The iPhone 4S is faster than the iPhone 4. How much faster? And how much faster than its non-Apple kin? We did some benchmark bench pressing to find out. Feel the burn!
First, some synthetic benchmarks, courtesy of Sunspider. How fast could these phones crush JavaScript? We tested each phone on the same Wi-Fi network, inches away from one another. A lower score (faster) is better:
iPhone 4S: 2237.8 ms
iPhone 4: 3611.8 ms
Droid Bionic: 3963.9 ms
Samsung Galaxy S II: 3523.2 ms
The iPhone 4S is the champ by a wide stretch—and its little brother still beats the beefier Bionic.
But what about some non-synthetic testing? We loaded up two popular, image-heavy sites under the same conditions. Again, lower is better:
iPhone 4S
Awl: 6 sec
NYT: 5 sec
iPhone 4:
Awl: 7 sec
NYT: 8 sec
Droid Bionic:
NYT: 12 sec
Awl: 13 sec
Samsung Galaxy S II:
NYT: 5 sec
Awl: 8 sec
Again, the 4S crosses the finish line first. Is this a completely comprehensive test? No. Is this highly indicative? Yes.
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