In case you haven’t heard, Apple’s new iPhone 4S was released yesterday. The phone is powered by Apple’s new dual-core A5 chip, which Apple claims can deliver up to two times more power and seven times faster graphics performance than the iPhone 4.
 Take a look at the charts below, which illustrate how the iPhone 4S compares to previous generations of the iPhone, as well as some head-to-head Web performance benchmarks, against current PCMag Editors’ Choice smartphones on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon.
In short, these benchmarks tell us that the iPhone 4S is the fastest iPhone so far, and the fastest smartphone in general for Web browsing.
Looking at the system performance benchmarks, the iPhone 4 tops out at just over half the performance level of the new 4S. GeekBench, an overall system performance benchmark, shows the iPhone 4 running iOS 5 scoring 383, as compared to 617 on the 4S. GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt High, a graphics benchmark, shows an even greater difference, with the iPhone 4S besting the iPhone 4 by more than 500 percent.
While the iPhone 3GS shows a higher number for graphics performance than the iPhone 4, that’s because the screen resolution on the 3GS is significantly lower than the screen resolution on the iPhone 4. Taking that into account, graphics performance on the iPhone 4 is still twice as fast as the 3GS, though both are easily eclipsed by the 4S.
The 4S wins out on Web performance as well, but there’s something interesting happening here if you look closely. An iPhone 3GS running iOS 5 scored significantly better on the Web benchmarks than an iPhone 4 running iOS 4. Even though the iPhone 4 is the more powerful of the two devices, this difference shows us that iOS 5 delivers a significant boost to Javascript performance. So if you’re using an iPhone 4 or an iPhone 3GS, make sure to update your device to iOS 5.
Compared to the latest and greatest Android devices, the iPhone 4S is still tops for Web browsing. It scored significantly better than the Motorola Droid Bionic on Verizon, the Motorola Photon on Sprint, and the Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T. But again, these benchmarks aren’t completely what they seem.
Honeycomb-based tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, for instance, score Web performance benchmarks very much similar to the iPhone 4S. And hardware-wise, the Galaxy Tab is using a processor similar to the Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T. This shows us that Honeycomb is better-optimized for Web performance than Gingerbread, the latest version of Android available for smartphones.
All of this is likely to change next week, when Google unveils “Ice Cream Sandwich”, the latest version of Android for smartphones and tablets. This update will likely include the Web performance improvements in Honeycomb and bring them to smartphones, which will result in better scores.
But whether or not that happens remains to be seen, and Ice Cream Sandwich will likely not be available as an update for most Android phones for a while. So for now, if you’re looking for the best iPhone, or the fastest Web browsing experience on a smartphone, the iPhone 4S is the phone to get.
[PC]
