Samsung Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich Review
by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on January 18, 2012 1:34 PM ESTThe SoC: TI's OMAP 4460
The launch platform for Ice Cream Sandwich was TI's OMAP 4460. Unlike previous Android releases however, it seems that other SoCs will see their ICS ports done in a much quicker manner. It took a very long time for Honeycomb to be ported to other SoCs, whereas a number of companies have already demonstrated ICS running on their hardware (e.g. Intel, NVIDIA). If this is the case going forward, the launch vehicle for a new Android version may not mean what it used to.
The OMAP 4460 is a fairly standard, yet full featured dual-core ARM Cortex A9 SoC. You get two A9 cores complete with MPE (NEON support), behind a shared 1MB L2 cache. The SoC features two 32-bit LPDDR2 memory channels as well. The GPU is provided by Imagination Technologies in the form of a PowerVR SGX 540.
Max clocks for the OMAP 4460 are 1.5GHz for the CPUs and 384MHz for the GPU. As with all SoCs, all final clocks are OEM customizable to hit their desired point on the performance/battery life curve. Google and Samsung settled on 1.2GHz for the cores and 307MHz for the GPU, both exactly 80% of the OMAP 4460's max frequencies. Sprint recently announced its Galaxy Nexus would run at 1.5GHz. It's quite possible that we'll see a jump in GPU clocks there as well since the two may run in lockstep.
From a CPU standpoint the 4460 is competitive with pretty much everything else on the market (A5, Exynos, Tegra 2, Snapdragon S3). The 4460 does have more memory bandwidth than Tegra 2, Tegra 3 and Snapdragon, but it's comparable to Apple's A5 and Samsung's Exynos 4210. It's the GPU that's a bit dated at this point; the PowerVR SGX 540 typically delivers Tegra 2-class performance. A quick look at GLBenchmark and Basemark results echoes our findings:
At 720p, which happens to be the GN's native resolution, the OMAP 4460 is much faster than Tegra 2. It's also important to note just how much faster Tegra 3's GPU is by comparison.
I understand why Google didn't wait for a Krait based SoC, however I don't believe the OMAP 4460 was the best bet given the launch timeframe of the Galaxy Nexus. Based on performance alone, Google should have picked Tegra 3 as the launch platform for ICS. GPU performance is much better than the SGX 540 and there's comparable CPU performance. It's possible that Google needed the memory bandwidth offered by OMAP 4, but we'll find out for sure soon enough as the first Tegra 3 device (ASUS' TF Prime) is slated to get ICS this week.
I'm also less concerned about power consumption being an issue since NVIDIA added full power gating to all of the cores in Tegra 3. With a conservative enough power profile Google could have guaranteed battery life similar to OMAP 4460 out of Tegra 3.
I get the feeling that Google wasn't very pleased with NVIDIA after Honeycomb and chose to work with TI this time around for reasons other than absolute performance. If it weren't for the fact that Tegra 3 and other SoCs appear to be getting ICS in fairly short form I'd be more upset over this decision. To be honest, the choice of SoC simply hurts the Galaxy Nexus as a phone. If I were you, I'd wait for a Krait based device.
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TedG - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
I am looking forward to ICS on my RAZR. It seems similar in power and size to the Nexus.Jonathan Dum - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Any comments on the quality of the touch sensors? My biggest gripe with my Nexus One is the absolutely inane touch accuracy in comparison to an iPhone. If these new ICS phones have significantly improved touch sensors, I may be coaxed into sticking with Android.jalexoid - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Synaptics touchscreen controller on N1 was to blame. Even the HTC's "copy" Desire had a much better touchscreen experience due to a better touchscreen controller.All devices after that should have a really good controller.
tipoo - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
Same with my Nexus S. The locational accuracy is good, but it actually senses a tap with my finger a few millimeters above the screen, which can cause problems with the keyboard and other precise apps.Brian Klug - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
That was always my bug with the Nexus One as well, and it remains an unsolved problem to this day on that phone.I've seen no touch recognitions at all on the Galaxy Nexus. For the most part honestly these issues have gone away as the OEMs stopped being cheap with their capacitive layers and controllers. The Nexus One was especially bad.
I've seen some people complaining about issues with recognition in the bottom right corner - hardware swaps fix those problems.
-Brian
Skiddywinks - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
... is the GN still going to be the best Android on the market? I upgrade in March, and it basically comes down to the S2 or the GN. Each has their advantages, but personally it largely comes down to the display and the GPU.I like to play emulated games on my phone, but I don't know how they work in terms of whether they are software only, or can GPU accelerate. The better GPU in the S2 doesn't really do much if the GN can play everything else on the market at no apparent deficit. Better display all the way in that case. GN wins.
I'm not liking the lack of mSD in the GN either, though.
BAH. Decisions, decisions.
tipoo - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
Yeah, the Mali 400 in the GS2 might benchmark way higher than the Galaxy Nexus, but there are no games that exclusively run on it, or even that have more features on it like Tegra phones. I'd guess that even with its relatively weak GPU the Galaxy Nexus will never leave you wanting in games for the next year or two, and its screen is better. My Nexus S can still play top end games like Shadowgun, and that was built for more powerful tablets. With Android developers aim for middling hardware.medi01 - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
@Android is an OS that, although more closed than many would like, still allows more flexibility than iOS@And that comparing Open Source OS to something as closed as it gets. It is merely "still allows more than iOS", hilarious.
doobydoo - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
The openness of Android wasn't being compared to iOS, the flexibility was.Two separate points.
Gwynbleidd - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Two things, though:1. You wrote "Business is as usual for Windows users as ICS based devices just appear as a drive letter thanks to native MTP support." - that's not true, because of MTP Nexus appears in My Computer in Windows as a multimedia device and does not have a letter assigned, so sadly it's not possible to use traditional file managers like Total Commander to deal with files on it without additional plugins.
2. Did you notice any screen quality issues in your devices? Mine shows ugly pinkish smudges visibly especially on gray backgrounds, here's photo (it's out of focus on purpose, otherwise there would be a rainbow goo on screen):
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/7794/nexussmudg...
So when scrolling webpages you can see that text is pinkish at the top, then white stripe, then pinkish again... Apparently I'm not the only one having this issue with Nexus, and there is a long thread on xda forum about the same problem with Galaxy Note Screens
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1...
A little investigation, maybe? ;)