Samsung and Google’s Nexus 10 clocks in at 1.7 GHz. As of this writing, this tablet has the highest number in this area, yet it doesn’t perform better than others with lower advertised speeds. The iPad, for example, has a speed of 1.4 but its speed is undeniable. It even beats the Nexus 10 in benchmarks. How did this happen?
set speed
The speed of a tablet is the clock speed of its processor. Typically, this figure reflects how many calculations you can perform in a given period of time. Processes inside a tablet always involve calculations. This means that a tablet with a higher clock speed performs more tasks in a second than one with a lower clock speed.
Imagine filling a bucket with water. Your task is to fill the bucket in the shortest possible time. The faster you are, the faster the task will be finished. Its speed to fill the bucket with water is similar to the speed of a tablet.
What about the cores?
So how do tablets with lower speeds get as fast as those with higher speeds? Another factor to consider is the number of cores. Today’s tablets have a maximum number of four cores, with the most popular example being the Nexus 7. Most have two cores like the iPad and Kindle Fire.
Let’s go back to our bucket of water analogy. Another way to fill the bucket in the shortest possible time is to shop using more buckets at the same time. The cubes here represent the number of nuclei. At the same rate, a person with four buckets can fill the bucket faster than a person with two buckets.
Don’t forget the RAM
RAM, which is short for random access memory, is also a factor. The most common RAM among tablets today is 1 GB. Others have 2GB like the Galaxy Note 10.1.
If cores are represented by the number of buckets in our analogy, RAM is represented by the size of the buckets. Obviously if your buckets are bigger you can fill the bucket faster.
The system
The last factor to consider would be the system that the tablet runs on. There are generally two systems: Android and iOS (or iPad). Continuing our analogy, the system is represented by the person performing the task. Is the person comfortable with the bucket? This question is similar to asking about system compatibility with the tablet hardware. Android for tablets has become more stable than its previous versions. However, the problem of “fragmentation” (optimizing a program for a certain amount of hardware) still exists. This isn’t much of a concern for Apple, as there is essentially an “iPad”.
Conclusion
A tablet’s clock speed isn’t the only measure of its performance. The number of cores, RAM, and system compatibility should also be considered. Naturally, a tablet that scores higher in each factor should work fine, but such a tablet doesn’t exist for now. The type of tablet you should buy should match your needs. If you’re looking for a gaming tablet, consider one with quad cores. An ideal productivity tablet should have high RAM to handle complex tasks.
Read a lot of materials before buying a tablet and avoid buying one based on hype.
