Google Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 Performance Preview
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on November 2, 2012 11:00 AM ESTEarlier this week Google announced two new flagship Nexus devices: the Nexus 4 smartphone and the Nexus 10 tablet. We received review samples of both earlier this week, and while we're hard at work at full reviews of the devices we couldn't help but share all of the test data we've been able to amass at this point.
For those who aren't familiar with it, the Nexus 4 features Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC - a quad-core 28nm Krait CPU with Qualcomm's next-generation Adreno 320 GPU. The combination proved quite formidable in the MDP/T we tested, as well as LG's recently announced Optimus G. The SoC drives a 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 IPS display and is paired with 2GB of LPDDR2 memory. The Nexus 4 ships unlocked with 8GB of NAND for $299 without a contract ($349 for the 16GB version). Pair that with DC-HSPA+ support and you get an absolute killer smartphone for use on T-Mobile: no contracts, very low monthly fees, and compelling cellular performance:
Brian will talk more about the combination in his full review, but rest assured that the lack of LTE is workable depending on T-Mobile coverage where you live/travel to.
The Nexus 10 also boasts a brand new SoC: Samsung's Exynos 5 Dual. The Exynos 5 Dual features two ARM Cortex A15 cores running at 1.7GHz as well as ARM's own Mali-T604 GPU. This happens to be the exact same platform used in the new Chromebook, just running Android. The Nexus 10 features a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 display, giving it the same resolution as the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display - but in an even smaller form factor. Google is also aggressive on Nexus 10 pricing: the 16GB WiFi-only tablet sells for $399, with the 32GB version going for $499.
Both Nexus devices run Android 4.2 and are guaranteed to be the first devices to be updated to upcoming Android revisions for the foreseeable future (it's the power of Nexus).
We haven't had a ton of time to test the devices and put this together so you're going to see combined performance charts throughout the rest of this article.
CPU Performance
The big story when it comes to CPU performance is a look at how the Cortex A15s perform under Android. Unfortunately we're still left with mostly browser based benchmarks to measure CPU performance, which actually highlights a major issue in our testing: Android V8 optimization doesn't seem to be anywhere near as good as it is under Chrome OS or Windows. As a result, all of the Nexus 10 performance scores end up slower than the new Chromebook - despite using the same SoC and running Chrome on both platforms. It's also possible that the Exynos 5 Dual in the Chromebook is allowed to burn a bit more power, translating to better performance, but either way the solution here in the Nexus 10 doesn't look as good across the board.
SunSpider performance is good, but not significantly better than Qualcomm's Krait based Snapdragon S4. Both the iPhone 5 and RAZR i are able to outperform the Nexus 10. The S4 Pro based Nexus 4 tends to be in line with other S4 based devices - SunSpider doesn't really give much credit to the extra 2 cores.
BrowserMark puts the Nexus 10 behind many platforms that should be faster, I'm even wondering here if there's some hard partitioning of memory bandwidth between the CPU and GPU to drive the 2560 x 1600 display that's simply choking the CPU here.
The Nexus 4 does ok, but again there seem to be some V8 optimization issues at work here under Android 4.2. At 1.5GHz it should deliver at least the performance of the dual-core Snapdragon S4 solutions.
Octane is the first test where the Cortex A15s are really able to flex their muscle - the Exynos 5 Dual based Nexus 10 manages to outperform the RAZR i by 34%, and compared to the A6/Swift based iPhone 5 the advantage grows to 64%.
The Nexus 4 performs about in line with other Snapdragon S4 based devices, although once again the extra 2 cores don't seem to be doing much for it here at all.
Kraken also paints the Cortex A15 based Nexus 10 in a good light: there's a 30% advantage over the RAZR i and a 76% advantage over the iPhone 5. These numbers will shrink a bit compared to other tablets, but not by much. The Nexus 4, once again, ends up performing similarly to dual-core Snapdragon S4 based devices.
Overall, the Nexus 10 results show us some real promise for what we can expect from ARM Cortex A15 based SoCs. The potential upside to this new architecture is huge.
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dave1_nyc - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Did you miss the word 'preview' in the headline? Regardless, please abandon any site you consider useless, and that fails to amuse.Fx1 - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
All At mobile reviews pretty much suck. Compared to the SSD, CPU and GPU tests the mobile are amateur.akdj - Monday, November 5, 2012 - link
And What is it you do during the weekdays? I'd love to see what you're doing review-wise. No one Is forcing you to come to AT To read mobile reviews. Anandtech Is Hand's down the best reviewer. Whether it comes to CPU GPU or mobile phone/Tablet hands on. Show me a single site that takes the time to compile reviews and scores and benchmarking in the same place. Not a 24 hour review of something held in hand and played with in the office for a day---Anand continuously refers to out of date benchmarking in the mobile arena-and is continuously updating and/or finding better measurement tools. Are you really that ignorant? He's using Almost every single benchmark for mobile devices on the market. Not his fault that android continues to fail the tests in comparison with Apple products. Perhaps fail is too strong of a word however android is obviously now just catching up to the last generation Apple devices...with today's available benchmarking tools availableThat's not his fault...and for the biggest groups of SIII owners, in America, they're NOT using the international version
In fact, I'm blown away how poorly the 'US' SIII continues to underwhelm in All benchmarking
I develop for both platforms. I am a fan of both Apple and android. I own a half-dozen devices from each side. Tablets--Xoom, N7 (w/N10 on the way), and a first gen Galaxy note...I've also got a GSIII. Each iteration of iPad, the 3GS, 4, 4s & 5. My hope? They Both continue to strive to better their operating systems and UI's....however, the biggest hurdle? Android's joke of an SDK in comparison with Apple's SDK and 'free XCode'---development for Apple's tablets are so much further ahead in comparison. I'm truly hoping google gets a bit more interested in helping the Dev community...again, especially on the tablet front. Two big powers help all of us--whether you're pure Android, ONLY iOS...or, you're a real geek like myself & you dig both!
ciparis - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Feel entitled much?Peanutsrevenge - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
"Google Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 Performance Preview"ah, you have a 'p' issue, I understand and hope the medication your doctor 'P'rescribed will help eventually
etre - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Here you go, international S3, stock JB, Apex launcher:Octane benchmark:
1838 - Stock browser
1573 - Chrome browser
1876 - Boat browser
Kraken benchmark:
17550 - Stock browser
19774 - Chrome browser
17702 - Boat browser
SunSpider benchmark:
1141 - Stock browser
1374 - Chrome browser
1116 - Boat browser
Stop testing in chrome, is just awful
doobydoo - Sunday, November 4, 2012 - link
Doesn't change its rank in the charts.amdwilliam1985 - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
I always read their mobile benchmarks with a grain of salt, especially when they mixes in iProducts. For "whatever" reason, it does not reflect my real life usage.(My gf always casts envy eyes on the battery life of my SGS# ;)Anyway, reviews are only reviews, therefore it should be only use as a reference.
SirMaster - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Envoius of SGS3 battery life? What terrible phone is she using? I had the SGS3 for 2 weeks myself and I actually decided to return it because of the poor battery life (among a few other reasons). I really wanted to like it, but it just wasn't great for me.I had both the SGS3 and iPhone 5 on my person for 2 weeks and tested them a lot. With the SGS3 I was only getting 4-5 hours of screen-on time where as I was getting 7-8 hours on the iPhone 5. The SGS3 would drain 20% overnight doing nothing (no background services, no notifications) The iPhone 5 drains 3% in the same timeframe even with all my notifications turned on, in the same location. Both have 1 bar of HSDPA in my apartment.
I don't understand what kind of usage people are getting on their SGS3s who say they have great battery life. When I used both phones side by side it was clearly not very good.
Maybe I got a lemon.
etre - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
I have an S3 and I can assure you that it is lasting more then 5 hours screen time. Maybe 5 hours of playing flash videos over wifi.Usually people who are complaining about bad battery are leaving all the things turned on (wifi , 3g, gps , bt, nfc) and are not using power saving options.