froyo vs ios4 browsing comparison by Engadget.

[IOWA]

The GPU on the iPhone 4 is identical to the iPhone 3GS. The Nexus One isn't as powerful in that regard. But neither GPU is hardly utilized on the browser test that we're discussing. Both are sufficient for the task.

Also, the first application of the Cortex A8 (which is the core of the A4) was back in 2007, by Nokia. All Apple did was combine it with PowerVR SGX technology and create one unified chip. That is the A4.

If Apple had used the latest technology for their chipset, they would have used the Cortex A9 architecture.

AnandTech has a very good comparision of the two chipsets and how they render web pages. On Network, the iPad A4 performs 10% faster on average, 37% faster when the network isn't a factor. Couple this with the fact that many are starting to believe that the iPhone 4 A4 chipset is under-clocked to 800mhz for battery life and it's reasonable to get a slight advantage on the N1.

Hardware arguments aside. My main point was that the speed difference observed between the two devices in this test is very small. In day-to-day use these results could go either way. The results of this test prove nothing as far as Android vs. iOS or Nexus One vs. iPhone 4.

So I guess a core i3 and i7 then, since they are based on the would be fair comparison too since they are based on the same architecture. Or all x86 processors for that matter.

 

[srmccoy]

So I guess a core i3 and i7 then, since they are based on the would be fair comparison too since they are based on the same architecture. Or all x86 processors for that matter.

You're grasping at straws here. If you were making that analogy we'd have to be talking about all ARM architecture. Instead I'm talking specifically about the A8, which is a very specific subtype. The closer analogy would be Core i7-870 vs. Core i7-875k, the latter being a revision of the first.

If anything, our discussion should be focused on the software side of things. The fact that the N1 made such an improvement from 2.1 -> 2.2 shows just how much better the software is. Conversely, this means it's theoretically possible for Apple to release an update to their software that puts iOS4 and Safari ahead again. Afterall, in Engadget's comparison both were only slightly different, with the iPhone winning in some examples.

 

[IOWA]

You're grasping at straws here. If you were making that analogy we'd have to be talking about all ARM architecture. Instead I'm talking specifically about the A8, which is a very specific subtype. The closer analogy would be Core i7-870 vs. Core i7-875k, the latter being a revision of the first.

If anything, our discussion should be focused on the software side of things. The fact that the N1 made such an improvement from 2.1 -> 2.2 shows just how much better the software is. Conversely, this means it's theoretically possible for Apple to release an update to their software that puts iOS4 and Safari ahead again. Afterall, in Engadget's comparison both were only slightly different, with the iPhone winning in some examples.

But the hummingbird + A4 are vastly superior to the snapdragon, despite being related, so it would indeed perform better than the older snapdragon, with the new 2.2 softwares. So to make it a fair comparison, they should have architectures/revisions that are the most closely related. Snapdragon is not that, and in fact, is outdated compared to TODAYS standards, let alone tomarrow's.