04-02-2021, 06:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-04-2021, 02:58 PM by bitsandnumbers.
Edit Reason: typo's / additions / url to benchmark
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(04-01-2021, 02:19 PM)misha64 Wrote:(03-27-2021, 08:02 AM)bitsandnumbers Wrote: We cannot make assumptions for the best optimized hardware unless software is optimized itself.
I believe the wise thing to do before getting into these new hardware considerations is to wait and see what software can actually deliver with the current hardware. Then it will be easy to evaluate what kind of specs/price would be best for a new PP iteration.
True
But not much can be expected from Allwinner A64. It is from 2015 with 40 nm architecture. No wonder poor power efficiency and performance. This is 6! years old hardware not even designed for mobile use, you most probably do not use laptop from that time anymore.
All the more, you can't deny that when software will be optimized for the Allwinner A64, we will have *rock solid* base for an informed decision on hardware choice.
Plus, old hardware mean almost nothing. I insist on "almost", because at some point it matters. But recent hardware is really really really under-exploited in 90% of cases, and it tends to make developers lazy with sub-optimized softwares, hence most of the slowdown we see on old hardware.
The Pinephone can actually deliver enough for most of people use once we get the good hardware/software recipes. Even the RAM limitation should not be one before a few years.
Just so you know, before buying my Pinephone Mobian Edition (that I use as a daily driver), I was using an iPhone 5c (Apple A6 32 nm, dual core with 3-core PowerVR chip) that I bought some 8 years ago. Guess what : it still worked really well and snappy. Only limitiation (that even was not so limiting) was 1Gb of RAM and no more iOS updates. I had to let it go because of a dead battery.
So I really don't think that the Allwinner A64 is so limiting that we should begin thinking beyond right now : I truly believe in optimized software that get the most out of what we already got.
EDIT
The only really limiting hardware I see here on the Pinephone is the eMMC speed which is hard to overcome with software.
One last thing : the Pinephone has been made for tinkerers by an hardware hacking company that make hardware for hackers and developers (by hackers I mean "modifiers", not pirates). So a new iteration of the Pinephone will be for this category of customers that want opensource, hackable, self-repairable phones : this comes with tradeoffs because phone industry is mainly focused on closed-source chips and finding opensource hardware is a *really* hard job, let alone for smartphone production. Tradeoffs mean lower specs and older chips because manufacturers are very touchy when it comes to opensourcing new technologies. The only way I can see a well-spec'd fully opensource phone happening is if some manufacturer finally enter the breach and begin to sell a new range of modern, recent opensource chips for phones. I say why not, but it still doesn't exist.