My conversation at CES at the Motorola and Verizon booths

[1088933]

Why do people keep saying this? sweet mercy, everyone, a dual core doesn't mean higher power usage necessarily

not to mention efficiency of the Tegra 2 platform since its a SoC

Because powering two cores is always going to take more life... but I agree with you in the fact that yes the efficiency of the Tegra 2 and that they will probably be underclocked to not even cause a difference.

 

[dmcman73]

the problem will dual core is that froyo and 2.3 are not fit for it, flash player is having issues and android just wasn't made with dual core in mind in my opinion thunderbolt is winning

But then there is that mysterious 2.4 build that was seen at the show loaded on a Sony phone that had a dual core. Maybe that 2.4 build is for the dual core phones? I know Sony claimed that is was a build error, just too coincidental.

 

[dmcman73]

Why do people keep saying this? sweet mercy, everyone, a dual core doesn't mean higher power usage necessarily

not to mention efficiency of the Tegra 2 platform since its a SoC

Exactly, there are Quad core processors seen in desktops that use LESS power than some single core or even dual core processors.

 

[htowngator]

Because powering two CPUs is always going to take more life... but I agree with you in the fact that yes the efficiency of the Tegra 2 and that they will probably be underclocked to not even cause a difference.

It's not as simple as "powering two CPU's". It's still one piece of silicon and one spot on the motherboard.

Everyone should worry about wattage and how many watts it takes to complete the same execution of code. It's not like a single core @ 10W will mean a dual-core pulls 20W.

 

[TinGodz]

Because powering two CPUs is always going to take more life... but I agree with you in the fact that yes the efficiency of the Tegra 2 and that they will probably be underclocked to not even cause a difference.

It's a dual core CPU, not dual CPUs.

 

[The_Engine]

So my question on dual core is...How much does the OS, or apps need to be modified to take advantage of it? Or will the hardware just handle things and perform better?

I sounds like Dual Core will be faster, but don't expect 2x the performance, and should be on par as far battery. But my question is that how much will this depend on the OS? If I get a Bionic, I am really waiting on 2.4 or 2.5 to really see it perform, or will the benefits be seen out of the box?

Thanks in advance.

 

[spark032207#WN]

To the OP: Single core will probably be more than enough for the majority of customers.

 

[seabass]

So my question on dual core is...How much does the OS, or apps need to be modified to take advantage of it? Or will the hardware just handle things and perform better?

I sounds like Dual Core will be faster, but don't expect 2x the performance, and should be on par as far battery. But my question is that how much will this depend on the OS? If I get a Bionic, I am really waiting on 2.4 or 2.5 to really see it perform, or will the benefits be seen out of the box?

Thanks in advance.

x2 the speed isn't really what a dual core is trying to accomplish. It's always been better at multitasking which in turn helps apps run more efficiently and faster at the same time. I assume that by the time the Bionic is released that Honeycomb will be following very shortly and will be a very necessary update. The Bionic should run fine out of the box, but I think it will need that upgrade to really use the hardware appropriately, though this is all just a guess.

 

[ottscay]

Because powering two cores is always going to take more life... but I agree with you in the fact that yes the efficiency of the Tegra 2 and that they will probably be underclocked to not even cause a difference.

Sorry, this is simply 100% wrong. Battery use is determined by many things, and two of the biggest things are how much energy escapes (this is related to the size of the components) and how much the CPU has to run at full speed. The tegra 2 dual core processors use a smaller process and are inherently more efficient than current generation single core processors, end of story.

Further more, gains from using SMP will probably result in even further gains in battery life, although to what degree this is true will depend on OS optimizations.

Anyways, the short answer is that dual core devices are going to have better battery life than single core devices when you hold the other variables the same (e.g. screen size).

 

[The_Engine]

x2 the speed isn't really what a dual core is trying to accomplish. It's always been better at multitasking which in turn helps apps run more efficiently and faster at the same time. I assume that by the time the Bionic is released that Honeycomb will be following very shortly and will be a very necessary update. The Bionic should run fine out of the box, but I think it will need that upgrade to really use the hardware appropriately, though this is all just a guess.

Thanks. Yeah I am not expecting 2x performance and what you explained it about what I was thinking. But I know sometimes the dual core won't mean jack unless the OS uses it.

So honeycomb supports dual core? Does gingerbread? I thgt honeycomb was just for tablets. So would then we need icecream sandwich?

 

[edoublediz]

honeycomb was built specifically for tablets

 

[Sploinkin]

honeycomb was built specifically for tablets

That doesn't mean it won't be used for phones.

http://www.androidcentral.com/googles-matias-duarte-interviewed

 

[edoublediz]

it is very unlikely. just simply look at the way it looks and flows on a tablet, it just doesnt make sense. i believe we will be looking at icecream sandwich for phones.

 

[irish22022]

frankly, I feel that I'm in a great position. I bought the droid x a few months after it hit. I'm on a 2 year, and to be honest, I don't really think this line up phones is any better then mine right now. I compare this to the iphone 3G when it upgraded to 3Gs. It's not a big deal.

The dual chip is the only thing I like. But I've got blur completely removed and my phone flies anyway. My batter life is around 30 hours of average use. I really can't complain. I honestly think, unless you have the money, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to wait for the NEXT line up of phones, as those will all have the better chips, front facing cameras and bigger batteries (when will htc start caring about battery life?).

Then again, some people will go and buy a phone every year. My point is, your device is still very relevant. I don't think you'll really notice a huge difference no matter what you do.

My buddy got an iphone 4 after having the iphone OG, and it was like he upgraded from dumbphone to smartphone all over again. that's what an upgrade should be. I'm waiting, and I'm rocking my newly rooted liberty droid x and it's FLY, and still in the top 4 android phones on the market, even after the new line up is released.