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Poll: Are You Buying a Nexus Prime if it Doesn’t Have Exynos?

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Much has been made about processor inside phones. Many of you choose your phones based on that fact alone. I know there was a big scare for the Galaxy S II units in America – if it didn’t have Exynos, you didn’t want it. (We won’t even refer to the comments made about T-Mobile’s variant.)

There’s a good chance the Nexus Prime won’t have it, though, and we want to know if it will deter you? With any dual-core processor stock Android runs extremely fast, but are you one of those types who want sheer power above all? Or do you just want what looks to be an insanely awesome phone no matter what’s inside? Vote below and leave further thoughts in the comments section!

[polldaddy poll=5577889]

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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118 Comments

  1. If it’s an OMAP 4460, I would be more than happy.

    I would be even happier if they somehow put an OMAP 4470 in it :D

    1. Agreed, anything under that ill have to take a pass.

    2. KAL-EL makes me happy ;)

      1. I don’t see a dual core Kal-El going into a phone until we have seen a quad core Kal-El in a tablet.

        1. All Tegra Kal-els will be a 4+1 core design. Weighted companion core!

          1. Is anyone else tempted to immediately type cube after companion instead of core?

          2. HA HA, yep!

  2. It lacks third option: I don’t plan to buy it either way.

  3. okay thats stupid why the hell they use omap procceors heelo there is a very good one called tegra that has great games too waky waky sammy and ill buy if if it doesnot has on screen touch keys i want them the old way damn it :D

    1. Because the Tegra 2 is old and crap.

      1. Indeed, the Tegra 2 is a piece of shit

        1. lol thats why they made the galaxy R ha people want tegra 2 hello its the only proc that has its own games and from great company loland what do u guyz think of the on screen buttons i hate them the captataive buttons are way better

          1. Tegra2 was a failure SoC. It was made for 2010, not anything beyond. It doesn’t even have NEON support which severely hinders it. Sure some games are optimized for it, like 8 games. The fact that an old SGX540 gpu is nearly comparable with the Tegra2 is very insulting from Nvidia.

          2. okay i admit that tegra is old but its not thats bad it just needs a bit higher clock and it ill be great and hello guyz whatd do u think of the buttons thing

          3. Actually the SGX540 is better than the GeForceULP, in power it’s almost identical, but the SGX540 got a lot better extensions and such.

      2. At least they updated the Tegra 2 though. Latest ones are 1.2Ghz instead of 1Gzh and they can now play 1080P video, when the original could only play 720P video.

  4. 4212 Exynos or bust.

    1. My thoughts exactly. No OMAP 4460 with a year old GPU in it, Samsung is better than that. Besides, the 32nm architecture makes the 4212 the best option which would push the Nexus Prime above all contenders in battery performance in theory.

    2. Being a Nexus man for two years I know that like an iPhone the processors in the Nexus matter but not as much as in a bloatware/skinned phones do.

      The fact that the Nexus S is smoother then almost every current dual core suggest that even a dual core Nexus Prime would compete against quad core phones(unless they stop skinning them).

      1. Seriously, for everyday use my Nexus S runs circles around my friends Bionic.(He experiences lag on a daily basis.) Stock Android FTW!

        1. Love reading these positive Nexus S comments. All the news ever reports is issues with it. Now I’m doubly excited for the next Nexus! :)

      2. Yep. I actually underclock my Nexus S to 880mhz using Morfic’s excellent TEUV kernel (for better battery life) and it still runs smoother than most dual core phones out there. The only dual core phone released this year I would even consider as a replacement for the Nexus S is the Galaxy S2. Atrix, Bionic, Revolution etc. all pale in comparison to the Nexus S in both smoothness/performance, styling, screen quality, and access to timely updates.

        I’m ready for the Prime though.

  5. I know Sammy won’t let us down no matter the processor in there…

    Now, if there is not a hardware keyboard option, on the other hand, that will keep me away. I needs my precious qwerty!

    1. It’s not about sammy, it’s what about Google wants… if they want exynos it will be exynos if they want omap, omap it is :)

      For me it doesn’t matter, as long as it is faster then my SGS2 (with 1.2Ghz exynos), and it’s not a Tegra2, or in other words, will play 720p/1080p well :D

  6. Personally, if I was in the market for a new phone, I would be fine with it having exynos, OMAP, or snapdragon. Pretty much, I’d get it with anything BUT tegra 2 :D

  7. Wrong question, I will only buy it if it doesn’t have the Exynos.

    1. Why on earth would you NOT want it to have exnynos. The only reason can be that it doesn’t support LTE on Verizon or 4g on Tmob/Att

      1. Who cares about LTE anyway?
        It’s not like we have any 4G in Norway (at least for phones).
        I hate it because of the graphics chip inside.

  8. I don’t think people should be making a huge deal out of the type of processor used. Here’s why:

    A year and a half ago when the US Samsung Galaxy S were just coming out, much was made about the ‘Hummingbird’ CPU. How awesome it was. How it bests comparable-clocked Snapdragons, especially with video and gaming functions. How overall better it was…

    What ended up happening was that the phones shipped with Eclair, a version of Android that didn’t have optimizations for the Hummingbird baked in just yet. A lot of those GS models waited a long time for Froyo, which improved the experience but didn’t really do THAT much. It wasn’t really until the international version got GB, and several leaks of GB builds came out for the US models, and then finally CM was made for them, did they really start to see processor optimizations for the Hummingbird. By this time, the device was already a year old, and Snapdragon devices, which got full optimizations in Eclair/Froyo, performed better in real life.

    Bottom line is, whatever CPU type that Samsung and more importantly Google decided to fit this thing with is good enough for me, because it means that it is being chosen as the lead development platform for Android going forward at least for the time being, and the software will be optimized for it.

  9. My nexus one is running fast enough on CM 7.1 and without any overclocking. Question is will they do something about battery life.

  10. screw the processor I WANT IT NOW !!

    1. *pokes head out the window* IT’S MY PHONE AND I WANT IT NOW!

      1. I hate that commercial, but I liked your comment.

        1. The Opera one is much worse….
          “Call JG Wentworth at 877 cash NOOOOOOWWW”

          1. Effective commercial though… you remembered it!

          2. Not effective if you hate the commercial so much that it reminds you to NEVER buy the product. I think a lot of advertising misses that key point.

  11. I’m happy with TI OMAP Chips, which are known for stellar battery life next to its major competitor Qualcomm. But honestly just give me NEXUS PRIME DETAILS ALREADY.

  12. I’ll be happy if it’s OMAP 4460.

  13. Pure Google experience is more important to me than specific CPU – as long as it’s competitive with what’s under the hood on other high-end handsets.

    1. me too. I’m dreaming on a wish and a prayer that it ends up being the TI OMAP 4470!

      1. But why? Exynos is soo much better…

  14. As long as it’s 100% backed up by google, all I want is the next Nexus :)

    I would like to see every possible audio and video codec implemented with encoding and decoding by hardware (CPU DSP) so other than this, it would be nice to have low power consumption and that’s it.

  15. If it’s Exynos or TI OMAP, then I’ll be very pleased, mostly for the GPUs that come with them. The Adreno GPUs that come with the Snapdragons are considerably behind the the SGX 540/543s that are in the Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S and the Tegra platform seems to be having hardware issues in some phones while still being out-performed by the SGX line.

    1. The Exynos has a Mali 400 GPU. Apple’s A5 has to have a dual-GPU config in order to post those high benchmarks. The Tegra 2 is a 2010 chip. I have eyes on the Tegra Kal-el… that looks like it will be the king of the SOC hill this year.

      The OMAP 4470 will pack a SGX544 but even that will lag behind the Tegra, Exynos, and A5 if it’s in a single-GPU config instead of an MP2 or MP4.

      An SGX540 is kinda pathetic for a flagship device.

  16. Surely the point is that like previous versions of Android, ICS has a reference hardware that it is fully optimized for. For Honeycomb it was Tegra 2, and I gather for ICS it’s OMAP4? If you read the anandtech article about the iPhone 4S and how it easily beats the SGS2 in benchmark tests despite being underclocked to 800Mhz, then you realise that hardware and software being optimized together with hardware accelerated graphics has much more of a performance increase than just a processors clock speed.

    1. actually the iphone 4s only beats the sgsII because of the monster GPU. (i mean graphics tests). maybe tegra3 Geforce and whatever GPU they put on the new exynos is going to be a better match…
      i do want a great GPU but for now it doesn’t matter much, it’s going to be at least 12 or 18 months before mobile games require A5-level graphics…

      1. or never… I don’t even like 3d games on computer these days…

        1. agreed, i still think the best mobile games i’ve played are “cut the rope” and “steam birds”, both 2d games.
          the thing i like about exynos (and hummingbird before it) is they decode a High Profile 720/1080p MKV like it’s nothing, sadly some MKVs i have use some audio codec samsung doesn’t use…

          1. thats because you have an android..rage hd is way better than cut the rope

          2. i do own an ipod touch 4th gen so it’s not the platform limiting me, just my taste, i don’t like to walk an aim covering 40% of the screen so i don’t really like mobile FPSs… i’m thinking of getting an xperia play soon seeing as they are dropping in price, maybe then i’ll give FPSs another shot

      2. I think the A5 excels only on some type of graphics performance, like games optimized for pixel shaders. I think Nvidia’s chips are more optimized for vertex shaders and physics. This is why you should always take benchmarks with a grain of salt, or at least understand what the benchmarks really mean.

        For example that JS test for iPhone 4S compared to GS2 doesn’t mean the iPhone 4S “CPU” is 50% faster than Exynos (more like the other way around), but it did mean the iPhone 4S has a brand new JS engine, while the stock Android one is at least 1 year old (could be the same one that was in Froyo), which is why GS2 scores 1300-1600 with Firefox and Opera Mobile for the same JS test.

        So if you’re going to believe benchmarks, at least understand what the benchmark is testing in the first place (this goes for everyone).

        1. informative reply, thanks, but i do remember that google has been updating the JS engine since Froyo (when they introduced V8), maybe they were just minor upgrades and not a brand new engine… or maybe it was honeycomb they were updating… a little 2.3/3.2 confusion haha

      3. On Sunspider, I’m getting ~2500 on my (ahem) slightly modded Epic II when running Dolphin. Just sayin, the monster GPU isn’t all that monster. It’s all in the software and settings.

  17. Yes I will buy it, you can’t go wrong with a Nexus. :)

    1. No you can not.

  18. Vanilla Android is one of the biggest factors I’ve wanted in my next device, so that’s the main reason. Also, since TI and Google teamed up early for ICS, maybe there will be some plus to running their processor.

  19. I’m sad enough that the iPhone 4S has Siri. And that it has a PowerVR SGX 543MP2. That’s faster than the current Exynos.

    If the Nexus has a GPU slower than the Mali 400 MP4 in the Samsung, then all my iOS fan friends will be laughing at me all day!!! And we would all face a draconian future…

    1. how old are your friends 7?

      1. You have no idea… they like teasing me because I like Android. And the funny thing is that they try to argue that iOS is better (with “facts”!)

        All I maintain is that Android is as good as iOS. It gives choice. But in this case, it does not have a alternative to iOS (graphically). And so it has been a letdown.

        I’m an Android fan to be sure, but I wish the Prime, Android’s flagship, could have something more…

        Wouldn’t you agree?

    2. You can laugh at them because their processor is able to scroll very quickly through rows and rows of icons. I could put 2gb of RAM in a calculator, but it’s still just a calculator.

    3. Then you say “whatever because with all that power your phone can’t even run widgets but mine can without losing any battery life”.

      Many iOS fanboys would have everyone believe that iOS doesn’t have widgets because it kills your battery life.

    4. Also when their iPads and iPods are out of range of a WiFi connection you just turn on your free tethering(without rooting/jailbreaking), that’s how I do it.

      ^_^

      Even with jailbreaking AT&T is cracking down on iPhone users who are trying to tether for free.

      1. How do you have free tethering without rooting?

        1. The Nexus One/Nexus S on AT&T and T-mobile in the U.S. are the only Android phones that have free tethering. I don’t know how Google gets away with it but they do. Now the Nexus S sold in Sprint stores does charge for it so a Nexus Prime in Verizon stores would also, that is why I’m getting a AT&T/T-mobile Nexus Prime.

          1. Ah. When people talked about tethering I figured they just weren’t using it and simply assumed it was free. I wish I could get away with it without rooting

  20. You shouldn’t have added that extra bit about the processor not mattering as long as it’s dual-core. It does matter. If it had a Tegra 2, I wouldn’t buy it. The OMAP, however, is a great chip. I almost didn’t want to vote yes because of that extra crap you threw on there. I’ve decided that all the ‘news’ sites need to steer away from their sensationalism and just report the news (unless they’re clearly posting an editorial) or ask straight-up questions instead of very skewed and misleading questions. I hope someone from the site reads this. It will make your site more appealing to the masses.

    1. The extra bit about “… as long as it’s dual core” might be a bit presumptuous, but sensational? I don’t think that was his intention.

      1. I don’t want to put words in his mouth but I *think* “sensational” is not the word he’s looking for. I believe he’s referring to the way articles such as this (and this can be said across the media board) tend to have very poorly worded choices in polls. Giving only TWO choices for one is pretty bad off the start and the wording is horrendous and creates a large amount of bias in the results. You might as well not even have a poll if you’re going to do it like this.

  21. Droid Razr is the one

  22. At this point the chip could be a f@#%ing Dorito and I’d still buy it. Just release the phone already.

    1. LMAO, me too.

    2. That is the same thought process as crApple fans. If Apple released a tampon as a phone, then 25M people in this country would be walking around with a tampon hanging from their ear because Apple said so.

      :-)

      1. Google gets it and provides the best “Android” experience. I always see my phone choices as the Nexus, iPhone, or a Nokia made WP7. I’m pretty sure it is going to be the Nexus again, 4 “Google” phones in a row and counting.

      2. Theres a difference. Gawkers knows hes buying a dorita. Apple fans are in delusion that it’s not a tampon.

        1. I agree. After re-reading my post, it made it seem more like a jab at Gawker. That was not the intent. It is all about that iPhone video. Apple fans don’t care what it is. If it is new from Apple, they have to buy it.

      3. bwahahaha

      4. Thanks for my morning laugh. I needed it.

      5. HAHAHAHAHA…….. EPIC +1

    3. then i guess this makes you an idiot

      1. Am I an idiot for making a joke or are you an idiot for thinking someone would buy a phone that has a Dorito as a processor?

        Hmm…

        *Jedi Mind Trick* You don’t want to be a troll. You want to go home and rethink your life.

  23. I like ICS but not the Samsung build quality and any dual core doesn’t matter specially if it’s optimazed.

  24. the only way i’d buy this other than a Exynos is and omap 4470 at 1.3 min or a tegra 3 but considering i cannot see either happening, Exynos 4212 or i’d have to pass

  25. A small difference in processor doesn’t matter so much at this point. Verizon getting an exclusive and it not coming out on all carriers at the same time, that’s what matters.

  26. Can everyone please stop with this “Verizon Exclusive” BS Last time i check the phone went threw FCC GSM HSDPA+ NO CDMA Flavor insight!!!!

    1. I think the Verizon one had a different model number like SCSxxx or something and the GSM was i9250. My GSM Nexus S is i9020.

      1. Understandable, but when i opened my Nexus S in Dec it had T-Mobile information. Just like they keep calling it the “Nexus Prime” clearly Yesterday Picture that were taken by the alleged Device were listed as “Galaxy Nexus”… My money being put on it being a unlocked Penta-Band HSDPA+ Device (FCC) … Not to say Verizon/Sprint won’t get it .. but why back yourself in a corner By making it exclusive to Verizon … This isn’t a iPhone

        1. I hope it is Penta-Band just in case the AT&T-mobile deal does go through.

      2. Verizon: SCH-i515
        Everyone Else: gt-i9250

    2. Also the Nexus Prime could be a carrier exclusive(Verizon) but could still be sold unlocked for T-mobile and AT&T on day one.

      The Nexus One and Nexus S were sold unlocked and were not T-mobile exclusives because then they would have been sold in T-mobile stores.

      1. If its sold unlocked does it still get the updates as soon as they are released.

        1. It gets them even faster!

          Most phones have to follow 4 steps to get an update:
          1. Google makes it
          2. Your phone manufacturer checks it
          3. Your carrier checks it
          4. Then you get it

          A Nexus sold in your carrier’s stores “might” follow 3 steps:
          1. Google makes it
          2. Your carrier checks it
          3. You get it

          An unlocked Nexus follows 2 steps:
          1. Google makes it
          2. You get it

          I hope this helps. ^_^

  27. OMAP 4460 has the same GPU as Nexus S. Enough said.

    1. I haven’t read the specifics of it, but surely it’s a bit higher clocked 540 than the older ones? If not, just wow.

  28. I will be sad but of course I will. The phone itself will be optimized to run all together. So no matter what it has inside it’ll do just fine. Its not just some phone and has a random OS on it.

  29. It’s awful to see the results of this post, it clearly shows people don’t have a clue and only think that dual core matters. There was a time on PCs where MHZ didn’t matter anymore like it is today. You have to pay attention to the finer details to really determine if you’re getting an upgrade or not. Tegra2 is a perfect example, it being barely better than the SGX540 in the original Nexus S and many other phones. If the Prime only has an OMAP 4430/4460 and a higher clocked sgx540 that’s not even close to a jump in performance whereas the Iphone4->Iphone4S is like a 6x-9x jump in GPU performance. I understand the reasoning behing using the different SoC’s on carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile (See Samsung Galaxy S2) but I really want a worthy upgrade if I’m already planning on upgrading over only a 1 Year’s time.

  30. My two main deciding factors are …
    1) Battery Life. Must last a whole day (18 hours).
    2) Depends on what Ice Cream Sandwich brings to the table. As of now, there is nothing really appealing to make me want to upgrade my phone. The USB device support is nice, allowing me to use my phone as a set top box game console. I am also hoping we get some sort of GoogleTV user interface for when we connect our phones to our TV’s. If not, I really see no reason to upgrade.

  31. In all honesty, I don’t care what cpu/gpu it comes packed with as long as the performance is up to par with the competition. The galaxy s2 set the standard. Anything less than that would be a shame. As for stock android running better, play with the galaxy s2, that runs smoother than any stock device I have ever had. if it has the power than it will run smooth stock or not. omap, exynos, or a clocked up version of tegra2 would be great. The tegra2 chips have proven to be great chips, and we have yet to see the other 1.2-1.5ghz versions nvidia was talking about earlier this year.

  32. It must have the new 32nm Samsung Exynos chip or I will rather wait for the Galaxy S III.

    Exynos in the Galaxy S II is so much superior to anything like TI Omap 4, Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core or Nvidia Tegra 2

  33. I’m sorry, but most if not all of the people here complaining that if it doesn’t have an Exynos chip won’t buy this phone either don’t read technical reviews or are blinded by this perceived notion that Exynos is a better CPU. Until Mali can prove itself being a great gpu contender to the powervr chips, nothing beats an omap 4460 or 4470 for that matter. Read some Anandtech before you make an opinion about something some of you have no idea about. And if you do like the Exynos chip so much, just buy a sprint or at&t gsII variant and be done with it.

  34. This phone looks like cutting edge in design and if it doesn’t have cutting edge internals (whatever is the best at the time (4212, Tegra 3 OMAP 4470 etc.), it would be a disappointment. It’s like making a Ferrari and putting in a 4 cylinder 200hp engine. It just doesn’t make sense.

  35. Way more important than the processor: Will Google handle software updates, or will we be stuck with Samsung’s slow, excruciating updates.

    1. It’s vanilla Android so updates come straight from Google OTA.

  36. I think it’s safe to say that it’s either the new exynos or omap4460. Both are great SoC’s but it definitely prefer the exynos.

    As long as it’s one of those two chipsets I’ll be buying the prime. I’m more excited about the amoled hd screen and pure google ICS than the processor though.

    1. I think we all agree that we would love to see the 4212 not just for the speed, but more importantly for the battery performance, which is currently getting worse in current phones.

  37. Anyone hoping for Exnyos is going to be disappointed. At least, that’s my bet.

  38. The Exynos has now achieved ledgendary status. From what I hear, the TI processor is the perfect match for ICS and I believe it. 1.2Ghz is a little disappointing for bragging rights, but I’m sure it’ll be more than enough power until the next Nexus comes out.

  39. SCROW YOU SAMSUNG/GOOGE, I got money SO TAKE MY GOD DAMN MONEY AND GIVE ME MY PRIME!

  40. right now i have the droid x. don’t get me wrong,its a good phone,and still works great,even though i’ve had it for more than a year and a half (i think).so much so that i’ve had an upgrade available for about 4 months and haven’t used it.but i’m at a point now where i just cant go on having a phone that’s not dual core,and i really don’t care what kind of processor it has

  41. I don’t care as I never really use any GPU-intensive apps such as games.

    In fact, I don’t care how many cores a cpu has as long as the phone is snappy, has a 5 row keyboard, and has a good screen (ie, not pentile)

  42. If it’s a Nexus, i.e. get’s latest android updates first
    Then I will get it most likely.

    I just want the latest android experience, a front facing camera, bigger storage for apps and faster processor. If my Nexus1 could get all that, I would wait for the next Nexus device, but my N1 can’t so I am getting this one probably.

    also:
    batterylife > slight proccessor performance increases

  43. I don’t care. I just want ICS on a Pure Google Phone.

  44. I dont care what the chip is as long as it is fast and has good battery life. It could be a gerbil for all I care as long as it runs smoothly and gives good battery life. a 32nm architecture would be nice as that would probably give better battery life. But rumors have pointed that ICS will be optimized for OMAP, so if OMAP runs quickly on it and give good battery life on it than that will be great.

  45. As much as I love the Exynos processors, it comes down to one thing for me. Did they optimize the software to work very efficiently with the hardware. If my phone runs buttery smooth I am not too worried about the specific cpu that is in it. I would however still like to see an Exynos in it since I know that sucker is good!

  46. If I don’t get Exynos, then I get an Epic 4g Touch, it’s that simple.

  47. I just got the Samsung galaxy’s 2 from tmobile in I can tell u that the 1.5 snapdragon processer is blazin fast. Trust me u won’t be disapointed if this is in the nexus prime.

  48. I voted “Yes” on the poll so that any Samsung or Google rep who takes a quick look won’t think “HEY it’s not a big deal.” Because it is something of a deal.

    Otherwise, I put far more weight on good integration and efficiency than specsomg. My e-p33n can handle it.

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