 |
|
|
|
In the Forums... |
Posted: May 26th, 2004
As a technologically advanced handset the Nokia 6600 harnesses more processing power than your average phone and it does so with good reason. Running a fully capable multi-threaded Operating System requires a dose of power and delivering it is a 104MHz StrongARM ARM-9 RISC processor. Available internal memory is 6MB which is 2MB more than from prior Nokia Symbian models, it can be used for installing applications, receiving data (including SMS), or if necessary storing ringtones, images etc. An interesting thing to note is that this memory when reported by third party programs hovers around the 9-10MB mark. When asked of this Nokia replied telling us that there is a 3MB heap size which is combined into the full memory reading as indicated by other applications. As a quick reminder the heap is a section of memory pre-reserved for software. In case the phone memory is insufficient an MMC may be installed, by default Nokia supplies a 32MB card however it’s entirely possible to increase the memory pool to 512MB. A slight inconvenience still in place is the method a MMC is inserted, in contrast to phones such as the SonyEricsson P800/P900 the Nokia 6600 needs to be turned off and have its battery removed before swapping cards. Being a highly electronically complex appliance as stated previously there is a substantial amount of information that could be vented regarding its various aspects. An area that attracted a considerable share of our attention is the performance in 3D. Using JBenchmark we concluded 3D performance to be around 38% faster while fill rate 277% faster than in the Nokia 7650/3650 phones. On the other hand text and animation performance was 42% and 31% slower respectively than from the 7650/3650. The reason we praise the 3D speed increase claim in comparison to these older phones is simple, they all use the same processor and run the Symbian OS despite it being version 6.1. Given especially that the 104MHz Strong ARM-9 RISC CPU is common across the various models we were curious to conclude how the added speed boost is obtained. After some deliberation on the subject the only explanation logically viable as an answer from a user’s perspective is the improved coding within the OS. To seek some confirmation we queried Nokia but were disappointed to learn that their company policy disallows disclosing of any specific information regarding the hardware. Overall we welcome the few technological changes that affect the speed and otherwise efficiency of the handset. In total Nokia has implemented a count of three changes that separate it from its predecessors (7650 & 3650), as a reminder they are: increasing phone memory, updating the OS to Symbian version 7.0s, and boosting 2D/3D performance. These combined have enabled an evolution in the processing efficiency and might arguably be an explanation as to why a feature such as themes has been introduced. |
||
|
| |||
|---|---|---|---|