On the CPU game, apple is so far ahead that it might not even make sense to talk about other vendors. Apple could deliberately downclock their CPUs and still beat the shit out of any flagship android. Hell, their 3 years old lineup actually beats the current year’s top.
It mostly comes down to manufacturing processes. When you compare 5nm Apple hardware to 5nm hardware from other competitors, the power/performance disparity closes significantly. Since Apple is the biggest though, they can out-spend anyone else who tries to buy out the latest node right now. This has been the case since 2020, and seems to still hold true.
Design makes a big difference, but Apple is not the only company designing high-performance ARM cores on TSMC's finest. Some might even say they aren't the best designers doing it, either.
