than is available on Android devices.I don't think you understand what you are taking about. Real time preview was implemented on Pixel 4 with the old Snapdragon 855. You are just trying to make it seem a much bigger deal that it is.
What's Apple has pushed for is to match camera software features implemented by Google and other Android manufacturers.
techconc - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Yeah, YEARS after iPhones have had this feature because Android phones have been anemic by comparison in terms of processing capabilities. The same with Apple adding this feature for video via Cinema mode. The point being, you're attempting to make it sound as if Android has completely led and pioneered computational photography and that's not true. Google has led in some areas, Apple has led in others. If you think computational photography is an area where Android devices currently lead, then don't really know what you're talking about.Nicon0s - Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - link
"Yeah, YEARS after iPhones have had this feature because Android phones have been anemic by comparison in terms of processing capabilities. "That's only what you think. That live preview is mostly dependent on the ISP anyway, which is the one doing the processing.
"The same with Apple adding this feature for video via Cinema mode."
A boring, pointless feature most won't use.
"The point being, you're attempting to make it sound as if Android has completely led and pioneered computational photography and that's not true. "
It is true. The advancements in terms of computational photography that we get with modern smartphones today were lead by Android manufacturers, Apple only followed. I still remember how apple fanboys all over the interned claimed that Google faked the iphone photo when they introduced Night Sight with Pixel 3. Night Sight was better than it seemed possible changing the paradigm when taking photos in low light.
You want to see another slew of new photo features, take a look at the Pixel 6 announcement. While apple introduced what? Fake video blur? LoL
" If you think computational photography is an area where Android devices currently lead, then don't really know what you're talking about."
Actually I'm the only one that knows what hes talking about.
Nicon0s - Saturday, October 16, 2021 - link
>A key differences is that the SE 2020 does computational photography/videography in real time, which necessitates a decently powerful professor to execute those tasks? The Pixel 4a doesn’t have Live HDR in preview/during recording when recording videos (only in stills), nor does it have real-time Portrait Mode/bokeh control simultaneously with Live HDR nor something like Portrait Lighting control before taking a pic?What's the most important is the results.
Also I'm pretty sure the 4a can approximate the HDR results in real time in the viewfinder, which is not really a big deal. I've seen it on other mid-range Androids as well.
The idea is you can have very decent computational photography even on slower phones in terms of CPU and GPU while Apple does intentionally cripple the capabilities of some of their phones, like lack of night mode on the SE, heck even on the iphone X night, mode should be possible no problem
>The 4a is great for the price and despite using a much slower processor, it has a pretty good camera. But this also makes it have disadvantages—and this is shown across the Pixel lineup, including the 5.
Honestly I don't see any disadvantages because of the performance vs pretty much any phone around it's price range so including the SE.
techconc - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
>What's the most important is the results.Yeah, and seeing live previews helps with a photographer's composition and actually achieve those results. Without proper live previews, better results are more a matter of luck than skill.
Nicon0s - Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - link
"Yeah, and seeing live previews helps with a photographer's composition and actually achieve those results. Without proper live previews, better results are more a matter of luck than skill."Nonsense, you don't really understand photography. Like I've said what matter are the result. If I point my phone at the same subject and don't get an "approximated HDR result" in the live preview doesn't mean I'm going to take a worse photo or that I generally take worse photos.
Blark64 - Monday, October 11, 2021 - link
>The road for computational photography was paved by Android smaprhones not Apple.Computational photography on the Pixel 4a with the very old SD 730 is better than on an iphone SE 2020 for example.
Your historic perspective on computational photography is, well, shortsighted. Computational photography as a discipline is decades old (emerging from the fields of computer vision and digital imaging), and I was using computational photography apps on my iPhone 4 in 2010.
Nicon0s - Saturday, October 16, 2021 - link
We are taking about modern phones and modern solutions not the start of computational photography. Apple's camera software evolved as a reaction to the excelent camera features implemented in Android phones. It's not your iphone 4 that made computational photography popular and desirable it's Android manufacturersNicon0s - Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - link
>I believe Apple can mint money by selling their SOCs to Android smartphone manufacturers.I would really like to see that but more for the cost perspective.
Things to consider: it doesn't have a model so additional cost.
Need for hardware support as it's a new platform, support for developing the motherboard.
Need for support for software optimisations/ camera optimisations etc.
Need for support for drivers, when OEMs buy an SOC they buy it with driver support for a certain amount of years and this influences the final price.
All in all an A15 would probably cost an Android OEM a few times more than a Qualcomm SOC. So the real question is: would it be worth it?