By A Verizon insider over at HowardForums has been revealing some very interesting information regarding the upcoming Motorola Shadow. First off, as our sources have told us and as I asserted in my previous discussion of the Shadow’s benchmark results, the phone is at least currently being tested with Android 2.1 (if you go back to the benchmark results, you’ll see that this is pretty impressive considering it beats out the Samsung Galaxy S). Whether it comes to market with Froyo is a different story entirely.
When asked about the high scoring benchmarks of the Shadow and which version of the OS it was running, user bill23 responded, “Its not on froyo.” Perhaps the more interesting reveal he gives is concerning how Motoblur is implemented on the Shadow:
I move silent like a “Ninja” and strike in a” Blur” of speed.
Ninja Blur is Blur running without the user knowing. For those who don’t like Blur.
That is some good news for those who would rather not deal with the Motoblur interface, but why exactly you’d still want running in the background is beyond me. Can’t we just get this one without Blur altogether, please?
Oh, and in case you have a battery fetish, this is most likely the power cell that will be inside the Shadow. 1500 mAh. Couple that with a power-saving 45nm chip and you might just get some decent battery life out of this big boy.
[via HowardForums, AlienBabelTech]
IF that Quadrant benchmark was the Shadow running Android 2.1 I would be shocked. Hell I think a lot of people would be shocked. I have a hard time believing that an OMAP 3630 can outperform the OMAP 3430 by that great of a margin clock for clock.
motorola seems to find processors that just do better than they should
After the latest Quadrant update. It shows that the Shadow is indeed running Android 2.2 to receive the score it did in that benchmark. So my math and statements stand correct. The OMAP 3630 in the Shadow is identical in performance clock for clock to an OMAP 3430 found in the Moto Droid. The only differences are the ability to support a 12MP camera, HD video encode/decode and HDMI out. That and the fact that it is a 45nm part which will reduce heat and should improve battery life.
no…that is incorrect…shadow is running < 2.2 which is 2.1…this was confirmed by the moto insider…so the shadow is simply faster than the galaxy s
@sjavvaji I just ran it again and it is showing Shadow 2.2.
mm!it doesnt really surprise me!but one huge factor lot of user forget is this :yes you need the highest power possible BUT dont forget the battery life has to be the same or better.and some model like the htc 4g or the motorola shadow might not deliver battery life long enough to be deemed worth .it is very hard to strike a balance between max power for same batery life and thats is one huge thing most forget to test
test phone at max draw let it run till batery is out and then we can see witch is the clear winner in term of max power /max batery life.i bet samsung galaxy s has very big chance of being in the top 3 also motorola shadow maybe nexus one(all 2.2 of cuarse)
stupid effing comment was incomplete. I ran it and it is now showing Shadow < 2.2 but this weekend when I ran it I could have sworn it showed Shadow 2.2 just like the Nexus above it.
Dark, actually the latest quadrant shows the Shadow running “<2.2", not simple "2.2" meaning it is in fact running 2.1, sorry but your math is incorrect.
I am not saying that it isn’t possible for a stock Shadow to be faster than a stock Droid but the fact remains that the cores of both the 3430 and 3630 are nearly identical. The few things that differentiate them are the clock speed 550 Mhz vs 720 Mhz. Then there is the ability for HD compress/decompress on chip as well as 12MP camera support and HDMI out. Lastly is the 45nm shrink. Other than that after looking through the design and block diagrams there is nothing that jumps out showing this huge performance gap. We will have to wait and see but I still have my doubts.
Just found this to support things I have been saying.
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/TI-dieshrinks-OMAP3/
It is essentially a die shrink and T.I. claims 75% graphics performance. Knowing this I wonder how much of the Quadrant benchmark is based on the Graphics portion of it as opposed to the actual processing power of the SoC core. This would explain a lot of this mystery away. Time to talk to the folks that write the benchmark to find out!
@Darkseider, you said it yourself: heat. A part which generates less heat will be allowed to run faster.
2.1 on an unreleased device?
That seems pretty stupid.
The Blur interface is far more than a few social networking features and a new UI. It actually includes phone tracking, remote Wipe functionality, Contact management, among a couple other things. Then there is the Share integration with a few extra sources that stock android doesn’t include. So it is quite possible that when they removed the UI components they removed other aspects of the social networking, but they retained the tracking, remote wipe, and contact integration and that is what they are referring to as this lite version of Blur, so it’s not like it is still monitoring your friend feed just not displaying it anywhere on the phone.
@Steve, What are they supposed to develop with? Vaporware? Even if Google gave them a pre-released copy of Froyo, how much debugging can be done on a platform that hasn’t been completely developed, let alone debugged yet?
Thank you @Anthony, people just get WAY TO DISMISSIVE when it comes to Blur! I happen to like what Blur offers (yes I have a Moto Cliq).
Ninja Blur, lol that’s the funniest thing I have heard all week sounds like a superhero on cartoon network
The shadow must be running 2.2 because otherwise there is no way it could be better than galaxy s. Just look at the facts: omap3630 and hummingbird are both 45nm cortex A8 chips only that omap is clocked at 720mhz while the hummingbird is clocked at 1ghz. Also omap has sgx530 gpu while the hummingbird has a faster sgx540.
So their using Ninja pro let’s see how it works out for them. I’m hoping it does come with Froyo. But also I would like to see how the Moto Droid 2 compare to this, Nexus One, and the new iPhone
No one said the Shadow wasn’t being overclocked for the test.
My Droid with 2.1 and the CPU overclocked to 800 Mhz outperforms the Nexus One, so I find it difficult to believe that the Shadow on 2.2 couldn’t outperform the Nexus One on 2.2 or at least achieve marks much closer.
Aside from just the CPU there are a number of factors that can contribute to the benchmark numbers, like how optimized the ROM is, how much RAM the unit has, and what speed RAM it is to name only a few.
The only logic of it still having 2.1, would be an early release … otherwise it would be 2.2 to give it a chance in fighting the hype/expectations of the 4G EVO, and new iPhone
okay, so i was trying to decide if i should get the htc incredible. Or wait until the motorola shadow/xtreme/Xtreme or whatever comes out. because i have been reading some rumors about it coming with 2 snapdragon processors, altough that seems unnecessary. i was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.
Lol…. these comments are almost comical. You guys have no clue as to what is going on inside the Shadow. So nit pick clock speeds and so forth all you want it is not what gets you the best performance in the real world. As for it running Android 2.2 it is not, and that is a fact as I’ve seen the Shadow in action already and it has 2.1 on it. Fyi tho it will not release with 2.2 either just like the Droid 2 won’t release with 2.2 it will be an update not far down the line. Froyo is nowhere near ready for release yet on any new devices that will come out in the next couple of months.
@jesse Moto does not use Snapdragon chips so that info is incorrect. Personally tho I’d hold out before grabbing and Incredible that is for sure.
So no 2.2 eh? Dinc here I come!
So what has the rumored release date for the Shadow/Extreme? I am looking forward to the upgrade and think it will be worth waiting for; heard the Incredible’s case makes it vulnerable during drops whereas the Shadow’s case is solid.
The dual core Snapdragon that has been seen clocked up to 1.5gHz sounds tempting but the rootability of the Droid vs. the Incredible makes me feel like the Shadow/ Extreme would be the best choice for users of the nerdier persuasion (hand way up in the air over here!)