First benchmarks Android netbook with Tegra 2 emerge

The first benchmark results of a netbook with Android on a Tegra 2 chip have surfaced. The dual-core Cortex A9 CPU performs much better under Android 2.1 than smartphones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.

The Toshiba AC100 achieves a score of 1911 under Android 2.1 with the CPU benchmark tool Quadrant, reports the Carrypad blog. The fastest smartphones under Android 2.1 are around a score of 1000 with the same tool. Under Android 2.2, which contains various improvements to improve CPU performance, smartphones score better. The Google Nexus One with Qualcomm Snapdragon processor scores around 1300, the Samsung Galaxy S with Samsung Hummingbird processor gets a score of 1660 at Quadrant under Android 2.2.

The Tegra 2 is on paper a lot more powerful than many current processors. The CPU, which is mainly intended for tablets, is a dual core and runs on a Cortex A9 core. Qualcomm’s Snapdragons have Qualcomm’s own Scorpion core, which is similar to the older Cortex A8. The Samsung Hummingbird is a Cortex A8 based processor. Both the Tegra 2 in the AC100 and the Nexus One and Galaxy S run at a clock speed of 1GHz.

The first product with Tegra 2 is the AC100 from Toshiba, announced in June, the netbook that was also used for the benchmark. The netbook plays an h.264 video in 1080p at 13Mbps. Incidentally, there is still a major bug in the firmware. Three-quarters of the battery capacity is used for ‘cell standby’, while the netbook does not have GSM or 3G and therefore does not support ‘cell standby’.