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First iPhone 7 speed test results are in, and they’re going to surprise you

Published Sep 16th, 2016 9:37AM EDT
iPhone 7 Plus vs. iPhone 6s vs. Galaxy S7
Image: Apple

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The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are out, which means early buyers will put them through a variety of performance and durability tests. We’ve already seen a full teardown of the phablet and an extensive durability test. It’s now time to look at the performance of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, as the first comparisons with the iPhone 6s and Galaxy S7 appeared on YouTube.

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iPhone 7 Plus vs. iPhone 6s Plus

As you’ll see in MadMattTV’s video, the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus appear to be equals when it comes to opening specific default apps. The iPhone 6s Plus is slightly faster at opening up the Camera app, while the iPhone 7s Plus seems to do be quicker at opening the App Store app and loading websites in Safari.

For more intense tasks, the iPhone 7 Plus comes out ahead, but only slightly. The new phablet completes the Geekbench test faster and gets significantly higher scores, and it exports movies faster than its predecessor. The iPhone 7 Plus is also slightly faster at loading games.

For some reason, the iPhone 6s Plus boots a lot faster than the iPhone 7 Plus, but that’s not something that will bother you in day-to-day usage. What you will appreciate about the iPhone 7 Plus is its Wi-Fi speed, which is far superior to the iPhone 6s Plus.

The overall conclusion following this speed test is that the iPhone 6s is no slouch compared to the iPhone 7. The new iPhone scores a lot better in benchmarks, but the speed gains aren’t always noticeable.

Of course, there’s an explanation. This is likely because of the way the A10 Fusion is designed to work. It’s a four-core mobile chip that has two high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores. For some of the tasks in the video below, the iPhone 7 Plus is undoubtedly relying on the more efficient cores.

What we don’t see in this clip is how fast the iPhone 7 can cycle through apps, or how fast it opens apps that are already loaded. This is just one of the first iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 6s speed tests that hit the web though, so it’s likely that more thorough speed battles will be available soon.

iPhone 7 Plus vs. iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 6s Plus

YouTube channel MarcianoTech has an extensive video that compares the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus. But the test only looks at benchmark scores. We have Geekbench, 3DMark Ice Storm and JetStream tests in this video, and the iPhone 7 simply crushes its predecessor. The new iPhones are also much quicker at loading Modern Combat 5 than the iPhone 6s Plus.

iPhone 7 Plus vs. Galaxy S7

Finally, a video that appears to originate from the same source even though it was posted on The Dutch Gamer shows us the iPhone 7 defeating the Galaxy S7 in the same benchmark tests. It also shows the two phones opening graphics intensive games (Asphalt and Modern Combat 5) and the iPhone 7 is the faster device. In one test, the Modern Combat 5 game on the iPhone isn’t configured, so the tester has to set up some settings while the game is loading.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.