Alleged 'iPhone 6' benchmark suggests 'A8' CPU has 1GB of RAM, is clocked at 1.4GHz

The details come from user "zzray" on the Chinese social networking site Weibo, the same person who posted photos and video of an apparently functioning "iPhone 6" unit over the weekend. They suggest that Apple's next iPhone will feature the same amount of RAM as the iPhone 5s before it.

The clock speed would be an improvement however,coming in slightly faster than the 1.3 gigahertz A7 chip that powers the iPhone 5s. The new "A8" is said to be a dual-core 64-bit chip, just like its predecessor, tests with GeekBench 3 show. The benchmarks were first noted on Monday by GforGames.

The amount of RAM in Apple's next iPhone has been something of a point of contention amongst technology enthusiasts, who hope to see more memory in future devices. Additional RAM would allow iOS to leave background tasks and tabs in Safari open for longer without a need to reload or refresh.

But additional RAM also comes with costs to battery life, as memory constantly consumes power. Making more RAM available to programs on an iPhone would result in a faster battery drain, and so less memory actually improves battery life.

Apple first began offering a gigabyte of RAM in its custom CPUs with the A5X chip that debuted in the third-generation iPad with Retina display in 2012. Later that same year, the A6 processor that powered the iPhone 5 also came with a gigabyte of RAM, marking the first time Apple had achieved that amount on a phone.

The user also uploaded a picture taken with the alleged "iPhone 6" camera. It shows much better low-light details captured than with an iPhone 5s.

Finally, the user also noted that they could not find any mention of a near-field communications chip in the native Settings application on iOS 8. Other videos posted have also shown no options for controlling NFC, which is believed to power Apple's anticipated payments system.

However, the leaked iPhone does feature a new iOS 8 Passbook icon with a graphic showing what appears to be a credit card. It's possible that the unit was simply obtained with a pre-release version of iOS 8, and does not include the intended functionality yet.

Apple's media event is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern today at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif. The company will live stream the event, and AppleInsider will also be there live in attendance with full coverage. Readers can get the latest news on our liveblog and via the official AppleInsider app for iPhone and iPad.