Will a Quad-Core Phone be necessary?

[xinn3r]

Like the Thread Title says, is Quad-Core really necessary?

I was wondering, as I'm only using a Dual-Core computer, and it is more than enough for me because I'm not using Video Editing Software's or anything that can benefit from a Quad-Core processor

What I'm saying is, will it be the same for smartphones?
Will a Quad-Core phone benefit everybody?

Will a Quad-Core phone be different than a Quad-Core computer because of a different layout (System-on-Chip)

Or will it only benefit some heavy multitasking apps?

 

[pasqo83]

Better still, at the moment, the battery life of a samrtphone nowadays is 1 day to a day and a half, why don't they try improving that first before expanding on quad core phones.

I still have a spare Nokia phone to hand as although I love my smartphone, I just think the biggest downfall for every smartphone (Iphone, Samsung, HTC even the new Nokia Lumia etc) is battery life.

I can't see the point of quad core, I would rather they perfect there software and battery life and then begin embarking on Quad core processors (that's for all companies).

 

[mrqs]

Better still, at the moment, the battery life of a samrtphone nowadays is 1 day to a day and a half, why don't they try improving that first before expanding on quad core phones.

having more than one or two cores can help improve battery-life, as you don't have to use a sledgehammer to nail a painting on the wall

 

[pasqo83]

having more than one or two cores can help improve battery-life, as you don't have to use a sledgehammer to nail a painting on the wall

Ah yea, never looked at it that way, it makes sense, I assume the energy consumption should be alot lower then.

Would the fact that because it has 4 cores, it requires more energy to create the arghorithmics (however you spell it) lol

 

[Adauth]

Depends on who you ask I guess. However I would not want to be getting any of the first quad core devices that hit the market, as I expect them to be rushed and not optimized. I think it will be a while before we see a true great working quad core phone. I'm happy with my razr now and I think it will suffice for quite a while.

 

[Mostly Harmless]

Technology only moves one way->forward. Once they announced dual cores it was only a matter of time before quad cores were to come out. Next year you will be looking at 6 cores.

 

[pasqo83]

I find it pointless having a quad core when the software that gets put onto it is never optimized correctly, yes it's great that technology is moving forwards and they can do this with phones, computers, cars etc... How many Companies actually perfect, optimize it to its full potential.

Companies should really look into perfecting their software so that we can have an ultimately good experiece with the OS and UI and the hardware will go hand in hand with this.

 

[xinn3r]

Would the fact that because it has 4 cores, it requires more energy to create the arghorithmics (however you spell it) lol

It's Algorithm's

Depends on who you ask I guess. However I would not want to be getting any of the first quad core devices that hit the market, as I expect them to be rushed and not optimized. I think it will be a while before we see a true great working quad core phone. I'm happy with my razr now and I think it will suffice for quite a while.

+1 to this
Just like Tegra 3 is the first quad-core, the Tegra 2 was the first dual-core processor, within months, it was outstripped by other more optimized dual-core processor because Tegra 2 was rushed, because I think NVidia was catching up with the competitions

 

[DroidDavi]

I honestly feel duals are just now hitting there full potential. OEM's will rush them since they will make money. To be honest how much faster can these phones get. Computer need quads when you do CPU intensive tasks but I don't see anyone running Sony Vegas on a android device

 

[VincentAnoid]

Not neccessary at the moment but it will happen sometime in the future. Manufacturers try to make their device the best so they will do whatever it takes to make it stand out and not like the company is falling behind. Everyone will probably buy into it, look at the iPhone 4s and the iPhone 4 its not that much of an improvement but people still buy it nonetheless. For some shallow people its, new phone = better social status

 

[dan330]

like all tech.. it gets better .. faster.. smaller.. stronger..
and we always always always .. ask why do we need that?? are you just trying to make us buy the next buz feature .. get our $$

first harddrive I put in a pc... 40mb.. damn!!! why they hell would anyone need that much space??

first big screen monitor i saw...17" .. damn!!! what is wrong with people's eyes, why they need that much space??

first it was dialup... then there was that tech right before DSL.. it was like double 128K... who the hell needs the internet that fast???

but each time.. the consumers eat it up!!
Developers and Companies.. use the resources as it becomes available.. and push the envelope..

if i was going to sign a 2 yr contract.. spend $200-300 on a phone.. and over $2500 on the service... i am going to get the biggest hardware tech i can.. to last the 2 yrs!! and tech is old in 6 months!!!!

 

[AndroidSPCS]

I agree, it's the chicken or egg question. We won't need quad core, but once we get it, we won't be able to live without it, and we'll be wondering why we need 6 or 8 cores.

Battery life on my dual core phones (Evo 3D / SGS2) are far better than on my single core phones (Evo 4G, etc).

 

[VincentAnoid]

I agree, it's the chicken or egg question. We won't need quad core, but once we get it, we won't be able to live without it, and we'll be wondering why we need 6 or 8 cores.

Battery life on my dual core phones (Evo 3D / SGS2) are far better than on my single core phones (Evo 4G, etc).

Nice, but why exactly do dual cores have better battery life? Even if it was only using half its cores, the SGS2 is still running one at 1.2ghz. Nice phones btw

 

[VincentAnoid]

like all tech.. it gets better .. faster.. smaller.. stronger..
and we always always always .. ask why do we need that?? are you just trying to make us buy the next buz feature .. get our $$

first harddrive I put in a pc... 40mb.. damn!!! why they hell would anyone need that much space??

first big screen monitor i saw...17" .. damn!!! what is wrong with people's eyes, why they need that much space??

first it was dialup... then there was that tech right before DSL.. it was like double 128K... who the hell needs the internet that fast???

but each time.. the consumers eat it up!!
Developers and Companies.. use the resources as it becomes available.. and push the envelope..

if i was going to sign a 2 yr contract.. spend $200-300 on a phone.. and over $2500 on the service... i am going to get the biggest hardware tech i can.. to last the 2 yrs!! and tech is old in 6 months!!!!

Couldn't have put that better myself

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Nice, but why exactly do dual cores have better battery life? Even if it was only using half its cores, the SGS2 is still running one at 1.2ghz. Nice phones btw

Thanks. I think dual cores have better battery life because of 1) bigger battery, and 2) more efficient design which allows the CPU to use less power, thus less heat, to do the same or more calculations, and thus conserve more power compared to older chips.

The quad cores should continue the trend in using smaller dies, smaller nano-circuits, etc etc, and thus allow more power but in a much more efficient package.

 

[dan330]

Nice, but why exactly do dual cores have better battery life? Even if it was only using half its cores, the SGS2 is still running one at 1.2ghz. Nice phones btw

since in this situation.. we are talking about nano secs and millions of instructions...
i am going to exaggerate for emphasis ..

if an old cpu takes 24 hrs to do ABC task.. it is working at full and heating up.

then an newer cpu can do the same ABC task.. in 1 min.. it can go back to rest faster..and not heat up..

both rest state is the same.

both can scale the speed.. to low and high as needed..
so for simple task.. both can do it at the same low speed.. but even then, the newer cpu because of its better smaller design can do that simple task a little faster, and produce less heat.

so in the long run.. the new better more power cpu.. will be less draw on the battery for the "same" demands.

but of course.. with better power, and new abilities... comes more demand...and so forth...

 

[EarlyMon]

Nice, but why exactly do dual cores have better battery life? Even if it was only using half its cores, the SGS2 is still running one at 1.2ghz. Nice phones btw

Remember that these processors run at a variable rate. They run slow enough to do the job, but scale up to run faster as more tasks are given.

A single core can be pressed to full speed pretty easily, and full speed = highest power use.

A dual core may complete those same tasks by distributing those tasks and running both processors at a lower speed, saving power.

In addition, the S3 used in phones like the Evo 3D run the two cores at independent speeds rather than locking both to the same speed. For many practical day to day uses, this results in even greater power savings, despite competitors trying to obfuscate this with Internet "facts."

The power saving schemes of the newest multi-cores is even more advanced.

 

[mrqs]

the different cores also aren't always the same - you can have one (or more) cores for heavy lifting and another (or more) for smaller tasks
see big.LITTLE by arm

 

[EarlyMon]

Exactly. Another quad core actually has a low power 5th core, used when only single core background processing is needed, such as in nearly-sleeping for example.

 

[Cola56]

Like the Thread Title says, is Quad-Core really necessary?

I was wondering, as I'm only using a Dual-Core computer, and it is more than enough for me because I'm not using Video Editing Software's or anything that can benefit from a Quad-Core processor

What I'm saying is, will it be the same for smartphones?
Will a Quad-Core phone benefit everybody?

Will a Quad-Core phone be different than a Quad-Core computer because of a different layout (System-on-Chip)

Or will it only benefit some heavy multitasking apps?

No matter whether it is necessary,but it will the trend of smartphones.

 

[IOWA]

A little known fact, but some old school WinMo phones had dual-core processors

 

[dan330]

A little known fact, but some old school WinMo phones and dual-core processors

what you talkin bout willis??

 

[Granite1]

^
That made me laugh out loud at work!

 

[EarlyMon]

A little known fact, but some old school WinMo phones had dual-core processors

Pics or it didn't happen. And if you say HTC Prophet or HTC Wizard(OMAP 850 and I had to Google that (ARM5vTE processor)), I think I get to include the DSP and say the Evo 4G was dual-core.

what you talkin bout willis??

Probably that calling calling SoCs dual core when they can easily contain 9 cores is taking great liberty with the language to describe the various enhancements we've seen in processor architectures.

That, or there were other actual dual (cpu) core old-school WinMos?

 

[Shocky]

I hope the new Galaxy S3 will use the newer Cortex A15.

I'd take Dual Core Cortex A15 at 2GHz over Quad Core Cortex A9 at 1.5GHz anyday.