Comments Locked

44 Comments

Back to Article

  • fabarati - Friday, June 12, 2009 - link

    The Cortex A8 in the Pre is acutally clocked at 500 MHz. At least that's how I read this

    root@castle:/var/home/root# cat /proc/cpuinfo
    Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
    BogoMIPS : 498.07
    Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp
    CPU implementer : 0x41
    CPU architecture: 7
    CPU variant : 0x1
    CPU part : 0xc08
    CPU revision : 3
    Control reg : 0xc5387f
    Aux control reg : 0x42
    L1 instruction cache:
    features : read-alloc
    size : 16 KB
    assoc : 4
    line length : 64
    sets : 64
    L1 data cache:
    features : write-through write-back read-alloc
    size : 16 KB
    assoc : 4
    line length : 64
    sets : 64
    L2 unified cache:
    features : write-through write-back read-alloc write-alloc
    size : 256 KB
    assoc : 8
    line length : 64
    sets : 512
    Cache LoC : 2
    Cache LoU : 1

    Hardware : Sirloin OMAP3430 board
    Revision : 34304332
    Serial : 0000000000000000

    taken from here

    http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-development/18...">http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-dev...84378-ok...

  • nomagic - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - link

    I am a little confused. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can help me.

    Anand mentioned that Cortex A8 has longer integer pipeline stage than ARM11 does, therefore putting itself in disadvantage. However, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Having longer pipeline stage also has its advantages. Length of pipeline usually do not make one design better than the other. Maybe Anand could elaborate a little more on this in the full article?
  • anandtech02148 - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - link

    Anand should consider changing digital cameras into smartphone category, he has a lot of knowledge in hardwares and what a perfect to disect all these phone's OS. Pc has become such a commodity, the only excitement in today's economy is the smartphone war with a lot of different stuff to explore.
  • L1FE - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    When you guys are testing the Pre, you will see a significant decrease in battery life if you setup a POP3 email account (like Hotmail). A number of users have noticed that after removing the Hotmail account, they saw dramatic battery life increases.

    Before, my battery was draining at a rate of about 1% every 4 minutes with light use, which is pretty abysmal. After deleting Hotmail completely, I was seeing a drain of about 1% every 8-9 minutes. Still nothing to write home about.

    You HAVE to remove the POP3 account entirely. Users were reporting that even when setting the sync interval to manual, their inboxes were being updated in real time. I'm guessing it was introduced in the 1.0.2 fw during release since most reviewers, while they scorned battery life, never had the 3 hour complete drains that a lot of new users have been getting.

    For those who care, I had my interval set to 30 minutes for my Hotmail account with GPS/Wi-FI/Bluetooth disabled. Anyway, thought Anand+team should know about that...
  • VooDooAddict - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Picked up a Pre. Generally I like it. My one gripe is I miss the 5 way rocker from earlier Palm Phones. Correcting text entry with only a touch screen to move around the cursor is difficult.

    But the contact management is simply great. I used to have duplicate entries for many people in order to hold all the addresses, emails, and/or phone numbers. It automatically combines them into a single contact.

    The contact Syncing with facebook is also very nice. I'm not a big facebook user day to day, but I have many friends that are. This automatic sync keeps the phone numbers, addresses, and incoming call photos up to date.
  • macs - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I suggest to use HTC G2 instead of G1. I have a G2 I'm very happy with it and Android in general (version 1.5 "cupcake" instead of 1.1). Android is the best mobile OS; has everything and is fast and stable. The only downside is that require a little bit of tweaking compared to Palm Pre and Iphone.
    p.s. Sorry for my English but I'm Italian
  • ZPedro - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    "It's why Palm is able to enable pre-emptive multitasking while the iPhone pretty much can't." WTH?! How do you think iPhone OS switches between the kernel, the current app, the daemons, and the one or two apps that can run in the background? Cooperatively? The iPhone does pre-emptively multitask; however, it is not able to multitask more than one application (all of these beside the current app are specially designed to be extremely mindful of resources, especially to allow hardware resources to sleep whenever possible), but I don't think the processor is the main bottleneck, and at any rate it does pre-emptively multitask - just not between apps.
  • sprockkets - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    The bottleneck is Apple and Steve's level of service he demands from an iphone. Most everyone else doesn't care and expects a battery life decrease upon using apps in the background such as IM.
  • halcyon - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Will we be seeing more phone reviews @ AT?

    WinMo 6.1 w/ TouchFlow (HTC Touch Pro 2 is looking really good)

    Android phones?

    Why not even the Symbian kludges :)

    It'd so nice to see *real* comparisons here at Anand.

    So tired of reading 'reviews' and 'comments' at most Mobile phone blogs, where the reviewers can't do anything critical and don't know how to objectively test.

    And don't even get me started on news sites like Enga... barf :)
  • The0ne - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I rather Anandtech stay away from phones altogether and stick to computers :) Heck even the camera reviews don't interest me and I like photography :D But since Anand's birth many years ago I come here mainly for computer reviews and I'm sticking to it :)

    hahaha funny comment I know but meh :P
  • Affectionate-Bed-980 - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    The problem is in the US people only know a few phones. iPhone and RaZr. Ok, it's not that bad, but great phones like the HTC Diamond/Touch were never known till they hit carriers. There are some awesome phones out there like the SE phones and Nokia N-series that most of America is too retarded to know about.

    These reviews shouldn't be highly regarded. As for engadget, they at least recognize Symbian's strengths and weaknesses. How many people here have even touched S60?
  • kg4icg - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    That would be true except there are problems with your post. You do know that most of the n-series Nokia's don't come to the states, and 2 There are lag times when HTC's phones are releases in Europe then the States. I wish people do some research before they state something without knowing.
  • sprockkets - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Check out Newegg.com for their phones. You can't buy them from a carrier/subsidized. They are only sold unlocked, which is how it should be - no OEM tainting crap on the phone or castration of features.
  • nilepez - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - link

    Great, so now you pay full price for the phone and you pay your carrier for subsidizing the phone that they didn't subsidize.

    I work for a small carrier...we love the prepaid plans where the customer has no contract, but typically pays a recurring monthly charge that's about the same as a typical plan.

    Why? Because they pay full price for their phone, which means we start making a profit from day one. When we subsidize a phone, we don't make money for at least a year.

    Now if you have Sprint's Sero plan and paying full price for a phone is the only way to keep it, it's probably worth it...but if you're paying the same fee as everyone else, you're just getting screwed.
  • snarfies - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I was with Sprint for a few years - until they began to RELENTLESSLY make telemarketing calls to my own phone, like several times each week. My contract was almost up at that point, and I told them if they called me one more time I would leave as soon as the contract was over. They ignored my request, sending me a very clear message - they did not want my money anymore. So I stopped giving it to them. If I can get an unlocked GSM Pre, I might be interested, but if its Sprint only, they can keep it.
  • lwatcdr - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    How long ago was that?
    My wife has been with them 10 years and never has had that issue. I have been with them for several myself and never had that happen. Things do change.
  • snarfies - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Unfortunately, this was like 18 months ago.
  • rudy - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I think if you have an employee discount they spam you I recieve the calls too.
  • rudy - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    The problem is that talk time is related to signal strength. Why is it that the G1 can beat the other 2 easy then lose miserably in talk time. It could be that the signal was weak and the phone was using more power to over come this.
  • DanBook - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I can't believe that some people are positioning the Pre as competition for the iPhone. I've got two words for you: soft keyboard. GET IT THROUGH YOUR SKULL. Once you've done that, I have two more for you: app store. I just bought an iPhone 3GS from Apple because there's just nothing that currently compares to their latest offering. After all, why should I care about a replaceable battery and other feats of hardware engineering when the device is still a pain in the ass to use?
  • lwatcdr - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Do you work for apple or what?
    I am just sick of Apple and every other flavor of fanboys on the planet.
    Guess what the iPhone is a very good smartphone and does have a large app store.
    Of course at launch it was closed and they told you to make web apps for the thing. Apple improved that.
    So what are the iPhones flaws?
    1. Can not multitask.
    2. You can not get and extra battery.
    3. No memory card slot.
    4. No hardware keyboard.
    The new iPhone and the new software does take care of a lot of issues that the 3g had. The lack of voice dialing I feel was a huge issue.
    The Pre isn't perfect.
    1. No video recording yet.
    2. Small app store.
    3. No memory card slot
    Of course Sprint will save you several hundred dollars per phone over AT&T on your plan which is a good thing. I also have good coverage and have not had many problems with them but YMMV.
    Yes the Pre competes well with the iPhone. Is it a knock out? Not really but for some people it is a better solution than an iPhone.
    Also some disadvantages are also advantages. The lack of apps is a huge advantage for developers. You have less competition so it will be easier to get noticed. The iPhone on the other hand give you the advantage of a HUGE installed base so if you get noticed you can make some big bucks.
    Two good phones and two excellent choices. I for one hope to see more Android devices as well.
    Having several good smart phones to choose from make everything better.

  • snarfies - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I have three words for you: do not want. GET IT THROUGH YOUR SKULL. I refuse to own a phone that does not have physical buttons. Ever go to an touchscreen ATM and had to repeatedly punch the screen to get it to respond to anything at all? Yeah, well, when I stop encountering those MAYBE I'll buy a phone without buttons - maybe.
  • Griswold - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - link

    Hello fat-fingers! Anway, comparing these ATMs to the iphone (or any other touch mobile) is ridiculous. They just work, as long as they're not based on windows mobile and its craptastic UI on top of the non-touch OS.
  • theslug - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    That's only on older glass CRT touchscreens. Newer LCD touchscreens, including ATMs, don't have that issue.
  • sprockkets - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    The older crts had actual buttons. Those Bank of America ones are the worst; they make XP noises which are extremely annoying.

    The key to it working is just to touch it normally; most people try to stick their whole finger on it hard and long which doesn't work as well.

    Actually, I believe those very expensive screens always had capacitive touch screens; none of them ever felt like a resistive touch screen.
  • The0ne - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Your statement left me a bit confused. Comparing the iPhone and pre is a valid point. They may differ in some features but they are in the same class.

    And while Apple's app store does have some amazing software it is software we're talking about. Do you somehow expected Palm to have the same number of apps available at launch? This reminds me about the XP vs Vista arguments all over. Some users who don't like Vista don't want to change because learning how to use the new UI and features is too much of a pain or isn't worth the time.

    Here's the thing though, if there are enough people that want to devote to coding for the Pre then you'll see that apps just as quickly if not even quicker because of the current FAD.

    And my last question, do you even own or have "played" with the Pre to make those kinds of statements? It seems you're comparing apples to oranges highlighting a phone that has been out for a few years to one that was just released. Give it at least 6 months before you can say the features suck, the apps suck or whatever.
  • poohbear - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    forget the stock speeds, how the hell do we overclock this thing???
  • Lifted - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Why not include one of the new blackberry models? I'd like to know how their battery life holds up in the tested situations.
  • The0ne - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I use a HTC smartphone myself and while I would love to see more I think most users, at least most articles I've read separate Blackberries into a different category...business phone. The iPhone and Pre are...what's the word I keep seeing, hmm...oh well, casual phones.

    It's funny how people will find anything to separate products apart.
  • winterspan - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    (BTW, the guys above me are correct -- the Samsung ARM11 in the iPhone is underclocked to 412mhz)

    I think Anand is right in that Palm needs to spend another six months optimizing and polishing the Pre's software and OS. The 600Mhz ARM Cortex-A8 and PowerVR SGX530 GPU are cream of the crop -- The Cortex-A8 core has about twice the raw performance per clock as ARM11.

    Unfortunately, and this is to Apple's credit, the current 400Mhz ARM11 based iPhone is as fast or nearly as fast as the Pre. Despite the fact that the Pre can finish loading a large complex webpage a bit faster than the current iPhone, the iPhone is faster and smoother when it comes to panning and zooming loaded web pages.

    I guess we'll have to wait another week for the tear-down to see what is powering the new iPhone 3GS and see just how much faster it is than the Pre in real-world use.
  • Griswold - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - link

    "Despite the fact that the Pre can finish loading a large complex webpage a bit faster than the current iPhone, the iPhone is faster and smoother when it comes to panning and zooming loaded web pages. "

    No, its not. Check out the engadget video somebody linked above. My iphone 3G scrolls and pans pretty jerky, just like in the video, whereas the pre is buttesmooth.

    Why do you people keep saying these things - you're the second to make a false claim as far as browsing goes...
  • lifeblood - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    And they will get the 6 months to improve it. By releasing the Pre exclusively on an almost dead network (Sprint), they are in effect "beta testing it under fire". Sprint users get to find the bugs thus allowing Palm to iron them out while tweaking it's performance before releasing it into a truly competitive network (Verizon).

    Palm must have taken a page from Microsoft.
  • HelToupee - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    "By releasing the Pre exclusively on an almost dead network (Sprint), they are in effect "beta testing it under fire"."

    Really? Sprint's almost dead? They've got 15 million subscribers. That's up against Verizon's what, 19 or 20 million? They've got arguably better 3G coverage (especially in the Midwest) than Verizon.

    Are you trolling, or are you really that misinformed?
  • theslug - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Judging by the last sentence of his post, it's clearly trolling.
  • cocoviper - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Sprint has ~50 million subscribers, Verizon has about 87 million. Both are big, neither are "dead".

    As with the computer hardware industry- don't believe the FUD that competitors try to feed you.
  • anandtech02148 - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    the smartphone war is exciting,
    i want to read Anand's insight into this, you could also do Nokia n97, Iphone 3Gs,& Palm Pre. Web Os is very impressive base on a lot of you tube videos. Symbian Os reminds me of OpenVms but with Gui, love that Os very much, i'm hoping symbian becomes the wild Os like in the days of Windows. And Apple is just Apple, they delivere supports like HDSPA 7.2mb that will make most smartphone obsolete in about 6months.
    the phone war reminds me of the old pc wars eventually its all about content and a kickass web browser. Apple is ahead with the browser performance. I want Anand to have a dedicated section to smartphone hardwares and Os.
  • aftlizard - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    I believe Sprint's 3g is at 7.2 mbs as well and actually IIRC tested faster than any other carrier.
  • cocoviper - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    Nope EVDO RevA is 3.1Mbps vs. Att's currently rolled out 3.6Mbps 3G (what the iPhone 3G uses). Their network is slowly being upgraded to 7.2 but there are other items besides the theoretical speed to be considered.

    1-Spectrum. Sprint uses 1.9GHz whereas Att uses 800MHz typically (and they are moving more of their 3G coverage to 800 because it propagates further). Lower frequencies are better at penetrating walls but they also carry less data per second. For any given channel, an equivalent signal on 1.9GHz will always be faster than an 800MHz signal- it can simply carry more data.

    2-EVDO (CDMA) seems to consistantly get closer to its theoretical data speeds better than HSPA (GSM). This is one of the key reasons that Sprint (as well as Verizon) are known for the speed and quality of their data network vs. Att and T-Mobile are typically considered subpar to horrible when it comes to data speeds (see all the class action lawsuits filed over the iPhone 3G being twice as fast, Gizmodo's 3G test http://gizmodo.com/5111989/the-definitive-coast+to...">http://gizmodo.com/5111989/the-definitive-coast+to... , etc...)
  • taywyn - Thursday, June 11, 2009 - link

    I think your spectrum explanation is invalid or imprecise. Data speed is relative to the width of the signal envelope; center frequency has little to do with that except that you typically get assigned narrower bandwidth as the center frequency decreases. For any channel of a fixed width (a simplified case of 1 MHz at 800 MHz vs 1 MHz at 1.9 GHz), you have equivalent data transfer rates with the same encoding and modulation schemes. This is mathematically provable.

    Better propagation is a trade-off with user density; more users on a single cell (high propagation) means more bandwidth contention for all users, whereas with worse propagation, where you have coverage, you probably have decent speed. It just costs your network more (cell sites and therefore money) to get you that coverage.
  • aftlizard - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    You're right. However I was correct in remembering that Sprint's network tested out faster, at least according to gizmodo.
    http://gizmodo.com/5111989/the-definitive-coast+to...">http://gizmodo.com/5111989/the-definitive-coast+to...
  • cocoviper - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    @anandtech02148

    Actually the Pre's browswer is faster and tends to render as good or better than the iPhone's.

    http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/palm-pre-review...">http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/palm...rt-2-syn...
    -->scroll about 1/2 way down. There's commentary and a video speed test.
  • Zok - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    "he iPhone 3G uses an ARM11 based processor running at somewhere around 600MHz as well."

    It actually runs at 412 MHz. Just a heads up.
  • Zok - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    As a follow up, 412 MHz is the speed for the iPhone/iPhone 3G, as well as the first-gen iTouch. The second-gen iTouch processor runs at 532 MHz, which is why some games have an "better graphics" switch for said device.
  • KeypoX - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - link

    thats what wikipedia says

    Samsung ARM 1176JZ(F)-S v1.0 620 MHz underclocked to 412 MHz, 32-bit RISC[7]

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now