Well folks, someone had to do this and it might as well be us right? Today we present you with a few results from the battle of the cores with the ASUS Transformer Prime quad-core tablet vs the iPad 2. Now when comparing devices there is tons to talk about but we’ll be keeping this short and focusing on a few benchmarks. These were some of the best tests available to test both devices. With different platforms, hardware, and operating systems this can only be so accurate — but we figured you’d like to take a look so here’s the results.

Being Android Community we didn’t put the iPad front and center in our image above but if you look closely you’ll see it sandwiched between a few Transformers. We have a few different results below but first up is SunSpider, an internet browser-based JavaScript benchmark which tests how well your internet is going to work based on the machine more than your connection. Then we have BrowserMark and last is GLBenchmark 2.1 which is one of the only apps that works on both iOS and Android outside of the browser. Before we get started if you’d like to see more of the new quad-core ASUS Prime here is our extended hands-on.

We’ve worked with SunSpider plenty in the past and with this browser benchmark lower is better, here’s our results:


We are also comparing these tests with the original ASUS Transformer dual-core Tegra 2 tablet just for good measure. Here you’ll notice it takes last place with the iPad 2 holding its own pretty well. Then obviously, the Prime with those four cores comes in at the top. It might not be a huge margin but we’ll let you guys decide. Same thing applies to BrowserMark where the newest of the pack reigns supremacy and the older Transformer hanging out at the end of the pack.

Now before you all start commenting — the iPad is running on the absolute latest iOS 5 from Apple and these Android tablets are on the latest version of Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Obviously iOS 5 is brand new and was just recently released and we’ll be sure to take a closer look once the Transformer Prime gets Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich — Google’s latest creation. So while these are as accurate as we could test for now we definitely want to look through this again when we get that tasty ICS on board with this quad-core beast.

Last we ran GLBenchmark 2.1 which tests the actual GPU processing cores inside these devices and is completed outside of the browser. Here the iPad 2 actually trumped both the original, and the new quad-core Transformer Prime for whatever reason. The NVIDIA Tegra 3 actually has 5 cores and the graphics are without a doubt better than what is currently available in the iPad 2. The upcoming Tegra 3 games we’ve seen look simply incredible to say the least. Again this isn’t the easiest of tests in terms of actual comparison or accuracy on such different operating and hardware levels but here’s the results for the last round.

While these tests are a good indicator they are by no means perfect. Either way we’ll just let you guys the readers decide what you think. Don’t shoot the messenger here. The last test the iPad 2 completely destroys the ASUS Transformer and even puts a beatdown on the Prime. Remember that the iPad 2 does have a lower resolution so that could also come in to effect with the GL results. Don’t worry though guys we’ll be doing some actual browser comparisons and maybe even testing a few of the same games to see how everything does and be sure to clue you in on the details.

One more time here is our Transformer Prime hands-on and just for fun is a video below showing you some of that neat hardware and included keyboard dock for the Prime. Expect a few more tests and comparisons over the coming days and we’ll be sure to post an in-depth review soon. If you have any tests or comparisons you’d like to see don’t hesitate to request it in the comment section below.

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16 COMMENTS

  1. Unfortunately, this article displays just a little of the increasing android community ignorance that I’m quite starting to dislike.  We rag on Apple fanboys for it all the time, lets please not be guilty of it ourselves.

    “The NVIDIA Tegra 3 actually has 5 cores and the graphics are without a doubt better than what is currently available in the iPad 2”

    GLbench has everything to do with GPU and most nearly nothing to do with CPU.  So, while its nice for other things, the fact that the tegra 3 contains a quad core (+1) cpu is largely irrelevant for this graphics benchmark.

    The Apple A5 (chipset in the ipad 2 and iphone 4s), contains a dual core imgtec PowerVR SGX543 GPU, which is VASTLY superior to any android GPU offering on the market to date.  Why both android hardware manufacturers and chipset developers alike have put such a low precedence on graphics development is still beyond my comprehension.  

    The tegra series gpu, while built by nvidia, a graphics company, while more than capable enough, has always been a rather mundane offering.  The GPU the tegra 3, while somewhat improved over the previous model, is no different.  Seeing as other similar GPU chipset offerings such as the adreno (Qaulcomm), Mali (ARM) continue to lag behind imgtecs offerings, I have no reason to believe that this apple superiority in GPU processing ability will diverge from its current trend.  Not to mention that the far superior SGX545 is coming out next month, and will undoubtedly be on the next idevice (seeing as apple is 10% bought into the company).

    Where I do see promise are in the TI OMAP chipsets which are slated to utilize imgtecs GPU offerings in future releases…and Google just selected them as the base chipset manufacturer of ICS 4.0… coincidence?  Maybe a nvidia executive will read this comment…

    Other than that, a largely informative article.  

    • Most people are reporting that the GLBenchmark tests are highly optimized for Apple products.  How else could you explain that the graphically heavier versions of the games run smoother and produce better graphics on the Tegra 3?  If you don’t believe me, watch the side-by-side videos of the two.  Calling a whole community ignorant when you don’t even know about the tests that were run seems a little ironic.

      • Both shadowgun and riptide running on prime have been optimized for the tetra 3 chipset. The only game in this graphical category that has been optimized for the A5 chipset is infinity blade II, which isn’t available for android. The transformer prime looks beautiful but. Htc, samsung and many other companies inluding apple with have their quad-core chips. Every android tablet thus far has failed to knock apple of the hill. Now we say the prime is new king. But were comparing a quad core to a dual core and the differences are minimal-graphics wise. IMO.

    • The only GPU benchmarks the A5’s GPU tops the charts in are the offscreen tests, which can possibly be attributed to screen mirroring resulting in a lower resolution output than when running the test on Android devices (which output true 720p for the offscreen tests), or just optimization that affects that particular test. In all other GLbenchmark rendering results, even the Mali-400 in the SGS2’s Exynos SoC is neck-and-neck with the SGX543MP2. There’s no reason to conclude the ULP GeForce used in the Tegra 3 is inferior to the iPad 2’s GPU.

  2. no doubt TF prime is a quad core device.
    that being said bad comparison 
    just stop compare android devices to apple products
     apple is always 2 or 3 years behind.

  3. Well my iPad 2 just got 101025 on Browser Mark???

    But I suppose I closed all running apps and did a soft reset to make it fair?

  6. Funny thing about Benchmarks. They are not always the same results. I just ran the benchmarks on my Asus Transformer (Original) and my results were somewhat better. Not day and night but better. Honeycomb 3.2 stock Transformer results.

    Sunspider – 2167
    Browsermark – 88138
    GLBenchmarks were the same though.

    C.

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