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My iPhone XS with A12 bionic still running Asphalt like a beast in 2023.
That’s impressive. Did we solve anything important in the next 9 years?
I see some people here are running iPhone8s or even 7s. I’m curious how they use their phones.

I just replaced my iPhone12 with a 15. The 12 was still fast enough, but the 15 is noticeably significantly snappier.

The 12 replaced an X which was getting painfully and frustratingly slow.

The X likewise replaced a 6 which was getting painfully and frustratingly slow.

I'm more curious to know what you do with your phone? Games? I'm not sure if the average person has noticed any performance improvements besides screen refresh rate and maybe photo/video quality.
I use a first gen iPhone SE. It’s fine — I don’t understand why anyone needs a $1,000 phone.
I also use 1st gen SE every day. Some chat, web and of course calls.
My wife uses an XR and I have an XS. Neither of us have any complaints, though I remember trying an app mentioned on HN that didn't work because it needed ... a newer version of neural engine, or something. We also got a MBP 5 years ago and it still runs great as well.

I frequently see people rag on the cost of Apple stuff, but I'm pretty happy with the length of time they remain usable without annoyance. We generally buy used as well, so that helps lower the sting.

Apple is basically competing against itself at this point. Somewhat disappointed of Qualcomm and MediaTek though, they're all mediocre by comparison. I would have expected them to wipe the floor with Apple, but seems like Apple chips are still holding up against the best chips from Qualcomm.
>I would have expected them to wipe the floor with Apple

Why would you expect that ?

I just felt that Qualcomm would have an edge over Apple given Qualcomm's experience developing ARM chips for decades at this point. It was more that I assumed that Qualcomm had some kind of killer chip in reserve in case a competitor sprung up out of nowhere OR would be able to come up with one quick enough. I didn't think it was probable that Apple would still be king for 3+ years now and be so dominant.
Apple started with their arm series in 2010. They are hardly a newcomer.
Apple is ahead on CPU perf. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has a faster GPU than the A17 Pro though.
This is such a long-winded way of saying "newer CPUs are faster than older ones" that it feels like spam. I have to hit the flag button on this.