MOBILE PROCESSORS: THINGS TO KNOW AND CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING A MOBILE DEVICE

In this post, I am going to explain you every relevant thing about processors in mobile phones. I am going to give a brief description about the heart and brain of your cell phones and more importantly, the specs to consider while getting a new cellphone. So, without any furthur ado, let's get started. 

SYSTEM ON A CHIP(SoC):

A system on a chip is an intefrated circuit(IC) containing CPU, GPU, Memory blocks etc. This is basically a single chip which contains all the parts of a mobile processor and is enough a run a phone. 

CPU:ARM HOLDINGS

ARM Holdings was one of the first companies to 32-bit instruction set architecture. Now it does not produce it's own SoCs but provides licences to other companies to use their architecture to build an SoC. They have the option to either fully copy their architecture or to produce custom chips based on their architecture. Companies like Samsung and Texas Instrumentation OMAP(TI-OMAP) copy the ARM architecture whereas companies like Qualcomm build a custom chip by using the ARM architecture code.

ARM periodically releases updates to its core architecture, the most used is the ARMv7 and the new ARMv8. 

These architectures contain a family of different processors like ARMv7 contains: 

• Cortex-A5, A7, A8, A9, A12, A15( HIGHER IS BETTER)
• Scorpian
• Krait

GPU:

Unlike CPUs, GPUs are made by different companies with different architecture giving the the cellphone companies a choice of putting different GPUs according to the price and different aspects.

Some common GPUs are:

• ARM MALI SERIES: This is quite popular, the MALI 400 being the most popular of the lot.
• QUALCOMM ADRENO: This is another very popular series of GPUs and Adreno 320 being seen in the XPERIA Z and the HTC ONE and the LTE varient of GALAXY S4.
• IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES POWERVR: These GPUs have recently been made popular by the budget dual core and quad-core rocking cellphones(in Asia). The more powerful SGX544mp3(TRI-CORE) is present in the SAMSUNG GALAXY S4(octa-core version).

BOTTOM LINE:

The bottom-line is that you need to see which CPU and GPU is present in your cellphone apart from the number of cores in it. 

The no. of cores in the CPU can be compared to number of hands you have. Generally, more the no. of hands, more work you can do with lesser effort. But the efficiency of your hands should also be taken into consideration. Similarly, having more cores means your cell phone may do more work. But this doesn't mean that it is always better than a cellphone having lessor cores. It depends on the architecture on which the cores are based on. The newer architectures are more efficient in handling tasks.

For example, two cellphones have quad-core processors, but the difference in their prices is almost twice, then don't think that the company with the costlier cellphone is cheating you. It could well be that the cheaper quad-core is based on the Cortex-A7 architecture whereas the costlier one is based on Cortex-A9 or Cortex-A11 which would translate to much better performance. 

Similarly, check out the GPU on a mobile device, if your are into a lot of gaming on your mobile device. Check for a device with higher no. of cores and a higher clock speed. Usually higher clock speeds, translate into better graphics performance, which is needed to play games(or even run some os features).

So don't flip out on a phone based on the way it is marketed by companies. Also dig deeper which would give out the whole story about that much hyped feature of the phone.

For other tips on buying a cellphone read my earlier post about tips for buying a cellphone. If you have any queries about which cellphone to buy then you could ask me.
Links to my cellphone review:

1. Samsung Galaxy S4
2. Nokia Lumia 520

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