Rafe wrote:I would not say it is irrelevant , but there's a tendency to assume a higher Mhz speed is proportionally better (i.e. a 600 Mhz device is twice as fast as 300 Mhz one). This is definitely not the case. The impact of processor speed is also very heavily dependent on the task you are carrying out. Processor intensive tasks will be effected, but outside of video there's relatively few of these (e.g. web browsing is far more software dependent that most people assume). What this means is that some tasks will be almost completely unaffected by processor speed changes.Incidentally this is why multiple core processors are important. Faster processor = more energy (in general) = lower battery life. Multiple cores enables a properly written system to switch off cores when they not needed and thus save power. In normal operation only one core will be used. When doing something processor intensive (encoding a video) multiple cores will be used. Thus multi-core architecture offers a better performance-power balance than the current architecture (all single core processors).
So in summary? Processor speed is over-emphasised in mobile device in general (not just Symbian).
Samsung probably have not optimized their hardware as heavily as Nokia does. However I would not necessarily read too much into this. The Samsung phone has capabilities in video and graphics that no Nokia currently has Open GL 2 graphics, HD video) - and these are because of the processor.
The OS/ application layer may carry some responsibility here (good example is the browser - see our recent article on this)... but in terms of core operations the OS is already extremely fast and efficient. For application loading (especially if you include multitasking abilities) you'll find recent Symbian phones much the same as the iPhone 3GS (e.g. Google Maps opening time)... Thus a faster processor will only make a small difference - the bottleneck, in performance terms will be elsewhere (memory speed, coding of an application, graphics capability etc etc.).
So no its not an inherent weakness of the OS - rather it is a sign of its strength and maturity. Basically it the OS that means a 5800 (with a generation n processor at 400 Mhz) is relatively close in performance to the iPhone 3GS (with a generation n+1 processor running at 600 Mhz) for most basic operations. Basically Symbian OS is able to run on fewer resources (processor / memory etc.)... which is one of the reasons it dominates the mid tier.
Of course once you start looking at the more processor intensive stuff - notably games and graphics - this does change... However remember that the iPhone has a graphics co-processor - the Nokia phones do not... so game performance is not so much about the central processor speed.
With regards to the iPhone - the processor is significantly faster (depends who you ask, but a four times performance boost is a good figure). The performance improvement is roughly 2x. The processor has an impact (because it a big leap), but a lot will have come from software too. A good example of this is how, if you load iPhone 3 OS onto an iPhone 3G you'll get a significant performance improvement over an iPhone 3G with iPhone OS 2. It may well be that iPhone OS, as a young platform, has more room for improvement.
The three bands are WCDMA 2100, WCDMA 850 and WCDMA 900. 850 is used in North America, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and The Philippines (maybe elsewhere too). Where as I think 1900 is US only.
I imagine there may also be licensing issues and IP involved (not an expert here).
I would heavily dispute your comment about the 5800XM Vs the 3GS, just before I got my 3GS I was using a 5800XM on the latest firmware at the time & I have found the 3GS to be considerably quicker than it ever was. To me the 5800XM though not a bad device overall, especially at it's price point is terrible advert for S60 5th edition, with that less than great resistive screen, multiple bugs & faults it really gave me a low view of S60 5th edition. I have only tried an Omnia HD very briefly but I was much more impressed by the OS on that device than I was on the 5800XM. Samsung may not be optimising there OS as much yet, though they seem to be having a go at it of late, but it still seemed a good deal faster than the 5800XM ever was.