Why does the Lumia 635 (1GB) benchmark better than the Lumia 640?

[mc_razza]

I was playing around with my 640 and 635 side-by-side and noticed the 635 (1GB) was marginally but noticeably faster across most areas. From boot up, shutdown, fetching webpages, general opening and closing, app switching and so on, the 635 was always ahead. I then did some benchmarking tests with a bunch of apps like AnTuTu, Basemark OS II, MultiBench 2, PhoneMark et al. and in each test the 635 definitively won the overall score, although the 640 did pull ahead in a couple of criteria. Note that both phones are running WP8.1 with the 635 on Denim and the 640 on GDR2.

Both run on the same Snapdragon 400 8926 SoC with an Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. You could argue the 640 is essentially a 5" HD 635 with a minor spec bump and some extra features.

What is going on here?

 

[abhishek singh21]

Both run on the same Snapdragon 400 8926 SoC with an Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. You could argue the 640 is essentially a 5" HD 635 with a minor spec bump and some extra features.

you have got your answer right there, lumia 640 indeed is only a 5" version of 635 with better resolution and a 8mp camera with flash. Rest is ditto copy of lumia 635.

Talking about the benchmarks , many a times these benchmarks arent 100% reliable be it antutu or any other . There scores fluctuate each time, but as you have noticed it yourselves devices on similar chip set too have different scores.

 

[aybarrap1]

I would think very minor differences between the 2 OS versions can make some difference. Also don't forget that while these are relatively the same chip you can have differences in other hardware areas. For instance, on a PC you can have two sticks of RAM at 1GB (and we will assume both by the same manufacturer) but because they are different speeds, benchmark will be different. Things like this and bus speeds still play a role.

 

[xandros9]

Could be a fluke or that the 635 is pushing less pixels so that can make a difference.

 

[aybarrap1]

Could be a fluke or that the 635 is pushing less pixels so that can make a difference.

I forgot about the screen pixels. That makes a difference too.

 

[mc_razza]

I did a head-to-head speed comparison between my Lumia 640 and 640 XL LTE (both running WP8.1 Update 2) and observed that the 640 XL LTE was faster at booting up, opening apps, loading/running some games, and fetching most webpages. The difference was anywhere between perceptible fractions of seconds to upwards of 5 seconds. Like the 635 (1GB) and 640, the 640 XL LTE runs the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8926 with Adreno 305 GPU. (On a quick tangent, the 3G variants run on MSM8226.)

The 640 XL LTE and 635 alternates in its speed comparison. The 635 runs and loads games faster (see Crossy Road and Asphalt 8 Airborne) and boots up/shuts down faster too, whereas the 640 XL LTE fetches webpages faster and generally feels faster here and there. Both devices open and run most apps at the same speed.

I haven't run any benchmarking apps for both comparisons because the results are plain to see.

Basically, the 635 and 640 XL LTE are faster than one another in specific areas and the 640 is the slowest of the trio.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out why there are discrepancies here. Is it because all three devices have slightly different circuits or chipsets e.g. RAM and onboard storage, or is it a slight variation (improvements and efficiencies?) in the manufacturing of the same SoC?

 

[aybarrap1]

Is it because all three devices have slightly different circuits or chipsets e.g. RAM and onboard storage, or is it a slight variation (improvements and efficiencies?) in the manufacturing of the same SoC?

All of the above. Just because the general specs are equivalent on paper, differences in the actual hardware can make a difference. You are talking about three different phones which had to have boards designed for each. The is no telling what minor differences there are due to manufacturing specifications. Not to mention that different chips in regards to storage, controllers, RAM, and displays can make a difference. You also cannot judge minor variations due to manufacturing. On Android phones, I have seen custom ROMS perform differently on the exact same carrier branded model.