iPhone XS has 4GB of RAM, 2.49 GHz A12 chip according to benchmarks

What appear to be early benchmarks of the iPhone XS have appeared on Geekbench, giving a rawer view of the device's specifications than those offered by Apple.

The listed phone's A12 Bionic chip is clocked at 2.49 gigahertz, a relatively small boost over the 2.39 gigahertz of the iPhone X's A11. The XS does however have four times as much L1 cache memory, 128 kilobytes, and about 4 gigabytes of RAM, at least on the tested configuration. As it's only labeled "iPhone 11,6," it's not certain whether the device is an XS, an XS Max, or possibly even the XR, assuming the entry is authentic.

Comparisons with the A11 suggest the A12 may actually perform slightly worse in multi-core benchmarks, but over 500 points faster in single-core. In real-world situations the A12 is likely to be universally faster, taking advantage of things like its updated Neural Engine for machine learning tasks.

Apple typically leaves detailed numbers out of its "tech specs" pages, preferring to sell people on broader metrics and individual features instead. The company also counts on self-designed silicon and optimized software to provide a smooth experience.

Preorders for the iPhone XS start on Friday ahead of a Sept. 21 launch. Orders for the XR will only start on Oct. 19.

22 Comments

maestro64 19 Years · 5029 comments

About 6 years ago

Very few people today care about what is inside. People stopped check list buying habits a long time ago. Only the geeks care and even then it really does not matter on an Apple product what is inside. People just look at the overall experience and call it a day.

indieshack 9 Years · 336 comments

maestro64 said:

Very few people today care about what is inside. People stopped check list buying habits a long time ago. Only the geeks care and even then it really does not matter on an Apple product what is inside. People just look at the overall experience and call it a day.

disagree - I think even casual users have become more hip to the specs and upgraded internals are a selling point not just for geeks.

bsimpsen 14 Years · 401 comments

indieshack said:

maestro64 said:

Very few people today care about what is inside. People stopped check list buying habits a long time ago. Only the geeks care and even then it really does not matter on an Apple product what is inside. People just look at the overall experience and call it a day.

disagree - I think even casual users have become more hip to the specs and upgraded internals are a selling point not just for geeks.

Since the specs don't reflect real world performance, you're suggesting that casual users have become more "hip" to useless information. I might have to agree.

netrox 12 Years · 1510 comments

I am hip and pure specs are not meaningful to me. The overall performance of using a device matters more than anything. You can have a machine run at a measly 500 Mhz and still offer great UX thanks to optimizations. And it's no secret that Apple optimizes its software for its own hardware.

lewchenko 15 Years · 135 comments

CPU , GPU speeds and RAM mean little these days if buying the top end iPhone.

You know it will be blindingly fast.

Just like the X still is, and I doubt anyone will notice a difference going to the XS/XR variants.

Would be odd though (and headline grabbing) if for some things it was slower than last year's top model.