In 6 of 9 real-world tests and benchmarks, Samsung Galaxy S6 outperforms LG G4 and iPhone 6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Is The World's Fastest Smartphone — A fast phone shouldn't just score well in benchmarks. It should deliver swift, everyday performance, too, whether it's opening a large file …
Context & Ripple Effects
This Tom's Guide result confirms what AnandTech concluded when the phone launched: Samsung's Exynos chip was the SoC to beat in the Android space, and now it has also beaten the iPhone 6 head-to-head in everyday tasks, not just synthetic scores.
The win matters because real-world speed claims are perishable currency — a year later the same publication pipeline would show Samsung's Note7 losing an app-speed test to the one-year-old iPhone 6s, so this crown sets up the next generation's contest as much as it rewards the S6.
First-order effects
- LG G4 and iPhone 6 lose the 'fastest smartphone' talking point at retail just as both are competing directly against the S6 in mid-2015 flagship lineups.
Second-order effects
- Apple and LG are pushed to answer on responsiveness rather than specs alone, since the test format — opening files and launching apps, not benchmark numbers — is what reviewers and buyers now cite.
- Samsung converts the result into marketing leverage for the S6 edge and the upcoming Note5/S6 edge+ cycle that AnandTech separately rated as the best Android phablets of late 2015.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, flagship leadership on real-world speed flips roughly every generation between Samsung and Apple — the S6's 2015 win, the Note7's 2016 loss, and Samsung's 2021 dominance of top 5G download performers all fit that alternation — making any single test victory a poor predictor of durable advantage.
The trend: Smartphone superiority is increasingly adjudicated by independent real-world speed tests whose verdicts reset every product cycle, forcing Samsung and Apple into a perpetual responsiveness arms race.