[magnumjoe]

I know that the n78 cpu is 369 Mhz, whereas the n82 is 332 Mhz but with the "OMAP" chip: what's the difference? And which is better in different aspects?

Thank you ...

[magnumjoe]

No-one has an answer for that?

[fineday]

I'm also wondering what hardware does N78 use.

I know N82 uses a TI OMAP 2420 as CPU and a TI OMAP DM290 GOLDENEYE for camera. Within OMAP 2420 there is an application core and a DSP, the first one is based on ARM11 and runs at about 330MHz, and the second one is ARM7 @ 206MHz. So for N82, no matter how heavy the task for the phone, the basic function like dialing won't be affect. But the OMAP 2420 doesn't support 5M Pixel camera, so NOKIA adds an OMAP DM290 which supports up to 7M Pixel's camera, realtime encoding up to VGA @ 30FPS, and multi format decoding. For this reason I think N82 will be strong not only in running applications but also in multimedia usage.

To N78 now there isn't much information, at least I've not got any exactly hardware spec. But due to the fact that, N78 is a "cheap" phone; N78 doesn't support 3D Hardware Accelerating; N78's CPU's frequency is 369MHz; N78 is equipted with a 3.2MP camera while MXC300-30 doesn't support; N78 can only record VGA movie at 15FPS, I think N78 may also uses the Freescale's MXC300-30 plus an imaging co-processor, at least won't be the same and expensive OMAP 2420 solution.

Then let's take a look at MXC-300. It is a single core solution, which means it has only one 369MHz ARM11 core to handle all tasks including application and DSP. In this way if there are many tough tasks , or some cpu-eating tasks running on the device, it will likely be slow than the N82. However due to that N78 has a faster and a no-need-to-optimize cpu, it will be significant faster when you're running only one or few tasks, and in responsing the UI inputs.

[magnumjoe]

Wow!

Thats was thorough

Thanks

You answered my question well.

But also, i think, because of the feature pack 2 structure, the OS is more fluent on the N78 i guess. I saw this info on reviews and some forums.

They said that the N78 has a faster overall performance due to this reason.

But anyway, i asked this question before buying the N78

Thank you

[mobilehavoc]

I have an N78 NAM and it's very fast (faster than N95) in most tasks and handles multimedia tasks fine too. I'm sure it could always be faster but I'm happy with it and remember, less CPUs/cores the better the battery life and this thing gets EXCELLENT battery life!

[vnt2]

this is what I think:

Nokia N78 =====================
Single CPU
CPU Type: ARM 11
CPU Clock Rate: 369 MHz

Memory: Max User Storage: 70 MB
NAND Memory: 256 MB
SDRAM Memory: 96 MB
~48 MB Free Executable RAM Memory

Nokia N82 =====================
CPU:
Dual CPU
CPU Type: ARM 11
CPU Clock Rate: 332 MHz
3D Graphics HW Accelerator

Memory: Max User Storage: 100 MB
NAND Memory: 256 MB
SDRAM Memory: 128 MB
~90 MB Free Executable RAM Memory

[korngear]

---

08-Aug-2008 09:58 AM
vnt2 wrote:
this is what I think:

Nokia N78 =====================
Single CPU
CPU Type: ARM 11
CPU Clock Rate: 369 MHz

Memory: Max User Storage: 70 MB
NAND Memory: 256 MB
SDRAM Memory: 96 MB
~48 MB Free Executable RAM Memory

Nokia N82 =====================
CPU:
Dual CPU
CPU Type: ARM 11
CPU Clock Rate: 332 MHz
3D Graphics HW Accelerator

Memory: Max User Storage: 100 MB
NAND Memory: 256 MB
SDRAM Memory: 128 MB
~90 MB Free Executable RAM Memory

---

so which is more efficient?
the single armed cpu or the dual core/ How about C2D like in PCs?
nd what is the difference with all these stats with the one of N96?

[magnumjoe]

I think the N82 is more efficient in bulky tasks, like video recording, or heavy programs, games and so. But a single core is better in lighter tasks.

[psychomania]

As a user of both models I have noticed that the N82 is significantly faster all round than the N78 when menu transitions are enabled. With transitions disabled the N78 is faster under general usage (menu, messaging etc) but is not as fast at "bulky" tasks.

[magnumjoe]

Yeh just as i said... I think this is because of the software, nothing more.

Hey psychomania, i wanted to tell u that the hard reset of the N78, is "3 + * + multimedia key" not green key.

Keep that in mind while helping people

[psychomania]

Thanks, I found out about the change in keys about a week ago. My guess is that the change applies to all FP2 devices but not sure about models like the 6220c.

[fineday]

Yeah, FP2 may be faster than FP1, just like FP1 is faster than original OS9. I heard FP1 added some advanced feature like cache optimizing and so on, as the result with the same hardware platform, N82 is much more faster than N93i( my previous phone but have been stolen several weeks ago). Though I don't know what new features FP2 have included other than menu effect, I believe FP2 will have a higher performance than FP1.

And the two phone, N78 and N82, are based on diffierent platform. In hand-held device field the diffierence between diffierent hardware solutions is much more significant than other system like PC, so in my opinion this may be the most important reason for why MXC300-30 based NOKIA smartphones always have a faster response to users' operation than OMAP 2420 based ones. My friend told me TI's CPUs always need more optimize, and if you want to do some deep optimizing you may have to create your own complier, this is a big disadvantage of TI's product. So for a long time before I knew this, I was wondering why OMAP 2420 was very very powerful in specifications but the performance seemed not reach the specs.

My sister had got an N78 some time ago, and I've been testing it for some days. I think N78 is a good phone, and fast enough for daily usage. In fact more and more NOKIA N series phones are now based on Freescale's solution, leaving only N82 and N95(and maybe N96). They are cheaper, faster(in most condition), and will work longer with the same battery pack, so maybe single CPU is not a bad choice.

[magnumjoe]

Wow nice exploration

That was useful

Thanks

[operator01]

I used X-Plore to check N78 CPU speed. It only returns 192MHz. It is significant lower than korngear said CPU Clock Rate: 369 MHz. I have N78-3, does that means North America uses different CPU on N78?

[magnumjoe]

No: i got an N78-1, and i got as you said: 192 MHz.. But do you trust X-plore that much? I don't think you should.

[operator01]

I just used X-plore to put the TradChinese font in.. thought I would check what kind of stats it pulls.. not sure how else to check what the specs on the N78 other than trusting Nokia's spec...

Thanks for letting me know though...

[rpgs_player]

I just noticed this, try depleting most of the RAM for both N78 and N82. Then, when running a very RAM-hungry apps (like adobe reader with xxx pages) immediately press red button and try to dial someone. No slowdowns at all when dialing on N82 while N78 is pretty much screwed up.

[magnumjoe]

This is natural: N82 has 32 Mb of RAM more than the N78..

You just should try to open more programs on the N82, relatively big as to the N78... And you will get the same result... But no need to screw up your mobile phones this way lol.

[fineday]

All mobile CPUs will set their frequency into a low level after an amount of free time to save battery life. So if you want to check check the speed, it will mostly return the lowest one.

[magnumjoe]

O!

Good point... Didn't occur to me before.

Thanks..