Did Apple Sell You A 'Good Or Bad' iPhone 6S Plus?

Both the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus are
powered by Apple’s latest chip, the A9. Apple
suggests the A9 offers significantly more
processing and graphical power that its
predecessor. But there is a sting in the tale for
some iPhone users’ battery, thanks to Apple
sourcing its A9 chips from two different
manufacturers.

The A9 chips used by Apple appear to offer two
different levels of performance depending on the
manufacturer of the component. Those
manufactured by Samsung appear to be drawing
more power and offering a shorter battery life
than those manufactured by TSMC.
Last year’s A8 chip was manufactured by TSMC,
while the previous 64-bit A7 chip was
manufactured by Samsung. Rather than select
either company for the iPhone 6S family, Apple
has decided to take on the technical challenge of
working with two different sizes and designs of
A9 chip . X-rays of the new hardware from
Cupertino show two different sizes of chips –
Samsung’s die is 96 mm2 while TSMC’s die is
104.5 mm2. The companies also use different
manufacturing processes, with the South Korean
company’s 14 nm challenging the 16 nm process
favoured by the Taiwanese.
And the two chips have different levels of
ultimate performance.
Details are being collated on various forums and
websites across the internet, and the theory
coming through is that the Samsung-
manufactured A9 chips are generating more
heat and drawing more power than the TSMC
variants. Benchmarking tests in some cases are
reportedly showing a difference of up to two
hours of battery life using Geekbench’s battery
test. Chinese site MyDrivers uses a mix of
JavaScript and video playback, which exhibited
a hungrier Samsung chip, as did AnTuTu’s
benchmarking software.
These tests all focus on the ultimate
performance of the chipset, pushing Apple’s
hardware to the edge of the performance
envelope. There’s no solid data on real-world
performance of the two chipsets, and there’s
every chance that Apple’s performance
specifications demand a similar utilisation of
resources during ‘mixed’ usage from its
suppliers.
This is not a unique problem, even individual
chips from the same production line can offer a
range of performances. Apple may have
complicated the process by going with two
different manufacturers, but what it does do is
offer users a small insight into some of the
manufacturing issues around modern computing
devices.

That’s not going to stop those iPhone users who
are wanting the most powerful device possible in
their pocket doing their best to outfit themselves
with the TSMC variant of the iPhone 6S. They’ll
be loading up unsigned applications to check the
chipset, hoping to get the ‘more efficient at
maximum power’ option. If they have a
Samsung chip they’ll then try to work out how
to get an exchange with Apple before running
the whole process once more to see if they have
picked up one of the lucky silicon lottery tickets
from Cupertino.
I would assume that the lower demands placed
on the A9 in regular use will see both the TSMC
and Samsung chips fit comfortably inside the
same performance envelope. That would mean
that there is little difference in day-to day use
between the two options, but the difference is
there.
To paraphrase George Orwell, its likely that all
iPhones are equal, but some iPhones are more
equal than others.