A12's spec results are close to Intel's single-thread performance at comparable clock speeds in SPEC, yes, but that wasn't the claim. The claim was that A12 was faster and that is what doesn't really have much evidence to support. Particularly since at comparable clock speeds is great and all, but not if your competitor can just outclock you by a landslide. The A12 can almost certainly go higher than 2.5ghz when actively cooled. But can it hit 4ghz? That's a different story.
