Battery life is probably one of the most important factors while buying a smartphone. So it is not surprising that the difference in battery life between Samsung and TSMC’s A9 chip is getting so much attention.
Apple has also acknowledged that there is indeed a difference between TSMC and Samsung’s A9 chip, though it insists that the variation is minimal.
Few days back we had shown you how to identify if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus has a TSMC or Samsung A9 chip. Unfortunately, that method is not longer viable as the developer has taken down his app, as it probably was violating Apple’s App Store policy for misusing the Enterprise certificate and has instead released the source code of the app. So you would need to use XCode to compile the app, and install it on your iPhone, but it is only possible if you have a valid iOS Developer account.
Thankfully, there is now a much easier way to find out which A9 chip is inside your shiny new iPhone using a free iPhone app available in the App Store. So follow the instructions below:
How to check if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus has TSMC or Samsung’s A9 chip
- Download Battery Memory System Status Monitor (iTunes link), a free app from the App Store.
- Launch the BMSSM app.
- Then tap on the System tab at the top of the screen.
- It displays information such as the model, name, OS, Kernel, number of CPUs, Cache Line Size, L1 Cache Size etc of your iPhone.
- The model name will tell you whether you have a TSMC or Samsung A9 chip inside your iPhone. Here’s the legend:
- N66mAP – iPhone 6s Plus with A9 chip manufactured by TSMC.
- N66AP – iPhone 6s Plus with A9 chip manufactured by Samsung.
- N71mAP- iPhone 6s with A9 chip manufactured by TSMC.
- N71AP – iPhone 6s with A9 chip manufactured by Samsung.
So essentially the “m” in the Model name indicates if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus has what many are calling the “good” TSMC chip.
Now that you know which A9 chip your device has, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comment section.
Thanks DeathAdder for the tip!
