I recently upgraded from an iPhone 13 to an iPhone 18 Pro after five years, and wanted to see how much difference those five years of hardware improvements actually make. As an indie developer, I’ve been working on FaceSwap Offline, an iOS app that performs AI face swapping entirely on-device, without uploading photos or videos to the cloud. I thought it would be interesting to compare how both phones handle the same kind of demanding AI workload. I attached a ~30s screen recording showing the actual face-swapping process. (iPhone 13 on the left, 18 Pro on the right) Here’s what I observed: • HD video preview: The iPhone 18 Pro runs smoothly in real time, while the iPhone 13 visibly stutters. • Video export: When the iPhone 18 Pro finished exporting (100%), the iPhone 13 had only reached 44%. That’s a pretty impressive difference in real-world use. Looking at the hardware, the improvements are substantial: • A15 Bionic → A20 Pro (5nm → 2nm) • RAM: 4GB → 12GB • GPU: 4 cores → 7 cores • Neural Engine: 16 cores → 32 cores • Improved thermal management for sustained workloads Of course, this isn’t a scientific benchmark, and export progress doesn’t necessarily translate directly into a speed ratio. But the difference in preview smoothness and export performance is hard to miss. The iPhone 13 still handles everyday tasks surprisingly well. But for heavy on-device AI workloads, these five years of hardware progress really show. As someone developing offline AI applications, I’m excited about what’s becoming possible directly on smartphones, without relying on cloud processing. Curious if other developers have noticed similar improvements with on-device AI. What kind of workloads have you tested?   submitted by   /u/KrikDai [link]   [comments]