How fast are the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus compared to one another and the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models?

Please note that all of these iPhone models have been discontinued. However, this Q&A remains up-to-date and it can be useful to anyone considering one of these devices on the used market.

Apple's official press release for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus cheekily notes that these models represent the "biggest advancements in iPhone history," in a nod to their large 4.7" and 5.5" displays.

The press release is a bit more modest about performance, though. It notes that these models provide "blazing fast performance" in the second paragraph and "faster performance" elsewhere, but provides no specifics as to exactly how much more "blazing" the performance is than earlier models. This quiet omission is a solid signal that the performance gains are fairly modest compared to other recent iPhone devices.

With even a quick review of EveryiPhone.com's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus comparison, it is clear that internal components that are performance-related are identical.

Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus)

Both devices have the same dual core 1.4 GHz Apple A8 processor, the same four core PowerVR GX6450 video processor, and the same 1 GB of RAM. Accordingly, it would be reasonable to expect that the performance of both devices should be quite similar, with perhaps the smaller iPhone 6 model being a bit faster on some tests as the processor and graphics processor are powering a physically smaller display with fewer pixels.

Just how similar the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus perform and how much more "blazing" they are than earlier models requires benchmarks and real-world testing.

Benchmark Performance Overview

For a solid general overview of the performance differences between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well as the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c -- as well as all other iPhone models and the iPad and iPod touch lines -- Everyi.com's own Ultimate iComparison makes it quick to compare side-by-side Geekbench benchmark averages for hundreds of possible performance comparisons.

The Geekbench 3.0 benchmark shows that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are extremely close to the same speed, but the iPhone 6 is a bit less than 1% faster in single core tasks and a bit more than 1% faster in multicore tasks. An imperceptible difference in day-to-day use, certainly.

Compared to the iPhone 5s, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are roughly 15% faster, but compared to the iPhone 5c, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are a much more substantial 132% or so faster.

A 15% speed increase is welcomed, but is unlikely to be felt in real-world use. A 132% speed bump, on the other hand, definitely is noticeable.

Other Benchmark Tests & Real-World Performance

Although Geekbench 3.0 clearly demonstrates that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are roughly the same speed, modestly faster than the iPhone 5s and hugely faster than the iPhone 5c, other benchmarks and tests can be helpful for a well rounded perspective.

In a variety of benchmarks, ZDNet tested the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s and perhaps most notably using the "AnTuTu" benchmark found that the iPhone 6 delivered "16.9 percent better performance" than the iPhone 5s, not far away from the Geekbench 3.0 numbers.

The always analytical AnandTech put the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 5s through a large number of CPU and GPU benchmark tests alongside a deluge of Android mobiles. On some tests the iPhone 6 is a bit ahead of the iPhone 6 Plus and on others it is the reverse, but the two models are quite comparable and the iPhone 5s is not always far behind. Despite often faster raw clockspeeds, the Android mobiles are typically quite a bit slower.

Comparing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to their Android rivals, AnandTech concluded:

For the most part, the A8 SoC [System on a Chip] performs admirably despite the relatively low (1.38 GHz) frequency and half the cores when compared to competing SoCs. It seems that this is mostly building upon the lead that A7's Cyclone CPUs began [with the iPhone 5s].

In real-world use, though, iLounge reported that the performance difference between the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 5s was subtle:

Practically, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus feel the same as one another, and a little faster overall than the A7[-powered iPhone 5s], which you'll probably only notice in that apps open a touch quicker. If you're not paying close attention and comparing directly to the 5s, you may not perceive much of a difference.

Real-World Video Test Results

Benchmarks and app tests are a great way to quantify performance, but a video test always is useful, too, particularly for the "feel" of the performance in the real-world.

This video from YouTuber Canoopsy demonstrates the real-world performance of the Minecraft, Asphalt 8, and Dead Trigger 2 games:

Unsurprisingly, given that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have the fastest processors and graphics processors among iPhone models to date, it handles these games quite smoothly.

Performance Summary

Ultimately, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are more-or-less the same speed for most tasks and a welcome speed boost compared to the earlier iPhone 5s.

The more than twice as fast performance boost between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus compared to the low-end iPhone 5c definitely is noticeable in real-world use, but the performance difference between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 5s is not as big of a differentiating factor as display size, battery life, and camera quality, certainly.

Also see: What are all the differences between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and the earlier iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s?