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How superior is the Droid's processing power really, compared to Hero?

dvdqnoc

Android Enthusiast
Sep 7, 2009
341
0
According to Wikipedia...

Droid: Arm Cortex A8 600 MHz (underclocked to 550 MHz)
Hero: 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A ARM11 processor

I dont know what "underclocked" means, but nonetheless the Droid's processing is a bit higher than the Hero's. And also, I know that the Arm Cortex A8 is a better processor than the Qualcomm's in the first place anyways.

So, looking at those specs, is the Droid's processing power really that much more superior than the Hero's? Basically, I'm trying to get an idea of how much of the Droid's better performance is due to its processing power as opposed to its higher (and more efficiently coded, im assuming) Eclair OS.
 
Hero uses the same processor (same clock speed and processor but CDMA) as the G1. In '08 when the G1 came out the processor was pretty current but its way outdated now. I've seen some benchmarks place the Droid processor around 2x faster. They put an outdated processor in the Hero to keep costs down, I'm assuming. But regardless, the processor in the Hero/G1 is not current in any way shape or form and the speed increase you are seeing is from the faster processor, not Eclair.

Edit: Not saying that Eclair doesn't offer any speed increases...
 
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Well, I work for a Verizon franchise, so I get to play with the Droid all the time. I also happen to carry the Hero (have had Sprint for too long, don't have a reason to switch), so I am familiar with both phones. The Droid runs so much smoother and quicker then the Hero. The lag on opening messages, hanging up calls... isn't there on the Droid. Also, my Hero is rooted and I had a friend come in here the other day with his rooted Droid, and he said his is running at almost snapdragon speed (which I am the last person to ask how to check that, but I played with it, and its freakin fast). So that leads me to believe that the processor is WAY superior to the one on the Hero, seeing as though I have never heard of anyone coming anywhere close to Snapdragon speed on one. Just my two cents, hope it was atleast somewhat helpful even though I don't have all the techy terms and what not.
 
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Well then all of these responses lead me to this question: what makes everyone think we will experience better performance after recieving the 2.1 update? I mean, of course, its common sense to believe that an updated software will run better as a result of more efficient code, but enough to show a different and please those who cant stand the current lag?
 
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Well then all of these responses lead me to this question: what makes everyone think we will experience better performance after recieving the 2.1 update? I mean, of course, its common sense to believe that an updated software will run better as a result of more efficient code, but enough to show a different and please those who cant stand the current lag?


I dont care about a performance update, my Hero is plenty fast already. I just want the new apps and all of Google new stuff for the newer versions of Android. You have to consider this...I would safely say only about 25-30% of Hero users are on this forum. Most dont know about it or care to be on it. Out of that number, maybe half complain about the phone being "laggy" or having issues with it. You see where I am going? The people who complain about these issues are a VERY small percentage of owners. Top that off with most people's definition of "laggy" meaning having to wait 2 SECONDS for an app to open, and it really becomes a non issue. There are plenty like me whos phone works perfectly fine :)
 
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I don't know how great a Droid is because I haven't played with one much. I can only hope that things work smoothly between 2.1 and Sense UI on our Heros. I would love a few improvements, namely to voice dialing, but that is more of an HTC update issue. I know there are various reasons why 2.1 would be delayed for us and one of them is HTC having to ensure Sense UI works with it.

As far as the speed of the Hero, I could not help myself and have rooted, flashed Fresh 1.1, added Gumbo kernel and setCPU. I have noticed an improvement. At this point I'm pretty happy with the Hero but the bottom line is that I will have to stick with Sprint because no one can beat the price of my plan so I will make the most of the Hero. For what it would cost me on AT&T or Verizon for the equivalent service, I get TWO lines on Sprint.
 
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I bet we will be getting a version of 2.1 that has been optimized and probably has some of the features scaled back or turned off by default to minimize the impact on our processor. I think it will be a noticeable difference.

I really hope they can get the lag out of the dialer. There is no reason that when I am using it as a phone, the dialer has more lag then the crappy instinct m800 I had before.

There is a thread in the eris forum that shows that people seem to be seeing good results by purchasing a better microSD card. The phones come with a class 2 which severly limits the speed of the phone when using any apps that call up something from the SD card, and when you think about it, that is probably most functions of the phone.
The dialer calls up thumbnailed pics, the camera/albums write and read from it. most people report a decrease in lag when switching to a class 6 MicroSD card.

As for how much more functional 2.1 will prove to be, only time will tell.

What it all comes down to it is that both devices are priced appropriately for their specifications. Having come from a palm centro, and an instinct m800, I am extremely please with the experience I have gotten from the Hero, but I am also one of those people that does not mind having to root, tweak, and modify my device to have it running more efficiently.
 
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There is a thread in the eris forum that shows that people seem to be seeing good results by purchasing a better microSD card. The phones come with a class 2 which severly limits the speed of the phone when using any apps that call up something from the SD card, and when you think about it, that is probably most functions of the phone.
The dialer calls up thumbnailed pics, the camera/albums write and read from it. most people report a decrease in lag when switching to a class 6 MicroSD card.

This is a great point. I have made it in another post but it bears repeating. I shoot photo and video for a living and the difference between a class 6 card and the crap class 2 that comes with the Hero is night and day. For those who dont know, the class is the write speed. Class 2 is 2MB/sec, class 4 is 4MB/sec etc...First thing I did was swapped out the SD card for a Sandisk class 6. Anyone having issues with lag should as well. I figured it was a given most would upgrade the SD card when they got the phone.
 
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Sprint give us a second rate processor. Not surprising for the carrier that is always dead last. Dialing someone on this phone takes forever and the voice dialing is so bad I do not even bother with it anymore. If this phone does not improve a lot with 2.1 I'm going to get a iphone. Looking back on it now that is what I should have done in the first place.
 
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Lol tarheel, Verizon has one android phone with a better processor than the Hero and that is the Droid, which is a slide out keyboard phone just like the Moment on Sprint that also has a better processor then the Hero. Verizons other Android phone the Eris is the Hero in black. See where I'm going with this? ATT doesn't even have an Android phone. I rarely defend Sprint, but you are dead wrong with your assessment.
 
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Sprint give us a second rate processor. Not surprising for the carrier that is always dead last. Dialing someone on this phone takes forever and the voice dialing is so bad I do not even bother with it anymore. If this phone does not improve a lot with 2.1 I'm going to get a iphone. Looking back on it now that is what I should have done in the first place.


You're 100% correct. You should have gotten an Iphone.

To me and many others out there, the allure of the Hero was the customizability and openness of the OS. A lot of people out there are tired of having to void their warranties (jailbreak) just to be able to do stuff the phone should have been able to do out of the box. It has been shown many time out there that with a little bit of knowledge and the ability to follow some simple instructions, you can have the Hero or Eris running lag free with an impressive battery life.

If you do not want or feel you should have to take these steps, then go get an Iphone.
Maybe someday apple can release the Iphone 3G-S-F and for an additional $50 you can have full flash support. After that it will be the 3G-S-F-C&P and you can pay $79.99 more to get copy and paste as well. I for one can not see how people are ok with the fact that Apple is releasing phones that are missing features that should have been included in the first place, then they charge you out the nose for it. $50 for a slightly faster processor and the ability to take video when it should have been able to do video in the first place???
Add that to the fact that you have to pay at least $20 more a month to get a comparable plan, and I will say "no thank you AT&T."
 
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Sprint give us a second rate processor. Not surprising for the carrier that is always dead last. Dialing someone on this phone takes forever and the voice dialing is so bad I do not even bother with it anymore. If this phone does not improve a lot with 2.1 I'm going to get a iphone. Looking back on it now that is what I should have done in the first place.

Sprint didn't give us a second rate processor. It is what HTC designed in the phone. It is the same as the phone it was developed from, the GSM Hero, the Droid Eris, and the T-Mobile version. It was just designed with an older processor assuming to keep costs down but who knows why HTC did it.
 
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Sprint didn't give us a second rate processor. It is what HTC designed in the phone. It is the same as the phone it was developed from, the GSM Hero, the Droid Eris, and the T-Mobile version. It was just designed with an older processor assuming to keep costs down but who knows why HTC did it.


There is a perfectly valid reason for it.
they felt that the phone would not need more power then what it had already. I have seen the phone perform beautifully when developers decided to integrate openGL API into their games.
Just the same as you can go out and buy a $300 Netbook or a $1100 Super Multimedia capable Laptop, you can buy the smaller sleeker HTC Hero with the Sense UI, or you can buy the slightly beefier Moment with its AMOLED screen with different hardware specs.
Each phone appeals to different types of users.
 
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You're 100% correct. You should have gotten an Iphone.

To me and many others out there, the allure of the Hero was the customizability and openness of the OS. A lot of people out there are tired of having to void their warranties (jailbreak) just to be able to do stuff the phone should have been able to do out of the box. It has been shown many time out there that with a little bit of knowledge and the ability to follow some simple instructions, you can have the Hero or Eris running lag free with an impressive battery life.

If you do not want or feel you should have to take these steps, then go get an Iphone.
Maybe someday apple can release the Iphone 3G-S-F and for an additional $50 you can have full flash support. After that it will be the 3G-S-F-C&P and you can pay $79.99 more to get copy and paste as well. I for one can not see how people are ok with the fact that Apple is releasing phones that are missing features that should have been included in the first place, then they charge you out the nose for it. $50 for a slightly faster processor and the ability to take video when it should have been able to do video in the first place???
Add that to the fact that you have to pay at least $20 more a month to get a comparable plan, and I will say "no thank you AT&T."

Doesn't rooting the phone void the Hero with sprint? If you screw it up is sprint going to fix it for you for free? I don't think so but if I'm wrong let me know. So it is the same thing with Sprint as with AT&T. You have to mod the phone to get it to work. I'm saving money with sprints cheap service but it does not work seamlessly with my mac. The iphone does. My girlfriend's iphone works flawlessly with her mac. I'm no apple fanboy but their stuff just works and it does not freeze up when she gets a call and the service where we are is very good with at&t, unlike most places with at&t. I dropped the money on the hero so, for now, I'm going to try to make it work but up to this point for me, the hero has been a loser. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two off of the android forums that will change my opinion of it or at least be able to do the little things that my former cell phones of years ago did w/o all of the hero's issues. cheers
 
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its a lot easier to unroot an android phone then it is to unjailbreak an iphone. its also a lot harder to brick the phone in the first place. correct me if I'm wrong but I would be shocked if the average sprint worker even knew how to check for a rooted phone. the first thing they probably do is wipe them clean. they probably don't teach their techs linux.
if connectivity with your mac is a concern then the iphone would have been a better choice. I'm not trying to be a dick, just saying the specs for all the phones are no secret, and each phone has its goods and bads. personally I'm no fan of the controlling methods of apple regarding apps, marketplace and their os.
 
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Well my co-worker has a droid and I must say the speed difference is there, in fact I had him install handcent just to see the speed between it and my hero and it POP up without any lag. I like my hero don't care about a iPhone, I can all what. The iPhone do plus more but if its one thing I would like is a faster processor.
 
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I'm really not sure whats up with some of your phones suffering from call lag... I live up at the lake and bounce between 1-3 roaming signal bars,,, no dial lag, no call lag whatsoever,, i tested the incoming rings before my phone starts ringing and thats only 2. U would think I'd be the one with lag issues being in the boonies.
 
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I will say this, I have been holding out on rooting in hopes that the 2.1 update was going to be released soon, but the combination of uncertainty regarding the release date, and boredom from a snow day off of work has resulted in a working root and install of the Gumbo Kernel to my Hero. I also downloaded setcpu and went with the recommended settings from XDA forums. So far the phone seems to be much more responsive when opening apps and switching from landscape to portrait mode. Lag seems to be completely gone. I will report back after a day or two of using the phone, but I would recommend doing this to everyone who is experiencing problems. As I said before, it is very hard to permanently brick your phone. As long as it turns on even if it won't boot up, you can get into the shell and recover from a nandroid backup. (assuming you did the backup after root as instructed). I also have a class 6 8gb ridata card that should be arriving any day now ($15.99 off newegg) which should help even further with any apps that cache to or call from the memory card.

So far I have spent 45 minutes of my time to research the process and root, and $15 and I seem to have a phone thats as capable as anything out there. I am not claiming you will be outperforming the N1 or a rooted overclocked droid, but these simple steps make the Hero much more enjoyable.
 
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This is a great point. I have made it in another post but it bears repeating. I shoot photo and video for a living and the difference between a class 6 card and the crap class 2 that comes with the Hero is night and day. For those who dont know, the class is the write speed. Class 2 is 2MB/sec, class 4 is 4MB/sec etc...First thing I did was swapped out the SD card for a Sandisk class 6. Anyone having issues with lag should as well. I figured it was a given most would upgrade the SD card when they got the phone.

mbell,

I know you're keeping your phone un-rooted (as I am currently) and would like to swap out the SD card as you mention. What steps would I have to take to transfer what's already on the stock SD card to the Class 6 card?

Thanks!
 
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Sprint give us a second rate processor. Not surprising for the carrier that is always dead last. Dialing someone on this phone takes forever and the voice dialing is so bad I do not even bother with it anymore. If this phone does not improve a lot with 2.1 I'm going to get a iphone. Looking back on it now that is what I should have done in the first place.
Actualyl sprint gave us a new gen processor that runs about equal to the Cortex A8 (granted it has a higher clock speed to make up for the lower arch.).. it is called the S3C6410... runs ARMv6KZ arch at 800 mhz and is almost equal to the cortex A8 at 550 mhz on Armv7-A arch.. Just like verizon also got a second rate Qualcomm MSM 7201A in the droid eris
 
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