A20 Pro Tested: iPhone 18 Pro Crushes Android Flagships, 2nm Debut Opens a Gap
Lab results for Apple's first 2-nanometer chip, the A20 Pro, are rolling in, and the verdict is lopsided: tests from multiple outlets show the A20 Pro-powered iPhone 18 Pro leading Android flagships across CPU, GPU, and AI compute, with single-core performance nearly 30 percent ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
In Notebookcheck's review, the iPhone 18 Pro scored 4,055 in the Geekbench 7 single-core test, almost a third higher than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's 3,142; multi-core came in at 11,622 versus 10,398. Tom's Guide's lab data is even more striking: over 4,700 in Geekbench 6 single-core, a 25 percent jump over last year's iPhone 17 Pro, beating the S26 Ultra by about 25 percent in single-core and 10 percent in multi-core. Against its predecessor, the A20 Pro is more than 22 percent faster than the A19 Pro in single-core.
AI compute is where the A20 Pro opens the widest gap. In the Geekbench AI quantized test, the iPhone 18 Pro's NPU scored 71,367 — against just 1,530 for the S26 Ultra and 436 for the Oppo Find X9 Pro, a difference measured in tens of times. Half-precision and single-precision tests show the same rout; MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 and the Snapdragon camp can't see Apple's taillights in NPU performance for now.
Beyond the scores, Apple reworked the internals: RAM now sits side-by-side with the processor instead of being stacked on top, paired with a vapor chamber cooling system expanded three times over, so sustained heavy workloads no longer trigger throttling. PhoneArena's stress test showed the iPhone 18 Pro Max holding nearly 70 percent higher sustained performance than the S26 Ultra after 20 straight minutes of the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test — territory previously reserved for gaming phones with active cooling. In 3DMark Solar Bay, the phone hit 67.9 frames per second, up 45 percent over last year's Pro Max and 37 percent ahead of Samsung's flagship.
The A20 Pro is the smartphone industry's first 2nm processor, and the process advantage is the biggest reason for this lead. But rivals are gaining: leaked scores for MediaTek's Dimensity 9600 show 4,139 single-core and 13,285 multi-core — already ahead of the A20 Pro in multi-core — and Qualcomm's next Snapdragon is on the way. Apple's single-core crown looks secure for now, but the battle over multi-core and efficiency is just beginning.
Keywords: Apple A20 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro, benchmarks, 2nm, Android flagships