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Galaxy S II graphics fastest among Android phones--report

Samsung's Galaxy S II packs the fastest graphics hardware among Android smartphones, according to a report. Want faster? Only a tablet like Apple's iPad offers better performance.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
 
Galaxy S II
Galaxy S II Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S II packs the fastest graphics hardware among Android smartphones, according to a report at tech Web site Anandtech.

The Galaxy S II (or Galaxy S2) uses high-performance Mali-400 graphics silicon based on a design from ARM, giving it the extra performance, according to Anandtech.

"Samsung implemented a 4-core version of the Mali-400...and its resulting performance is staggering," Anandtech said. The Mali graphics hardware resides in Samsung's Exynos 4210, the main chip that powers the S II.

As with the evolution of PCs, graphics hardware is becoming an important feature for smartphones as screen resolutions increase along with the screen size. For example, the Galaxy II uses a 4.3-inch, 800x480 WVGA AMOLED display. And other phones, like the Motorola Droid Bionic, sport a resolution of 540x960. The better the graphics silicon, the faster it can push around all those pixels used for gaming and mulitmedia apps.

Samsung says the Exynos 4210 chip also has a feature that supports WSVGA resolution of two main LCD displays and 1080p HDTV display, simultaneously. "This is possible due to the capability of Exynos 4210 to support separate post processing pipelines," Samsung said.

Only the iPad 2--not a smartphone--is faster than the graphics chip in the Samsung Galaxy S II, according to Anandtech.
Only the iPad 2--not a smartphone--is faster than the graphics chip in the Samsung Galaxy S II, according to Anandtech. Anandtech