Google mysteriously left out which dual-core 1.2 GHz processor was inside their Galaxy Nexus, but Texas Instruments just hit us up with an email to confirm it’s their newer OMAP4460. Yep, that’s the same OMAP4460 that was supposed to debut at 1.5 GHz. There were reports of problems hitting those speeds, so it looks like Google decided to clock it to 1.2 GHz.
Today is a great day for our collaboration with Google…The long-awaited Android 4.0 release is finally being revealed with the OMAP4460 processor powering the absolutely gorgeous Samsung Galaxy Nexus device. I am so excited about this launch. What I may be the most excited by is not only the ability to converge to one Android release for both smartphones and tablets, but to be able to pack that level of performance across graphics or video on an HD screen and within the power envelope of a smartphone device…This is where our OMAP smart multicore architecture makes a huge difference. At the end of the day, brute force (number of cores, for instance) does not rival sophistication.Remi El-OuazzaneTexas Instruments
The OMAP4460 is very similar to the OMAP4430 that’s already appeared in many Android devices, but the PowerVR540 GPU has been cranked up to 384 MHz (compared to 304 MHz in the OMAP4430). I won’t go into a technical deep-dive on OMAP4 right now, but you can find out more about their unique “tri-dual” architecture in the video below.
I’m sure some people will complain that Google didn’t use Samsung’s own Exynos processor, but the overall user experience on the Galaxy Nexus should be the fastest of any Android device thanks to Android 4.0. We haven’t seen many applications that even stress the current crop of dual-core processors, but most models out there offer comparable performance.
What do you think about Google’s decision to go with the OMAP4460? Let us know if it affects your decision to purchase the phone in the comments below.
