[citation][nom]tmshdw[/nom]Yes but becasue the Android OS is a hog the CPU needs to run faster to match the user experience of an iPhone. Tech heads can remain locked in ghz numbers as providing meaning in their life (they won't by a phone because it doesn't have the highest ghz). But intelligent consumers are more interested in the user experience.[/citation]
Real-world, unbiased benchmarks show that many of the Android devices are usually faster regardless of how much of a hog Android is. Besides that, it's mostly old versions of Android that are really hogs. ICS is far better than them and Android gets faster with each version (on the same phones I mean, IE the OS is constantly becoming less of a performance hog).
I won't say for certain that the newest iPhones are better or that the newest Androids are better because I don't have the money to afford either and don't know many people who do that I talk with often, but overall, the benchmarks speak in Android's favor for CPU performance.
Also, keep in mind that almost all smart phone comparisons that involve benchmarks are biased (love how most Android ones have either some or all Android phones in the comparison using the oldest supported version of Android for those phones, so they seem to be much slower than they really are), so you often need to really look to find good bases for arguments and opinions in this market. It's not like PCs where at least several reputable sources almost always have excellent and unbiased reviews of something.
The iPhone 4S has an undeniable lead in graphics, but that will be addressed. Whether or not the next iPhone will be beating the 2012 Androids in either CPU performance (unlikely) or GPU performance (more likely) is the question that should be asked. The problem with that question is that the answer won't be seen for some time yet
There are also more factors besides CPU and GPU capabilities to consider. The Androids, like I said earlier, tend to have more memory and storage (at least for the price) and their storage is upgradable. Androids also seem to have more free apps than the iPhones do. For example, even my old Samsung Transform lets me use stuff such as emulators for some older game systems like the Nintendo Gameboys and that's something that I like to do occasionally. For example, my phone has a Gameboy Advance emulator and I play some games that way. It also has plenty of free native Android games and I can get internet tethering for free. I don't know if the iPhone offers free tethering so I can't say for sure that it doesn't, but it seems unlikely.
There is simply more that I can do on my Android than I could on an iPhone and I can do it all for free (money spent on getting the device and it's data/service plan not counted, but that's a factor for ALL phones, not just Androids). Would the average users care about most of what I do? Not at all, so they could go either way and the iPhones aren't as overpriced as other Apple products (at least, not as overpriced when compared to the competition), so it's really not wasteful to get an iPhone. However, most intelligent tech heads that want huge versatility prefer Android.
I don't play any particularly GPU heavy things anyway, so even if the Androids don't meet or beat the next iPhone in GPU performance, I'll be happy with them so long as they can play 1080p video and regular games that don't get much more intensive than something such as Angry Birds. I use my phone more for CPU heavy work anyway.