Motorola Droid 2 Review: Rebooting the Droid
by Brian Klug on September 19, 2010 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Droid
- Motorola Droid 2
- Android
- Mobile
Performance on the Droid 2
The Droid 2 also uses an OMAP3620 series SoC, similar in nature to the OMAP3630 used in the Droid X. The OMAP3620 and OMAP3630 are both ARM Cortex-A8 based, and clocked at a maximum of 1 GHz. Both share the same PowerVR SGX 530 GPU at the same clocks.
Where the OMAP 3620 differs is in video encode and camera capture support. The OMAP3630 is capable of HD 720p video capture and playback, along with support for camera resolutions above 5 megapixels—this makes the SoC the clear choice for the Droid X, which has a higher resolution camera and unsurprisingly supports 720p video encode. The OMAP3620 in the Droid 2, however, only supports up to SD DVD (720 x 480) video capture and playback, and up to 5 megapixel camera capture.
The reason why 720p video encode isn't present with the Droid 2 is now pretty obvious—SoC support isn't there. The rest of the platform is the same—you get Cortex A8 at 1 GHz, the SGX 530 graphics and the rest of the OMAP36xx platform the Droid X has that made it very quick in our benchmarks. The Droid 2 surprisingly has DDR3 onboard (not to be confused with LPDDR3—OMAP3630 and OMAP3620 support LPDDR1 at up to 200 MHz).
Performance is thankfully relatively speedy, as long as you’re not considering that strangely slow applications menu fade animation. Surprisingly however, the Droid 2 doesn’t post numbers in line with how fast Snapdragon 1 GHz parts with 2.2 are posting in a number of areas. Linpack is probably the most interesting:
I’m uncertain about whether the issue lies with Motorola’s 2.2 install on the Droid 2, but hopefully the X doesn’t suffer the same kind of oddities. Back on 2.1, OMAP3630 in the Droid X packed a fairly decent lead CPU wise whenever we could measure it, so hopefully this is an issue with the JIT compiler or something else simple that will be fixed.
Interestingly enough, browser performance is right where it should be on the Droid 2 with Froyo, scoring just a bit behind the Nexus One.
GPU benchmarks remain OMAP 3620’s strong point, with the OMAP 3620 in the Droid 2 posting Neocore and kwaak3 numbers in line with what we saw with the Droid X. That’s how things should be here, too:
The move to 2.2 or the 3620 (from the Droid X's 3630) doesn't really change those scores at all. It'll be interesting to see if Droid X Froyo performance is in line with the Droid 2 or if other hardware differences make it slightly faster.
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Brian Klug - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
Thanks for calling me out on that, I totally suspected I had forgotten something important. Can't believe I did that. /facepalm-Brian
stlc8tr - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
"The Droid 2 has pulled a complete 180 from the original Droid’s travesty of a keyboard. I’d say the device has gone from having one of the industry’s worst smartphone keyboards to arguably one of the best, if not the best. "Really? Have you tried the Touch Pro2 keyboard? Good travel. Nice offset. Numbers row. Good spacing between keys. It's nearly perfect. That is by far the best keyboard that I've ever used.
http://www.mobileguerilla.com/images/htc-touch-pro...
Brian Klug - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I had a Touch Pro and Touch Pro 2 for a long time. I have to agree - HTC has dominated the landscape keyboard landscape for a while, but on Android platform it's hard to beat the Droid 2 right now.Until we get the landscape HTC device that we've seen spy shots of. I don't think it has a codename yet, but it has that Touch Pro 2 keyboard.
I think we definitely agree.
-Brian
wyvernknight - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I think the blur animation that you're talking about when you open and close the app drawer is simply a stock Android 2.2 animation and not a Motoblur add-on.hansel2099 - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
muy buen celularlunarx3dfx - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
This is very disappointing. Your reviews are always very informative and for the most part all inclusive, but I've noticed in the last few reviews the Palm Pre has been absent. Now, I know that most would say, well it's Palm, and they are pretty much dead. However, unlike the Nexus One, which is included in all these reviews, I'm sure there were more Pre's sold than the Nexus One meaning that there are probably a few consumers out there that would like to see how it stacks compared to a new phone that they might be considering. It's just a suggestion.Also, for those who might be wondering, my overclocked to 1 GHz Palm Pre scored as follows:
Browsermark: 24492
Sunspider: 11228
I'd like to point out that those scores are still pretty high up on the list.
Brian Klug - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
Hey lunarx3dfx, I've got a Palm Pre Plus here that we got in for review, so I haven't really been able to include benchmarks from those suites until now. It'll show up in the new benchmarks though. On stock clocks I get 22298 ms on sunspider and 12936 on browsermark. Those 1 GHz speeds are actually pretty impressive.-Brian
ol1bit - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I think it's awesome that you are reviewing Smart Phones now. After all, they are truning more and more into computers.I've been into computers since the TSR-80 Color computer, and can't believe how far things have advances. http://oldcomputers.net/coco.html
Anyway Thank You!
AnnonymousCoward - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
Brian, I commend you for this engineering review and attention to detail. You made some great observations, like the ridiculous waste of space when text messaging.The inability to delete the stupid verizon and google bookmarks is inexcusable. Not mentioned is also the inability to delete or even just hide the garbage apps that come by default, including Blockbuster and Amazon MP3. So much for "Droid Does". Droid Doesn't let you delete the preinstalled crap. Besides rooting of course.
I noticed in a Verizon store using the X with the 2 side-by-side that the 2 has noticeably worse scrolling performance in the app list.
As for that 1cm of empty space to the right of the keyboard, they should have used that to make the keyboard even bigger! It was wasted, in order to have the phone dip down 2mm near the edge, which really doesn't accomplish anything.
A huge gripe I have is how syncing with facebook causes your entire contact list to be overtaken. The only remedy seems to be not not add facebook as an account, and give yourself a link to facebook.com on your desktop.
I am disappointed with the ever-present touch screen lag. Clicking and scrolling anything has a lagged effect from your input. Unfortunately, many people lack lag sensitivity, so we end up with displays and phones that exhibit an acceptable amount of lag to a few designers or testers, which is unacceptable to guys like me.
evilspoons - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I find it amusing how you're talking about the Droid 1 as if it's a dinosaur from the land of ancient, forgotten technology... yet it's still a year newer than the Blackberry I use all the time (Nov 2009 vs Aug 2008). Hmmm. Maybe it's time to upgrade.Only one of the local wireless carriers has the Droid 1 (sold as the Milestone because Droid is licensed to Verizon from Lucasfilm) and we just got it recently. The only recent-ish Android phone my current provider (Rogers) has is the Xperia X10. Ugh.
It's really just an iPhone 4 or a 6-12 month out-of-date handset for us up in the Great White North.