Slashdot Mirror
Nexus 5 With Android 4.4 and Snapdragon 800 Challenges Apple A7 In Benchmarks
MojoKid writes "One of the hallmark features of Google's Nexus 5 flagship smartphone by LG isn't its bodaciously big 5-inch HD display, its 8MP camera, or its "OK Google" voice commands. That has all been done before. What does stand out about the Nexus 5 is Google's new Android 4.4 Kit Kat OS and LG's SoC (System on Chip) processor of choice, namely Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 quad-core. Qualcomm is known for licensing ARM core technology and making it their own; and Qualcomm's latest Krait 400 quad-core along with the Adreno 330 GPU that comprise the Snapdragon 800, is a powerful beast. Google also has taken the scalpel to Kit Kat in all the right places, whittling down the overall footprint of the OS, so it's more efficient on lower-end devices and also offers faster multitasking. Specifically memory usage has been optimized in a number of areas. Couple these OS tweaks with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 and you end up with a smartphone that hugs the corners and lights 'em up on the straights. Putting the Nexus 5 through its paces, it turns out preliminary figures are promising. In fact, the Nexus 5 actually was able to surpass the iPhone 5s with Apple's 64-bit A7 processor in a few tests and goes toe to toe with it in gaming and graphics." Ars Technica has a similarly positive view of the hardware aspects of the phone, dinging it slightly for its camera but otherwise finding little to fault.
Of course, this excludes the fact that Android Apps are actually portable
Portable to what exactly?
and ultimately, when Google implements ART instead of Dalvik, Android will be significantly more competitive in performance (these benchmarks don't test the hardware exclusively, but the software environment also).
Ah yes, the classic Fandroid response of "Just around the corner it's gonna get better!!!"
We can also install other Android builds easily on the Nexus phones, and so are able to do things, which are impossible on Apple (without risking completely messing up the phone on upgrades, such as screen recording).
99% of Android users don't install other ROMs on their phone.
Long term, Android is a better solution, and is is a more open environment,
It's only "open" when you ignore all the proprietary software, the fact that it's basically developed behind close doors by Google and that to get any visibility you have to go through Google Play which has many the same terms as the Apple App Store.
is less hostile to develop for
You can't afford $99? For any decent programmer that's not even 3 hours of pay.
such as getting cut by the broken glass backing of their iPhone
Then maybe they should have gotten their phone replaced or put it in a case? How is it Apple's fault that someone drops their phone and is dumb enough to cut themselves on the glass?