Will the 8X be slower than the 920 or Ativ S?

[unity04]

I'm just wondering- will the 8X be slower than the other company's flagship Windows phones? I know the 8X, 920 and ATIV S have the same amount of RAM, and the same processors, but I'm just curious to whether or not HTC puts bloatware on their Windows devices. I've had the HTC One X, and with HTC's Sense on the device, I found it to be a little sluggish. Will HTC add their own crap and software to the phone slowing it down, compared to say the Lumia 920? I also saw in the photo renders that HTC has their own clock/weather/date tile, so that sparks the question if there's added software that'll fragment Windows and slow it down a bit.

Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Winterfang]

Microsoft does't allow that malware trojan virus called Sense on their devices. They just have a hub in there, a resizable that you can remove.

All phones should get the same speed on paper.

 

[cp2_4eva]

Microsoft does't allow that malware trojan virus called Sense on their devices. They just have a hub in there, a resizable that you can remove.

All phones should get the same speed on paper.

Until you reach those multitasking caps..then performance might suffer a little, but I don't see it affecting windows phones as much as they affect android devices.

 

[a5cent]

Hello Unity04

I'm just wondering- will the 8X be slower than the other company's flagship Windows phones? I know the 8X, 920 and ATIV S have the same amount of RAM, and the same processors

Very important factors you're ignoring are RAM latency and clock-rate, which can make a huge difference in app startup time (should that be important to you). Unfortunately, you won't find either on spec-sheets. Waiting for benchmarks is the only way to be certain.

I'm just curious to whether or not HTC puts bloatware on their Windows devices.
<snipped>
Will HTC add their own crap and software to the phone slowing it down, compared to say the Lumia 920?

In the way you are using the term "bloatware", no such thing currently exists for WP8:

a)
Random apps doing background processing is the main reason Android devices slow down. On WP8 however, only certain "features" are able to be processed in the background (background audio, background location/GPS, background VOIP, etc). Unless HTC is using any of these features in their Hub (extremely unlikely), you won't notice any performance difference whether the Hub is installed or not.

b)
WP also supports a feature called "scheduled background tasks". This allows apps to register functionality that is run in regular intervals (every 30 minutes or more). This is useful for apps like stock and weather apps which want regular updates. Android has something similar. However, Android apps can go on to run whatever they want for any amount of time! In contrast, WP ensures that no single task runs any longer than 25 seconds (otherwise it gets choked off by the OS). WP also limits how many such scheduled background tasks may be enabled on a particular device (on low-end devices no more than 6 and on devices with only 256MB RAM none at all). You are also given full control over which of them may run and you can disable any or all of them.

c)
Anything a manufacturer or a carrier pre-installs on the device can be completely removed by the user! Always! So, if you don't like the HTC Hub, all you need to do is go to the apps-list and uninstall it... gone. Microsoft has technically and legally ensured this won't change.

These are all great features that put WP ahead of Android, but not many people understand or know about them.

Hope that clears things up. Cheers!

 

[Mitlov]

Until you reach those multitasking caps..then performance might suffer a little, but I don't see it affecting windows phones as much as they affect android devices.

Except that Samsung and Nokia both offer a lot of OEM apps as well. Nokia a lot more so than just the HTC Hub, for instance.

Regardless, it's easy to remedy. Don't like HTC Hub? Uninstall it. Takes about two seconds. Not at all like trying to get Sense off a One X or TouchWiz off a Galaxy S3.

 

[tk-093]

Very important factors you're ignoring are RAM latency and clock-rate, which can make a huge difference in app startup time (should that be important to you). Unfortunately, you won't find either on spec-sheets. Waiting for benchmarks is the only way to be certain.

Good point.. They could be using different quality of RAM and flash memory that could have slight impacts. I never thought of that.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

a)
Random apps doing background processing is the main reason Android devices slow down. On WP8 however, only certain "features" are able to be processed in the background (background audio, background GPS, background VOIP, etc). Unless HTC is using any of these features in their Hub (extremely unlikely), you won't notice any performance difference whether the Hub is installed or not.

Would like to call you out on this. The HTC Hub brings GPS-based weather too, it's very likely that could be happening in the background on WP8. But as points B and C demonstrate, that needn't be a problem if you don't like it.

 

[a5cent]

Would like to call you out on this. The HTC Hub brings GPS-based weather too, it's very likely that could be happening in the background on WP8. But as points B and C demonstrate, that needn't be a problem if you don't like it.

Hey Paladinleeds (mind if I just call you "Pal"?)

Well then, I would like to call you out on calling me out ... well, kind of anyway...

Everything you say is absolutely correct, but we aren't referring to the same kind of background processing! What I'm referring to are background tasks that run constantly in the background for undefined periods of time. For example, pressing the windows-button while running ND7.5 (Nokia Drive for WP7.5) will put ND into a dormant state. Navigating back to ND will wake it up, after which ND must reestablish a GPS fix and then carry on from there. ND8.0 won't do that... it won't switch into that dormant state... instead, it will keep tracking your location in the background the entire time. This is an example of background location/GPS which I mentioned, but the same works for background audio and background VOIP.

What you are referring to is called scheduled background tasks. These are restricted to running no longer than 25 seconds (usually much less). This is what weather apps typically use to keep their information up-to-date. The good news is they won't noticeably slow down your device, as 99.99% of the time they won't be running at all. I'm assuming this is the approach the HTC Hub will take, but of course I could be wrong. Anyway, it would seem rather crazy for the HTC Hub to constantly track our location (every step) just to get up-to-date weather information. Normally, the weather 20 feet ahead isn't that much different That is what I meant when I said:

"Unless HTC is using any of these features in their Hub (extremely unlikely), you won't notice any performance difference whether the Hub is installed or not."

This is an overview of the different types of background processing WP supports. Note that none of them are "real" multitasking, as they are all intentionally constrained (in one way or another) in order to extend battery life.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Hey Paladinleeds (mind if I just call you "Pal"?)

Well then, I would like to call you out on calling me out ... well, kind of anyway...

Everything you say is absolutely correct, but we aren't referring to the same kind of background processing! What I'm referring to are background tasks that run constantly in the background for undefined periods of time. For example, pressing the windows-button while running ND7.5 (Nokia Drive for WP7.5) will put ND into a dormant state. Navigating back to ND will wake it up, after which ND must reestablish a GPS fix and then carry on from there. ND8.0 won't do that... it won't switch into that dormant state... instead, it will keep tracking your location in the background the entire time. This is an example of background location/GPS which I mentioned, but the same works for background audio and background VOIP.

What you are referring to is called scheduled background tasks. These are restricted to running no longer than 25 seconds (usually much less). This is what weather apps typically use to keep their information up-to-date. The good news is they won't noticeably slow down your device, as 99.99% of the time they won't be running at all. I'm assuming this is the approach the HTC Hub will take, but of course I could be wrong. Anyway, it would seem rather crazy for the HTC Hub to constantly track our location (every step) just to get up-to-date weather information. Normally, the weather 20 feet ahead isn't that much different That is what I meant when I said:

"Unless HTC is using any of these features in their Hub (extremely unlikely), you won't notice any performance difference whether the Hub is installed or not."

This is an overview of the different types of background processing WP supports. Note that none of them are "real" multitasking, as they are all intentionally constrained (in one way or another) in order to extend battery life.

Yes, calling me Pal or Paladin is absolutely fine, as I understand Paladinleeds can be a finger-full and a mouthful. I have read on what you are referring to, and you were right to call me out. To say I was trying to develop for WP, I was certainly gonna be a crap developer with gaps like that in my knowledge!

 

[a5cent]

Yes, calling me Pal or Paladin is absolutely fine, as I understand Paladinleeds can be a finger-full and a mouthful. I have read on what you are referring to, and you were right to call me out. To say I was trying to develop for WP, I was certainly gonna be a crap developer with gaps like that in my knowledge!

Hey Pal! The only thing developers every truly know is this:

"we have gaps in our knowledge."

So, you're right up there with the best of them!

 

[a5cent]

Good point.. They could be using different quality of RAM and flash memory that could have slight impacts. I never thought of that.

Actually, it can have quite a large impact. RAM used for mobile devices is completely different from that used in PC's. Everything is geared towards low-power requirements, not speed! Comparatively speaking, the RAM in our mobile devices is laughably slow. As a result, any attempt to use faster RAM will be instantly noticeable.