800MHz iPhone 4S browser powers past 1.5GHz Samsung Galaxy S II

[runawayprisoner]

if GHz is more room for optimization why did Intel's CPU's starting with C2d half the GHz speed and yet outperform the P4?

GHz was relevant in the 1990's and the race to 1GHz but now it's all efficient architecture and power efficiency. and every efficient architecture outperforms the non-efficient ones

Because they are different generations of the same architecture.

A5 vs Exynos is ARMv7 vs ARMv7. Same for A5 vs A4.

But Core 2 vs P4 is Conroe vs Netburst. Think ARMv7 vs ARMv5.

 

[TuxDave]

However, generic tasks such as decompressing zip files, rendering Cinema4D or tracing Photoshop actions are still good metric comparison for clock-to-clock performance of Intel vs AMD chip.

In the same context, unless Apple was somehow able to invent a custom chip that can accelerate web browsing specifically, which I sincerely doubt, comparing browser performance is still a relevant test, if only to test the level of optimization and polish one platform has over another. Hence why we keep seeing Anand doing those tests over and over again.

However, as stated, more GHz means more headroom for optimization. The only question that remains is how long it will take for those optimizations to arrive at a point where it matches iOS current level. At which point, I have a feeling iOS would have pulled ahead again.

While I have no proof of this, a company can add fixed function hardware to the SoC so that they can optimize for specific tasks (playing mp3s, decoding whatever) so that they can shut off almost everything except that one block that does what needs to be done (and that does it fast).

So while the ARM architecture may be shared, I don't think all the bells and whistles they put around it may be the same.

 

[runawayprisoner]

While I have no proof of this, a company can add fixed function hardware to the SoC so that they can optimize for specific tasks (playing mp3s, decoding whatever) so that they can shut off almost everything except that one block that does what needs to be done (and that does it fast).

So while the ARM architecture may be shared, I don't think all the bells and whistles they put around it may be the same.

While that may be true, web browsing is an experience that encompasses many things... from rendering texts, to displaying images, to presenting information to the screen, to handling touch events, to counting down numbers, to handling javascript, to playing back sounds and videos, and on top of all that, there are still network stuffs to handle.

It's a bunch of things at once, not just one fixed function. Unless Apple wants to add a bunch of different chips and bulk up the package... I don't think it's practical or even possible at all. At least not at this time.

 

[Dulanic]

So the iOS browser is that much faster? Really... the wifi icon being grayed out is a dead give away something was wrong. Here is me comparing the SGSII to this video and this SGSII is faster loading that both of these phones in the video. It shows my loading bar ending first, then the iphone.

I am not posting to show which phone is faster because honestly both the SGSII and the iPhone 4s are crazy damn fast. This is purely to show to stop talking about this garbage lie of a video.

Sorry for the shitty video quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2aTeS0EPjY

Now obviously I know the WSJ isn't the same every day but it is obvious this video has some issues going on here. I think both browsers are crazy fast and .001 second differences don't mean shit to be honest.

 

[runawayprisoner]

I think loading time is something that can be forgiven. It's the navigating, zooming, and panning around that's the issue. I don't see a comparison video vs the S II, but from my experience with the S II, that's where having a WIFI icon grayed out or not doesn't matter, and that's where the S II falls behind... even compared to the iPhone 4.

A browsing experience isn't just all about loading websites, wouldn't you agree? After loading the website, the user would want to enjoy the contents in it as well.

 

[Dulanic]

I think loading time is something that can be forgiven. It's the navigating, zooming, and panning around that's the issue. I don't see a comparison video vs the S II, but from my experience with the S II, that's where having a WIFI icon grayed out or not doesn't matter, and that's where the S II falls behind... even compared to the iPhone 4.

A browsing experience isn't just all about loading websites, wouldn't you agree? After loading the website, the user would want to enjoy the contents in it as well.

I agree and I think BOTH do a great job. Here is a "short" clip due to the limit of the app where I zoom and scroll with a flash video playing. The slight stutter you see is from the recording because I didn't notice it while doing it.

Honestly, both browsers are crazy fast, why does this shit become a epeen contest with bad videos and shit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZONRmlXRnLI

And this is video capturing while recording while playing a flash video in the browser.

 

[Red Storm]

So the iOS browser is that much faster? Really... the wifi icon being grayed out is a dead give away something was wrong. Here is me comparing the SGSII to this video and this SGSII is faster loading that both of these phones in the video. It shows my loading bar ending first, then the iphone.

I am not posting to show which phone is faster because honestly both the SGSII and the iPhone 4s are crazy damn fast. This is purely to show to stop talking about this garbage lie of a video.

Sorry for the shitty video quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2aTeS0EPjY

Now obviously I know the WSJ isn't the same every day but it is obvious this video has some issues going on here. I think both browsers are crazy fast and .001 second differences don't mean shit to be honest.

Thanks for the video. Your GS2 sure is much snappier than the lame attempt at a review in the other video. How is the scrolling, zooming, and general navigation in the stock browser? Also, have you tried comparing your stock browser to something like Opera Mobile to see if there's a speed difference?

 

[runawayprisoner]

I agree and I think BOTH do a great job. Here is a "short" clip due to the limit of the app where I zoom and scroll with a flash video playing. The slight stutter you see is from the recording because I didn't notice it while doing it.

Honestly, both browsers are crazy fast, why does this shit become a epeen contest with bad videos and shit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZONRmlXRnLI

And this is video capturing while recording while playing a flash video in the browser.

Well, that's not bad at all. Though I still suspect that certain websites would still give problems.

It's not all peachy and smooth on the iPhone, either, that much I can tell you, but at least it has less issues with arbitrary javascript and CSS layouts than the stock Android browser.

 

[Dulanic]

Thanks for the video. Your GS2 sure is much snappier than the lame attempt at a review in the other video. How is the scrolling, zooming, and general navigation in the stock browser? Also, have you tried comparing your stock browser to something like Opera Mobile to see if there's a speed difference?

I have not. I used to use Opera but it has issues with my bank (Ally). I get no lag with it basically ever unless I am in 3G /w a bad signal then it just takes long to load as any phone would. I think both the iPhone 4S and the SGSII are both awsome when it comes to browsing.

I find the stock browser does rather well now. I would get longer recordings but I don't want to pay $5!

 

[TuxDave]

While that may be true, web browsing is an experience that encompasses many things... from rendering texts, to displaying images, to presenting information to the screen, to handling touch events, to counting down numbers, to handling javascript, to playing back sounds and videos, and on top of all that, there are still network stuffs to handle.

It's a bunch of things at once, not just one fixed function. Unless Apple wants to add a bunch of different chips and bulk up the package... I don't think it's practical or even possible at all. At least not at this time.

But not all of those activities offer the same workload. They just need to identify the most popular ones that are performance impacting or power hungry and just add those. For example media playback, I'm pretty sure they optimized the system to be as low power as possible for that and use some specialized hardware.

 

[Red Storm]

It's coming, just wait .

I know this is off topic, but we spent almost a page going over this. Just wanted to say that there's actually no need to wait, with Android you can use commands to send messages, create calendar events, call contacts, search and navigate to addresses (with voice guidance), listen to songs, all without having to press a single button.

Vlingo has the InCar setting which enables/wakes the mic whenever you say "Hey Vlingo". No buttons pressed, no earpieces used, just using your voice to activate... voice. Nice to know this option exists in the here and now and not just the future.

 

[MrX8503]

I think the breakthrough with Siri is that you don't have to remember commands. You can talk to Siri like a normal person and it'll understand.

 

[Red Storm]

I think the breakthrough with Siri is that you don't have to remember commands. You can talk to Siri like a normal person and it'll understand.

I agree, I think that's a nice bit of progress for voice control. Combine Siri and Vlingo and you've got truly hands/earpiece free voice control, with no need to speak commands in a specific way.

 

[trmiv]

I think the breakthrough with Siri is that you don't have to remember commands. You can talk to Siri like a normal person and it'll understand.

This is the best part. This morning I was super lazy, decided to work from home and sleep in, but my alarm had gone off already and I dismissed it. I fumbled for my phone, groggily said "wake me up in 30 minutes" and went back to sleep.

 

[Red Storm]

This is the best part. This morning I was super lazy, decided to work from home and sleep in, but my alarm had gone off already and I dismissed it. I fumbled for my phone, groggily said "wake me up in 30 minutes" and went back to sleep.

FYI, you can do this with Google Voice Search as well. The actual command is "Set alarm", however I didn't have to say that specific command. I just tried it by saying "Wake me up in 30 minutes" and it went ahead and created an alarm for 30 minutes from now.

 

[trmiv]

FYI, you can do this with Google Voice Search as well. The actual command is "Set alarm", however I didn't have to say that specific command. I just tried it by saying "Wake me up in 30 minutes" and it went ahead and created an alarm for 30 minutes from now.

I'd have to test it on my Droid. I never had great luck with the Voice Search on my Droid, so I didn't use it often. But that could be because it was so slow.

 

[Red Storm]

I am testing on my Original Droid running CM7, and it works nicely. I actually didn't even know I could do that till I saw your post and figured I'd give it a try.

Note, I do think you need Android 2.2.3 and up to get the alarm feature working.

 

[trmiv]

I just fired up my Droid (in wifi only mode), and yea it seems to work. This is 2.2.2