Apple's A18 4-core iGPU Benched Against Older A16 Bionic, 3DMark Results Reveal 10% Performance Deficit

[T0@st]

Apple's new budget-friendly iPhone 16e model was introduced earlier this month; potential buyers were eyeing a device (starting at $599) that houses a selectively "binned" A18 mobile chipset. The more expensive iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models were launched last September, with A18 chips on-board; featuring six CPU cores, and five GPU cores. Apple's brand-new 16E smartphone seems to utilize an A18 sub-variant—tech boffins have highlighted this package's reduced GPU core count: of four. The so-called "binned A18" reportedly posted inferior performance figures—15% slower—when lined up against its standard 5-core sibling (in Geekbench 6 Metal tests). The iPhone 16E was released at retail today (February 28), with review embargoes lifted earlier in the week.

A popular portable tech YouTuber—Dave2D (aka Dave Lee)—decided to pit his iPhone 16E sample unit against older technology; contained within the iPhone 15 (2023). The binned A18's 4-core iGPU competed with the A16 Bionic's 5-core integrated graphics solution in a 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited head-to-head. Respective tallies—of 2882 and 3170 points—were recorded for posterity's sake. The more mature chipset (from 2022) managed to surpass its younger sibling by ~10%, according to the scores presented on Dave2D's comparison chart. The video reviewer reckoned that the iPhone 16E's SoC offers "killer performance," despite reservations expressed about the device not offering great value for money. Other outlets have questioned the prowess of Apple's latest step down model. Referencing current-gen 3DMark benchmark results, Wccftech observed: "for those wanting to know the difference between the binned A18 and non-binned variant; the SoC with a 5-core GPU running in the iPhone 16 finishes the benchmark run with an impressive 4007 points, making it a massive 28.04 percent variation between the two (pieces of) silicon. It is an eye-opener to witness such a mammoth performance drop, which also explains why Apple resorted to chip-binning on the iPhone 16e as it would help bring the price down substantially."




Dave2D's video description states: "iPhone 16e Review—E is for Expensive; my review of the Apple iPhone 16e vs iPhone 16 vs iPhone 15."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[TheGeekn°72]

Fork over 600$, get less performance than previous gen, get significantly worse experience than literally any model at similar price point of the competition !

Just Apple things.

 

[bruhmoment01]

Thank goodness the results “were recorded for prosperity.”

 

[phints]

Fork over 600$, get less performance than previous gen, get significantly worse experience than literally any model at similar price point of the competition !

Just Apple things.

Are you sure? Even this base A18 probably still outperforms most competing SoCs running Android. Having 1 less GPU core is meaningless unless you're playing 3D games on your phone, I'd rather have the stronger CPU in this one than the 15 this compares it to.

Agree 16e is overpriced but still a strong SoC. If it had the 120Hz OLED it would be a no brainer but sadly it doesn't, leave off all the junk in the more expensive models like 2 extra pointless cameras.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Fork over 600$, get less performance than previous gen,

But this isnt an issue when Android phones come out with last year's leftovers.

get significantly worse experience than literally any model at similar price point of the competition !

Just Apple things.

There's hundreds of millions of users that would strongly disagree with you. Unless you're benchmarking CoD you'll never notice the difference.

 

[jsfitz54]

Thank goodness the results “were recorded for prosperity.”

ESL classes aren't working...

 

[R-T-B]

Fork over 600$, get less performance than previous gen, get significantly worse experience than literally any model at similar price point of the competition !

Just Apple things.

To be fair he's pitting a pretty high end last gen against this gens bottom barrel.

ESL classes aren't working...

That's just a typo. Speaking as a native english speaker, shit happens. It has nothing to do with "ESL classes."

 

[jsfitz54]

To be fair he's pitting a pretty high end last gen against this gens bottom barrel.


That's just a typo. Speaking as a native english speaker, shit happens. It has nothing to do with "ESL classes."

2 or "Two" completely different words, does not make a typo.

Here is the help that's needed:

posterity definition at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[Vya Domus]

The real problem is the newer chip with the "bigger number" is slower, it muddies the waters, people expect a newer chip to be better.

 

[freeagent]

2025 is the year of fake performance lol

 

[Ruru]

2025 is the year of fake performance lol

Exactly. Just put a bigger number on a product and that's fine

 

[usiname]

But this isnt an issue when Android phones come out with last year's leftovers.

There's hundreds of millions of users that would strongly disagree with you. Unless you're benchmarking CoD you'll never notice the difference.

Not the last year, A16 Bionic is used in Iphone 14 Pro, so it is slower than 2 year old phone, probably on par with Iphone 13 Pro, 3 year old phone. About the Android phones, you can get the latest SOC for $600, Xioami K80 pro for example.
But nobody expect from cheap brand as Apple to give you something valuable when they are focused on brainless consumers who can't see any difference. You can throw whatever insult you want and they will fight in front of your shop to get the new (old) toy for premium

 

[Muser99]

The writer is too “press release” in style. Too many unnecessary words needing additional clarification. Bad numeracy too with 5 cores becoming 6! Just write plainly please. We don’t need war and peace.

 

[medi01]

Are people really buying Apple's bazingas for non-fashion related reason?

Fork over 600$, get less performance than previous gen, get significantly worse experience than literally any model at similar price point of the competition !

When was it different at ANY price point pretty please?

 

[dyonoctis]

Not the last year, A16 Bionic is used in Iphone 14 Pro, so it is slower than 2 year old phone, probably on par with Iphone 13 Pro, 3 year old phone. About the Android phones, you can get the latest SOC for $600, Xioami K80 pro for example.
But nobody expect from cheap brand as Apple to give you something valuable when they are focused on brainless consumers who can't see any difference. You can throw whatever insult you want and they will fight in front of your shop to get the new (old) toy for premium

Only slower in 3D games*. But unless you want to play the latest and greatest AAA tech demo level 3D mobile games, 3 years old performance is still very fast. But if you are an hardcore mobile gamer, you know what to get.
If you are a spec nerd, you also know what to get, but the reality is that "mid-range" SOC have become good enough for most people for a long time.

Look at the sales numbers, and you'll see that even when people aren't buying an iPhone, they don't exactly rush towards the best value android premium phone. They either go a entry level but good enough phone, or get the expensive flagship. Most people don't care that much about specs.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Fork over 600$, get less performance than previous gen, get significantly worse experience than literally any model at similar price point of the competition !

Just Apple things.

The 16E is the "4th generation" iPhone SE. This is Apple's entry level phone, and it's designed after the iPhone 14's parts and performance level. The previous generations were designed around the shell of the iPhone 5s (1st gen) and 8 (2nd and 3rd gen).

It's honestly not a bad result. Might find myself with one sometime.

Not the last year, A16 Bionic is used in Iphone 14 Pro, so it is slower than 2 year old phone, probably on par with Iphone 13 Pro, 3 year old phone. About the Android phones, you can get the latest SOC for $600, Xioami K80 pro for example.
But nobody expect from cheap brand as Apple to give you something valuable when they are focused on brainless consumers who can't see any difference. You can throw whatever insult you want and they will fight in front of your shop to get the new (old) toy for premium

I'm using an iPhone Xs Max. It's a phone from 2018. Not only it remains usable - it performs very well, runs the miHoYo games my Galaxy S10+ a year newer can't worth a damn, and it still receives iOS updates.

Not to mention it is fully supported by Apple and service is available worldwide. If anything happens to it there's a whole technical support system and I can get it fixed by Apple-authorized repair centers or even Apple themselves.

Samsung will probably turn you away at the door or charge you something insane if you show up with a Galaxy S9 for them to fix. The aforementioned S10+ hasn't received a single Android update in years, never mind its predecessor. Heck I bought my mom a Galaxy S20 FE back then and that phone, too, despite officially making the cut for Samsung's "longer lifecycle" list is also abandoned on Android 13, not really receiving anything more than even my 10+ did.

This is what you people who purchase Android phones with loyalty, especially the cheaper stuff from China will never understand. In 3 years your phone has been forgotten by the manufacturer who will offer no parts and service, and most likely abandoned despite their repeated promise they'll do better and support the device over the years.

What I mean is different strokes for different folks, consumers aren't brainless sheep for opting into either, and ever since Apple loosened restrictions on video game emulators and file system access, I haven't really had a reason to keep an Android phone around anymore, and I certainly don't miss the bugs, shoddy performance, Google Play, the bad game ports etc.

 

[Phayzon]

“New entry-level chip is slower (sometimes) than previous flagship chip.”

Gasp!

 

[RandallFlagg]

I don't like the $600 price point here, $500 would have been a good deal and true mid-range pricing.

But the people talking about performance of iPhones in general to midrange Android devices are way way off the mark. Android has nothing at the $600 mark to compete with the A18.

The closest is probably the Pixel 9, as it has similar long term software support since it's Google (still likely not as good as Apple though). But Pixel 9 gets trounced by an iPhone 16 in benchmarks to the tune of ~40%, hence it will likely get soundly beaten by the 16e as well.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I don't like the $600 price point here, $500 would have been a good deal and true mid-range pricing.

But the people talking about performance of iPhones in general to midrange Android devices are way way off the mark. Android has nothing at the $600 mark to compete with the A18.

The closest is probably the Pixel 9, as it has similar long term software support since it's Google (still likely not as good as Apple though). But Pixel 9 gets trounced by an iPhone 16 in benchmarks to the tune of ~40%, hence it will likely get soundly beaten by the 16e as well.

I feel the pixel 8a is a better competitor, it's got the tensor g3 which is almost the same since the tensor series hasn't really made much progress, still has 7 years left for support, and also has OLED, for $450, and $350 on sale. That's about the only serious competition Apple has here for the 16e.

Are people really buying Apple's bazingas for non-fashion related reason?

Yes. If you want:
8 years of software support
In person support (crucial for non techie folk)
Same day repairs done correctly
The best support from software devs and third party manufacturers

Then you buy apple. Some will mald and seethe at this, but frankly for the average users, this is why you buy apple and android just doesnt quite hit those points.

Not the last year, A16 Bionic is used in Iphone 14 Pro, so it is slower than 2 year old phone, probably on par with Iphone 13 Pro, 3 year old phone. About the Android phones, you can get the latest SOC for $600, Xioami K80 pro for example.

The point on the Android phones was that, when budget flagships started coming out with 1-2 year old flagship SOCs instead of the latest, the 10% missing performance wasnt a dealbreaker. But when Apple does it, suddenly the world is imploding?

Oh yeah, that Xioami has no official support on US networks, and it gets 2 years of software support. The iphone gets 8. Those are not remotely comparable.

But nobody expect from cheap brand as Apple to give you something valuable when they are focused on brainless consumers who can't see any difference. You can throw whatever insult you want and they will fight in front of your shop to get the new (old) toy for premium

ROFL. That is all.

 

[Hecate91]

I'm not surprised at the looking down on anyone not using an iphone being called "you people".
Not everyone cares about playing games on their phone, I'd have to guess most PC gaming enthusiasts don't anyway, and I'd rather play Genshin Impact or ZZZ on PC than on a small phone screen.
By the way, just because a phone doesn't get the latest software version, doesn't mean the phone just stops working.
$600 is too high for an entry point phone, mid range pricing for the specs and performance of a 2-3 year old phone.

 

[RandallFlagg]

I'm not surprised at the looking down on anyone not using an iphone being called "you people".
Not everyone cares about playing games on their phone, I'd have to guess most PC gaming enthusiasts don't anyway, and I'd rather play Genshin Impact or ZZZ on PC than on a small phone screen.
By the way, just because a phone doesn't get the latest software version, doesn't mean the phone just stops working.
$600 is too high for an entry point phone, mid range pricing for the specs and performance of a 2-3 year old phone.

I wouldn't use an unsupported phone OS, and no sane person should unless they have essentially nothing of value stored there.

Not just talking about your bank account either, a lot of people have IRAs, 401Ks, investment accounts, medical insurance accounts, HSAs, credit cards, mortgage accounts, insurance, and more all manageable from their phone. Having an unsupported OS on your phone these days is a good way to ruin your life. Spending an extra $100 for a Google Pixel (or Apple) to get proper and prompt updates and support is money well spent.

I feel the pixel 8a is a better competitor, it's got the tensor g3 which is almost the same since the tensor series hasn't really made much progress, still has 7 years left for support, and also has OLED, for $450, and $350 on sale. That's about the only serious competition Apple has here for the 16e.

Agree, I don't really consider $600 to be midrange. That's more like entry to high end phones. But then again, I never buy the 'Pro' iPhones either. I consider the $829 for an iPhone 16 to be middle of high end, and $500 to be upper midrange. While Android doesn't really have anything better at $600 IMO, Apple has nothing worthwhile below that price hence they have nothing to compete with the Pixel 8a.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I'm not surprised at the looking down on anyone not using an iphone being called "you people".
Not everyone cares about playing games on their phone, I'd have to guess most PC gaming enthusiasts don't anyway, and I'd rather play Genshin Impact or ZZZ on PC than on a small phone screen.
By the way, just because a phone doesn't get the latest software version, doesn't mean the phone just stops working.
$600 is too high for an entry point phone, mid range pricing for the specs and performance of a 2-3 year old phone.

I literally said "different strokes for different folks". If you're trying to imply someone is looking down at anyone, then try the guy I was replying to, calling Apple users "brainless consumers".

Thanks

I wouldn't use an unsupported phone OS, and no sane person should unless they have essentially nothing of value stored there.

Not just talking about your bank account either, a lot of people have IRAs, 401Ks, investment accounts, medical insurance accounts, HSAs, credit cards, mortgage accounts, insurance, and more all manageable from their phone. Having an unsupported OS on your phone these days is a good way to ruin your life. Spending an extra $100 for a Google Pixel (or Apple) to get proper and prompt updates and support is money well spent.

100% agreed with this, and not just for phones - also for PC operating systems as well. Keeping it all up to date is important.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I'm not surprised at the looking down on anyone not using an iphone being called "you people".

Nobody respects you for your victim complex.

Not everyone cares about playing games on their phone, I'd have to guess most PC gaming enthusiasts don't anyway, and I'd rather play Genshin Impact or ZZZ on PC than on a small phone screen.

Even PC enthusiasts spend time away from their PC. Enjoying my PC doesnt mean I dont want to do something on the go, or on my lunch break. You dont care about games, the size of the mobile gaming industry indicates you are in the minority.

By the way, just because a phone doesn't get the latest software version, doesn't mean the phone just stops working.

Using a phone that doesnt have security updates is just as intelligent as using a PC OS or web browser that is missing security updates: EG really stupid, and the longer you are out of support, the dumber it gets.

$600 is too high for an entry point phone, mid range pricing for the specs and performance of a 2-3 year old phone.

$600 for 8 year sof support on a budget flagship is too high? What, in the android world, is comparable?

Not everyone buys phones every 2-3 years. Some people keep them as long as possible.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Nobody respects you for your victim complex.

Even PC enthusiasts spend time away from their PC. Enjoying my PC doesnt mean I dont want to do something on the go, or on my lunch break. You dont care about games, the size of the mobile gaming industry indicates you are in the minority.

Using a phone that doesnt have security updates is just as intelligent as using a PC OS or web browser that is missing security updates: EG really stupid, and the longer you are out of support, the dumber it gets.

$600 for 8 year sof support on a budget flagship is too high? What, in the android world, is comparable?

Not everyone buys phones every 2-3 years. Some people keep them as long as possible.

Not to mention that there's a huge potential to reduce e-waste by buying a recertified or display sample device, as well as it being a way for people who don't really prioritize having the latest and greatest phone for status reasons to save a lot of money and still get something usable and nice (my case).

My Xs Max was a display sample unit, it's been basically unused for years and eventually made its way to the recertified store I purchased it from. It was missing the original box and the battery had degraded to 80% capacity from being unpowered for so long. I just had it serviced the day I received it and voilà. Super nice phone for the price of a laggy, poorly supported budget one.

 

[Denver]

Nobody respects you for your victim complex.

Even PC enthusiasts spend time away from their PC. Enjoying my PC doesnt mean I dont want to do something on the go, or on my lunch break. You dont care about games, the size of the mobile gaming industry indicates you are in the minority.

Using a phone that doesnt have security updates is just as intelligent as using a PC OS or web browser that is missing security updates: EG really stupid, and the longer you are out of support, the dumber it gets.

$600 for 8 year sof support on a budget flagship is too high? What, in the android world, is comparable?

Not everyone buys phones every 2-3 years. Some people keep them as long as possible.

Yeah, the number of short-sighted children in front of cell phones spending their parents' money is massive. Eh... I'm not entirely sure if I'd feel proud to boast about being part of it.

Samsung and Motorola offer 3-4 years of guaranteed software updates. However, in 3-4 years, the battery of any smartphone begins to degrade, and for some users, this may happen even sooner. Taking off the casing to replace the battery and using a patched device that has a high chance of failure during an important moment is impractical, Sorry. Brands should offer a discount on the purchase of a new device when you trade in your old device. This approach is the best way to reduce e-waste