Test Methodology: In all of our test vehicles for the following benchmarks, we ran each tablet at its performance optimized settings where available, with the exception of the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, which was tested at Normal and Balanced power profile settings. Normal mode on the Prime offers the full performance of its NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, whereas Balanced mode compromises performance a bit to conserve power, capping the CPU at 1.2GHz max frequency. Beyond that, each tablet was also connected to a wall power source to ensure full performance. Here's a quick spec rundown for each tablet tested.
- Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime - NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.3GHz Quad-Core
- Asus Eee Pad Transformer - NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz Dual-Core
- Apple iPad 2 - Apple A5 Dual-Core
- Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet - NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz Dual-Core
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz Dual-Core
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus - 1.2GHz Samsung Exynos Dual Core
- Sony Tablet S - NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz Dual-Core
Let's get this benchmarking party started, shall we?
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CPU Performance Testing
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Android CPU Testing
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Sony's Tablet S posted the slowest score of them all, though it's roughly on par with similarly equipped tablets. Compared to two of the latest tablets on the market (the iPad 2 and Transformer Prime), however, the Tablet S doesn't fair as well.
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Web Browser Performance Testing |
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Android Browser Testing |
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We saw the same thing in Rightware's BrowserMark benchmark, which is designed to measure a browser's performance in JavaScript and HTML rendering. The Tablet S trended towards the rear of the pack, though it didn't finish dead last this time around.
JavaScript performance is nothing for Sony's Tablet S to brag about, at least as indicated by its SunSpider score, which was the worst of the bunch. Taking all three scores into consideration -- Linkpack, BrowserMark, and SunSpider -- things don't look quite as rosy for Sony's slate.
Browsing the Web, however, felt faster than these scores would indicate. Pinch-to-zoom performance was very good in our tests, and so was scrolling up and down. Other than intermittent input lag using the virtual keyboard, we found navigating websites to be smoother on the Tablet S than with the Kindle Fire, for example.
