Warp Speed - mobile phones are now competing on how fast they are?

With the advent of the iPhone 3GS, how fast a phone is has become a big selling point. How fast is accesses apps, or moves between programs is now important. Let's check out three phones that embody the principle of super speed.

iPhone 3GS

The key selling point about the iPhone 3GS is speed; after all, that's what the S in the name stands for. Essentially, Apple have promised the iPhone 3GS will be up to twice as fast and responsive as its forerunner, but how it achieves it is a bit of a mystery, since Apple are steadfastly refusing to release the internal specs of the iPhone 3GS. So, the processor speed and internal architecture are unconfirmed (it's rumoured to run at 600MHz, though), but the results are said to be plain to see. App speed on the iPhone 3GS is increased, and it's said that everything responds even more swiftly. We'll finally see for sure when the iPhone 3GS is released...

Palm Pre

While the internal specs of the iPhone 3GS are cloaked in mystery, the Palm Pre has a much more obvious reason for its speed (demonstrations have shown it seems to be a lot faster than the original iPhone 3G). Quite simply, the Palm Pre is down to the incredible optimisation and sleekness of its operating system, WebOS. It's such a slick, well-coded operating system, that the Palm Pre is incredibly responsive, even down to the screen spinning when the phone's turned on its side being almost instantaneous, with the Palm Pre showing almost no lag whatsoever.

Toshiba TG01

SO, the iPhone 3GS may be a bit of a wildcard, as it's not confirmed what its processor's running at, but to use a car analogy for the Palm Pre, that phone is the equivalent of a Lotus Elise; it relies on phenomenal handling over raw power. To take that analogy to its logical conclusion, let's take a look at a phone that is the equivalent of a 1000bhp TVR Speed 12: the Toshiba TG01. That's actually a good analogy, as what the Toshiba TG01 has that's unique is a Snapdragon processor. The Palm Pre relies on a sleek OS, but the Toshiba TG01 relies on giving its Windows Mobile OS immense amounts of power, as the Snapdragon chip comes in at an astounding 1GHz. So, we have three separate solutions on display here: the iPhone 3GS, with whatever its mystery-shrouded internal architecture delivers; the Palm Pre, with stunning software optimisation; and the Toshiba TG01, the ultra-powerful one. All different, but all proving that device speed is one of the important new battlegrounds for phones, just as it is for laptops, to fight in.