The Apple A7 is a 64-bit, 1.3GHz, ARMv8, dual-core CPU chip, which makes it twice as fast (according to Apple) as the A6 found in iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. Apple calls the A7 chip as the world's first 64-bit smartphone processor with the new A7 system-on-a-chip (SOC). Not surprisingly, it is a beast on the paper. The A7 on the 5S can handle data more efficiently with a 64-bit format, akin to what's found on desktop computers, rather than the 32 bits traditionally used in phones. Games and other graphic-intensive apps can take advantage of this. Strikingly, the A7 processor is “only” dual-core and all that the company wanted was an efficient processor. And as a result, the iPhone 5s ranks among the top smartphones in CPU and GPU benchmark tests. The A7 processor is a major achievement in terms of balancing performance and power consumption. Apple also claims the chip is capable of twice the graphics power as its last generation, which comes into play for high-end games and other apps that work hard to churn out high-quality visual effects.
The HTC One comes with the Snapdragon 600 processor alonwith 2 gigabytes of RAM. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 600 processors offer system-wide architectural improvements, key component upgrades and expand connectivity options. It says it results in smooth online 3D gaming and super responsive web browsing.
On Geekbench 3.0, the iPhone 5S came out the clear winner. Geekbench's score is built from a combination of measurements of computational speed across a variety of real-world processes like JPG compression and decompression.
The impressive results confirm many of the improvements Apple claimed in its early September keynote.
In another benchmark score, Gizmodo ran the iPhone 5S's GPU through the commonly used GFXBench software, using its most-intense on-screen gaming test and compared it to the publicly available leaderboards for existing flagships. The chart above the average frame rates the graphics processor of each phone. A faster rates in this test would translate to smoother graphics on the most system-taxing games out there.
Winner: iPhone 5S
