SG2 and Hardware Acceleration - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989

There's no denying that as it stands the SG2 is the fastest android smartphone out now. I don't own one but based on what i'm hearing its crazy fast. My question is with its speed (thanks 2 the dual-core processor) would it benefit from the hardware acceleration that comes with ICS?? Does the UI in this phone running as smooth as an iphone or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus without hardware acceleration? Or despite its speed does it occasionally still stutter in between screens from time to time or jumping in between apps??

It stutters because we don't have the Exynos. Still pretty badass overall, and hopefully ICS makes it even better.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

TJBunch1228 said:
It stutters because we don't have the Exynos. Still pretty badass overall, and hopefully ICS makes it even better.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
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It doesn't shutter cuz its not exynos. Those problem can be solved by touchscreen tweaks
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

TJBunch1228 said:
It stutters because we don't have the Exynos. Still pretty badass overall, and hopefully ICS makes it even better.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
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You can truly fix any lag with good software. It's no different than a ps3 and xbox 360. The ps3 is more powerful but xbox 360 games are easier to program for. Why you think that all multi-platform games run better on the 360 than ps3. Most developers here have massive experience with qualcomm processor. Then with a exynos.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

with the stock rom, it stutters from time to time, when you scroll through the apps list (people who say its just the same, either doesnt pay attention to details, haven't seen how smoother exynos versions run, or are in denial. period). from what ive been reading here, touchwiz is hardware accelerated on phones with exynos. and it is true that good software can fix this problem. i started using beastmod 1.0 rom 3 days ago, and the stuttering (while browsing through the apps list) went away. mostly because of the tweaks. and another thing is, its the smallest file sized rom for our sg2, so far. that means, less load. more free RAM. obviously it'll run faster. the trick is, keep more than 450mb+ RAM free, to keep it silky smooth. at least on my phone, it works.
but one thing for sure. hardware acceleration gives a very big advantage. imagine combining hardware acceleration with these dev's modded roms..
the only con part of the snapdragon is, it is running both cpu and gpu on a single bus lane, which causes more traffic, and can be easily bottlenecked. while the exynos has 2 dedicated lanes, one for the cpu and another for its gpu. giving more space to breathe and run processes smoother, separately. plus exynos' mali-400mp gpu has four cores.
the good side about the snapdragon is its power management. runs on battery much, much longer.
it all boils down to one thing. when ICS comes out, im counting on it to make our phones a lot smoother, not just on a few things that the exynos hardware accelerates, but overall.
people are saying our gpu is much faster, its just not utilized correctly (i dont know how much technically inclined, on the hardware side, those people are). but websites have a variety of benchmark/real world results showing how powerful the exynos gpu really is.
honestly, i really dont care if exynos' gpu is much better, i dont play crysis on my phone. as long as our phone's gpu deliver enough power to be as smooth as the exynos' with ICS, i'll be an even happier camper

i don't know how it's going to be when ICS arrives
but even know the phone feels sooooooo fluid, it's hard to imagine how much better it can get with HW accel
on the I9000 and nexus S it's a night and day difference when you have HW accel apps vs not

Related

When the phone is rooted, will it fix...?

the small lag people are reporting with this version of the gs2? I know the attnt and other versions dont have that random mini lag that happens once in a while. Would rooting this and installing other roms potentially fix this or is it strictly a processor problem?
Thanks
yup. Like they did with the sensation.
Your'e Welcome!
logged101 said:
the small lag people are reporting with this version of the gs2? I know the attnt and other versions dont have that random mini lag that happens once in a while. Would rooting this and installing other roms potentially fix this or is it strictly a processor problem?
Thanks
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It definitely isn't the processor to blame. Its software based.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Yeah optimization is one thing that was left out of the equation. I hope Samsung fixes some of the small bugs.
Jjday7 said:
Yeah optimization is one thing that was left out of the equation. I hope Samsung fixes some of the small bugs.
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Its just tiny bugs. Nothing major thank God. I don't know about you guys but I can definitely live with it.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
OuncE718 said:
Its just tiny bugs. Nothing major thank God. I don't know about you guys but I can definitely live with it.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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I can live with it, but I'd like to see it fixed with a custom rom or software update. It's still mildly annoying to have a 1.5ghz that underperforms the 1.2 exynos. I imagine when the exynos is overclocked its even more of a beast
Wouldn't be surprised if it was the bloatware making it lag.
Darmokk said:
I can live with it, but I'd like to see it fixed with a custom rom or software update. It's still mildly annoying to have a 1.5ghz that underperforms the 1.2 exynos. I imagine when the exynos is overclocked its even more of a beast
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Definitely agree!!! I think Samsung will fix it soon. This is one of their flagship phones so we should be covered. I have faith in Samsung this time around.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Killbynature said:
Wouldn't be surprised if it was the bloatware making it lag.
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Bloatware wouldn't cause this powerful processor to lag. The software just isn't optimized enough for it.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Darmokk said:
I can live with it, but I'd like to see it fixed with a custom rom or software update. It's still mildly annoying to have a 1.5ghz that underperforms the 1.2 exynos. I imagine when the exynos is overclocked its even more of a beast
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Actually this will always under perform compared to exynos. Asynchronous will always act as as individual processors. The gpu is the best thing about the exynos. The s3 snapdragon is quite on par with other features. Flash acceleration , Also they are able to be undervolted far more than the exynos processor. This includes both processors saving battery life greatly. For better gpu performance you can also increase the gpu frequency. Touchwiz lags because it was optimized for mali-400 not for adreno 220. If you run any other rom I am pretty sure the lag will be no more.
Killbynature said:
Actually this will always under perform compared to exynos. Asynchronous will always act as as individual processors. The gpu is the best thing about the exynos. The s3 snapdragon is quite on par with other features. Flash acceleration , Also they are able to be undervolted far more than the exynos processor. This includes both processors saving battery life greatly. For better gpu performance you can also increase the gpu frequency. Touchwiz lags because it was optimized for mali-400 not for adreno 220. If you run any other rom I am pretty sure the lag will be no more.
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When you say another rom, do you mean with touchwiz or without.
Crapware services
OuncE718 said:
Bloatware wouldn't cause this powerful processor to lag. The software just isn't optimized enough for it.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Not to disagree (especially with a senior member but there are so many horses ass crapware services running and system tools for monitoring and spying for tethering and such, if all of these uneeded and unecessary services could be killed I'm sure that would help alot. I cant seem to stop the following services (digital clock, tetheringmanager, wifi sharing, etc). I'm constantly going in and killing as many services as I can and it helps some. WTH is "device management"? Don't recall seeing that on other android phones?
I can't wait for an aosp or cleaned up ROM where all these silly T-Mobile apps are gone! Tmobile mall, more for me, seriously? I'm loving this phone, at times I blink and I'm like wow, that was hella fast. The occasional lag isnt too big of a deal for me. Will be nice once a rooted kernal comes out and we can bump it up a few mhz.
DK
OuncE718 said:
Definitely agree!!! I think Samsung will fix it soon. This is one of their flagship phones so we should be covered. I have faith in Samsung this time around.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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Nothing in Samsung's history should lead you to believe this.
FWIW, a lot of lag was eliminated from SGSI by converting to ext4. This is already ext4, though, I believe.
Jjday7 said:
When you say another rom, do you mean with touchwiz or without.
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Click to collapse
If can be for touchwiz or without. Its all about fixes and optimization. Before i had this phone i had a mytouch 4g its runs sense 3.0 better than a stock sensation does. Not only is my gpu weaker but also im running on a single core. Personally i don't see the reason to run touchwiz when ice cream for cyanogenmod and miui will be out faster than touchwiz with ice cream.
Killbynature said:
Actually this will always under perform compared to exynos. Asynchronous will always act as as individual processors. The gpu is the best thing about the exynos. The s3 snapdragon is quite on par with other features. Flash acceleration , Also they are able to be undervolted far more than the exynos processor. This includes both processors saving battery life greatly. For better gpu performance you can also increase the gpu frequency. Touchwiz lags because it was optimized for mali-400 not for adreno 220. If you run any other rom I am pretty sure the lag will be no more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds about right, because its smooth in other areas.. but in TouchWiz homescreen it stutters (even after a reboot).. Once that issue is fixed, it'll make the purchase easier for me.. but i'm also waiting for the Nexus Prime announcement in the next 3.5 hours.. But yea, hopefully the next OTA update optimizes TW4 over the S3.
J-Hop2o6 said:
Sounds about right, because its smooth in other areas.. but in TouchWiz homescreen it stutters (even after a reboot).. Once that issue is fixed, it'll make the purchase easier for me.. but i'm also waiting for the Nexus Prime announcement in the next 3.5 hours.. But yea, hopefully the next OTA update optimizes TW4 over the S3.
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Click to collapse
Hope I'm wrong, but I would bet a lot of money that it won't. Devs will have to do it.
J-Hop2o6 said:
Sounds about right, because its smooth in other areas.. but in TouchWiz homescreen it stutters (even after a reboot).. Once that issue is fixed, it'll make the purchase easier for me.. but i'm also waiting for the Nexus Prime announcement in the next 3.5 hours.. But yea, hopefully the next OTA update optimizes TW4 over the S3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The next update should be gingerbread 2.3.7 to enable nfc capabilities and fix some of the bugs. After that we will have a long wait for a brand new android update. Well unless your on xda
the next upgrade i think we'll jump directly to ICS 4.0 according to last night announcement
AllGamer said:
the next upgrade i think we'll jump directly to ICS 4.0 according to last night announcement
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Do you think we'll get an upgrade to ICS 4.0 before custom roms make it to our device?
Darmokk said:
Do you think we'll get an upgrade to ICS 4.0 before custom roms make it to our device?
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Click to collapse
if that happens, it'll be a freaking awesome turn around for Samsung

The Galaxy Nexus, even with roms, is not as fast as the Exynos GSII

I have a GSM Galaxy Nexus and it has AOKP build 25 with Fugomod kernel on it and this thing still is laggy. I tried many different roms and kernels and it still lags. I'm pretty sure my GSII was faster.
Some people say they have a buttery smooth Nexus and I'm jealous of you because mine feels like a 700mhz single core phone with 256mb of ram.
What's the deal? Why is it lagging (stock keyboard, browsing, app drawer, etc)
And I'm not trying to "bash". I want to keep the phone but the slowness is frustrating.
UPDATE 2/27/11 - I wiped my phone and flashed the Apex 1.02 Rom and now the phone is really fast. Some occasional hiccups but not a big deal.
I'm a very happy GN owner now.
You're holding it wrong.
Edit: somebody delete this thread, OP posted exact same post on a similar oriented thread..
bk201doesntexist said:
You're holding it wrong.
Edit: somebody delete this thread, OP posted exact same post on a similar oriented thread..
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Click to collapse
I accidentally posted it in a thread I was reading.
You are either doing it wrong or trolling. My guess is trolling.
Aridon said:
You are either doing it wrong or trolling. My guess is trolling.
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So nobody can state their Galaxy Nexus is laggy? If so then you're a troll? I don't understand that logic.
I'm so sick of people comparing the galaxy nexus to the gs2. They are different classes of phones. The gs2 is running on a screen with a much lower resolution and an old version of android. If I take my PC which runs any game great on my 19" monitor and then connect it to my 46" HDTV the same games run laggy because my video card is working much harder to run the game at the higher resolution. Also if I play a game on windows xp and then play the same game on windows 7 the game tends to run slower because as operating systems evolve they tend to need more resources and also add new enhancements that add more strain on the hardware. I'm sure you can put android 4.0 on a HTC dream but will it run well? Not a chance because android 4.0 uses more juice then android 1.5 that the dream came with. I bet if you could install android 2.3 on the galaxy nexus it would fly like a bat out of hell.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
I came from an E4GT and my GN feels just as fast.
Put foxhound 1.1 stock,my phone runs buttery smooth and Ferrari fast,with 24hrs of battery,everything on,3hr screen. You gotta find the right rom kernel combo man.I pottered around with aokp and apex and Franco for 2 months and then tried foxhound one day. Never going back. Just keep at it. Its fun man.
And guys please don't flame the guy,its very distasteful.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
OMG MEGAHERTZ PROCESSOR RACE!!1
I don't quite get it. Is this a pissing contest? The Gnex runs way fast for a cellphone.
Maybe I'm getting old.
crossover37 said:
So nobody can state their Galaxy Nexus is laggy? If so then you're a troll? I don't understand that logic.
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cablemike01 said:
I'm so sick of people comparing the galaxy nexus to the gs2. They are different classes of phones. The gs2 is running on a screen with a much lower resolution and an old version of android. If I take my PC which runs any game great on my 19" monitor and then connect it to my 46" HDTV the same games run laggy because my video card is working much harder to run the game at the higher resolution. Also if I play a game on windows xp and then play the same game on windows 7 the game tends to run slower because as operating systems evolve they tend to need more resources and also add new enhancements that add more strain on the hardware. I'm sure you can put android 4.0 on a HTC dream but will it run well? Not a chance because android 4.0 uses more juice then android 1.5 that the dream came with. I bet if you could install android 2.3 on the galaxy nexus it would fly like a bat out of hell.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
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Ok I get what you're saying but Google knew this so why didn't they add a more powerful GPU to handle these issues?
psycho2097 said:
Put foxhound 1.1 stock,my phone runs buttery smooth and Ferrari fast,with 24hrs of battery,everything on,3hr screen. You gotta find the right rom kernel combo man.I pottered around with aokp and apex and Franco for 2 months and then tried foxhound one day. Never going back. Just keep at it. Its fun man.
And guys please don't flame the guy,its very distasteful.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
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Click to collapse
I'll try foxhound, thanks.
What's your reason for not using the latest 18.4 Franco Kernel and instead opting for the 14.4 version.
crossover37 said:
I'll try foxhound, thanks.
What's your reason for not using the latest 18.4 Franco Kernel and instead opting for the 14.4 version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unsure about that poster's experience, but 18.4 is awesome for me, and so far synergises really well with CM9.
crossover37 said:
So nobody can state their Galaxy Nexus is laggy? If so then you're a troll? I don't understand that logic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said:
"Some people say they have a buttery smooth Nexus and I'm jealous of you because mine feels like a 700mhz single core phone with 256mb of ram."
That is so far outside the norm that you are either trolling, have a defective device or flashed and did something so screwed up that its messing with your device. So either:
1. Do a complete wipe, including formatting data, cache, dalvik and system. Install AOKP, gaaps with trinity kernel (basic one for all devices). Reboot. Download auto start manager and kill anything like maps or talk that you don't want running at startup. Go into settings and set cpu to 1.2, 400mhz with on demand or performance scaling. Set on boot checked. Reboot. Then tell me the phone is slow.
2. Don't use live wall paper. Most of them are not optimized for ICS
3. Return your device and get another one its broken.
My laptop is faster than your GSII.
crossover37 said:
Ok I get what you're saying but Google knew this so why didn't they add a more powerful GPU to handle these issues?
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because google knows this is already powerful enough and the only place that it would make a difference is in benchmarks. Remember the nexus is the reference phone the developers are supposed to base their applications on. So in theory all app should run perfectly on all nexus devices. Basically any app made in 2012 should run perfectly on this phone. Think of it this way this is the minimum hardware requirements for apps and if a manufacturer goes beyond the specs its all gravy basically bragging rights but realistically this device has more than enough power to handle what google intended it for.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
I'll play since I've recently made the jump as well and I think I'm coming in with an "unbiased" opinion. Keep in mind I'm much happier with my GN than I was with my I9100, which I'm also keeping at least until kernel source is released for ICS. Using CM9 on the Nexus and using CM9 on the SGSII, no comparison for me, Nexus wins, hands down as far as fluidity and feel goes, ignoring the fact that so many things still don't work on the SGSII.
There are ever so slight cpu and gpu advantages that I've noticed on the SGSII. Very occasionally might be felt as a lag or stutter. For the most part however I find the GN "smoother" over all. Alternative launchers (Nova) lag for me on the GN going in/out of the app drawer, but removing widgets from the app drawer cured that. I may have to wait an extra second, maybe two, for the desktop to be fully fluid following a boot. I've never experienced keyboard lag, or alike.
In the end however, I didn't buy the GN because I thought it would kill the SGSII performance wise and the specs didn't lead me to believe that would be the case. A couple of non-performance or Android related things I really appreciate are the feel of the phone in my hand, and the action of the buttons. What I used to jokingly refer to as the "panty liner shape" of the phone is comfortable in my pocket.
It might take some more kernel experimenting on your part to find one that feels good for you. When I was on AOKP I found Leankernel to be absolutely buttery. Slight cpu/gpu advantages aside, I feel that the GN is the better phone overall and it's still a bloody fast unit, and my next device will be a Nexus as well. I'd say 95% of the time the phone feels as fast, and potentially more fluid, than my old phone.
So this year we're gonna have all these new quad core phones coming out which is great, but when the new version of android comes out we will get it right away and all those new quad core phones will be waiting up to a year to get it and by then the new version of android will be out yet again. You don't get a nexus phone for it's powerful processor look for it support and long term commitment. I had 5 android phones in the last year and I will never get anything other then a nexus because of all the stress I had trying to get updates for my other phones. My last phone the optimus 3 d was a very good phone butwe just got gingerbread a few weeks ago and lg is saying we will get ice cream sandwich in the third quarter f 2012. By then my nexus phone will probably have the new version of android. And I'm sure that lg will be dropping support for that phone because they'll have a new 1 out. But my nexus phone will most likely be supported through 2013.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
The OMAP SoC in the Galaxy Nexus is superior to that in the GS2. It was the best SoC available for the release date they wanted.
Maybe the Exynos can benchmark higher but as Fancisco pointed out
"Most GPU workloads on 4460 with a 720p screen are limited by the
memory bandwidth, not the GPU computation ability"
I am fairly sure the OMAP SoC we have has a much higher memory bandwidth than the GS2 ^.^
TheRiceKing said:
The OMAP SoC in the Galaxy Nexus is superior to that in the GS2. It was the best SoC available for the release date they wanted.
Maybe the Exynos can benchmark higher but as Fancisco pointed out
"Most GPU workloads on 4460 with a 720p screen are limited by the
memory bandwidth, not the GPU computation ability"
I am fairly sure the OMAP SoC we have has a much higher memory bandwidth than the GS2 ^.^
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Click to collapse
Not quite. Not sure about the exact memory channel speed but they both utilize same exact memory setup dual channel LPDDR2
OMAP was the SoC that Google chose
It's essentially a terrible choice with grossly outdated gpu in a platform where GPU will start to drive every day operation
This isn't to say that Mali400MP setup is the greatest in the GPU choice but eventhough it's inefficient, it's able to push through with raw power
I may get a bit of flake for this but Nexus does micro-stutter in some instances in places like the stock app drawer (this is addressed with nova launcher but question was does the GNex stutter).
I wouldn't blame the slight lagginess or stutters on the hardware just yet seeing how ICS is still fairly new and there is also the issue with maturity of apps running ICS.
Thanks guys for your responses. I'm not trying to be a pain; just annoyed that my old phone felt smoother.
I installed Apex rom and so far it feels very fast so hopefully it will stay this way. I kept the kernel that was packaged with the rom.
Another reason I thought it was slow was because I would type on the desktop site of XDA. Using the app doesn't cause the keyboard lag. It still is strange why the keyboard would lag like that while posting on XDA.

Galaxy nexus faster than galaxy s2 & sony xperia s?

I saw the review of the ics gs2 and at the end i saw some benchmarks... on the cpu side the nexus seems to hold its own againts the xperia s which on paper has a faster cpu snapdragon 3 1.5Ghz compare to omap 4460 1.2.. also gs2 seems to be slightly slower in the cpu benchmarks compared to Gnex.... What do you think?
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_ii_ics_vs_gingerbread-review-737p4.php
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
ray3andrei said:
I saw the review of the ics gs2 and at the end i saw some benchmarks... on the cpu side the nexus seems to hold its own againts the xperia s which on paper has a faster cpu snapdragon 3 1.5Ghz compare to omap 4460 1.2.. also gs2 seems to be slightly slower in the cpu benchmarks compared to Gnex.... What do you think.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_ii_ics_vs_gingerbread-review-737p4.php
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
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gs2 is surely faster on graphics (it has a more advanced gpu, though clocked slower), but it has less screen resolution.
on the cpu side they should be pretty equivalent.
i don't know about the xperia.
In real world usage my SGS2 was significantly faster than my GNEX in every department barring taking a picture.
I wouldn't trust that much on benchmarks.
What matters is how polished the stock roms are for each device.
I love how the nexus keep running smooth even after installing a ton of apps, never experienced the same with other devices.
While the MSM8260 (Xperia S) is clocked faster, it has a single channel memory interface while the TI-OMAP 4460 (Galaxy Nexus) has a dual channel interface.
Also beware of those benchmark tools. Most of them are crap. For example they use the phone's resolution to do 2D/3D benchmark which is not a fair way to compare.
biffsmash said:
In real world usage my SGS2 was significantly faster than my GNEX in every department barring taking a picture.
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Click to collapse
Was it significantly faster in getting updates?
Benchmarks are cool in a sense, but I've started ignoring them. My GNex has been really fast, even with Window and Transition Animations. There are exceptions. I ABUSE my Android devices with heat (nature of my work environment). When it gets hot, it does lag. At the same time, the CPU is also scaling itself back. When I get the rare lock'n'reboot it's pretty much always due to heat. Typically, flinging through settings, menus, apps, etc is really fast. Right now I have wireless tethering on and I'm streaming audio through Tune In. My battery is almost 120F. It's slower. Any device would be. If I pick up my Nook running CM7, it'll be slower right now too due to heat.
Benchmarks mean very little to me now. I mean, what's the point? What are you gonna do, brag about a superficial number? Get it engraved on your belt buckle? I think they can be an indication of certain aspects of a device, but benchmarks do not necessarily tell someone what kind of user experience that device is going to provide.
If I pick up my favorite device and I can do what I want to do quickly and smoothly then I'm fine with it. Even OCing a high end device is something I've never been able to tell a difference with. Now my Nook, yeah, an overclock worked wonders. On the GNex, pish, nah. Remember too, a lot of these 1.5Ghz devices are pushing a bloated framework too. Beyond that, ICS is going to have it's own limitations, especially when it has bugs to get worked out.
It can kinda be like cramming 16GB's of Ram into a PC running 32 bit Windows 7. The hardware addition is irrelevant and while you can brag about 16 gigs of ram to all of your friends, it's a pointless feature of your system.
one thing for sure is that software optimization means much more than hardware differences between those 3 phones.
thus, it depends on what you're going to run: stock, aosp, cyanogen, miui? that's the question.
zapek666 said:
While the MSM8260 (Xperia S) is clocked faster, it has a single channel memory interface while the TI-OMAP 4460 (Galaxy Nexus) has a dual channel interface.
Also beware of those benchmark tools. Most of them are crap. For example they use the phone's resolution to do 2D/3D benchmark which is not a fair way to compare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I think one of my favorite aspects of the nexus is its dual channel memory. So important for performance.
biffsmash said:
In real world usage my SGS2 was significantly faster than my GNEX in every department barring taking a picture.
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Click to collapse
To me it seems exactly the opossite.. my gnex is faster than my gs2.... except in gaming.. the animations on the gs2 are different, than on the stock ics...
Sent from my Gnex
My nexus is much faster at browsing than my wires gs2, and my work iphone4s..what? I didn't get to choose!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I've used both the tmobile s2 and now the nexus....I'm a big time xda guy and root user so as the developers went to the nexus, I went to the nexus! Lol! If the s2 gets stock ics, it'll be just as good but that'll be a long time! We nexus users have had ics for months already!
Sent from my Nexus Prime
Simer03 said:
I've used both the tmobile s2 and now the nexus....I'm a big time xda guy and root user so as the developers went to the nexus, I went to the nexus! Lol! If the s2 gets stock ics, it'll be just as good but that'll be a long time! We nexus users have had ics for months already!
Sent from my Nexus Prime
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Click to collapse
We've had a pretty stable CM9 for the i9100 for quite a while now. But it still can't compare to the Galaxy Nexus....can't wait for mine to come
Just swapped over from the t989 gs2. The nexus is much smoother. We were always telling ourselves that our phones were better because of the supposedly better hardware... There were many threads Lol. Now that I have it I can see the experience doesn't even compare. Never buying anything touchwiz again

My Thoughts On Android 4.0.4 (GSM) GNexus

So as a person who has ranted on this board before on how ****ty 4.0.2 was, I just wanted to give my thoughts on 4.0.4
The main point I want to make is that this update is really really really good!
Good Points:
-WAY Smoother overall.
-Browser Is WAY smoother and much better at rendering pages properly (Big thing for me since I constantly use the browser throughout my day).
-I don't think chrome is even necessary at this point. They will probably just merge the two.
-Camera seems much better, although my not a huge photo guy.
-Battery life is incredible! On 4.0.2 I would barely make it till the end of my day (6pm-9pm). Right now I still have 68% left. My results aren't the norm since, I rarely use the phone for long periods of times. But the difference is definitely noticeable in my daily useage.
-Switching between 3G/4G seems much better now. Everything tends load quicker now. (Twitter, browser, pulse, etc.)
There are other good points, but these are what most matter to me.
Bad Points:
-Still a slight lag between pushing multitask button and the apps showing up. But it is much improved over 4.0.2
-Some slight lag when opening app-drawer (transition is not smooth, but not bad either) However in app-drawer everything is smooth
-Minor gripe that might only bother me, is that the calender widget now shows the colored squares that represent different calendars in the middle of the box for each event, I thought it looked much better when it was smaller and in the top left corner.
There might be others, but these are what really bug me.
So yea, I think this is great update and this how the nexus should have launched.
Btw I am curious about what SMP PREEMPT Mar 13 means under kernel version?
Thanks for taking the time to read this. =)
In the secret menu (you can access dialing *#*#4636#*#*, in the first section) It is selected 'WCDMA Preferrer' or GSM/CDMA Auto (PRL)?
Mrbigshot said:
-Some slight lag when opening app-drawer (transition is not smooth, but not bad either) However in app-drawer everything is smooth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using a live wallpaper? I noticed this too until I switched to a static wallpaper.
My main favorite of the update is auto-brightness actually works now, and has nice transitions when increasing/decreasing the brightness.
No native mounting of USB OTG storage yet though
taylerdurden said:
In the secret menu (you can access dialing *#*#4636#*#*, in the first section) It is selected 'WCDMA Preferrer' or GSM/CDMA Auto (PRL)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, I did not even know about this menu. Mine has WCDMA Preferrer, should I change this to GSM? I am on T-Mobile
catpunt said:
Are you using a live wallpaper? I noticed this too until I switched to a static wallpaper.
My main favorite of the update is auto-brightness actually works now, and has nice transitions when increasing/decreasing the brightness.
No native mounting of USB OTG storage yet though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! You were right on, now the transition is really smooth after I switched to static wallpaper. Hopefully they can fix the problem with live wallpapers down the line and hopefully it is not a GPU limitation.
4.0.4 fixed the Wi-Fi drop out problem with some routers.
This's a really big improvement.
My Bluetooth works now .on 4.0.2 yakju it didnt
Mrbigshot said:
Wow, I did not even know about this menu. Mine has WCDMA Preferrer, should I change this to GSM? I am on T-Mobile
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep it on default. (Wcdma prefered)
Multitouch bug has gone
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Mrbigshot said:
Thanks! You were right on, now the transition is really smooth after I switched to static wallpaper. Hopefully they can fix the problem with live wallpapers down the line and hopefully it is not a GPU limitation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPU limitation I'd say, same GPU that's in the Nexus S.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
gonucks said:
GPU limitation I'd say, same GPU that's in the Nexus S.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not the same GPU.
It has been beefed up considerably.
Nexus S GPU runs slower and is fed by single channel ram.
gonucks said:
GPU limitation I'd say, same GPU that's in the Nexus S.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, but different.
Galaxy Nexus has an overclocked version.....also its being fed by dual-channel memory now. It's on average 100% faster in GL benchmark off-screen tests. Though dual-core CPU plays a bit of a role but GL benchmark is mainly GPU. So yea on average you can expect the Galaxy Nexus SGX540 to be about 100% faster than the Nexus S SGX540 or about double the GPU performance.
Of course, it still pales in comparison to SGX544mp2 and Mali-400
But I doubt it's GPU limitation holding back live wallpapers.....more like live-wallpapers not being optimized. I'd prefer to run a black background or something anyway to save battery....live wallpapers were fun for a little bit, but got boring fast.
You can check it out on anandtech
Edit: ^^ beat to post by 2 minutes haha
Is our gpu really that much slower than mali though? I thought i saw one particular benchmark between the two like 8 Mflops vs 5 Mflops...seems same ballpark to me. Just a lot more pixels to push in the HD screen
Over in the G note forum a thread exists claiming their mali gpu is too weak for their screen and that they experience stutters and lag. Makes me not feel so bad having our current gpu.
RogerPodacter said:
Is our gpu really that much slower than mali though? I thought i saw one particular benchmark between the two like 8 Mflops vs 5 Mflops...seems same ballpark to me. Just a lot more pixels to push in the HD screen
Over in the G note forum a thread exists claiming their mali gpu is too weak for their screen and that they experience stutters and lag. Makes me not feel so bad having our current gpu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, really?
One thing that I am happy about is that on the lockscreen when you go to camera it goes straight into the camera rather than going to the homescreen AND THEN going into the camera app.
Why is panorama square? Is it just happening on my end? Started with 4.0.2 it's been square not rectangular shape.
RogerPodacter said:
Is our gpu really that much slower than mali though? I thought i saw one particular benchmark between the two like 8 Mflops vs 5 Mflops...seems same ballpark to me. Just a lot more pixels to push in the HD screen
Over in the G note forum a thread exists claiming their mali gpu is too weak for their screen and that they experience stutters and lag. Makes me not feel so bad having our current gpu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's slower....around 50% slower than the Mali-400. But it's definitely not too weak.
There are a lot of things to account for.......the TI OMAP has HD coding capabilities which help it display things to the 1280x720 screen the Galaxy Nexus has much much easier and faster while being less "performance hungry" it's a pro of the TI OMAP that very few people take into account....Exynos can hold its ground though. In general though, the TI OMAP is a bit faster CPU wise than the Exynos, they trade blow really.
Nothing we use our phones for are really even taxing the GPU/CPU. Yea a few games here and there, but the Nexus can run them all fine. Android in general isn't really "Great" for playing games compared to iOS at leeast because of fragmentation etc...but it's great to use it for daily use and it does it's job.
Maybe when we start doing some crazy video/photo editing on smartphones.....CPU/GPU will play a much larger role. The biggest leap for android was probably single to dual-core and now, things aren't as big of a leap in general user experience performance.
So what custom ROM is the OP running? As he mentioned smoother 3G/4G switching...
Scottatron said:
So what custom ROM is the OP running? As he mentioned smoother 3G/4G switching...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's talking about the stock 4.0.4 OTA.
I think most people are getting a little overexcited about the "smoothness".
In my experience, 4.0.4 is not really "WAY SMOOTHER". I personally can't tell the difference and I pay a lot of attention to stuff like smooth transitions, scrolling, delays, multitasking, ...
The battery life is definitely improved though. I get a lot more "screen" and a lot less "android os".

Benchmarking weirdness

I just want to know if anyome can explain why when running antutu benchmarks I cant even get scores equal to the score the app says I should be getting for this phone let alone better ones. Infact I often get much worse scores not even close to what it says I should be getting. Even more so Im running custom rom with overclocked kernel and its just sad. When u look to see what your device other are gettibg score wise there is like a major difference. I get like 10,000 to like 14,000. Iv tried using set cpu to make it run better with no success. And I tried using the app that came with the kernel to make it better by changing some settings and still nothing. It seems like nothibg I do can even get me scores that the phone should get as an average let alone better ones even when overclocked and such.
Sent from my Note II
Funny you should post this...
I was angonizing over my scores a month or so ago, and was not getting scores even close to what I expected.
The tests made me so mad I gave up and went stock...LOL
Benchmarks are affected by soooooo many variables within the OS, they are often considered eye wash for speed related results.
The rom you run, the kernel, modem, background processing, data, wifi....blah blah blah....LOL
You see where I'm going with this ??
Stock TW based builds always run the best for me, and give the best scores...(remember, they dont mean much really).....really
If your device runs well, gets good battery life, and you are happy with the choice in roms you have made, then dont worry about antutu, or anything else.
Raw scores are called raw for a reason, as they are base estimates of a perceived result.
True testing of a device must be done under a set of rules only a factory can measure.....IMHO, and unless the devices being tested are paired "EXACTLY" the same, then the comparisons are flawed anyway......at least thats how i see it.....g
I understand that and I know how it affects but its more of a I do notice when my phone is quick or not and the scores usually reflect that. When I had my optimus g with it running alot more crap I was gettibg betyer scores and it wasnt overclocked and all that it was just stock. So I really believe that it should be running better than its showing leaving me to believe that there is somethibg wrong with the kernel or something. I have done this with quite a few devices and there usualky a noticeable difference from stock to overclocked scores. But with this phone seems like it dosent show on this phone.
Sent from my Note II
Very possible. ..
Most reports for this quad core tell us that overclocking takes the device a bit backward in speed and performance.
I overclocked for a few weeks, and saw no appreciable performance gains.
The end result for me was a stock variant rom and a stock kernel.
I then gained transition speeds with launcher changes.
Nova launcher, with the transition speeds set to maximum is quite impressive. And graphical transitions were running best at stock speeds.
I might get flamed for this, but I would honestly say that with minor UI adjustment, and stock kernels, this device needs very little if any real change at all to achieve the best performance.
Mileage will vary, but I'm staying rooted stock with a custom launcher.
Everything else seems to drag this device down. ..g
My real main issie is with gaming on the decice I notice glitching and slowness quite often and I just feel jipped. It is quad core 2gb of ram why is it so ****. I had the optimus g and it was amazing I only went to this phone for the screen size.
Sent from my Note II
theshamrockking said:
My real main issie is with gaming on the decice I notice glitching and slowness quite often and I just feel jipped. It is quad core 2gb of ram why is it so ****. I had the optimus g and it was amazing I only went to this phone for the screen size.
Sent from my Note II
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been said that our note 2 is a bit lacking with the current GPU...although, a GPU overclock may help you the most, while leaving the CPU alone.
I've not tried any GPU modifications, unless the Roms I've used included them without my knowledge....g
I did try and overclock the gpu and I get vaired results I havent tried playing any of my graphically intense games yet so im not sure but I believe it may have slightly helped. Its too bad I had thought that the mali chip was better than the 330 thats in most high end phones now.
Sent from my Note II
I dont dare say that mali is poor, but I am willing to say that it does get outshined on more than one occasion....g
Thats just too bad. Maybe the note 3 will run nicer. Although if they do indeed increase the screen size again I dont think I will be abke to handle it so for my sake I hope it stays similar in size. This phone is about as big as im going to want.
Sent from my Note II
theshamrockking said:
Thats just too bad. Maybe the note 3 will run nicer. Although if they do indeed increase the screen size again I dont think I will be abke to handle it so for my sake I hope it stays similar in size. This phone is about as big as im going to want.
Sent from my Note II
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed....
This device is more than big enough. And overall, I'm happy with it. The performance is adequate for most applications, and unless a user pushes it really hard, the phone just runs well.
Not superb, but well....IMHO....g
gregsarg said:
Agreed....
This device is more than big enough. And overall, I'm happy with it. The performance is adequate for most applications, and unless a user pushes it really hard, the phone just runs well.
Not superb, but well....IMHO....g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I totally agree. I guess I only notice any thing because that optimus g blew me away. Considering I had previously had a htc vivid and a galaxy nexus as the best phones and so the optimus was amazing. This is more than adequate and I guess more so than the optimus as that had errors just trying to run some games. Like as if the game wasnt able to play well with the hardware. SoI more than like this phone.
Sent from my Note II
You should be trading your note for the optimal g. Benchmark scores are essentially useless and you shouldn't be bothering with them.
Seems like you would be happier with your old phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
theshamrockking said:
Oh I totally agree. I guess I only notice any thing because that optimus g blew me away. Considering I had previously had a htc vivid and a galaxy nexus as the best phones and so the optimus was amazing. This is more than adequate and I guess more so than the optimus as that had errors just trying to run some games. Like as if the game wasnt able to play well with the hardware. SoI more than like this phone.
Sent from my Note II
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you liked that g....just wait until the Optimus Pro hits...LOL
It's a bit cheaper built I think, but wow...It's a runner...(so they say)
check out it's specs on google....
The note3 will need to compete directly with it, and a few other choice pieces of hardware in the next 6 months if Sammy wants to stay on top.
The improvements from the note1 to this device are staggering, I can only imagine what a note3 will run like.....g
Oh yes iv read plenty about the g pro and it does sound nice iv thought about trying to trade the note for it. But I then remember the reasons I wanted the note instead. Its the dev comunity and the work that gets done. There was the boringist stuff going on over there. And plus it seems like the samsung devices hold value better and juat plane better ui than lg. Ao I like what I have juat miss some of the faster and smoother useI got out of the optimus.
Sent from my Note II
LittleRedDot said:
You should be trading your note for the optimal g. Benchmark scores are essentially useless and you shouldn't be bothering with them.
Seems like you would be happier with your old phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest benckmarks do matter but only if you really understand them and know how to use them. Im not just someone who sees **** score or awesome scores an decides anything. But the scores do matter. If u took a droid x and ran benchmarks and got **** scores and then ran this not you would see a difference. They matter just if you choose to see it. I know many many people who try and try to convince others that benchmarks dont matter when all a benckmark is is a test of the hardware and if u use the same program on different devices you will note the different qualitys in the scores. Showing you the pieces of hardware or software mostky hardware that is better or worse. Like with the mali vs the 330. Or the quad s4 vs I forget what is in this device. Or an amd vs a intel. They show what does what best. If you know what you are doing.
Sent from my Note II
I don't believe in benchmarks. I can run antutu and get xyz score, then run it again 10 seconds later and get abc score, then run it again 10 seconds late and lmn score, all to varying degrees. It's a gimmick.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
If the scores vary drastically its probably because of the background services and apps doing things. Sometimes there is less sometimes more. U either take that into account or you do it with a fresh phone with nothibg on it. Including no google account. Just sideload the app and then run the test and do it a few times they should be more similar.
Sent from my Note II
Regardless of scores. .. and considering the drastically different user habits, I do believe Samsung found excellent balance in both form and function with this device.
To add more power would kill battery. And drive the device size even larger.
I do feel they have a great balance here.
The note3 should become an absolute power phone if they build from this base....IMHO....g

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