HTC DROID DNA Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset performance examined in detail

We managed our usual set of benchmarks on the freshly announced HTC DROID DNA and its Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset. We were curious to see how the four Krait cores and the Adreno 320 GPU handle the FullHD screen screen.

The latest Qualcomm chipset didn’t disappoint and we saw the HTC DROID DNA post some pretty impressive scores in our tests. Its high-end rivals were often found lagging behind and at times they were feeling downright underpowered.

We started with the BenchmarkPi test, which reflects per-core CPU performance. As expected the Krait architecture helped the DROID DNA beat its quad-core rivals. More impressively, though, it managed to beat the LG Optimus G despite packing identical CPU cores as the LG flagship.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• HTC DROID DNA
  263
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  330
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  350
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  359
• Meizu MX 4-core
  362

Linpack is another CPU-testing benchmark, but it supports multi-threading and thus brings a better idea of the quad-core architecture overall processing power. Here the HTC DROID DNA lost to the Optimus G by a very small margin, but blew the rest of the competitors out of the water.

Linpack

Higher is better

• LG Optimus G
  608
• HTC DROID DNA
  602
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214.3
• Meizu MX 4-core
  189.1
• HTC One X+
  177.7
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175.5
• HTC One X
  160.9
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141.5

The Quadrant benchmark tries to evaluate the overall processing power of the chipset – CPU, GPU and memory performance. The HTC DROID DNA managed to top the competition here, which is a really impressive achievement given that its screen resolution poses a bigger challenge to the graphical power.

Quadrant

Higher is better

• HTC DROID DNA
  8513
• HTC One X+
  7632
• LG Optimus G
  7439
• HTC One X
  5952
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  5916
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  5375
• Meizu MX 4-core
  5170
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  4814

The HTC DROID DNA didn’t do as well in AnTuTu, which is our other all-round benchmark. The smartphone did beat the LG Optimus G and the Galaxy S III, but came behind the rest of the quad-core top dogs .

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  13562
• HTC One X+
  13519
• Meizu MX 4-core
  11820
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  11633
• HTC DROID DNA
  11551
• LG Optimus G
  11226
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  10767

The 3D graphics department is handled by the Adreno 320 GPU. The first test we ran was NenaMark 2, but just like its competitors the HTC DROID DNA managed to hit the 60fps limit of the screen, rendering the results moot. GLBenchmark let us get a better idea of the graphics power of the DROID DNA – the smartphone got the highest score of any smartphone we have tested so far. Given that its screen resolution is much higher than its competitors, though it’s can’t compete as successfully in on-screen tests.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC DROID DNA
  30
• LG Optimus G
  29
• Apple iPhone 5
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15
• HTC One X+
  12
• HTC One X
  9

The only area of the HTC DROID DNA performance that wasn’t exactly inspiring were the browser tests. The smartphone came some way off the leaders in both SunSpider and BrowserMark, which is rather hard to understand given that it runs Android Jelly Bean and has its optimized JavaScript engine. We suspect this is caused by some kind of driver issue that the relatively new Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset has and we expect to see better results from it in the future.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Ativ S
  891
• Apple iPhone 5
  915
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  972
• HTC One X+
  1001
• Motorola RAZR i XT890
  1059
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1192
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1312
• LG Optimus G
  1353
• HTC DROID DNA
  1421
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1446
• HTC One X
  1468

BrowserMark

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5
  189937
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  185034
• HTC One X+
  181365
• Meizu MX 4-core
  158404
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  157176
• Motorola RAZR i XT890
  149038
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  147582
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  140270
• HTC DROID DNA
  140270
• LG Optimus G
  118126
• Samsung Ativ S
  64817

The HTC DROID DNA is a stunning performer and while it doesn’t have the graphics power advantage to fully compensate for it vastly higher screen resolution that shouldn’t be an issue in most of the real-life scenarios.