Two OMAP 3430 Phones: Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid
by Brian Klug on June 10, 2010 9:29 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- N900
- Maemo
- Motorola Droid
- Droid
- MeeGo
- Android
- Mobile
Messaging and Skype
Messaging on the N900 is done in a very WebOS fashion - IMs and SMS alike are managed by the OS and aggregated into a central application called "conversations". I signed in with Google Talk and Skype, and the integration is seamless. But what's most impressive is how Skype and Google Talk handle calling. Maemo considers Google Talk and Skype VOIP and IM enabled accounts, and after they're added, you can make and receive calls over Skype, and do the same with Google Talk. Although we tested with PR 1.1, PR 1.2 further builds on this by enabling video calling for Skype (between PC and other skype video clients), and Google Talk (with the PC web client, or any other XMPP Jingle video client, including the N900, N810, and N800). There's also support for SIP video calls.
But the best part is that VOIP calls are treated just like a normal call. In fact, for a while, I was completely confused by Skype because I expected it to live by itself somewhere - similar to how it works on other platforms. But that's not how it works at all - enter your account details, set your availability status, and you're ready to call and be called over Skype. In Europe, where international calling can be expensive and sometimes confusing, this is a huge feature.
Though video calling on Android through Qik, and FaceTime on iPhone 4 has been received to much fanfare, Maemo has quietly had video call support since launch. With PR 1.1, video calling was admittedly a bit of a challenge - requiring calls to be made from the PC client of Google Talk to the N900, with the PC initiating the voice call. Or requiring Fring for Skype video calls to work (which I could never get working, sadly), but PR 1.2 now makes this a core part of the operating system in a way that really does work.
Phone Dialer
The dialer is virtually the only application that's portrait and landscape on the N900. It's admittedly very barebones. Launching it, you're first presented with a list of recently made and received calls, a shortcut to the contacts application, or the dial pad. The dial pad unfortunately doesn't have any smart dialing functions like HTC usually includes, it's just a plain ol' keypad - you can however just start typing a contact's name and see their contact card.
There's turning control for the N900 which launches the phone application whenever it's turned vertical - I never tried this - or you can force the phone to always be landscape/portrait from a setting.
Fortunately, there's landscape and portrait of both, and they do what they're supposed to do. In the call-in-progress screen, there's the usual options for mute, speaker, dial pad, and end. When you're in a skype call, there's a skype logo in the top left of the user's avatar.
When the call is over cellular, there's a picture of a phone - self explanatory. Otherwise the call screen is virtually identical for the entire gamut of call types - VOIP over 3G/2.5G or WiFi, and normal 2G/3G calling. The integration is truly flawless - there's no excuse that other platforms haven't fully integrated VoIP like this. On the other hand, carriers would throw a fit and likely never subsidize, carry, or support the phone (which might explain the N900's lack of adoption in the US), but we can dream, can't we?
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Wadzii22 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Out of curiosity I ran linpack and Benchmark pi on my droid that's oc'd to 1ghzmy benchmark pi score was 1280 and linpack gives me 17.24 mflops
strikeback03 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Did you run them stock? As those numbers seem to be a ~4x improvement over what is shown here, which seems odd given the ~2x increase in clockspeed.Wadzii22 - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
with the phone completely stock my scores were basically the same as whats in the original article.jamyryals - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Please continue this type of in depth comparison with current and future hardware. PC hardware is all well and good, but it's all so fast now the mobile space is a much more interesting battle. Not to mention with how fast things are evolving there is the opportunity for a lot of content.Ratman6161 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
For eample, my droid purchased in early April came out of the box running at 600 MHz (though now it actually runs at up to 900 Mhz). My wife got hers in early June and hers is 600 MHz too and also came out of the box with Android 2.1 already on it.Wadzii22 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
For whatever reason, setcpu always sees a stock droid's max at 600, but they do run at 550. I just got a new one yesterday after bricking my old droid, it showed the same thing.CharonPDX - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Nokia was the originator of the "sell unsubsidized smartphones direct" model, years before Apple or Google. You could get a Nokia N80 at CompUSA completely unlocked for $800 in 2006, a year before the unsubsidized iPhone.Stas - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
0.1 build with fixed WiFi and maps.LinPack - 12.2 (twelve point two)MFLOPS
Engadget.com loads in 20 sec (default browser)
'nuff said.
Stas - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
forgot to mention. the CPU is at 800Mhz. I've had it up at 900Mhz with bare Android build (leaked 2.2) and the performance seems no different, but no numbers, sorry.milli - Saturday, June 12, 2010 - link
That's pretty wrong what you're saying there.Qualcomm didn't even license the A8 (nor will they ever).
What they did license is the ARMv7 instruction set (and that's a huge difference). With that they made a custom implementation of the ARMv7 architecture. (BTW Qualcomm already stated in 2005 that they're an architectural licensee for ARM’s ARMv7 instruction set)
There are many differences between Scorpion and A8.
I'll quote from a certain article since i can't say it better:
'Although Scorpion and Cortex-A8 have many similarities, based on the information released by Qualcomm, the two cores differ in a number of interesting ways. For example, while the Scorpion and Cortex-A8 NEON implementations execute the same SIMD-style instructions, Scorpion’s implementation can process128 bits of data in parallel, compared to 64 bits on Cortex-A8. Half of Scorpion’s SIMD data path can be shut down to conserve power. Scorpion’s pipeline is deeper: It has a 13-stage load/store pipeline and two integer pipelines—one of which is 10 stages and can perform simple arithmetic operations (such as adds and subtracts) while the other is 12 stages and can perform both simple and more complex arithmetic, like MACs. Scorpion also has a 23-stage floating-point/SIMD pipeline, and unlike on Cortex-A8, VFPv3 operations are pipelined. Scorpion uses a number of other microarchitectural tweaks that are intended to either boost speed or reduce power consumption. (Scorpion’s architects previously designed low-power, high-performance processors for IBM.) The core supports multiple clock and voltage domains to enable additional power savings."
"Qualcomm claims that Scorpion will have power consumption of roughly 200 mW at 600 MHz (this figure includes leakage current, though its contribution is typically minimal in low-power processes). In comparison, ARM reports on its website that a Cortex-A8 in a 65 nm LP process consumes .59 mW/MHz (excluding leakage), which translates into about 350 mW at 600 MHz."
With that said, i don't understand where the misconception about the Scorpion being an A8 started. Even Qualcomm states clearly on their own website that Scorpion is not licensed from ARM. They also state that they invested hundred of millions in creating their own core based on the ARMv7 instruction set.
I hope now all the staff from Anand will stop saying that there's an A8 inside of Snapdragon. Or maybe you should even clarify that with a small article.