The 6s and iPad Pro are a good demonstration of the importance of designing systems <i>tastefully</i>. In the rest of ARM-land, manufacturers are enthralled by octa-core designs that take up lots of die space but sit idle in most consumer workloads. Apple, in comparison, has stuck to two relatively low-clocked cores to deliver balanced performance.<p>When my iPhone got stolen, I briefly had a Droid Maxx 2 (Verizon&#x27;s version of the Moto X Play), which was the laggiest phone I&#x27;ve ever owned (and that includes a $130 Lumia 620). Its Snapdragon 615 has a GPU so anemic it can&#x27;t handle even basic Google Play Store animations without stuttering. But it&#x27;s got eight cores, which apparently checks the boxes of Android ODMs because the 615 is used in nearly every upper mid-range Android phone. That&#x27;s what happens when spec-heavy marketing drives your system architecture.<p>And the focus on specs (cores, clockspeed), ironically results in worse performance. Under sustained load, the Nexus 6p spends most of its time under a gigahertz because of thermal throttling: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.anandtech.com&#x2F;show&#x2F;9820&#x2F;the-google-nexus-6p-review&#x2F;4" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.anandtech.com&#x2F;show&#x2F;9820&#x2F;the-google-nexus-6p-revie...</a>. The 6s and 6s plus, in comparison, can run a graphics-intensive benchmark until the battery dies while maintaining a consistent framerate: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.anandtech.com&#x2F;show&#x2F;9686&#x2F;the-apple-iphone-6s-and-iphone-6s-plus-review&#x2F;8" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.anandtech.com&#x2F;show&#x2F;9686&#x2F;the-apple-iphone-6s-and-i...</a>.