Questions about rooting and Android phone

When using Windows, you find you get different Administrative and System level setting such as Managing Services, Configuring Hardware properties and lots more. When you are using a smartphone, you don't get all these previliges. I know, sideloading the apps(installing apps from different sources eg: SD Card) is an in built feature in android, but sometimes only this is not enough. Rooting allows you to gain system level privileges(permissions to modify system files).

Unlocking the bootloader lets you change kernels in an android phone. This is much much higher way of completely customizing your phone and bringing in all kinds of hardware level changes- which also includes overclocking your CPU!

Now, there's more to it. In recent past, rooting was considered illegal and the phone manufacturers did not support it. They even warned customers about high service charges once you brick your phone using those hardware tweaks. In fact, Amazon pushed over-the-air updates which banned the customers from sideloading apps onto Nook. However, companies like HTC and Google allow their bootloaders to be unlocked and OS also to be change completely. Though you lose warranty, but something enthusiasm is the key to take a risk. Though if you handle your phone carefully and load the apps and roms(different community made android distributions for your phone) verified by the community, you won't have any problems.

How is hardware benchmarking done?

Benchmark is basically a statistical data about a computer's any device's hardware performance.

How a benchmark is done?

To perform a benchmark, a software(app) is run on the device which pushes the hardware usage to its extent. That means, when you run a benchmark app on your device, it will carry out hefty processor hungry memory digesting and excreting operations. After that it checks how those operations were carried out, the speed and quality. Finally, you get a benchmark score.

Antutu Benchmark is one of the most popular benchmarking apps that will let you asses the hardware performance of your android device. Get it now at Google Play! This app also compares the user's benchmark on an 'international leaderboard'

Image source: FizzBack blog

Top questions regarding Processor, GPU, Display and Memory of a Smart Phone - The Backend

This article is a part of the series Top questions regarding the tech specs about a smart phone.

The questions in this article are:
1. Do number of cores really matter?
2. Is 512MB enough for a smart phone?
3. PowerVR vs Adreno 320?
4. Sony Bravia Engine vs Samsung Super AMOLED

Q. Do the number of cores really matter?

A. Yes, and they make significant difference. For example, the dual core 1Ghz processor of Samsung Galaxy S Advance does tasks far more better than the HTC One V. Basically, consider this example: In a company called smartphone, a job was given to a staff member. He was able to finish that  job in two days. The company was sad, they thought as work load would increase, having one person do the job isn't enough. Hence, they appointed one more person. Now, both people together did whatever job was appointed to them by distributing the bigger job into smaller ones. Hence, the work was finished in a matter of hours. Same is the case with processor cores. As we know that processor does all the job of thinking in a smartphone. Hence, if the processor has one core, it will take time. But, if has more, the job will be done quickly(yeah, it doesn't take days or hours to process data on smartphone, the example was just a metaphor). So, whenever you buy a mid range smart phone, make sure that it at least has two cores or if you are ready to compromise speed for something else. Yes, how can we forget the giant Samsung Galaxy S4 which has got massive 8 cores!

Q. Is 512MB RAM enough for a smart phone?

A. Well, in most cases 512MB RAM is just enough to run apps that are mid-weight. I mean the apps which don't require high 3D graphics processing, or involved in doing many tasks at the same time. For Windows Phones, like the Nokia Lumia 620 Microsoft has done excellent job. They "pause" the inactive apps and give most resources to the app which the user is actually using. Just like you Hibernate your PC and get back its previous state when switched on, the same thing happens with background apps if your device runs in low memory. So, if you have a Windows Phone with 512MB RAM, you might just get everything you need in enough quantity.

Q. Which GPU is better PowerVR or Adreno 320?

A. PowerVR has given the best performance when it comes to graphic processing than the Adreno. PowerVR comes with Samsung Exynos chips, while we see Adreno coming up with Snapdragon processors. Though Adreno is more common, PowerVR is the best among the Android phones that I have seen so far. We have seen many questions regarding PowerVR vs Adreno on the WWW, and I guess you have got your answer. Yes, Adreno can be overclocked(Forceful increase in processing speed by firmware modifications) to get processing rate more than PowerVR, but performance wise, it so far was not able to cross the Samsung's creation. Just for info, the Areno 320 GPU is present in Sony Xperia Z and HTC One

Q. Bravia Engine vs Super AMOLED, which one is better?

A. Bravia Engine has longer lifespan, greater number of colours, way more clarity and better viewing pleasure. This display engine also provides better eyesight protection. S-AMOLED, found mostly in Samsung phones, has better brightness. But in fact, if you want brightness, you can check LCD3, the technology with HTC uses for display. 

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Top questions regarding CAMERA of a smartphone

A part of series "Top questions regarding tech specs of a smart phone"
The questions in this article are:
1. Do megapixels really matter?
2. Do megapixels affect low light photography?
3. What is Nokia Pureview

Got more? Ask me here << Click there

Q. Do megapixels really matter?

A: Yes, they do. In fact, all your images are written in tiny small dots called pixels. Like cells are building blocks of life, these little pixels are the smallest indivisible part of a digital image. The more dots per inch, the clearer the picture. Hence, higher the megapixels, clearer the picture you get. For utter sharp images, you need more than 8 megapixels. Galaxy S4 gives a 13MP camera, so does Sony Xperia Z. 

Q. Does megapixels affect low light photography?

A: No. Basically, the amount of light captured by a camera depends upon how sensitive the camera sensor is. It is the minimum intensity of light required to activate the camera sensor. Nokia Lumia 720 is a really good budget phone with just right amount of Pixels and excellent low light photography.

Q. What is Nokia Pureview?

A. First unveiled in 2010 with the Nokia Pureview 808, the mind blowing 41MP camera phone running Nokia Belle OS. Nokia has made an awesome breakthrough which talks about an innovative way of handling images. All it does is combine many small pixels into one superpixel! This leads to superior noise reduction(Noise is basically the tiny little dots you see on the image when taking a photo). The best part of this technological innovation is the Zoom. I mean when you combine tiny little pixels to form one huge pixel, its well controlled how many tiny pixels you want to combine into one superpixel. Hence, the you get losless zoom. And seriously the quality is pretty awesome.

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