Samsung Galaxy S II vs. Samsung Epic 4G Touch: Sprint and T-Mobile Go Head-to-Head Discussion

[Jen Edwards]

Trying to decide between T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S II and Sprint's Samsung Epic 4G Touch? These two are very similar, but not identical, and this comparison should help.

Read the full content of this Article: Samsung Galaxy S II vs. Samsung Epic 4G Touch: Sprint and T-Mobile Go Head-to-Head

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[Drillbit]

Some notes.

1. Dual cores aren't equal. Especially against the A9. The T-Mobile uses the dual core Qualcomm 8660 chip, which basically ties the same Scorpion cores from the previous generations of Snapdragons. It means, two of the same old engine.

The A9 core has architectural improvements that means, even on a single core, it executes instructions faster than the Cortex A8 core and the Qualcomm Scorpion core. Generally, chips using the A9s, like the Tegra2, OMAP 4460 and the Exynos, would have the same computational speeds but ahead of the Qualcomm. This is partly the reason why that Galaxy S2 blows away that HTC phone with 1.2GHz dual core Qualcomm behind.

The reason why the T-Mobile Galaxy S2 uses the 1.5GHz Qualcomm 8660 chip, is that it has better support for T-Mobile's 42mbs HSPA+. The Exynos does support only WiMax and 21mbs HSPA+ but not LTE. That is why the AT&T Galaxy S2 uses the Exynos but the AT&T LTE Galaxy S2 Skyrocket uses the 1.5GHz Qualcomm dual core. The Galaxy Nexus bypassed the Exynos and went with the OMAP 4460 from Texas Instruments for this reason as well. This despite the Exynos having a superior GPU.

2. At 1.5GHz, the T-Mobile Galaxy S2 does run its GPU quite fast, and actually edged out the Exynos phones in the 3D Nenamarks 2.

Nena Innovation AB - NenaMark results

The T-Mo one is the SGH-T989 here. The others here are the LTE Galaxy S2 for Docomo (SC-03D), AT&T (SGH-i727R), international (GT-i9210), and Korean market (SHV-E110S).

The Samsung EPIC Touch 4G is the SPH-D710.

Once the table on the side says GPU is MALI-400, then the chip is the Exynos. The Adreno 220 GPU indicates the dual core Qualcomm 8660. Note the Samsung phones leave the HTC phones well behind, and that has something to do with the HTC phones having a higher resolution that means more work for the GPU.

3. Despite the GPU advantage, which will shine on games, the overall reviewer impression I get from reading other reviews is that the Exynos powered Galaxy S2s seems to have an edge in being smoother in the UI experience.

4. CDMA phones are always worst than GSM phones when it comes to battery consumption. No surprise here. Even with a global GSM-CDMA phone, the GSM use are always rated higher in time. On the other hand, CDMA phones tend to power boost the antenna when the signal reception is weak, which means they can sustain a connection better on tough areas over GSM, at the expense of battery.

5. I wish you would have done Speedtest results on the network. IMO, looking at some of the test results placed on Youtube and other reviews, T-Mo seems to blowing away Sprint on this department. Assuming T-Mo coverage is great in your area, I would pick T-Mobile. But then again, does Sprint still have that unlimited data plan?

[Varjak]

Is there likely to be a significant difference b/t the Exynos processor and the OMAP in the Nexus Prime? (Also understanding that the huge resolution of the NP will be a factor.)

[Drillbit]

Both processors would be equal in computational speed, based on having A9 cores.

The real difference is in the GPU, as the Exynos uses the MALI-400MP which is better than the PowerSGX 540 used on the OMAP4460.

Benchmarks do show that the PowerSGX 540 is about as good as the Geforce ULP (Tegra2 GPU) and that Geforce ULP has been used to handle Honeycomb tablets. The first iPad also uses the PowerSGX 535, and seems to be able to handle that resolution adequately.

Still, given the MALI-400 GPU on the SGS2, my concern is the Galaxy Nexus might not be as smooth as the Exynos powered SGS2. though the Nexus may give performance better than most Honeycomb tablets due to the speed bump on the OMAP processor and the PowerSGX GPU, plus further optimizations with the OS.

[Varjak]

I can't wait for your or BH's tests of these top-tier phones. I think in real-world use, the Nexus will still be pretty fast, unless the enhanced resolution really bogs it down.

[Drillbit]

So far from the gaming perspective, this doesn't look good though.

3D benchmarks

Nena Innovation AB - NenaMark results

The benchmark app is free from the Android Market but when you test it, the app logs in the phone result and its it to a database. This benchmark is very good in detecting new and upcoming phone models.

The Galaxy Nexus is way down the list, even lower than the Nexus S, but ahead of the likes of phones like the Droid X2, Motorola Atrix and the Honeycomb tablets. In real world, this means this appears fast and responsive, but those looking for ultimate gaming performance should stick to the Galaxy S2 series.

There is a chance that there is room for further optimization, since phones do climb higher to the top in time, after some updates.

I should note that the HTC Vivid (Holiday) here, along with the Sensation XE, takes the highest scores of the HTC lot. The Holiday is probably released with the latest HTC update right out of the box. These two are so fast, they are just a mite under the Exynos powered Galaxy S2 series even when sporting a higher resolution (35% difference in overhead between qHD and WVGA). Accounting for resolution, they would be like 58FPS, even faster than the highest Samsung in the list.

[Drillbit]

Nena Innovation AB - NenaMark results

Taking account of resolution I would think the Samsung GT-N7000 (Galaxy Note) and the Samsung SC-02D (Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus for Japanese market) are the fastest here. (87FPS and 59FPS in WVGA terms). The Holiday and the Sensation XE comes next in that order.

When the resolution of the Galaxy Nexus is accounted for, that would be like 53FPS in WVGA equivalent, which means Google has well optimized it right to the brink, and the room to go further might not be there anymore.

In keeping with the title of the thread, the T-Mobile Hercules is SGH-T989 in the list, the Epic Touch 4G is the SPH-D710. SGH-i777 is the AT&T Galaxy S2, and SGH-i727 and i727R is the AT&T Skyrocket (SGS2 LTE). SC-03D, SHV-E110S and GT-i9210 are all Galaxy S2 LTE in regionalized terms, for Japan, Korea and International respectively.

[Varjak]

I don't doubt it; but one thing that MAY be applicable is that fastest in bench tests does not mean the best experience. That's the case for things like cars, where a car can excel at a few tests; but 'on the road' isn't mind-blowing. And games are only one consideration, at least for me.

I figure the huge resolution really does slow things down too. Otherwise, why would Samsung not bring up the NP to its top specs like the SGSII (beyond the issues of which CPU's work with which radio bands).