Till a couple of months back, quad-core processors were found only in flagship smartphones. Now, even sub-Rs 10,000 Android phones claim to have to the super chip and quad-core phones are available at all price points going up to Rs 49,490. But will all these phones offer a similar experience for the user?
UNDERSTANDING THE QUAD-COREIt was in 2010 that the first smartphone with a dual-core processor was announced. The following year, smartphones powered by quad-core chipsets made their way to the market.
With smartphones becoming mini-computers, the multiple cores were touted as an unavoidable feature for power users. Technically, on a quadcore powered Android, the screen resolution should look sharper, streaming HD video should be smoother, loading photos and apps should be faster and heavy graphic multiplayer gaming should be flawless.
While all the smartphones on quad-core chips will be fast, the performance need not be the same as there are a lot of factors that come into play from the quad-core chipsets themselves to RAM, version of the operating system and user interface.
TEST DEVICESWe selected three smartphones powered by quad-core chipsets to measure the difference in performance.
ZEN ULTRAFONE 701
Technically, we should have opted for phones from the same brand, running the same operating system and user interface and with the same clock speed, but there isn't any brand with quad-core devices at different price points.
Hence, our picks are Zen Ultrafone 701, LG Nexus 4 and the HTC One. All three belong to different price segments, but are powered by quad-core processors, though of various clock speeds.
ZEN ULTRAFONE 701 Rs 10,000
LG NEXUS 4
SPECS: 5-inch display, 8 MP auto focus camera; 1.2GHz quad-core processor; 1GB RAM; 4GB storage expandable up to 32 GB; Android v4.2; 2000 mAh battery
LG NEXUS 4Rs 25,999
SPECS: 4.7-inch display; 8 MP auto focus camera; 1.5GHz quad-core processor; 2GB RAM; 16GB storage with no expandable memory; Android v4.2; 2100 mAh battery
HTC ONE
Rs 41,500
SPECS: 4.7-inch display; 4MP ultra pixel camera; 1.7GHz quad core processor; 2GB RAM; 32 GB internal storage; no expandable memory; Android v4.1; 2300 mAh battery
TESTING TIMESWEB BROWSING TESTAlong with the Chrome browser, we also downloaded Dolphin and Firefox browsers to test how much time each phone took to load the same web pages. (Site visited: www.businesstoday.intoday.in)
POWER ONUsing the same SIM card, we monitored the power on time on all smartphones.
CAMERANormally, we think that phones don't take much time in capturing a single image. But there is a difference if you time them. We also tried using the phones on continuous shooting mode for 10 seconds.
USAGEWe used a sample file of 1.5 MB to send it in form of an email from the phone. The results were quite similar.
VIDEO RENDERINGPlaying Full HD videos puts the processors to the optimum use. We streamed two Full HD videos from YouTube. The Zen phone failed miserably.
APPS & GAMESThe best way to learn about the phone's processing power is to use heavy graphic games and apps.
RESULTSOverall, HTC One outshined in most of the departments. The Nexus 4 came very close in terms of the performance. While the Zen Ultrafone 701 did a decent job, it took some extra time to load web pages and failed to stream full HD video.
SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKOther than real time testing, it is the Synthetic Benchmarks that determines the performance of these smartphones. We ran four different tests on all the three phones. HTC One emerged as a clear winner.
VERDICTAll the three phones are powerful, but the HTC One was ahead on most counts in both real-time testing and synthetic benchmarks. While there is a noticeable difference in the results of the synthetic benchmarks between the HTC One and the Nexus 4, there isn't much on the usage front. But the difference between the Zen Ultrafone 701 and HTC One is huge.
Before labeling the HTC One as the winner, we would like to point out that there is a huge difference in the overall price of all devices. While HTC One wins, it is approximately Rs 30,000 expensive than the Zen Ultrafone 701. The Zen Ultrafone 701 and the Nexus 4 are still great performers.
