iPhone is powered by 620MHz ARM CPU! What are the Symbian OS handset makers doing?
Posted by Dusan on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 3:10 am under Apple, Devices, iPhone
No wonder iPhone works so fast …
I’m a Nokia and Sony Ericsson smartphone user and would love to see them using the CPUs that actually cross the 400 Mhz border. At the moment, Nokia is using ~320 Mhz CPUs for their flagship models - N95 and E90 Communicator, while Sony Ericsson goes for even less-powered - a ~210 MHz CPU. Is that enough? NO!
The story doesn’t end there. With the exception of the Nokia E90, Sony Ericsson P1i and Sony Ericsson W960i, all other Symbian OS based smartphones have less than 100MB of RAM (actually most of them have less than 50 MB of RAM available). Meaning, that multitasking works only on smaller apps — try loading some complex page in your web browser, your gallery and a camera app and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Don’t get me wrong — I love Symbian OS, I just don’t like its licensees’ idea of using the uber-optimized mobile OS to put less memory or a slower CPU in the smartphone. Yes, some of them come with a dedicated GPU, but that doesn’t help much in most cases. C’mon Nokia, Sony Ericsson and now Motorola — you can do better than that. Show us what you got!
In the meantime, bravo goes to Apple for making the iPhone one of the fastest devices on the market — at least in terms of speed of the built-in CPU.
[Via: Engadget]
Update: Stefan here, I just had to put this little snippet in when I saw Dusan’s post. The CPU inside the Apple iPhone is reportedly the Samsung S3C6400, a processer I saw 3 months ago at the S60 Summit in Madrid. Does it mean Nokia is interested in using it? Maybe. Does it mean other manufactures using the S60 licence might use it? Maybe, but we don’t know. Here is the reference board that was on display running Symbian:
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 am
But it runs the whole Mac OS
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:39 am
This is very interesting . . . It gets me wondering about the gaming potential of the iPhone (and future S60 phones), surely the iPhone is faster than a PSP? Does it have hardware 3D stuff - I guess it must.
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:41 am
ARM’s site suggests that “the ARM1176JZF-S processor also features an integrated floating point coprocessor, which makes it particularly suitable for embedded 3D-graphics applications.” In the other words, it may not have a separate GPU, but it should be able to pull some 3D gaming.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
It does not run the full Mac OS. The iPhone runs its own version - just because applications like Safari have the same name as the full-fledged Mac OS X version does not mean they are one and the same. Still, the interface is fantastic!
3D gaming, here I come! Good info Dusan!
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I totally agree with you, Dusan!
The CPUs and RAMs in Nokia S60 phones really blow and multi-tasking isn’t so fast as a result.
I hate this, a lot. Nokia (and SE) should be less stingy and give us faster CPU and more RAM. If apple can put a CPU twice as fast as Nokia can, it really shows how stingy Nokia is. >_>
I hope S60 phones will have better performance.
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
I was about to go buy the E90, however after reading this report I will either wait until Nokia comes out with an upgrade Arm 620MHz CPU or buy the iPhone instead. Frankly I’m disgusted at Nokia for pulling this on us. This is their flagship model and they come up with an underperforming CPU!!!
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:26 am
Now you got everything wrong.
Nokia E90 rocks! It’s too bulky for my taste, but it’s the fastest Symbian phone to date. Plus, it has more memory than any other S60 device.
Still, it’s your call.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:54 am
Get an iPhone, you won’t be disgusted
July 4th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Dont know y u all r discussin this..
just try to run Windows Vista on a pentium 3.. it will slow.
same applies here
symbian OS is not a memory hog. and require power less then Apples Iphone OS require.
second take is .. New version os Symbian (9.5) is much faster (reports)
so there is no way to compare two diffrent device with diffrent OS.
Nokia will come with a faster processor (Report)
but OS should also be tweaked to use that.
July 4th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I see your points, but on the other hand when I start a demanding application on my N93, it simple closes other apps? It doesn’t even ask me!
For instance I’m running a Nokia Podcast app and am in the midst of listening of a sound file. Then I start Tomb Raider game, and guess what - Podcasting app is no more!
I agree that Symbian OS is well optimized. But on the other hand, Nokia DO put more RAM in the E90. Also Sony Ericsson P1i and W960 have more memory.
Symbian 9.5 promises a lot. But we still have to see a device running under Symbian 9.3. I would love to see both Nokia and Sony Ericsson announcing new, more powered devices tomorrow. But I guess we’ll have to wait for that…
July 5th, 2007 at 5:42 am
[...] has provided Jobs&Co with the crucial parts need for the iPhone, including main processor (620MHz ARM-based Samsung S3C6400), lithium-ion batteries, flash memory chips. Furthermore, to save electricity in the iPhone, Apple [...]
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
It is very likely the iphone has a 3D. the ARM chip that is built into the iphone supports and ARM Mali200 coprocessor. Which is a very powerful feature rich 3D chip. In my opinion it’s making ATI mobile chips look old fashion as ARM’s chip is a complete new architecture designed for mobiles. where the ATI chips are based on their Desktop big brothers. I do hope the iPhone has the ARM Mali200 chip, as it formidable design. 2xPSP me thinks.
ARM Mali200 in action
youtube.com/watch?v=UWCVZiYr1Sw
iPhone has a ARM11 + 4 other ARM chips
youtube.com/watch?v=VINkyUbKylY&NR=1