The Most Powerful Smart Phones

Innovations from TI and chipmaker Qualcomm, among others, have given speed-hungry consumers plenty of options. Most phone processors have speeds of 300 to 620 megahertz. These days, there are dozens of smart phones at the upper end of that range (512 and 624 megahertz).

 Several phones, such as the Asus 565, Samsung Jet and Toshiba TG01, are even faster, clocking in at 800 megahertz or, in the case of the TG01, one gigahertz, making them more powerful than early computers. In fact, some of the fastest phone processors, like Qualcomm’s one-gigahertz Snapdragon, are also being used to power lightweight netbooks or smartbooks.

Processors aren’t the only measure of a phone’s speed. Memory plays a part by allowing for the buffering and storage of information. This affects a phone’s speed by enabling it to quickly return to what you were doing after it has fallen “asleep” or by buffering ahead streaming video to cut down on “lag” during viewing.

“Speed is one thing, but if the phone’s memory is underpowered, the applications and software will start caching, and whatever you’re trying to do will take forever,” says iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco.

Software plays a part, too. Apple’s iPhone, for instance, is widely considered to be a “fast phone,” but its processor (600 megahertz) isn’t extraordinary. Still, the device excels in launching applications, loading Web pages and booting up quickly. “People make judgments based on: ‘Does the software get bogged down? When I flick something, is the action smooth?” Sideco says.

Indeed, different phones are fast at different things, making speed comparisons between devices difficult. BlackBerrys are standouts with productivity applications; the iPhone shines on the Internet; the Palm Pre is known for multitasking between various applications, and the Samsung Omnia HD is a high-performance multimedia device.

 “It’s not just about raw processing power, like in PCs,” says In-Stat analyst Jim McGregor. “These are very complex system-on-chips.”

ABI analyst Jeff Orr says a phone’s display should be considered, as well. A large display is easier to read and interact with, potentially speeding up the time users need to complete tasks on their phones, he notes.

Then there’s the network. Even the best-designed phone will falter on a sluggish network when accessing applications that rely on the Internet.

Battery capacity also enters the equation because powerful processors tend to drain batteries quickly and a speedy phone is useless if it’s dead. To compensate, companies like TI work with phone makers to make their systems as efficient as possible. “Power is everything,” El-Ouazzane says. “Every milliamp needs to be chased after.”

Boosting phone speed may be tricky, but phone manufacturers aren’t giving up. When Samsung introduced its Jet smart phone in June, it spent plenty of time talking up the device’s 800-megahertz processor.

The company still views the fast processor–a product of one of its sister companies–as an advantage. “Consumers notice when the things they want to do on their devices, like Web browsing and video playback, work better and faster,” says Omar Khan, senior vice president of Samsung Mobile. “People are getting educated to the speed of devices.”

Even LG, which prefers not to focus on “simple clockspeed,” plans to introduce phones with one-gigahertz processors as early as the end of the year, says Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG’s mobile unit.

The company’s current smart phones, such as the Arena and the latest Chocolate handset, have processors that run 500 to 800 megahertz.

Silicon providers say processors–and, consequently, phones–will only get faster. Qualcomm says several new smart phones based on its one-gigahertz Snapdragon chipset will launch before the end of the year. They will join the Toshiba TG01, which was unveiled in February, but is only available in Europe and Japan.

Ref: http:forbes