Kobo Arc CPU Benchmark Results

The Kobo Arc performs well in our CPU tests, trading blows with the Samsung Galaxy S3 throughout our tests, a device that has an MSRP of more than twice that of the Kobo Arc. Each test was run three times with the lowest result thrown out and the final two scores averaged.

The SunSpider 1.0 benchmark is an update of the 2007 SunSpider 0.9 benchmark. It is a JavaScript based benchmark that tests a system’s ability to run short snippets of hard to optimize code, such as cryptography tests, 3D raytracer tests, and code decompression. The end result of the SunSpider benchmark is measured in the time in milliseconds it takes the benchmark to complete.

Google Octane V1 is also a set of Java Script benchmarks that Google claims aligns more with real world Java Script applications than tests like Webkits SunSpider. Some of the benchmarks run are an encryption and decryption based benchmark, Mandreel which is a 3D bullet physics engine, and a Gameboy emulator. Each of these tests provides a number indicating its performance where bigger is better, and at the end of the series all scores are averaged to provide the final results.

Geekbench is a cross platform benchmark designed to allow dissimilar systems to be benchmarked against each other.

The AndEBench benchmark created by EEMBC was designed to test both a systems native CPU performance, and its Java interpreter performance. During the benchmark many different features of the OS are tested including OS layer calls, graphics, audio, networking, floating point, and SIMD operations. This application is open source so should an enthusiast like they can verify and understand how each result is reached.

Throughout each of our tests, we see the Kobo Arc and the Samsung Galaxy S3 trading blows, each wins some tests and loses others. On both of browser tests, we see the Kobo Arc quite handily surpasses the Samsung Galaxy S3 by 20-25%. Once we moved on to application based benchmarks we see the Galaxy S3 and the Arc trading places, with the Kobo Arc just behind the Galaxy S3 in our Geekbench test and just barely ahead of the S3 on AndEBench Native test.

Where things get interesting is our AndEBench Java benchmark where the Galaxy S3 demolishes our Kobo Arc having a score 30% lower than its competition. The only reason I assume for this drastic swing in performance is the fact that the Kobo Arc is running Android 4.1.1, while the Galaxy S3 is running the recently released 4.1.2 update which does come with some performance upgrades.