iPhone 16 Pro performance tested: How much faster is the new A18 Pro processor?
The new iPhone 16 series come with new chipsets – the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max get an A18 Pro chipset, while the regular iPhone 16 models make the jump to the base A18 chip.
Both are considerably faster than before, and especially the base model that was a generation behind, now makes a bigger leap, but just what is the improvement?
We finally have the answers with benchmark results which reveal a lot about the new iPhone 16 and their performance.
iPhone 16 CPU Performance
First, we indeed see minimal difference in CPU performance between the regular and the Pro iPhone 16 models.
Comparing the iPhone 16 Pro Max to the 15 Pro Max from last year, we see a single-digit, 8% improvement in single core speed. For multi-core performance, the 16 Pro Max model performs nearly 15% faster. That's not a crazy jump forward, but a small and steady step up.
iPhones also remain the fastest in the industry when it comes to CPU performance. The iPhone 16 Pro Max scores 50% higher than the Galaxy S24 Ultra in single-core performance (the difference is even more stark when you compare the iPhone to the latest Pixel). For multi-core performance, the gap is smaller, but the iPhone still scores nearly 22% higher.
iPhone 16 GPU Performance
Qualcomm took the lead in GPU performance in the last couple of years, so that is one area where Apple had to play catch up.
The Pro models here benefit from an extra GPU core, so that is why they are faster than the regular iPhone 16 and the 16 Plus.
Arch-rival Galaxy S24 Ultra scores higher for the first few minutes, but both the 16 Pro Max and the S24 Ultra quickly throttle.
The more important number here is the "Low" score, which is what you actually get after playing for a few minutes. The iPhone scores 3009 points compared to 2710 points on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, so we see that Apple has now taken the lead in GPU performance as well.
At least for now, though. Let's not forget that the Galaxy S25 series are not that far off with an expected launch in January 2025.
iPhone 16 AI Performance
We have not measured AI performance before, but we decided to include this component here with the growing importance of AI.
The iPhone 16 series are the leading performers here with a welcome jump over the previous generation and ahead of the latest Galaxy and Pixel phones.
iPhone 16 Storage Speed
Finally, we have the storage speeds above, if you are curious to know the sequential and random read/write speeds.
Conclusion
While we don't have power efficiency numbers yet, we can at least safely say that the A18 and A18 Pro chips in the iPhone 16 series deliver steady growth and bring back Apple to the number one spot in performance.
The company has held this place for years in CPU performance, but now it's also back being in the lead for graphics/gaming performance as well.
Ball is now in Qualcomm/Samsung's corner.
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