iPhone 6 Plus vs. Galaxy Note 4: The Big Bang

Performance

Both Apple and Samsung make their own chipsets, but Samsung has been using Qualcomm chips heavily since the previous generation and indeed we have tested the Snapdragon 805 version of the Galaxy Note 4 instead of the Exynos one.

Apple tuned its chipset to the iOS multitasking model - one app gets most of the resources, while the ones in the background have limited ways to continue working. This means there's no need for many CPU cores and the Apple A8 chipset has only two. They are proper monsters though, as we're about to see.

Android chipsets have four cores, even for relatively inexpensive devices. This reflects the more desktop-like multitasking approach, so Qualcomm and others save power by splitting the load between multiple cores and clocking them up and down as needed.

The quad-core Krait 450 in the Galaxy Note 4 is the latest available in Snapdragon until the 64-bit Snapdragon 810 shows up. Clocked at the impressive 2.7GHz the four cores show excellent multitasking performance. Android 5.0 Lollipop should speed things up, though the new runtime includes enhancements specifically for 64-bit processors, which this Note 4 will not receive.

The two iPhone 6 Plus cores flex their individual muscles for a result in Geekbench 3 that's practically equal, it even comes out ahead in Basemark OS II.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  3178
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  3011
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2925
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  2884
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2860
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  2563
• HTC One (M8)
  2367

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  10391
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  10063
• HTC One (M8)
  9860
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  9611
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  9604
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  9446
• Sony Xperia Z3
  8792

The single-core performance for the iPhone 6 Plus is nearly double what the Galaxy Note 4 achieves, but it has only half as many cores so things balance out.

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4031
• Oppo Find 7
  2606
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2588
• HTC One (M8)
  2428
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  2415
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  2213
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2114

The GPUs are supplied by Imagination and Qualcomm - a PowerVR GX6450 for the iPhone 6 Plus and Adreno 420 for the Galaxy Note 4 (alternatively, Mali-T760 for the Exynos-powered Note 4).

The 1080p off-screen performance of the two is essentially equal, confirmed by two versions of GFX Bench (2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan) and Basemark X. 1080p also happens to be iPhone 6 Plus's native resolution, but the Galaxy Note Edge has to push nearly 80% more pixels.

Of course, game engines have the option to render at a lower internal resolution and then stretch the output to match the screen. For well-written games the two phablets should offer equal performance.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  41.7
• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Oppo Find 7
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  27.8
• Sony Xperia Z3
  27.7
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  27.2

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18.5
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  11.8
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  11.4
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1
• Oppo Find 7
  11.1

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18684
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• Oppo Find 7
  14968
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12637
• HTC One (M8)
  12396
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  11744
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  11552

JavaScript code is single-threaded but the sizeable performance difference between Apple's Cyclone cores and the Krait 450 doesn't make much of a difference in Kraken 1.1. Both Apple and Samsung go a long way in tweaking their JavaScript engines to run as fast as possible.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  5351
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  6043
• Sony Xperia Z3
  6355
• Oppo Find 7
  6363
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  6987
• HTC One (M8)
  10296

Rendering pages is noticeably faster on the iPhone 6 Plus though, surely helped by the lower screen resolution. Both are some of the fastest web browsing mobiles but BrowserMark 2.1 heavily favors the iPhone.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3389
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2208
• Sony Xperia Z3
  1533
• LG G3 (2GB/16GB)
  1474
• Oppo Find 7
  1452
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  1398
• HTC One (M8)
  1069

Winner: Apple iPhone 6 Plus. Games will be simpler to optimize for Apple's few target devices and web browsing goes smoother on the iPhone.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is practically an equal to the 6 Plus in terms of CPU and GPU though its QHD screen trades quality for speed for some games and for web pages.