10 Questions: Round 2

Back in august I ran a blog post collecting some recent questions asked by the fans of the Sony Mobile facebook page, providing some responses in an FAQ form. With the recent release of the Xperia T, the up and coming release of the Xperia J, a handful of regional variations and some kick ass accessories, I wanted to revisit the segment and answer some more recent questions.

So without further ado, let round 2 commence!

A Beginner's Guide to Rooting, Part 1: Turboboost Your Android Smartphone

NOTE: Whilst this blog post contains steps on how to achieve things that are possible on most android phones, this guide is based on the Xperia 2011 range, specifically the Xperia arc S. The guides should also be applicable to the other Xperia 2011 range devices, however may not be applicable to other devices.

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Is that a dual-c-.... oh wait.... no it's not.

"The DR" Xperia arc clone

Engadget today reported on a new device from the chinese market, cloning the XPERIA arc in cosmetics, although that's about as far as it goes in terms of what is comparible between the arc and the new chinese device. The biggest thing that stuck out to me, however, and the reason I wanted to run this article, is the dual-core perspective of the device.

The device reported by Engadget supposedly sports a dual-core ARM processor - but wait, it goes beyond that. Not only does the device supposedly contain a dual core processor (I say supposedly, as it's not true dual-core, just a half arsed attempt), but those cores are already reserved; one for the OS, and one core exclussive to the radio partition.

In the great debate of 'to dual, or not to dual', I have to admit, I openly express my opinion that dual core in mobile phone technology is not the end of the world. It's just an extension to the posessors e-peen. You can have dual core that, if not implemented correctly, is a waste of time. You can also have single core devices that are done well enough to challenge dual core devices. Personally I think that may have been the objective when Sony Ericsson built the arc, and this clone goes back on that.

With 624MHz in total (and to put this into perspective, the first Android phone released to the general public in 2008 ran on 528MHz), and 208MHz reserved for the radio, this 'dual-core' device is on no par with the actual Sony Ericsson range, but that's ok. We wouldn't expect it to be. But what this does go to show is just how having a dual core phone doesn't instantly make your phone better than one with a single core. I do however imagine many people will ignore the numbers that actually mean anything, and head straight for the buzz word that plagues this story due to it's innacuracy, 'dual-core', drooling at their screens in Envy that they do no posess one of these Chinese rarities.


Source: Engadget