By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Rainbird on 13 October 2011
Edit Thread
superchunk said:
Rainbird said:
superchunk said:
Rainbird said:

That's some very sexy looking hardware! 

And I'm definitely excited about Google Wallet, though it will probably be at least a few years before a full solution is rolled out where I live...

I don't get the craze for dual core phones though. Dual core CPUs in phones are complete overkill for a majority of users. So why sacrifice the battery life for it, when running the right software can basically make up for most of the difference? I know the Prime is probably aimed at the minority who are likely to notice the differences, but overall, I don't get why everyone seems to care so much.

Dual core CPUs have a very minimal impact on battery life. The bigger impact is the larger screens and LTE.

Dual core simply makes it faster and the latest OS takes full advantage of that 2nd core.

Hah, that's what I get for not doing my homework, I just figured you had it figured out.

Even so, I still don't see much point in paying extra for a dual core CPU. The Galaxy S II is remarkably smooth, but even the HTC Radar (with its 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM), one of the new low end WP7 devices, is fairly smooth as well. 

lol, I never said dual core didn't take more juice... just not as big as a hit as the bigger screens or LTE. (though yes, 'very minimal' was a bad choice of words)

Meaning, if screen size is same and both have or do not have LTE, then sure there will be a slight difference in battery life between the two.. however, if the newer phone has a larger screen AND LTE where the older one didn't (as will be the case for most people upgrading) then the dual core is not item to think about when considering potential battery life hit. Hell... LTE is by far the biggest hit right now. Any other phone will still last most people the same time frame as their previous phones based on their normal usage. (for me that's usually an all day charge on smartphones)

Additionally, the Nexus Prime is reported to have either an already larger battery or a massive battery, so I'm not worried one way or the other.

But, it comes down to what's now and what's coming. As any new cpu tech rolls out, you may not notice being an early adopter an significant difference. But as it ages, that new tech becomes far more obvious.

Android 4.0 ICS is designed for dual core CPUs. It will take advantage of it. While the current mobile OS, Gingerbread, does not. So a dual core phone (Galaxy S II) on Gingerbread won't show a huge difference.. but when it gets ICS, you'll know it.

We agree then, dual cores do take some extra juice, but LTE is the bigger juice sucker.

I just don't see how great the advantage of having a dual core in your phone is at this point. Regardless of how optimized ICS is for dual cores, how is it going to be notacibly faster than 2.3 on Galaxy S II for example?

When I think of apps that benefit of added power, it's mostly games that rely on the GPU. So while the CPU is of course important in that aspect as well, it's not really the focus point. But I don't have a lot to base this on, it's just a feeling anyway.

The one place that probably sees a noticable boost is webbrowsing, but even when you compare the HTC Titan (single core, 1.5G Hz) to the Galaxy S II, they're not even that far apart.

I have no doubt that single cores CPUs will be ditched for smartphones when dual cores are cheap enough and power friendly enough to replace them, but to me, most smartphone tasks are too leightweight for it to make a great difference.