Octa-Core Smartphone; Is it Necessary?

In the introduction of Octa-Core powered Smartphone last 2013 and a handful of Octa-Core Smartphones introduced last 2014, it is undoubtedly that Octa-Core CPUs may be the trend this 2015. But the question is, is it really necessary? Is Quad-Core CPU not enough for your daily smartphone usage? Is it already a taboo for Smartphone manufacturers to make Dual-Core powered Smartphones? Well, at least for me, the answer is NO.

Before anything else, just to give you a brief enlightenment of what does a multi-core processor means, it is just a technology introduced way back the desktop PC era that became a trend due to its better multitasking capability. By having multiple physical cores, the processes were being distributed to each core for them to be processed individually compared to a single-core processor that handles multiple processes at the same time which causes slow-down because one core needs to process multiple tasks alternately on a very fast manner, that also causes the CPU to heat-up easily. Multiple core CPUs can handle multiple tasks effectively since there is no need for a single core to process all the tasks because other cores can handle some of the processes which helps in speeding-up the process and avoid overheat of the CPU. But don’t get confused, the speed of the processor is not being measured with how many cores it has, but on the clock speed. Clock speed is being measured by hertz, and you can see a lot of Smartphones that has Gigahertz (GHz) with their specs sheets. Clock speed is the measurement of how fast one single core can process data. So meaning, as clock speed becomes higher, the CPU becomes faster. A 2.0 GHz processor is faster than the 1.5 GHz processor. For the case of multi-core processors, quad-core for example, if you have a 2.0 GHz quad-core processor, you’re not going to have an 8.0 GHz speed just because you have 4 cores. The processing speed is still 2.0 GHz because each cores work on their own, they don’t combine their speed to increase the overall processing speed of the CPU but distributes every tasks equally to each cores to process more data simultaneously. To make it short, the higher the clock speed, the faster the CPU process data; the more cores available, the better the multitasking.

Going back…

It’s already 2015 and I’m still using the Nokia’s flagship smartphone of 2012, the Lumia 920 which is powered by a Dual-Core processor partnered by a 1 GB of RAM. And with my experience with it, I can say that it can still catch-up with the latest apps that were being introduced in the Windows Phone store. Running multiple chat applications as background process (WeChat, Viber, Line, and FB Messenger), running social media apps (Facebook and Instagram), Windows Phone OS and its background services, and other essential apps like Calendar and Alarm Clock, my Dual-Core powered Windows Phone is still fine. I only experience heating-up when I play Candy Crush or Asphalt 8 which I think is due to graphic-related processing, or maybe a Quad-Core processor is already necessary since a lot of apps are running simultaneously.

With the above-mentioned processes that my Dual-Core Smartphone is capable of handling simultaneously, it only proves that Octa-Core is too much for a Smartphone. On my opinion, quad-core is more than enough, so you’re just going to waste your money on an octa-core smartphone. I also list down the following reasons which I think why Octa-Core is still unnecessary:

1. More cores means more pressure to battery. Octa-core smartphone on a standby mode drains battery faster than a quad-core smartphone also on a standby mode. Even if you’re not using the other core, it still consumes energy from the battery.
2. Octa-core processor should be paired by a higher RAM. What is the sense of your octa-core’s multitasking power if your smartphone only have a very low RAM capacity? Each tasks (background task, services, and apps) uses the RAM to store data, so the more tasks running, the more RAM is being used. So it sucks to see an octa-core processor smartphone that only has a 512 MB of RAM.
3. Multitasking in Smartphone is not as demanding as in Desktop. Unlike desktop PCs or laptops, you cannot open multiple apps running on your screen at the same time. You cannot do chatting while watching movies or make a phone call while playing games. Except for the case of some Smartphones like in Samsung wherein two apps are running on your screen at the same time (due to its multi-window capability). But if you’re using a Windows Phone, a stock Android or any Android mod that don’t have multi-window support, a quad-core is more than enough.
4. There is a price for each additional cores. This is pretty obvious, the more cores a smartphone has, the more expensive it becomes.

To me, it seems like eight core hardware still has a way to go before it’s really suitable, or even needed for smartphones. Instead of adding more cores, I think it is better to have a technological improvement in batteries being used in smartphones. A smartphone is still a phone, it should not run out of juice especially in the times of emergencies where the very basic functionality of a phone which is phone call is very necessary.