The iPhone 4S is finally here and while we don’t have a 5 to compare things to, we do have the 4S to throw up against the Samsung Galaxy S II for a few browser load times and overall performance tests as I’m sure plenty are interested in seeing the results. I always told myself I’d never use the word “iPhone” in a title here at Android Community but this isn’t about me — its for you, the readers. A little friendly competition is always nice right? Because where would we all be without it — probably still using Nokia candy bar phones daily. Enough of that, check out our video below.

Now I’m not going to get too crazy here or break down all the little things about Android or iOS, iPhone 4S or Galaxy S II, instead I’ll just show you all the video by our sister site and good man Vincent from SlashGear. Your humble narrator (me) wouldn’t be caught dead with an idevice so we’ll just have to take Vincents word for it. First off he compares the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S in a browser test or three just for fun and to see how well the new A5 dual-core processor chugs along in the “S”, then he moves on to the good stuff — Android. The first attempt with the Galaxy S II he doesn’t hit go, so don’t get discouraged and break anything just yet, watch the entire clip.

iPhone 4S vs Galaxy S II browser test
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Update: New video with Flash set to On Demand

Galaxy S II vs iPhone 4S browser test with flash disabled
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I myself am not in control of the testing here, but from initial results the iPhone 4S performs quite well, I’m sure everyone expected that as the original held its own pretty well too. One of the fastest processors around currently, the 1.5 GHz Qualcomm in the Galaxy S II performs very well but is just barely by a hair beat by the new A5 dual-core iPhone 4S in most tests. I’d rather have the SGSII perform 1 second slower and have a full flash experience personally. We could argue about this all day, flash or no flash, or try other sites but when it really comes down to it iOS is highly efficient as is Android — not to mention many many websites are designed with iOS in mind.

This is just one prime example that we don’t need blazing fast quad-core processors and huge 4.7″ displays to have an awesome experience. I can’t see myself browsing the web and reading websites with that puny little 3.5″ display, but that is just me. Android has came a long ways over the past few years and is growing daily. The rapid growth and development of the entire ecosystem is just one more reason to be completely excited about things to come. The iPhone 4S may slightly be faster by a tiny hair at the moment, but wait for those quad-core processors to start hitting the streets and this will be an entire different story. I know I mentioned we don’t need the quad-cores, and we still don’t, but I sure would love to have one.

In the end both sides will remain extremely competitive, they will drive innovation and Samsung and Android will continue to rise and rise. Do take note that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is well over a year old, and iOS 5 was just released. Once we get the newer, bigger, better, and faster Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich powered Samsung Galaxy Nexus I’d love to run these tests again and see who’s boss (and we will).

For now we’ll just have to agree that while they didn’t release a newer and bigger iPhone 5, Apple’s done a decent job with the new iPhone 4S. Apparently there is more to it than just the S so the upgrade kit I was planning to sell pictured below might not work after all.

What do you think of the video? We would love to see your comments in the appropriate section below.

138 COMMENTS

  5. this vincent guy has never been quite accurate and objective in his reviews or mash up comparisons. besides that, why didn’t he use the exynos version ?  afraid that his love for iphone 4s would be belitted perhaps?  

  6. Seriously?? Try turning off the flash on android browser and do the test maybe? 
    Better yet, why don’t you turn on the flash on iPhone and do the test. lol

    • exactly.. people are reacting pretty crazy here. We know flash was enabled because we all love Flash and want to use it. Although yes a proper test should have it disabled like the iphone 4S.

      We’ll post another later without flash

  9. Dude if you’re gonna post a browser test at least clear the cache, cookies and HISTORY on both devices and make sure you connect the Galaxy S2 to  WiFi and not base the results on one bar of T-Mobile tower service. Lol…Rookie!

  10. Yeah dude, seriously, turn off Flash and run that again. Beside the Slashgear test, looks like this brand new phone with a brand new OS barely beat the older SGS2. With Flash off, the results might have been even closer. Lets see what happens when ICS is out.

  12. Terrible demo. Next time clear everything, history, cache and even background processes on both phones. Make sure flash is disabled and then maybe people would take you serious.

    • SGSII had 1.5GHz processing power and bigger ram.. That alone should be a breeze handling background task and flash content. stop finding excuses.

      Or… the exynos actually weak compared to A5 ?? and samsung is playing the Pentium4 GHz game back in the day AMD won with athlon XP ?

  13. This test sucks Android has flash enabled and the iphone4s clearly doesn’t.. This should be redone a fair browser test since iphone doesn’t have adobe flash unlike the GSII this is BULLSHIT TEST

    • Doesn’t it tell you something?  How far Android phones come along?  They wanted to show the latest iPhone beating an Android phone in a test that gives iPhone ahead start to begin with? 🙂

  14. lol we left flash on because that is how we use our phones.. with flash! If anything this shows just how powerful Android truly is, because with something as power hungry as Adobe Flash our phones still manage to be top performers.

    I love my SGSII and wouldn’t trade it for anything atm. Jus sayin!

    • then why did you allow your colleague to minimize the impact of the yet freshly released samsung galaxy s2 by poorly, novice-ly doing a comparison video that handicaps unfairly the galaxy s2 and praises the iphone 4s?   don’t you guys edit your videos before releasing one? 

    • lolol i love all this complaining about flash. It is part of the reason apple doesn’t allow it. Deal with it, your phone is a bit slower

      • The complain is about the testing, not the flash. Plus, flash is an option, not a mandatory thing to have. You can have it on the fly only when you want it, so no need to slow down your phone with it when you don’t need it.  

      • Rio, you failed to realize that you can turn flash off. Better yet, you can actually get ad-block (like on desktop firefox browser)
        Imagine that, you can customize your phone the way you like it, not how Apple think how you should like it!

  16. This was a terribly biased review. I’d like to see someone redo this properly. Even with all the handicaps against Android it still loads half a second slower than the 4s.

    Favorite part is at 7:40 where he describes how “text and pictures load so much faster” on the 4s, and yet the difference in loading was BARELY even noticeable.

  17. I agree, this comparison was poorly done. Even his iPhone 4 -vs- 4S comparison was less than useful, since he’s comparing iOS 4.x on the 4 to iOS 5.0 on the 4S. It would be more useful to redo the comparison with iOS 5.0 on both devices.

    As for Android, the differences were slight in most cases. Claiming that one platform is “so much faster” than the other is misleading — it’s a second or two at the most, often a fraction of a second.

  19. Would like to see the comparison redone with flash off and wifi connected.  This video seems to handicap the android phone.

    How can u claim that the iphone 4s loads faster when flash takes up so much more bandwidth? That doesn’t seem to be a fair comparison.

  20. Damn so if the gs2 wifi is not connected to a network then that just means tmobile service is a beast. And it means the gs2 with flash is damn fast. Cause with flash turned off and wifi on the gs2 would been a lil faster. Just saying. And when my phone connects to wifi my 4g sign goes away

      • Interesting… I just looked up some you tube videos of GS II for T-mobile and that phone didn’t have 3G or 4G symbol next to WiFi symbol when connected WiFi.

      • Well then myaccount or visual voicemail were syncing during this test. because thats the only time i see the mobile data and wifi get used simultaneously. those two apps wont sync over wifi. this is why i remove myaccount from my phones its too buggy and a battery hog.

  21. Wait, you’re comparing the iPhone 4s’ 800 MHz processor to the Galaxy’s 1.5 ghz and they are neck and neck?

    Ummm, lol. Glad I ordered an iPhone 4S.

  33. What that idiot didn’t care to mention was that the SGS2 was loading flash content. If he wanted to be fair, he should have turned flash the “resource hog” off. Dude seemed like an iPhone fan boy for sure.

    • If they disabled flash plugin, Iphone 4s will be slower!!!!  hahahaha
      my years old pentium PC browser is faster than AirBook browser!! ofcoz without loading any photos… hahahah

    • 4S = 800MHz

      SGS2 = 1.5GHz
      even with flash on, the 1.5GHz still have alot of head room to compete. Let say Flash took 500MHz. You still have 1 GHz vs 800MHz !!!

  35. the comparison between the iphone 4 and the 4s is invalid.
    the iphone 4 is on low battery (21%!!) while the 4s battery is almost full.

    it is known that whenver the battery is weak the phone conserves power consumption – which makes the device slower.!

  36. Battery on any android phone sucks, I was an iPhone user moved to android for 2 years and now I’m going back to the iPhone better phone over all…. Don’t get mad when android 4.0 comes out and you have to wait 5-6 months for it to be available on your phone, if it’s supported by it. if not you are out of luck….

      • And how is changing your battery better than getting a whole new iPhone when you do a battery replacement at Apple? A new iPhone for the price of a battery. 
        And the battery replacement is even free when you get the Apple Care.

        This iPhone / iPod battery myth is so lame.

        And I have to say it’s sucks for you to have to settle for popping that plastic back of and exchange the battery while the UPS guy presents a new iPhone to me. For free.

        Get your facts straight.

      • Apple store doesnt give you a new phone they replace the battery. Also if ups is bringing you a new phone then you probably lied to get a new on. Have to settle for popping off the back? Dude you are in denial. Hell i had to convince the guy at the apple store to replace my 3G because of dead pixels.
        So I think your full of shit.

      • Dude. With Apple Care the battery replacement means a new phone. It is in the terms of warranty.
        When you’re out of warranty you have to pay more: 99$ and you get a new phone.

        If you need to replace battery on the go: just get an external one. I have a Philips for 30$. It has 2500 mah an recharges my iPhone 4 twice, or my iPod, or my iPad. 

        Get your facts straight before spilling bullshit.

      • iPhone OwnersYour one-year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. You can extend your coverage to two years from the date of your iPhone purchase with the AppleCare Protection Plan for iPhone. During the plan’s coverage period, Apple will replace the battery if it drops below 50% of its original capacity. If it is out of warranty, Apple offers a battery replacement for $79, plus $6.95 shipping, subject to local tax. Apple disposes of your battery in an environmentally friendly manner.taken from the apple site.
        so either a new battery or a refurb phone.

        so looks like i know my facts bud. eat it whore.

      • MY facts. They replace THE PHONE. It says battery replacement but they ALWAYS replace the the iPhone. Same thing with iPod. I’ve been an Apple Customer for 6 years. I already did this with two iPods and one iPhone. When you get Apple Care it is even included in the service. 

        If you have Apple Care you don’t even need to go to a store: a UPS guy will deliver the new phone for you next day and pick up the old one.
        Read the whole terms of Apple Care: it says battery replacement in this part. In another part of the agreement it says that with Apple Care coverage you have the right for a new replacement iPhone via a courier service for ANY service.
        And this means for the battery replacement too. Legal texts can be confusing.
        But it is how it is.

        If you don’t have Apple Care it is simply more expensive to do this.
        So it is the battery fee — 79 $ — plus 29 $ to get the new iPhone. For the iPod it is always 79$, I think. And there it says battery replacement, too. But they will give you a new iPod — same type.

        Just call Apple Care, say you are out of warranty and would like a battery replacement, because it is weak and that you’d like to have your phone directly replaced, because you can’t be without it.
        Then you pay the battery — 79 $ — and pay 29 $ for the replacement and leave your credit card number as in insurance that you give the old one back.
        No lying, no tricks. That is the official service. Do it. Call now.

        Seriously: get your facts straight.

      • Even if it is a refurbed, which is not certain, it can be a new one as well: it still is LIKE new. Not just wiped off with alcohol. That’s a great service. I’ll receive my new iPod tomorrow. I just gave it into service today. And the dude told me this time they are out of stock on the iPod Video, so I’ll receive an iPod classic. What an awesome service. Second time I had my video in battery exchange. Cost me 59 € each. And now I’ll have a refurbed 120 GB classic.
        You don’t have to like Apple, but don’t lie about their service.

  37. Hey all you people complaining Flash on … wifi etc. New video has been posted with Flash off and everything. Not much of a change. Be man enough and accept the facts….. or continue with denial. Then Anger will come. Finally acceptance.

    • You sir are an idiot. Who cares that the iphone is fraction faster at browsing. Id rather have a full internet experience on an Android phone. Have fun paying for a marginal upgrade to the 4. I myself will be getting the Nexus Prime.

    • its not pay attention to the browser time bar.  The iphones indicator ends and a few seconds later the page is still loading things.  Right above the web address loading indicator there is a loading circle above after it appears to be finished loading.  So in REALITY the SG2 loads the pages faster even with flash….just more Apple progaganda…

  38. Android is the shit simply cuz of galaxy. And now iphone…apple is competing with it. Faster or not that’s awesome for samsung. Two years ago iphone was raping everything. Imagine two years from now. There will be 2 new galaxy phones by the time apple releases the 5. And even with the 4s, the s2 is still a far more capable phone. And its older. eat iphone, without jobs they are fucked

  40. The CPU in the T-Mobile GS2 is a Qualcomm S3 and the other models have the Samung Exynos processor. I think the Nexus prime is supposed to have a variant of the Exynos. Id Like to see this test done with the AT&T version of the GS2. Tests have shown that the S3 doesnt have quite the processing power of the Exynos.

  41. Turn flash off fella! The galaxy has to render for more content on the exact same page! Then again don’t…. I like seeing the phone display the web page as it should be viewed and seeing apple unable to do so.

  44. Browsing test is not fair, there are flash contents in every page you tested. It’s well know that Flash does consume cpu power. To be fair compare non-flash with non-flash.

  45. Android Gingerbread uses only one core for the browser, while iphone and honeycomb use both cores.ICS will also use both of the cores while using the browser.

  49. I agree with several of the others below. It does not seem like a fair comparison with web pages since there is all kind of flash content on the android phone.

  52. Yeah… nearly as fast as iOS5. Just a few seconds more but WITH ALL Flash content. Wow. Pretty poor performance for iOS in comparsion.
    And other than that, iOS just came out. The newest version is NOT 2.3.5, but 2.3.6 and will be replaced by Ice Cream Sandwich in a few days.

    As much as you wish, iPhone and iOS is behind Android. Catch up for a few days. Have fun!

    • LMAO.  Look at BOTH videos moron.  He did turn off flash.

      Wow, you Fandroids are just pathetic.  A super-efficient 800Mhz processor with IOS5 COMPLETELY DESTROYS your latest and greatest 1.5 Ghz processor and all you can say is 
      “Wait wait, ICS is coming out, but but flash…  waaaaa”.

      Android got COMPLETELY DESTROYED in this test.  I’m embarrassed for you really.  You’re so upset that your OS is a joke.

  54. Set the user agent for the GSII as iPhone and you’ll be loading exactly the same site too…  I wonder if that would make a difference.  (I can’t test, don’t have a GSII [Verizon, I hate you] or iPhone 4S).

    That said, I don’t care if iPhone is slightly faster – the screen is just too small for me. I love my 4.3″ screen.

  55. Wow the gs2 loading flash, and running on one core keeps up with the dual core iphone4s, that’s sad. Turn flash off, and load firefox beta or opera on the gs2 so it can run both cores and it will eat the iphone4s. when ics comes out it’ll be a joke.

    • LMAO silly fandroid.  He DID turn off flash.  Read the whole article and watch BOTH videos next time.

      Oh, and learn how to read.

      • He did not turn it off he set it for on-demand..you never answer this question nor comment :but ALL of you need to look very close to the top portion of both phones….It appears to me the I phone is a Verizon version(I think), and It appears to be on a WIFI connection. The GS2 appears to be on the carrier network…please explain this.

  57. There is no doubt, The newer I phone performs well, but ALL of you need to look very close to the top portion of both phones….It appears to me the I phone is a Verizon version(I think), and It appears to be on a WIFI connection. The GS2 appears to be on the carrier network. WHAT LOOKS EVEN MORE UNRELIABLE IN THESE TEST IS, NOT ONLY IS THE GS2 ON THE TMO NETWORK IN THIS VIDEO, LOOK AT THE SINGLE BAR OF SIGNAL HE HAS. No phone will perform to it’s full potential in this situation. What is very obvious about this video is the reviewer is PRO Apple and desires to mislead us into thinking Android is just not as good as the latest I phone. Do another video with both phones in an equal coverage are with comparable signals, or do the test with both on WIFI and we will all see there won’t be much difference if any. One bar of signal quality is not a fair testing situation, doesn’t matter what phone it is.

    • I own the iPhone 4s and let me just say it lags pathetically on wifi,YouTube buffers constantly and the iCloud with repeated iPhoto’s dublications are frankly annoying.Yes the camera is an improvement but the image isn’t as large as it appears on the the sgs2 and it doesn’t zoom in as closely as the sgs2.So I’ve decided to sell my iPhone after being a fan for years and buying and sgs2 with icecream sandwich installed.:)

  59. have to visit sites that don’t have cycling ads on them because a different ad changes the page. Also, using the same wifi is a bit sketchy because you’ll get sporadic results with request priorities.

      • meaning more of the sites show up on the sgs2 so it takes more time to manifest the mages.  But if you hold text to text, sgs2 was the same if not better!

      • Evgeny tried to point it out to you – iphone has a higher resolution than the sgs2 so the iphone has to load more stuff out.

        It’s not the screen size, dummy, it’s the resolution

      • Have you physically, in real life have seen the diference between an iPhone screen and a SGS2 one? Even with a higher resolution on the iPhone, the SGS2 looks better than the iPhone. You see them two and you can only think that the colors are much better, making the iPhone’s screen look pale. I own a SGS2 and my mom owns an iPhone 4. A bigger screen with a Super AMOLED Plus screen makes a really, and I mean REALLY big difference.

      • Super amoled plus even though lexx pixels, it has more subpixels which makes up for even more resolution on the Iphone with 50% more subpixels. which gives better contrast in colors, better blacks, well I will have to see what happens with Nexus, right now the feature giving the edge to Iphone is Siri, which works really well, still we will have to see how google will turn this around, anyway this competition is beneficial to us the consumers, technology is advancing at a really fast rate, its impressive how things are turning.

    • Just like the iphone has flash content loaded but it doesn’t support flash.  He did turn off the flash if you paid attention..which you didn’t

  62. LMAO at all the Fandroids whining about flash.
    2 points:

    1.  Look at the SECOND video, he DID turn off flash and it made no difference.  Android still got owned.
    2.  If you’re going to whine about flash being on, THEN WHY HAVE YOU BE SCREAMING HOW GREAT FLASH IS FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS STRAIGHT.

    Make up your minds you pathetic Fandroids.  LMAO, you guys get your panties in a twist over nothing.

    • there is one thing that people are missing the GSII isnt connected to the wi-fi…the wi-fi is turned on but its not connected the the GSII is running on the carrier internet on one bar….so the test is not really a fair…

    • there is one thing that people are missing the GSII isnt connected to the wi-fi…the wi-fi is turned on but its not connected the the GSII is running on the carrier internet on one bar….so the test is not really a fair…

    • If you limit your web surfing to just the sites that do not have flash, then the iPhone wins hands down.  In the real world, many web sites use flash and the iPhone looks silly if you show a side by side using those sites. 

  63. the samsung galaxy is garbage. how can you compare it with iphone. I upgraded my iphone 4 to iphone4S. It is simply class. I renewed my contract for further 3 years hence, I got the iphone4S for $159 through Telus Canada. 
    I have used iphone 3G, iphone 3GS, iphone 4 and now iphone 4S, ipad and ipad 2. I am totally sold off to apple. Guys believe me if someone is comparing with iphone, I can bet that person has not used the iphone hence they want to compare with Samsung, LG, HTC, etc. 

    • it is like compare a man runing a 100 meter and a man runing 120 meter. both are winners. Iphone is finished running a 100 m with10 seconds. Samsung G2 is finished running 120meters in 11 seconds. Because when you pay attention on the second video you can see Samsung g2 has more graghics and contents loaded  than iphone 4s when it finished. go back and look close. both are winners. Hate to see iphone users think they are the only smartphone users. they are the smart a$$ for sure.

  65. it is like compare a man runing a 100 meter and a man runing 120 meter. both are winners. Iphone is finished running a 100 m with10 seconds. Samsung G2 is finished running 120meters in 11 seconds. Because when you pay attention on the second video you can see Samsung g2 has more graghics and contents loaded  than iphone 4s when it finished. go back and look close. both are winners. Hate to see iphone users think they are the only smartphone users. they are the smart a$$ for sure.

  67. It would be interesting to know what people think of a phone with a 800 MHz processor performing as an equal to one with an 1.5 GHz, nearly twice its speed. How would they perform with more similar processors?
    Any idea?

  68. Thank you for the tests! 🙂 However, it should be the point to NOT flushing caches etc, because the current condition of the net connection can change by seconds. With the browser cache you take the net speeds out from the situation and only the machines themselves remain.

    Other thought: speeds can be measured by counting the picture frames or milliseconds spent between starting and finishing.

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