Browser comparison between OS 1 and OS 2 - Video

I have two Playbooks around the house as a family member got a Playbook for Christmas so I decided to do a comparison between the browsers as I've noticed the browser is much improved in OS 2. Mine is loaded with OS 2.0.0.6149 and the other Playbook is loaded with OS 1.0.8.6067. The Playbook on the right in the video is the one with OS 2. Both were running on the same wifi.

The first site visited is html5test.com, which scores the browser based on the html5 compatibility. There is quite the difference between the two browsers with OS 2 scoring 51 points higher.

The second site, cnn.com, was handled well by both browsers. Not much to say here.

The third site is where the differences started to become apparent. The browser on OS 2 handled engadget.com much better then OS 1. OS 2 almost had the whole site loaded before the other even showed any signs of the page loading. Scrolling is also noticeably improved as checkerboarding is almost non-existentant on OS 2 but very apparent on OS 1.

The final site, crackberry.com, was again handled much better by OS 2. As with the previous site, the page was almost loaded before any sign of the page was loaded on OS 1. Moreover, the pinch-to-zoom demonstrated smoother implementation in OS 2 as in OS 1 there is noticeable lag.

Overall, the browser on OS 2 feels much improved except for the fact the flash player in OS 2 is very unstable. I've lost count of how many hard resets I've had to do.

I recommend to view the file in HD.
Blackberry Playbook Browser Speed Test OS 1 vs OS 2 - YouTube

On a side note, that was shot on a 9860.

its good to know what exactly was improved on the browser.
how about javascript performance which is definitely the main reason for varying page load times? any difference there?

i just ran sunspider test on my playbook vs my iphone (lower is better):
playbook (running os 2.0 beta 6.x): 2336.1 ms
iphone (running iOS 5.0.0. not upgraded to 5.0.1 yet cause im waiting for jailbreak): 2256.5ms

despite my iphone being better, those numbers are pretty impressive for the playbook.

I assume there is improvements in javascript handling that combined with better html5 are the main reasons for improvement.

Originally Posted by lynntarbox

its good to know what exactly was improved on the browser.
how about javascript performance which is definitely the main reason for varying page load times? any difference there?

i just ran sunspider test on my playbook vs my iphone (lower is better):
playbook (running os 2.0 beta 6.x): 2336.1 ms
iphone (running iOS 5.0.0. not upgraded to 5.0.1 yet cause im waiting for jailbreak): 2256.5ms

despite my iphone being better, those numbers are pretty impressive for the playbook.

similar here:
2248 ms for iphone 4s with os 5.01
2461 ms for playbook on latest release OS 1.08.6067

Can someone running the latest beta 2.0 on the playbook reboot and run:

SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript Benchmark (sunspider-0.9.1 test suite - In Progress...)

Post results in this thread. Thanks.

i also have an iphone 4s on 5.0.1.

playbook on OS 2.0 beta 6149.

both i just reset.

playbook: 2321.4ms
iphone: 2153.8ms

bare in mind the iphone is only 800mhz dual core while the playbook is 1ghz dual core.

just goes to show software makes a huge difference. i imagine on the ipad 2 wheres its also 1ghz dual core and thus even faster than the iphone, it'd smoke the playbook even more.

but these are just theoretical benchmarks. in real use both are pretty snappy (minus flash performance which is dreadful on pretty much any mobile device)

Originally Posted by nada_surf

i also have an iphone 4s on 5.0.1.

playbook on OS 2.0 beta 6149.

both i just reset.

playbook: 2321.4ms
iphone: 2153.8ms

bare in mind the iphone is only 800mhz dual core while the playbook is 1ghz dual core.

just goes to show software makes a huge difference. i imagine on the ipad 2 wheres its also 1ghz dual core and thus even faster than the iphone, it'd smoke the playbook even more.

but these are just theoretical benchmarks. in real use both are pretty snappy (minus flash performance which is dreadful on pretty much any mobile device)

Thanks. Looks like approximately 5% improvement in javascript performance using beta 2.0.
Not much of a change. It is a beta though. Perhaps if/when a final release drops, there will be a noticeable difference in this important metric.

Similar result with build 6149 here:

PB: 2309.6ms
iPhone 4S/5.0.1: 2164.8ms
iPad/4.3.5: 3246.8ms
iPad2/5.0.1: 1772.0ms

you guys are testing flash content load times right?

Originally Posted by omniusovermind

you guys are testing flash content load times right?

This is a JavaScript benchmark. No Flash.

I really hope that OS2 browser is improved over OS1. I do a lot of forum surfing and sometimes my browser will hang up. Funny enough,I've found my bridge browser will out perform the standard browser with my phone bridged and my phone on wifi. Why would that make difference?

AnandTech - iPhone 4S Preliminary Benchmarks: ~800MHz A5, Slightly Slower GPU than iPad 2, Still Very Fast

Anandtech uses a bunch of tests.Can someone please put Os 2.0 6149 build thru these tests.Thanks in advance.:)

Subscribed.

Originally Posted by purijagmohan

AnandTech - iPhone 4S Preliminary Benchmarks: ~800MHz A5, Slightly Slower GPU than iPad 2, Still Very Fast

Anandtech uses a bunch of tests.Can someone please put Os 2.0 6149 build thru these tests.Thanks in advance.:)

I got a browsermark score of 61325 on OS 2.0.0.6149. Unfortuneately, some of those other tests are apps only available for iOS.

On OS 2.0.0.7971 final, Sunspider 0.9.1 results:

2196.9ms +/- 0.6%

Approximately a 10% improvement over a reported 1.0.8 score of 2461ms earlier in the thread.

Mine ran 2410 and 2416 on Crackberry.com