The first hands-on video of the iPhone 4S has hit the web and early benchmarks suggest the phone’s dual-core Apple A5 processor provides vast improvements over the A4 chip in the iPhone 4. The short one-minute clip from AppVV shows the iPhone 4S achieving a BrowserMark score of 89,567 compared to the iPhone 4′s score of 44,856. In addition, the iPhone 4S garnered a score of 2222.1ms from the JavaScript SunSpider benchmark. That is significantly faster than the iPhone 4, which scored 10669.4ms. The video also reveals a unique way to interact with Apple’s Siri voice-command engine. Inside the Settings menu, there is an option to “raise to speak,” which will allow a user to activate the service by simply raising the iPhone 4S to his or her head. Siri language settings and a few other options are also nestled inside the menu. Hit the jump for the full video clip.

Android enthusiast blog Android and Me oversaw a benchmark battle royale on Friday. While the goal of the exercise was to pit the ATRIX 4G against the LG Optimus 2X to see which phone makes better use of its dual-core Tegra 2 processor, the overall results help emphasize something we constantly stress here on BGR: specs are only half the story. The blog arranged a benchmark battle between the ATRIX 4G and Optimus 2X along with Google’s Nexus S and Nexus One, HTC’s G2 and Motorola’s DROID, and the results are hardly what you might expect. First things first — LG’s Optimus 2X handily topped the list in six of eight tests performed, bested only by the ATRIX in the Smartbench 2011 productivity test and the Linpack test. The 800MHz-packing G2 outdid several 1GHz offerings in numerous tests, however, which may come a s surprise to many. Hit the break for a few sets of benchmark results mapped out on graphs, then hit the read link to check out the rest.

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Sony Ericsson might not be ready to unveil the highly anticipated Xperia Play at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but the world is most definitely ready to see this little guy get official. Perhaps in an effort to appease the masses of anxious mobile gamers waiting impatiently to get their mits on the upcoming PlayStation-branded Gingerbread phone, Chinese enthusiast blog IT168 has issued an extensive preview of the device. And when we say extensive, we mean it. Details found within the preview include confirmation of a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a Qualcomm Adreno 205 graphics processor, a 4-inch 854 x 480-pixel display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, a 1,500 mAh battery, microSDHC support and 512 MB each of RAM and ROM. The blog also ran some benchmark tests and, well, the results were pretty impressive — the forthcoming Xperia phone scored 1,733 in Quadrant. Hit the jump for some solid Xperia porn and then hit the read link for a gigantic, poorly translated preview.

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Ever since Apple announced the new MacBook Air — and we found out there was a built-to-order option which upped not only the RAM but CPU — we figured it would be worth putting it head to head with the stock model to see performance differences. We have a 13-inch MacBook Air “stock” model with a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD drive. Our built to order MacBook Air is rocking a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD drive. Hit the jump to check out our results.

For our benchmarking tests, we used Geekbench and Cinebench. Here are the results:

According to Geekbench, the built to order MacBook Air came in with a score of 3314, and the stock MacBook Air came in at 2976. That’s around an 11% difference in performance.

When we ran Cinebech on the built-to-order MacBook Air, we got a score of 1.19. On the stock MacBook Air we got 1.04. A performance difference of around 14%. Is the extra price worth the extra performance?

Well, you’ll have to spend 27% more than the base stock-model to get the faster CPU and additional RAM — part of the reason being you get a SSD that’s twice the capacity — but still, that seems a tad expensive. We will update this post with real world usage feedback over the next couple days to see if we’re missing something, but for now, if you don’t need the additional storage space, we’d say just upgrade the RAM and you’ll most likely be a happy camper.

Have you been twiddling your thumbs, contemplating whether or not to get the svelte new MacBook Air? The folks over at Macworld might just have what you’ve been looking for — benchmark scores. The website has published benchmark results for all four variants of the new Air and as it turns out, all four outperformed previous generation models. The new 11.6-inch MacBook Air, even with its 1.4GHz processor, managed to outperform the older 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo models thanks to its speedy flash storage. The new 13.3-inch 1.86GHz model even managed to marginally outperform the current 13-inch MacBook Pro. So, if you are still sitting on the fence, check out our hands-on and then hit the read link for detailed benchmark results.

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The folks over at alienbabeltech.com have been doing some serious sleuthing. While looking at the GLBenchmark 1.1 database, they discovered a phone with very impressive stats that until now was virtually unknown, the HTC Glacier. The phone’s benchmarks are quite impressive, nearly 3x faster than the 1 GHz EVO 4G in some instances, which leads the author to believe that this phone has been manufactured with some sort of dual-core processor (perhaps the Qualcomm chip that was announced back on June 1st). The blog assumes that the device will be carried by vendor T-Mobile as the device was tested by a person with the username “mbibik”; a user who has only tested T-Mobile devices in the past and who has a LinkedIn page that says he works for T-Mobile (he has since made his employment details private). Other things discovered in the documentation include: the device will run the Android OS, have OpenGL 1.1, and have a screen resolution of 800 x 480. After compiling all of this, the blog hypothesizes that the rumored “Project Emerald” from T-Mobile is actually the dual-core, Android powered, HTC Glacier. What do you think, believable? Hit up the read link for the full article.

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This one took us a bit by surprise. Believe it or not, the 2nd generation iPod Touch got quite a boost in umph – yes, that’s the technical term – and Apple didn’t even bother telling us about it. While the 1st generation iPod Touch and both iPhone models feature processors running at a respectable 412 MHz, the newer iPod Touch model received a substantial boost to 532 MHz. Why would Apple keep quiet about what amounts to nearly a 30% increase in processor speed? We’re really not sure. Maybe Stevie didn’t want to detract from Apple’s current star infielder and get potential and buyers wondering why the iPhone 3G didn’t get the same steroid cocktail. Whatever the case may be, iPhone 3G owners wondering why a game seems so much smoother on their buddy’s iPod Touch – well, it is.

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