The series of articles has so far taken us on a journey through different types of display technology, geolocation technology such as GPS, mobile operating systems and user interface design. We’ve also looked at the multitude of different ways that we can interact with a smartphone: using a hardware keyboard or software keyboard, through a touchscreen display, voice recognition technologies or using a stylus pen.
In the latest article, we turn our attention to what is arguably the most important part of a modern smartphone: its processor – the brains of a smartphone. We investigate the history of processors on smartphones and tablets and look at how you can compare the performance of different smartphones.
Comparing Smartphone Performance: Cores and Gigahertz
The first is the number of processor cores: essentially the number of “brains” that your mobile phone has. Most of the latest high-end smartphones either feature a quad-core processor (e.g. HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III) or a dual-core processor (e.g. Apple iPhone 4S). Many older and low-end smartphones simply feature a single-core processor, though this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re slower.
The second figure that we typically use to compare smartphone processors is the clock speed - typically measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). This figure is related to the maximum number of calculations that your smartphone can perform each second. There are 1,000MHz in 1GHz.
On processor specifications alone, today’s top smartphones compare as follows:
|
Phone |
Number of Cores |
Maximum Clock Speed |
|
Single Core |
600MHz (0.6GHz) |
|
|
Single Core |
1GHz |
|
|
Dual Core |
1GHz |
|
|
Single Core |
1.2GHz |
|
|
Quad Core |
1.5GHz |
|
|
Single Core |
1.4GHz |
|
|
Dual Core |
1.4GHz |
|
|
Dual Core |
1.2GHz |
|
|
Quad Core |
1.4GHz |
The popular perception is that number of cores and maximum clock speed are both good indicators of how well a smartphone will perform, with higher numbers in each category being. Whilst this is true to some extent, it isn’t the full story. Devices such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Nokia Lumia 800 often come out badly in side-by-side comparisons as both feature only a single-core processor.
Nokia, which uses a single-core processor on its flagship Lumia smartphones, often argues that dual-core and quad-core processors aren’t particularly useful and simply drain battery unnecessarily. Their ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ tests often show the Lumia 800 matching or beating other smartphones on speed when completing daily tasks, despite the fact that the Lumia “only” has a single-core processor. Whilst dual-core and quad-core processors can allow your smartphone to run more applications simultaneously, the usefulness of this can be questionable due to the fact that smartphones typically only display one application on the screen at a time.
Benchmarking Processors
Unfortunately, it’s much harder to compare the performance of phones across different operating systems due to the fact they run different applications. One common cross-platform benchmark which is used is the SunSpider Benchmark. This benchmark measures how long it takes your smartphone web browser to complete various tests. However, the results are often more strongly related to your browser software rather than the overall performance of your smartphone.
One thing is for certain: there isn’t an easy or fool-proof way to compare the performance of different mobile phones. Online reviews and benchmarks can be a great source of information as can be trying out a phone in-store. In general, you should avoid making your choice based upon number of cores and clock speed alone.
Future of Smartphone Processors
Unlike smartphones and tablets, PCs and laptops tend to use Intel-based x86 chips. x86 has traditionally been the processor architecture of choice for computing – operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS X are only available for x86 chips. Whilst x86 chips offer great performance, the heritage of x86 chips in always-plugged-in PCs has harmed Intel in its attempts to enter the battery-conscious smartphone and tablet markets. This is something that Intel are looking to change.
Over the past few months, Intel has attempted to take on the smartphone and tablet market by launching the x86-based Medfield chip for smartphones. Android has already been ported to x86 processors (our resident blogger Will installed Android on his x86-based laptop) and the first Intel-based smartphone, the Lenovo K800, is set to be released in the coming months. The K800 has had some pretty impressive benchmark results and will give today’s top smartphones a run for their money. If Intel has its way, the smartphones and tablet of the future could contain totally different technology inside.
One thing is for certain: The mobile industry is gearing itself up for a battle between ARM and Intel and the winner could determine what the future of mobile computing looks like.
Your Thoughts…
In this article, we took an in-depth look at the processors that can be found inside our smartphones and tablets. We discovered that specifications such as clock speed and number of cores are often unreliable indicators of how a device will perform – the operating system and user interface layer can make a huge difference too. When comparing smartphones based on performance, we recommend referring to online reviews and benchmarks instead of relying on specifications alone. We also looked at how the mobile industry is gearing up for a battle between ARM and Intel and how the winner could determine what the smartphone and tablet of the future looks like.
Which smartphone offers the fastest and most responsive experience for you? Do you normally compare the performance of different smartphones before buying or are other things such as the display more important to you? If you could build your own perfect smartphone, what processor would you use? Drop us a comment below… we’d love to hear from you!
Ken Lo writes about mobile technology and the mobile industry at Ken's Tech Tips.