How Much Faster Is the iPhone 5s Compared to iPhone 5?

Jeff Weisbein -

The answer is (in a real life usage speed test): not much faster.  The guys over at EverythingApplePro put together this great “speed test” video where they compared every iPhone made to date against each other.  I should note this is not an extensive benchmark test, but you can get a good feel for the speed of basic functionality on each iPhone.  You can check it out below:

A quick recap of some of the things we learned from the video:

  • The speed bump from the 3G/3GS to the 4 is huge. You can really tell during the web browsing tests. While this is no doubt due to the improved hardware, it’s also likely due to software changes in Safari on the newer iOS (with the 3GS losing support for upgrades after iOS 6.1.3, and the 3G losing support way back at 4.2.1).
  • If you’re running iOS 7 on an iPhone 4, you’re not crazy: it really does take forever to boot up.
  • It’s not just you, iOS 7 also takes a surprisingly long time to shut down.
  • When you compare the iPhone 5s to the iPhone 5, there is barely any difference in speed (at least that you will notice for basic tasks). However, while differences in day-to-day activities are not really noticeable right now, as more intensive things (like 3D gaming) and other apps start to take advantage of the 5s’ 64-bit processor we will likely start seeing more noticeable speed jumps.

All that said, I still feel like my iPhone 5s is a bit snappier than my iPhone 5, but maybe it’s just in my head.