So what’s the A9 chip? According to Apple, the A9 is, “The most advanced chip ever in a smartphone.” And when I compare it to the speed of my iPhone 5s, I can see some truth in such a bold statement. The A9 chip increases the performance of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, making both noticeably faster than their predecessors equipped with the old A8 chips. Apple shipped their new iPhones with either a Samsung or TSMC A9 chip. If you want to see how to figure out which one you have, keep reading.
Update:
This 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.
There is now a much easier way to check if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus has a TSMC or Samsung A9 chip. So check the link below:
How to identify if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus has a TSMC or Samsung A9 chip
It was expected that Apple would distribute both the TSMC and Samsung chips evenly across the two devices. The smaller Samsung chip (14-nanometers) for the iPhone 6s and the larger TSMC chip (16-nanometers) in the iPhone 6s Plus.
But according to information being collected by iOS Developer Hiraku Wang, the chips don’t seem to be coordinated in any consistent fashion. He created a program that will help you identify which brand of chip you have. Follow this link to download the CPU Identifier program to your device.
Just a little heads up, you’ll need to install an enterprise certificate onto your device. If this is bothersome, you can just delete the profile after checking to see which chip you have.
Step 1: Install Profile
Go to the site and install CPU Identifier on your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus. You’ll need to hit Install once on the page, and one more time in the pop-up.
Step 2: Trust the Profile
Once you install, the app will appear on your home screen. If you tap on the application without trusting the profile you will see the following message found in the second screenshot.
To trust the app, go to Settings -> General -> Profile and tap on the Guangzhou Huimei Electronic Co. Ltd. profile marker.
On the next screen, tap the blue title for the app and hit Trust. Now the certificate and profile are trusted.
Step 3: Open the app
Now all you need to do is go back to the home screen and open the app. It will launch and then your chip type will be revealed. As you can see, my iPhone 6s has the TSMC A9 chip installed.
Step 4: Deleting the Profile
To ensure proper deletion of the app, go to Settings -> General -> Profile and tap Delete App. The app will be removed from you device. And since there really is no use for the app after you view your chip type, I’d suggest removal for sure.
Check out our video walkthrough to see how to identify if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus has a TSMC or Samsung chip:
It is yet to be seen if having one chip over the other has any type of advantage. But in due time I am sure there will be more details regarding this topic. Here is the breakdown so far, according to Wang’s stats.
Now that you know which A9 chip your device has, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comment section.
