Why does Apple show so much "restraint" when it comes to specs?

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

Given how Apple's iPhone can achieve the same benchmark performance from an A8 SoC comprising "only" a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU & 1GB of RAM as the kinds of generic SoCs found in Android flagships can with 2.4GHz quad-core CPUs & 3GB of RAM, why doesn't Apple make an SoC with the same specs as a generic Android chip & massively leapfrog the competition in terms of performance?

I know battery life could suffer, but if most Android manufacturers can make phones that last as long as an iPhone despite the heftier chips chugging along in them, then I'm sure it wouldn't take Apple too long to make their own better batteries (& putting said superior batteries into phones with equal performance to Android flagships would then give them a battery life edge)...

 

[pigoo3]

Thread moved to better sub-forum.

- Nick

 

[chas_m]

Because Apple isn't competing with Android makers.

Apple is only competing with itself.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

As someone who is intimately familiar with the Android code base, there is a lot of code in there that goes about the long way to do anything and has performance issues. One of the way to easy alleviate that bottleneck is to through horsepower at it..

I'm not going to bore people with the all the specifics, but if you take a particular Android version and run it on a slower dual-core CPU as opposed to the newer quad-core CPUs, the performance difference with the same code base is just staggering.

iOS on the other hand was built entirely differently and more organically with the hardware in mind. The optimization is done and achieved in code rather than brute force CPU cycles..

That's always been Apple's way even with OS X where you could get better performance than on a generic Linux system..

 

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

Because Apple isn't competing with Android makers.

Apple is only competing with itself.

Still no reason to be a slouch unnecessarily... Why do they not deliver the best possible experience to their users, instead seeming to only play keep-up with Android in order to avoid losing custom due to falling behind?

Some odd sense of "fair play"? Some kind of anti-competitiveness prevention legislation limiting the capabilities of the products they're allowed to release? A more cynical "captive audience" principle of basically just not bothering to make any more than the bare minimum effort to retain mere parity?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Still no reason to be a slouch unnecessarily... Why do they not deliver the best possible experience to their users, instead seeming to only play keep-up with Android in order to avoid losing custom due to falling behind?

Some odd sense of "fair play"? Some kind of anti-competitiveness prevention legislation limiting the capabilities of the products they're allowed to release? A more cynical "captive audience" principle of basically just not bothering to make any more than the bare minimum effort to retain mere parity?

You're making a HUGE assumption that the current offering or previous ones is somehow lacking in the user experience arena. On the contrary, the user experience with Apple devices isn't matched (at any generation) from any other vendor out there.

Do not confuse user experience with functionalities available from other platforms. Just because Android allows you to fill your home screen with widgets and iOS is lacking that feature doesn't mean the user experience is truncated..

This is akin to telling people to fill their OS X desktop with every single file/application/whatever you use constantly. We usually tell people to keep the desktop clean an with good reason. The home screen of these devices is no different.

 

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

You're making a HUGE assumption that the current offering or previous ones is somehow lacking in the user experience arena. On the contrary, the user experience with Apple devices isn't matched (at any generation) from any other vendor out there.

Do not confuse user experience with functionalities available from other platforms. Just because Android allows you to fill your home screen with widgets and iOS is lacking that feature doesn't mean the user experience is truncated..

This is akin to telling people to fill their OS X desktop with every single file/application/whatever you use constantly. We usually tell people to keep the desktop clean an with good reason. The home screen of these devices is no different.

You have made a heck of a lot of assumptions about my meaning & put a huge number of words in my mouth...

I wasn't suggesting that Apple should attempt to out-Android Android in terms of gimmicky functions. I was thinking more about things like general graphics performance, gaming, web browsing, etc.

 

[RustProofCorn]

You have made a heck of a lot of assumptions about my meaning & put a huge number of words in my mouth...

I wasn't suggesting that Apple should attempt to out-Android Android in terms of gimmicky functions. I was thinking more about things like general graphics performance, gaming, web browsing, etc.

I tried switching to the S4. That thing was loaded with gimmicks that i just didn't use. It was a PITA to use compared to the iPhone 4 i had come from. I used my upgrade and took a beating when i sold my S4 at a loss. It just couldn't compare to my 4 that i loved so much.

I really like technology and sometimes i fall victim of wanting to have the biggest baddest shiniest electronics i can get my hands on. Most of the time i have fun doing it even though once the novelty wears off I only use most technology in a minimalist way. Like for email, spreadsheets, etc..

After my experience with the S4 i made a decision not to stray from what i like and what works for me. Well as far as phones are concerned.

I would wager a good bit of people out there couldn't tell you the specs on the phone they are carrying right now. I bet you a good bit could tell you there preference of ios and android.

So getting back on your topic, Apple is working hard to make ios the best experience possible for the end user and i think they have done a very good job with that. Samsung doesn't have this luxury so they bloat there phones with gimmicks imo.

So as chas said earlier in the thread Apple is not competing with Android.

They are just trying build with hardware AND software a product that people love and enjoy.

I know i love my 5s

 

[lclev]

I guess I am missing something here. I found this article ... and several others.... that say the A8 SoC is possible a six core. Interesting.... and offers considerably more performance. Apple does not always revealing every fine details on the specs of their products at first.

Apple's A8 SoC likely carrying new 6-core PowerVR GPU, clocked at 1.4GHz with 1GB RAM

If so, and given the performance chart, this does not indicate to me that they are showing "restraint". Or as I said, am I missing something here?

Lisa

 

[Raz0rEdge]

CPU is not equal to GPU. The first character matters.. So that's Central Processing Unit and Graphical Processing Unit..

It's no secret that the graphical abilities of the iPhone 6 is better than the iPhone 5S and they likely achieved that by adding more cores, but the general processing ability is an improvement over the 5S but not the 10x+ improvement that the 5S had over the 5. That likely means an increased clocking speed on the current CPU cores as opposed to additions of more cores..

 

[lclev]

So if I am understanding this correctly, Apple increased performance by basically using the same or possible an over clocked 5S CPU coupled with a much improved GPU for better graphics performance. Adding the better GPU would further relieve some of the CPU work load too. Thus giving an overall much improved iPhone 6. Right?

Lisa

 

[Raz0rEdge]

No one, other than Apple, has the specs of their SoC's, but if I had to guess, the A8 is an incremental upgrade to the A7 as opposed to a full re-design which will likely happen for the next generation processor..

Getting better densities in manufacturing means more resistors, more resistors mean higher rate of instruction execution, which means better performance. Don't even have to go to a higher clock rate for that..

 

[osxx]

And yet when they bench test the phones on apps that both can use the iPhone either beats or matches the competition year after year.

 

[chas_m]

This is what Raz0r and I are saying. The reason Apple doesn't load up the iPhone with RAM is simply because it doesn't need to. The performance is optimized in the hardware, allowing a dual-core chip with minimal RAM (compared to the other flagship phones) to beat or equal them in nearly every measure.

For an easy analogy, look to the camera. Geez, it's the same 8MP module we've had for two years!! Nokia has a freakin' 41MP camera? Oh but guess what -- the iPhone still takes better* pictures than the Nokia does!

*to be fair, the 41MP camera of course offers better resolution and consequently you can "crop" more of the picture without ruining the quality.

 

[vansmith]

Given how Apple's iPhone can achieve the same benchmark performance from an A8 SoC comprising "only" a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU & 1GB of RAM as the kinds of generic SoCs found in Android flagships can with 2.4GHz quad-core CPUs & 3GB of RAM, why doesn't Apple make an SoC with the same specs as a generic Android chip & massively leapfrog the competition in terms of performance?

Hardware does not directly correlate with performance. Windows Phone is another perfect example of that - you can throw it on "meagre" hardware and it'll run just fine. It's like anything at life in that throwing power at something doesn't always make it faster.

 

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

The reason Apple doesn't load up the iPhone with RAM is simply because it doesn't need to. The performance is optimized in the hardware, allowing a dual-core chip with minimal RAM (compared to the other flagship phones) to beat or equal them in nearly every measure.

Hardware does not directly correlate with performance...It's like anything at life in that throwing power at something doesn't always make it faster.

So, basically; the upshot is that the iDevice/iOS hardware/software combination is already so optimised to making the most of the capabilities afforded by the current state of the art of software engineering, that beefier hardware would only leave unused capacity & provide no noticeable performance increase (despite increasing power consumption)?

 

[chas_m]

Adding another GB of RAM would not impact the price much, so I have to trust that Apple's world-beating engineering team has a reason for foregoing it. Most likely the benefit ratio is too low to justify it.