Hands on and Benchmarks of two MSM8x60 Phones - HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D
by Brian Klug on June 3, 2011 2:57 AM ESTLast time I looked at MSM8x60 it was at 1.5 GHz inside the Qualcomm Mobile Development Platform (MDP). We benchmarked it and found performance to be pretty compelling, with the caveat that this was a development board with none of the power management OEMs use in real products.
It seems like a long time since we touched that MDP, but this time we're looking at production hardware that's very close to launch (and the Sensation is already shipping in Europe), after OEM power optimizations and with a lower base clock of 1.2 GHz. Keep in mind that both devices are now running at qHD (960x540) as opposed to the WVGA (800x480) that the MDP and most other Android phones are running at. We still haven't found a way to do this very effectively in our graphs (it's coming soon), but as of right now, the HTC Sensation, HTC EVO 3D, and Atrix are the only qHD devices we've tested.
In my limited time available, I was only able to run Egypt and Pro from GLBenchmark 2.0 (latest build, 2.0.3.1) on both the Sensation and EVO 3D. The graphs are unfortunately again a bit deceptive since we're dealing with 1.35x as many pixels in qHD than we are with WVGA. If you factor in the 25% decrease in clock speed between 1.5 GHz from the MDP to 1.2 GHz in MSM8x60 shipping in devices now, and keep assume a linear scaling (which is honestly something we should never do, but here it gives a ballpark estimate), we get around 23 FPS expected performance on the Sensation/EVO 3D in Egypt. Compare that to the ~21 FPS we get in that test on those devices, and things look almost where they should be.
All things considered, performance doesn't seem to take that big of a hit going from MDP to real implementation, at least in the Egypt test. Again, we're going to explore this in more depth in the HTC Sensation review.
The Pro subtest is a bit more difficult to interpret since we're essentially back up against the framerate cap in this test. I didn't run the test to figure out what the Sensation and EVO 3D's respective caps are, but it should be in the neighborhood of 50-60 fps.
SunSpider and Browsermark are the odd tests here. Performance isn't at the top or even competitive with the other dual-core SoC on the charts, Tegra 2. Instead, the Sensation and EVO 3D scores hang back a little bit. It's entirely possible that at least in BrowserMark some of this is the difference in resolution, but SunSpider just shows some aberrant behavior. From what I've learned at Uplinq (and a story is coming on it soon as well) Qualcomm closely works with OEM partners and the V8 project to optimize V8, the JavaScript engine in Android's browser, for the Scorpion CPU architecture, so we should in theory see better performance.
We still have a lot more testing to do when the Sensation hits our doorstep, and in spite of the curious browser benchmark performance numbers, the both MSM8x60 devices felt incredibly speedy in the hand.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
55 Comments
View All Comments
dagamer34 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
International Samsung Galaxy S phones got more timely updates because carriers didn't request for special models which crapware apps that required a delay in updating to newer versions of Android.ph00ny - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
EXT4, i've already received firmware updates twice since the release...One of few manufacturers to use unlocked bootloader and there are at least four roms and two oc methods available for the device
will2 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Agreed. With 1million SGS2 sold in Korea in 1st month, and huge sales in Europe.To Anandtech -
1) although many sites already reviewed SGS2, ever since reading your detailed analysis of the iphone4 antenna problem, I have looked forward to similar quality phone reviews from you.
2) A problem with existing reviews of the SGS2 & HTC Sensation is, although some of the graphs indicate there is a serious weakness in the SGS2 Mali 400MP GPU compared to GPU's from Imagination, Adreno, nVidia
We need YOUR review to home in on this and provide useful benchmark comparisons between all the RECENT dual-core SoC Smartphones.
3) some have pointed out the HTC Sensation has a serious weakness in having only 1GB of internal NAND to run apps, compared to the 16GB internal NAND of the SGS2. The superficial reviewers just say add external SD NAND. We need YOUR view on this.
4) IMO small -ves on SGS2 are : the SAMOLED+ ideally should be qHD to maintain clarity at 4.3", need for a £25 dongle to view on HDMI, no Camera Shutter button, no FM Record, but overall, a superior phone to the Sensation, even though it does have qHD
bplewis24 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Regarding #2, it may be problematic for Anandtech to confirm anything because of the speculation about the SGS2 having different SoC implementations for different regions. Remember, the one coming stateside may sport a Tegra2 SoC?Sharro - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Simple question to Anandtech :-)The issue of locked bootloaders should be watched closely in the coming months after HTC public announcements, I'm stuck with 2 Incredible S that I can't "mess" with.
All the best,
Sharro
EarlyMon - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
The HTC website calls it Super LCD - in keeping with the blogosphere.At CTIA this year, they announced that the Evo 3D display was made by Sharp, and repeated it under follow-up questioning.
Sharp Super Mobile LCD panels are a variant of their ASV technology and are _not_ IPS.
http://www.sharp-world.com/products/device/about/l...
http://www.sharp-world.com/products/device/about/l...
HTC _never_ called this panel Super TFT-LCD, the deprecated name for IPS.
According to Engadget's report of HTC's press release from last July, the Evo 4G sported the "Sony Super LCD" panel - show of hands - how many of you _actually believe_ there's an IPS panel on the Evo 4G? (Put your hands down.)
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/26/htc-makes-super...
Nowhere I have I ever seen it published from the LCD industry that Super LCD = IPS. In fact, nowhere in the LCD manufacturing sector in Asia do I see the term Super LCD referred to at all as an LCD technology.
Super LCD is now part of the folklore of marketing. Even Sharp is now calling their ASV as AV Super.
Can't wait for next year's LCD crop. Those will be Super Duper LCD.
Brian Klug - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Interesting - we had heard from a good source that Super LCD was in fact just IPS being rebranded, but given your CTIA link with the EVO 3D being manufactured by Sharp, it can't be. Thanks for those links, we'll investigate more and find out. I think this is my first time encountering the Super LCD variant.-Brian
mevensen - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
How well do these benchmarks reflect full capabilities of the dual core processors?I've seen some statements (not sure how credible) that software remains poorly optimized to take advantage of these processors. Is this true? If so, how much are we to take from these comparisons between single and dual core systems, in terms of future performance potential?
metafor - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
These benchmarks are still relevant in that they show the realistic state of relative performance you can expect from these devices. Yes, Android is very poorly optimized and yes, things could run a lot faster if software actually used the hardware capabilities available (i.e. WP7) but that doesn't mean evaluating how fast devices are in the present state isn't useful information.Breit - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Is it possible for future reviews to just add another browser performance chart for the javascript tests (e.g. SunSpider) with an alternative browser (e.g. Opera 11 from the market etc...).I just feel that the stock android browser is not up to date on all fronts. This comes from my own experiments with my Samsung Galaxy S2 (Gingerbread 2.3.3.) wich shows for instance in SunSpider a score of ~3300ms on the Android browser and a ~1700ms in Opera 11.