We should distinguish between visible hardware and invisible hardware.
Apple fans will talk about build quality or screen quality, but rarely about CPU or GPU stats. Apple doesn't even publish these, and you have to wait for third parties to figure out what the numbers are.
I'm sure that some people will talk about how great the A6 CPU is or whatever, but few such people actually know what they're talking about when they do it.
Not trying to make a value judgment here, but this is what I have seen.
