Dual Core Mobile Processors Compared

Qualcomm S4 Play. The Qualcomm S4 Play MSM8225 is Qualcomm's chipset for low cost phones, and is one of the most common chipsets in the market. It is found in the popular Cherry Mobile Flare, Cloudfone 430x Thrill, Huawei's new offerings, the Acend Y300 and G510, as well as mid-level phones like the HTC Desire X.

Qualcomm S4 Play MSM8225 (Dual Core ARM Cortex A5 Processor/Adreno 203 Graphics) -  5147 to 6849 Antutu Benchmark Points

HTC Desire X (1 GHz) - 5177

Cherry Mobile Flare (1.2 GHz) - 6849

These performance levels may not look too impressive, but basically they destroy all the 2010 flagship phones, comes close too, or even exceed the 2011 flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S II (6173 Antutu Benchmark Points)  and HTC Sensation XE (6409 Antutu Benchmark Points). So if you are looking at the second hand market, you are probably better served by one of these brand new low cost offerings.


NovaThor U8420. Another low cost chipset which we saw a lot of in last years phones was those made by NovaThor. A Novathor chipset found its way into Samsung Galaxy S III. Performance is at about the same level as Qualcomm's S4 Play, despite having a more advance ARM Cortex A9 processor. Graphics performance is better than the Qualcomm S4 Play.

NovaThor U8420 (Dual Core ARM Cortex-A9/Mali-400MP Grapics)

Samsung Galaxy S III mini (1 GHz) - 5823

MediaTek MT6577. Another low cost chipset you find on a lot of low cost phones is the MediaTek MT6577. Performance is comparable with the NovaThor U8420.

MediaTek MT6577 (Dual Core ARM Cortex A9/PowerVR SGX531 Graphics)

Cherry Mobile Titan (1 GHz) - 5445

Starmobile Diamond (1 GHz) - 5577

Cherry Mobile Omega HD (1 GHz) - 5999

The Qualcomm S4 Plus. The Qualcomm S4 Plus was the companies top dual core platform for 2012. It performs substantially better previous dual core chipsets, with its main weakness being the Adreno 225 graphics.

Qualcomm S4 Plus MSM8960 (Dual Core Krait Processor/Adreno 225 Graphics) - 11075 Antutu Benchmark Points

Sony Xperia V (Dual Core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Krait/Adreno 225) - 11075

Qualcomm S4 Pro. The dual core version of the Qualcomm S4 Pro is able to outrun quad-core phones from 2012.

Qualcomm S4 Pro MSM8960T (Dual Core Krait Processor/Adreno 320 Graphics) - 15847 Antutu Benchmark Points

Sony Xperia SP (Dual core 1.7 GHz Qualcomm S4/Adreno 320) - 15847