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Apple's A20 Pro shatters Geekbench 7 single-core record — 2nm chip beats desktop Intel Core i9 and AMD Ryzen 9 by up to 32%
(www.tomshardware.com)
A20 Pro vs Intel Ultra 7 Series 3
And yet, it can't (be made to) run a full desktop OS or play AAA games. But you can personalise the Siri voice (older phones can do the conversational stuff)... maybe edit photos faster.
Apple went and made a phone you could use for ten years, but next year they'll be telling you why their new phone is so much better than the last one. They don't expect you to upgrade every year, but they expect you to want to, and after a couple of generations, they want you to think that you have to.
I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max (2024), and the 18 Pro/Max presentation definitely gave me a bit of phone envy. But I also have a Galaxy S10 (2019), and that does a few things better than the iPhone, even though it's 5 years difference between them. Apple's keyboard likes to hallucinate weird results (like changing out common words for names of people I don't even have in contacts) and edit after the fact. Gboard just works. When it doesn't, the mistake makes sense (if and of for example). Also, I've used the same wallpaper on both phones. It always looks better on the Samsung. Sharper colors and contrast. Hold both up and ask anyone which looks better, they're gonna point to the Samsung, even if you turn the iPhone's brightness up all the way.
Phone manufacturers are desperately trying to convince you that you need the latest and greatest. You don't — unless you want to do AI stuff. And even then, they're going to charge you for it. And they're sure you'll pay, because you've already shown your hand by opening your wallet again.
I have a 16 base… and I didn’t raise an eyebrow. What kind of app running can a 18 do that a 16 can’t, other than whatever is self inflicted with software bloat?
A LOFIC camera would have gotten me interested, but they didn’t ship that.
Battery life is the only thing I’m interested in. Not only does the 18 perform great, but it gets insane battery too.
I’m not buying it because no SIM card slot, but it does have me interested.
I think physical SIM slots are probably done for, why add more hardware that is "unnecessary" now?
Because not all carriers easily support esim. Last I was in Costa Rica maybe 1 carrier supported esim for prepaid lines, but will the employee at the store know how to set that up? Physical sim? Yeah, they'll do it in a minute or two. I guess the 18 will force them to learn, but in some fuck ass small town how many people are rocking an iphone 18 and a prepaid line?
I'd love to get a phone that supports mmwave 5g, but the freedom of physical sim is well worth it. Also I spent a fuck ton importing this 15 pro, I'm not just chucking it willy nilly.
This does indeed get better every generation.
I suppose the 16 hit the point of diminishing returns, for me. It lasts all day, even when busy on vacation or something, though I acknowledge that’s entirely dependent on one’s usage.
I would be so much more interested in phones if I could run Debian on them. Check out my proxmox server rack, its a pile of every phone I could acquire from friends throwing out old phones! Between them they run 20 factorio servers with clusterio.
I'm not disagreeing with the rest of your post, but you do realize the MacBook Neo running the desktop macOS is using the A18 Pro, right? The A20 is an iteration on the same design and will likely end up in the next MacBook Neo.
I think OPs point is not that it’s unable to, is that Apple won’t let it
It appears OP wasn't clear they were talking about a phone using the A20 SoC, their message was a direct reply to the article posted which was about the A20 Pro itself and not any particular phone using it. Hence my reply which was also about the A20 SoC and not any particular phone.
I stand behind what I said: The A20 Pro will likely end up in a future MacBook, where it will definitely be running the desktop macOS.
Now, the fact that desktop macOS is becoming more and more like iPadOS/iOS is a discussion for another thread ;-)
I don't really see how you can read that post and not see they were talking about phones, but you are right that the A20 Pro will almost certainly show up in a MacBook Neo successor at some point.
Edit: And what do you think the benchmark was run on? It was a phone.
“Won't let it” by putting it in a Macbook and running MacOS on it?
As in you plug your phone into a monitor and it becomes a fully fledged desktop running MacOS, and you don't have to buy a 2nd device from Apple.
Edit: Like Samsung DEX
Dex is a really neat concept, but ultimately sucks ass.
Maybe the duo will baby step us towards that. But even iPad OS which supports this for years is rough.
Have you tried the newer one built into AOSP yet? Is that one any better?
It's been a year or two since I tried it last. Are current Samsung phones using dex or the AOSP one? Or does the Pixel 9a running Graphene OS support it?
The Samsungs are still using DEX. I think only Pixels support the AOSP one right now, but it's there for other OEMS / devs to build upon. I don't know if Graphene OS supports it or not.
Edit: I just realized, I do have a pixel 8 for development work, and the cable to run it somewhere. Maybe I can find it and give it a try.
Who said anything anything phones specifically? You pulled some random criterion out of your ass.
And by this logic, Google also doesn't let you run desktop OSes on phone CPUs, because their phones don't do some random thing that you saw somewhere.
Apple intentionally limits what features iOS and 'iPadOS' have versus macOS to sell as many devices as possible. An alternate reality where Apple were consumer-friendly would converge all three operating systems into one, with a limited feature set on smaller screens that expands into the full feature set if connected to an external monitor with a docking adapter.
And Android is as full-featured as a desktop?
Jobs was pretty much describing iPad as what computers would be like ‘in the future’ in interviews in the eighties. It was his vision for ages. IPhones and iPads allowed more people to use computers than all desktop OSes combined.
And again, what does this have to do with the processor? You people just jump at any opportunity to mention how you hate Apple?
They could even sell a laptop shell that connects with the phone so you don't pay for the phone internals twice except the shell having a 2nd battery for the bigger display. The shell could then survive for an even longer time than a regular laptop as the internals keep getting upgraded via the phone instead of a whole new laptop.
Plus, if game developers targeted ARM instead of x86, im sure their games would actually run great on those A20s, but they're probably not going to make an ARM version of their game.
I got an S22+ in 2022, I bought the flagship thinking I'd keep it for at least five years. As far as I can tell there is still next to no reason to upgrade.
I'm doing just fine by not looking at new phones as long as my current one works - ignorance is bliss.
https://youtu.be/bMxqMwPo52Q
Never seen that on any of the iPhones in my family, and never heard of that happening on any of my friend’s iPhones despite being the usual tech help contact for them. And this is going back to 2012.
Maybe take it to a Genius Bar and have them correct whatever strange problem that is.
Because that kind of behaviour is extremely unusual.
I had this issue during the very short time I had AI enabled on my iPhone. Autocorrect went INSANE. It was miserable.
I turned AI features all off and autocorrect went back to being serviceable; I don’t have any issues now other than typing on a screen sucks compared to a physical keyboard.
Kinda unrelated, but ive had issues with the google keyboard doing things like me typing the word four, and autocorrect deciding I wanted to write your or hour or similarly close word before and replacing it as I move onto the next word. Drives me nuts when it happens.
iOS has been doing that for a few years for me. Word or phrase that seems perfectly fine? Nah. Also the auto fill thing keeps trying to change and to Andrew. No I’m not talking about Andrew 24/7
I have no clue what’s up with auto correct.
Everyone I know with an iPhone has this issue. The iPhone keyboard is known to be one of the worst in the industry.