Hands on and Benchmarks of two MSM8x60 Phones - HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D
by Brian Klug on June 3, 2011 2:57 AM ESTLast time I looked at MSM8x60 it was at 1.5 GHz inside the Qualcomm Mobile Development Platform (MDP). We benchmarked it and found performance to be pretty compelling, with the caveat that this was a development board with none of the power management OEMs use in real products.
It seems like a long time since we touched that MDP, but this time we're looking at production hardware that's very close to launch (and the Sensation is already shipping in Europe), after OEM power optimizations and with a lower base clock of 1.2 GHz. Keep in mind that both devices are now running at qHD (960x540) as opposed to the WVGA (800x480) that the MDP and most other Android phones are running at. We still haven't found a way to do this very effectively in our graphs (it's coming soon), but as of right now, the HTC Sensation, HTC EVO 3D, and Atrix are the only qHD devices we've tested.
In my limited time available, I was only able to run Egypt and Pro from GLBenchmark 2.0 (latest build, 2.0.3.1) on both the Sensation and EVO 3D. The graphs are unfortunately again a bit deceptive since we're dealing with 1.35x as many pixels in qHD than we are with WVGA. If you factor in the 25% decrease in clock speed between 1.5 GHz from the MDP to 1.2 GHz in MSM8x60 shipping in devices now, and keep assume a linear scaling (which is honestly something we should never do, but here it gives a ballpark estimate), we get around 23 FPS expected performance on the Sensation/EVO 3D in Egypt. Compare that to the ~21 FPS we get in that test on those devices, and things look almost where they should be.
All things considered, performance doesn't seem to take that big of a hit going from MDP to real implementation, at least in the Egypt test. Again, we're going to explore this in more depth in the HTC Sensation review.
The Pro subtest is a bit more difficult to interpret since we're essentially back up against the framerate cap in this test. I didn't run the test to figure out what the Sensation and EVO 3D's respective caps are, but it should be in the neighborhood of 50-60 fps.
SunSpider and Browsermark are the odd tests here. Performance isn't at the top or even competitive with the other dual-core SoC on the charts, Tegra 2. Instead, the Sensation and EVO 3D scores hang back a little bit. It's entirely possible that at least in BrowserMark some of this is the difference in resolution, but SunSpider just shows some aberrant behavior. From what I've learned at Uplinq (and a story is coming on it soon as well) Qualcomm closely works with OEM partners and the V8 project to optimize V8, the JavaScript engine in Android's browser, for the Scorpion CPU architecture, so we should in theory see better performance.
We still have a lot more testing to do when the Sensation hits our doorstep, and in spite of the curious browser benchmark performance numbers, the both MSM8x60 devices felt incredibly speedy in the hand.
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mesiah - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
I plan to have an Evo 3D in my pocket the day it is released. If the power draw from the paralax barrier isn't that bad, the battery life on that thing has to be spectacular. And if now.... it is still a cool phone.synaesthetic - Sunday, June 5, 2011 - link
The Evo 3D's ridiculous gimmick could inadvertently make it one of the longest-lasting smartphones on the market, simply by TURNING OFF the gimmick.Really, I don't give a flying rat's behind about 3D on a phone. But that 1730mAh battery, I definitely like that!
PubFiction - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
I agree I am actually very dissapointed that they did not leave the big batteryt in the sensation.But the thing is most of the illogical people out there make the biggest deal out of the weight of a phone. like what is it going to tire you out lol?
And so companies just dont like to put big batteries in because then they cannot claim it is RAZR thin and so on. If someone just I know people with all different phones including iphone4s and no one with a smart phone can get the battery to last all day easily if they use it much.
worldbfree4me - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
I'm glad my Sexy Nexy is standing up to the big boys! Although It lacks a dual core Cpu, it still ranks up there with latest and greatest. Ice Cream should be only 6 months off!!MobiusStrip - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Lenses on a 3-D camera need to be spaced at the normal human interocular distance: about 64mm (2.5 inches).These lenses are way too close together to produce correct 3-D. After 150 years of 3-D photography, how do they screw it up now?
synaesthetic - Sunday, June 5, 2011 - link
I just hope someone writes a Camera app that can take advantage of the two sensors to produce truly awesome focus and sharpness on ordinary 2D photos.Who gives a crap about 3D? Gives me a migraine anyway. The concessions HTC had to make in order to facilitate the 3D gimmick might make this a ridiculously awesome phone if the 3D can be completely disabled/excised.
Impulses - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
That's what the switch is for... As for the dual cameras, they could be used for some really awesome low-light and HDR photography imo, but the proprietary driver that runs then will probably make it very difficult.My Sony point and shoot super zoom has some modes that make use of it's unique burst speeds (CMOS) by combining shots taken at different exposures etc., plus an HDR mode that works in a similar fashion... Even on full auto you can set it to take two shots when appropriate (with and without flash).
It's all enabled by it's quick burst speed (compared to 90% of P&S) which allows quick capture of multiple images with different settings, the EVO 3D's dual sensors could be used towards the same effect imo.
ph00ny - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Where are you located? If you're in nyc area, i will gladly let you test drive mineBrian Klug - Sunday, June 5, 2011 - link
I'm over in Tucson, AZ sadly. Were in NYC I'd definitely take you up on that offer.Is it an import?
-Brian
Caaz - Sunday, June 5, 2011 - link
I've been wondering... what is the resolution in 3D? The 3D screen of the 3DS renders images at 400*240 pixels, whether it's in 3D or in 2D mode (no visual loss in resolution, the handheld renders two 400*240 images for each eye in 3D (800*240 total)).From the article, I understand the EVO 3D works differently, and that there's a loss of resolution when 3D images are displayed (each eye gets 480 pixels instead of 960). I think that's what affected the Optimus 3D as well. Is it the case?