A Taste of Froyo: Google Android 2.2 Explored
by Saumitra Bhagwat on June 23, 2010 1:03 AM ESTPerformance
Well let’s just say that Froyo is really fast, at least on paper. The new JIT compiler for the Dalvik VM is about 2-5x faster than the one used in Éclair (v2.1) and CPU intensive code is executed much more efficiently. Memory management has also been improved and multitasking seems snappier. Basically, Froyo will not make your device run obscenely faster than before, but it will speed things up to the point where you’ll definitely notice a difference. That being said, Froyo still lacks the overall smoothness and responsiveness of Apple's iOS. It still suffers from sporadic stuttering and choppy scrolling. Animations are generally smooth, but are still prone to occasional slowdowns (something that Apple has actually introduced with iOS4). The issue is acutely exacerbated while using Live Wallpapers; that’s when phone feels really sluggish.
| Froyo Performance Tests | |||||
| Android Revision | Linpack (MFLOPS) | BenchmarkPi (ms - lower is better) | SunSpider (ms - lower is better) | ||
| Nexus One (Android 2.2) | 36.864 | 1165 | 5702 | ||
| Nexus One (Android 2.1) | 6.994 | 2820 | 14564 | ||
In terms of raw numbers, Froyo’s performance is hard to beat. The numbers speak for themselves; the Linpack benchmark shows a whopping 427% improvement from v2.1, while the BenchmarkPi and Sunspider tests post approximately a 140 - 150% boost in performance. Looks like the JIT compiler packs some serious under-the-hood optimizations. However, under normal usage scenarios, the performance delta isn’t as noticeable as the numbers lead us to believe. While things are quite snappy overall, don’t expect your phone to boot in 10 seconds.
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probedb - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
A handy article being as I'm about to buy an HTC Desire.Finally why is there no way to report spam posts? The two above me blatently are spam.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
Just nuked 'em ;)Cheers,
Brian
hughlle - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
"but this is largely attributable to the responsiveness of the screens being used in many Android devices. One of the main reasons why navigating the iPhone is a pleasure is because of the incongruously more accurate and responsive capacitive display"so the negative side of the screen on the android is that it is too responsive, and apple is better than them because of their phones being so responsive? sounds kinda contradictory.
it also comes off as if trying to say that iphones have a capacitive display and other phones dont. my htc's capacitive display is just lovely.
SkullOne - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I agree with that. My Droid running the leaked FRF57 is very responsive. I have zero issues controlling the touch screen.Froyo is visibly faster then Android 2.1. Most apps don't make use of the JIT compiler yet but then again Froyo isn't officially released so that will change.
I do enjoy Flash 10.1 Beta 3 immensely. Battery life isn't hit that hard and it's nice being able to actually browse the Internet without blue blocks everywhere. The plug-ins are able to be set to "On Demand" as well meaning if you don't want Flash loading automatically it doesn't have to. Flash ads aren't an issue either due to other applications on the Android Market. ;)
kenthaman - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I agree. My Droid has been running exceptionally well with FroYo installed on it. I do however have to say that after initially loading it the responsiveness when scrolling through my app menu was still sluggish, but since the package that I installed is rooted I installed one of p3's kernel packages and the Overclocking Widget and now have my phone set to 1.1 Ghz rather than the stock 550Mhz and this effectively removed nearly all lag that I've experienced.On a different note I have noticed a few things that still seem glitchy and expect that this is simply due to the beta (read:unofficial) image. Specifically I have been unable to install the latest version of Google Maps (4.3.0) from the market it downloads and attempts to install, but then reports installation unsuccessful. I'm not too worried about this as other apps have installed fine and again this isn't a final product.
Stuka87 - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I believe what he means is the majority of the android phone screens lack responsiveness. And that the iPhones screen surpasses them in this regard.And test done by other sites show this. The Nexus one screen is the closest out there to Apple in this regard. The Motorola Droid on the other hand was extremely bad. Which I notice every time I use one. This test was run before the Incredible came out however, so its quite possible its much closer to the iPhone. And in my experience using one briefly, I would say its pretty close.
pdusen - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
The Motorola Droid screen is extremely bad? Come again? What universe are you living in? Have you ever even been in the same room as a Droid?IanCutress - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
Nice write up. I'm still waiting for my Hero to get 2.1 here in the UK - should be sometime before July, but they've put the date back six times already. There's also no plans to move to 2.2 on the Hero, which is a shame if the JIT in 2.2 is that much better than 2.1. May have to root and flash, see what that does.Ian
dguy6789 - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I believe there is a typo in the performance section of the article. It is mentioned that there is a 60% boost in performance in the Sunspyder and BenchmarkPi when the numbers in both of those tests show more than 100% speed increases.hughlle - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
wrong way around. higher to smaller.if something takes 10 seconds to complete and you get it to do it in 5 seconds, it is a 50% increase in performance. same applies for those benchmarks.