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In this article, I am going to publish some inner details of what Smartbench 2011 captures. These charts show each test results against time - it shows how early prototype progresses over time as it approaches towards the release date.
So how was the progress?
Here's the scattered chart for the Productivity Index score:
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So what does all this mean? As you can see, this chart begins somewhere around late March / early April. Few dots start to appear around that date and you can see more and more of them as time goes by. Those testers have certainly been busy recently by judging from number of dots during the recent times.
And more importantly, do you see the overall upward trend of the scattered dots? I think so.
So why so much variances between many dots?
These can be caused by several factors, including inefficient (read: early prototype) drivers, running other apps at the same time, and even lower than stock clock speed (1.2GHz). In fact, many of the test results recorded 0GHz, which means those devices didn't report the correct clock speeds at the run time, hence we are not sure what clock speeds those were actually ran. Out of those that did report correct clock speeds, they were either 1.2GHz or 975MHz. This may explain why we also have two concentrated areas - one that is produced by 1.2GHz setting and the other produced by 975MHz.
So should you be satisfied by this chart?
Have a look at what I reported earlier on HTC Pyramid results:
If the final version of the Sensation can manage to stay at the focused area at the top of the original chart, you could optimistically expect 2600 - 2700. Huge improvements! But does this look reasonable?
Smartbench 2011 was base-lined so that 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8x55 processor produces 1000 in Productivity Index Score. Since MSM8x60 processor used in the Sensation is essentially a dual-core version of MSM8x55, except running at 1.2GHz each, you can expect it to behave close to 2.4GHz MSM8x55 in an ideal condition. This means, it should, in theory, score around 3000 during the best test runs! Perhaps 2600 might be an attainable goal.
But, how does this compare to other dual-core phones?
Here are some results for you to compare:
Samsung Galaxy S2 at 1GHz: 3229
Samsung Galaxy S2 at 1.2GHz: 3735
LG Optimus 2X at 1GHz: 2657
LG Star at 1GHz: 2605
Motorola Atrix at 1GHz: 2509
(The above results are average values reported at http://smartphonebenchmarks.com)
Now the Sensation certainly looks MUCH more competitive against other devices.
Of course, this is assuming HTC can deliver the final version that can consistently produce results that belong to near top area of the chart at 1.2GHz. If most of these test runs were tested using 1.2GHz Sensation, then the average productivity scores for the recent runs are more like 2000, which is not bad, but it is still lagging other dual-core devices.
I do hope that HTC will nail their optimization on the drivers and deliver the final version that actually produces productivity index score of 2600+.
