Claiming that Apple has underclocked the A13 Bionic in the iPhone SE is ridiculous, and here's why

[Redaktion]

Apple is underclocking the A13 Bionic in the iPhone SE, so the story goes. Citing AnTuTu scores, the new iPhone SE cannot match the performance set by the iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone 11 Pro Max, its A13 Bionic-powered siblings. However, there is little use in deducing this from these scores, as we shall discuss below.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Claiming-that-Apple-has-underclocked-the-A13-Bionic-in-the-iPhone-SE-is-ridiculous-and-here-s-why.462248.0.html

[JoeBlack]

It's underclocked and nobody cares.
It could be lower RAM, better battery life, small battery not being able to sustain A13 peak power, Apple being Apple ... but does it change literally anything? ... Nope.

[Andy Chen]

And plus, you have to remember the laws of physics. The iPhone SE is physically much smaller than the 11 series phones, the chip can't run at sustained speeds because of thermals. That's why the 11 pro max can perform better than the 5.8 11 pro because it physically has more space for heat to dissipate, meaning it can run at a higher clock speed for longer.

[JoeBlack]

And plus, you have to remember the laws of physics. The iPhone SE is physically much smaller than the 11 series phones, the chip can't run at sustained speeds because of thermals. That's why the 11 pro max can perform better than the 5.8 11 pro because it physically has more space for heat to dissipate, meaning it can run at a higher clock speed for longer.

Antutu is quite a short benchmark, that's why it's so easy to cheat in it.

[Michael Flatman]

While yes there is limits in regards to thermals, remember Apple is the king of sustained performance.

[Giulk]

There is no underclock, Antutu also takes into consideration memory and storage, iphone if it has 1gb of ram less than iphone 11, for this the score is lower, and the same between iphone xr and xs