> Also, it's important to note that JS engine optimizations play a huge role in this test

Running the bench on a 4S running iOS6 should fix that.

According to the article (and the original source on anandtech), the actual insight provided by SunSpider is its stressing of the memory interface (this was apparently Intel's original explanation for why Atom crushed A9-based SoC in SunSpider even though the raw processing power was pretty similar), and is a datapoint in support of the hypothesis that Apple's custom core design put a high emphasis on on improving the memory subsystem (and much higher than the stock ARM designs).