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Vic Gundotra Wasn’t Lyin’: Android 2.2’s Javascript Performance Smokes iOS4

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At Google I/O, we all laughed (some cried, depending on who you’re rooting for) and cheered when Vic Gundotra showed the Froyo-equipped Google Nexus One outshining Apple’s iPad in a browser javascript performance test between the two devices’ default browsers. Ars Technica took it upon themselves to give us more of a traditional look at how big of a leap Android 2.2 has over iOS4 in this department.

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Running SunSpider benchmarks, Android nearly halved the amount of time it took to execute the tests over the iPhone 4 running iOS4. As far as V8 goes? Android 2.2 on the Nexus more than quadrupled the results the iPhone managed to produce.  Tooting horns was never a huge pastime of mine, but I think it’s necessary to let out a big bowl of Vuvuzela for Android on this one.

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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24 Comments

  1. Wow this is just crazy… This is proof that Apple is slowly being kicked to the side in the technology department. With the launch of new Android devices weekly Apple will be left in the dark, that is what happens when you block content and keep people for doing as they please on their devices. For that reason and so many others is why people are going to leave their iphones for an open user freindly device powered by Android!

  2. After the World Cup is over, if I ever hear a vuvuzela again, it’ll be too soon.
    What other benchmarks can the two OS’s be compared with? We know 2.2 runs javascript well, and faster, and we can imagine that Flash runs a little better, but what else?

  3. Wow, I’d love to see a comparison between the Galaxy S and the IPhone 4, as the Galaxy S is even faster than the Nexus.

  4. @Mark Ummm… Imagine that Flash runs a little better? How about Android runs Flash and the iPhone doesn’t and never will. OK that takes care of that. Other benchmarks would be system benchmarks that actually test the I/O and processor, memory, GPU, etc… Unfortunately there is no cross-platform tool like that that I know of.

  5. @Mark – for more benchmarks check this out: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/12

  6. Yet another reason for the iPhone fan-club to put a sock in it.

  7. @craig, slowly is an understatement when some of the android midrange devices will give the iphone that by year’s end!

  8. Wow, Apple will soon be on its knees crying like a bitch because of this.

    Java is the holy grail, like flash was.

    Look at how many people just dumped the iphone and the ipad after Apple said they ‘no flash for us’. The lines of people waiting for android phones were massive that day I can tell you.

    Bye bye Apple, take all of your R&D and design work with you as well, because no one wants it. Google rules, yay.

  9. Such differences shatter my mind to buy the iPhone 4 as my next smartphone. I am still confused which will be better for me : android or iPhone…

  10. Who owns adobe???? Oh ya that’s right

  11. I can’t wait for HTC to get their act together and deliver Froyo to my Evo.

    That said… those of you that think that Apple is going to take this lightly or that they aren’t furiously improving their browsing software at this very moment are kidding themselves.

    Just think, the V8 improvements in Chrome heralded new browsing speeds, but only months later, IE8, Firefox, and Safari all incorporated similar algorithms that brought the browsing speeds right up to Chrome. This kind of supremacy doesn’t last too long.

  12. @geek It’s really kind of a no brainer. Apple comes out with a new Iphone every year or so, but new android devices are coming out all the time. If you consider how much time they’ve been in the market overall, Android has been growing and improving at a rate that Apple cannot hope to match.

  13. @geek- Anyone actually confused about whether Android is better then ios4 should just stick to an iphone with the rest of the sheep.

  14. @NeoteriX
    Which is good. Because when the pack catches up to the leader, they have to nce again make an effort to get ahead of the pack. :) all for the benefit of the customer.

    And, as far as Im concerned, javascript isnt in any way a dealbreaker/maker… At least not when its a case of loading something a fraction of a second faster. But sure, it looks good on benchmarks. :)

  15. What IPhone ?

    ;)

  16. @everyone that replied to geek. I believe he’s just trying to advertise his website on the sly (his name has a link), not actually waffling on what phone to get…

  17. @Ulvhamne These benchmarks are not about loading times for pages….not directly. They are about running Javascript. Its whats responsible for many of the features you see on a site like Facebook. The faster your browser can run javascript the more “richer” the experience on websites can be without Flash. You know those fancy magazine style apps on iPad? Well that can be done with plain websites on Android using HTML 5 and Javascript. It will also be at the heart of many HTML 5 based games that are about to start popping up along with the types of HTML 5 apps Google will sell in its store. Google is setting Android up to give an excellent web browsing experience for the new web.

    In fact its about time we start actually comparing the platforms the same way we compare browsers on computers. The iPhone crowd has been all concerned with load times and how smooth it scrolls. Load times are going to be dependent on your connection. Scrolling is smooth on both platforms now. But what about when it comes to actually using the functions on the website? I guess iPhone users will stick to simply viewing sites while Android users will get into interacting with them.

  18. flash+ faster javascript + a more capable html5 = better web apps and less need for native apps

  19. We can gather 2 things form all the benchmarks linked on this page: 1) Android may end up putting Apple’s precious mobile department out of business. 2) Droid Incredible is a TERRIBLE smartphone (must be underclocked to 500MHz or Snapdragon is just really that bad).

  20. iPhone4: needs a rubber band and 4x slower than a phone released in January.

  21. I’m sorry but this would be in the I don’t give a shit section to your average iPhone user.

    Why call them sheep when Android users are doing the same thing?

  22. Heh, I’ve been thinking whether to go with iPhone4 or Android the next time I upgrade my phone. My lady just bought an HTC Desire and I must say that I was really impressed by the speed of that little beauty.. :D

    Though, I think these tests settles my dilema at least. :)

  23. @icedemon

    why call them sheep you ask? well because there is one huge difference between the android and apple community? the apple community will take the newest iphone just because its an iphone, but the android community is full of more tech savy people who do their research; if a phone sucks or doesn’t do what we want it too we wont get it just cause its labeled as a good phone. i’m not saying that there aren’t tech savy people that use apple but just far less. the iphone is the 1st smart phone for dumb phone people so they cling to it

  24. @ChrisP
    …wut?
    You know the N1 has a snapdragon too, right?

    and @ Zac – what does adobe have to do with *this* test? (and who DOES own them..?)

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