Android phones/ios overclocking

[Cycerath]

You guys do alot of great videos, and I've watched almost all of them. I've seen alot of cpu overclocking for computers. But have you considered doing a video on overclocking phone cpus?

[Amazingasian]

Seeing as most phones don't have proper cooling, let alone unlocked CPU's, no.  That's a bad idea.

[PlayStation 2]

I don't think it's actually doable in practice.

[RollinLower]

You guys do alot of great videos, and I've watched almost all of them. I've seen alot of cpu overclocking for computers. But have you considered doing a video on overclocking phone cpus?

you have a better chance of geting a reaction from Linus or Luke if you message them on twitter!

anyway, i've done a fair bot of overclocking on my Xperia X10i, and i gotta say it's a lot less efficient on phones, as they just don;t have adequate cooling!

maybe the new heatpipe phones could change that?

[QueenDemetria]

You guys do alot of great videos, and I've watched almost all of them. I've seen alot of cpu overclocking for computers. But have you considered doing a video on overclocking phone cpus?

Overclocking mobile CPU's would be a difficult video to make, since the process varies widely between devices. 

[RollinLower]

Seeing as most phones don't have proper cooling, let alone unlocked CPU's, no.  That's a bad idea.

it's actually very possible and easy to do once you install a custom kernel on Android. 

seriously, you can set a new clock speed at the tap of your finger!

[Amazingasian]

it's actually very possible and easy to do once you install a custom kernel on Android. 

seriously, you can set a new clock speed at the tap of your finger!

And then burn your finger because your phone gets so hot! 

[harrynowl]

Seeing as most phones don't have proper cooling, let alone unlocked CPU's, no.  That's a bad idea.

I don't think it's actually doable in practice.

It is for most Android phones and tablets. The Android Kernel controls the CPU steps and voltages.

 

There was a thing a while ago where you could edit a system file but it was never proven whether it did anything or not I believe.

[Amazingasian]

It is for most Android phones and tablets. The Android Kernel controls the CPU steps and voltages.

 

There was a thing a while ago where you could edit a system file but it was never proven whether it did anything or not I believe.

I didn't say it's IMpossible.  I just said it's a bad idea.

[RollinLower]

And then burn your finger because your phone gets so hot! 

true, it does increase heat output a lot, tough i have a very comfortable overclock running on my HTC One M7. it's stable as a rock running at 1.9Ghz (form 1.7Ghz stock)

[EposVox]

No, just no.

[RollinLower]

No, just no.

why not?

[DildorTheDecent]

Got my HTC One X up to 1.6GHz from 1.5GHz. 

 

Some later variants of it could achieve a 1.7GHz OC. While the really early phones could only do 1.55GHz. 

 

That phone ran hot by default so the OC was zero temp change for the most part. 

[harrynowl]

I didn't say it's IMpossible.  I just said it's a bad idea.

Well you made note of them using locked CPUs as to suggest it wasn't possible.

[Sithhy]

I can OC my HTC One M7 from 1,7Ghz to 2,1Ghz on the ElementalX kernel... But for me, it won't boot after OC'ing it past 1,7... Sad times

[Sithhy]

true, it does increase heat output a lot, tough i have a very comfortable overclock running on my HTC One M7. it's stable as a rock running at 1.9Ghz (form 1.7Ghz stock)

What Android & kernel you running on? I never managed to OC more than stock & keep it booting [emoji52]

[RollinLower]

What Android & kernel you running on? I never managed to OC more than stock & keep it booting [emoji52]

ElementalX 20.1, running NuSenSeven based on Android 5.0.2

[Sauron]

It CAN be done, but it's a terrible idea and completely pointless.

[minibois]

You can OC Android phones, but they start running pretty hot. You can also underclock them. I know a guy who did it, so his battery lasts longer (but you do lose some performance, but he has a S6 I think and only uses it for 'simple' stuff

[beach_boy98]

Still waiting for @Lays to put his phone under Ice.

[BuckGup]

The tegra note 5 has a boost option in the settings it bumps the frequency up by like 0.2ghz making it hotter and battery die faster without any noticeable difference 

[burnttoastnice]

It CAN be done, but it's a terrible idea and completely pointless.

 

Power-users who do out of the ordinary tasks on their phones, as well as users who run multiple simultaneous applications would definitely benefit from this.

 

You can OC Android phones, but they start running pretty hot. You can also underclock them. I know a guy who did it, so his battery lasts longer (but you do lose some performance, but he has a S6 I think and only uses it for 'simple' stuff

 

All android phones should be underclocked by default in my opinion, with a manufacturer app available to release the underclock. That would prevent uninformed users with android phones not even utilising the full potential performance of the CPU complaining about battery life.

 

You guys do alot of great videos, and I've watched almost all of them. I've seen alot of cpu overclocking for computers. But have you considered doing a video on overclocking phone cpus?

 

It would be hard to justify and they'd probably end up bricking the phones. Tweet them and see what they say.

[Sauron]

Power-users who do out of the ordinary tasks on their phones, as well as users who run multiple simultaneous applications would definitely benefit from this.

 

No, because the slight performance increase would in no way outweigh the problems it would cause - meaning significantly lower battery life, unsafe temperatures for both the soc and the rest of the phone, potential instability and crashes. This is coming from a guy who dual booted ubuntu with android on a nexus 7, which would in my opinion classify me as a power user doing out of the ordinary tasks. Modern phones are more than fast enough for anything you may realistically want to do under android (including "power user" tasks) and the ones running atoms at this point are fast enough to run windows 7 in a virtual machine as shown with the zenfone 2. If you want more power on the go, just buy a laptop, you can far higher performance than on a similarly priced phone.

[burnttoastnice]

No, because the slight performance increase would in no way outweigh the problems it would cause - meaning significantly lower battery life, unsafe temperatures for both the soc and the rest of the phone, potential instability and crashes. This is coming from a guy who dual booted ubuntu with android on a nexus 7, which would in my opinion classify me as a power user doing out of the ordinary tasks. Modern phones are more than fast enough for anything you may realistically want to do under android (including "power user" tasks) and the ones running atoms at this point are fast enough to run windows 7 in a virtual machine as shown with the zenfone 2. If you want more power on the go, just buy a laptop, you can far higher performance than on a similarly priced phone.

 

Unsafe temperatures is not a problem, as ALL arm processors have a hardware thermal shutdown mechanism built-in, with the software shutdown threshold much lower. Many phones such as the Galaxy S5 will also warn you when the phone gets too hot, and start closing applications. A few years ago my S4 Mini shut itself down from overheating in my pocket.

 

What I had in mind is the BBC's technology show called Click, where they filmed and edited a full 50 minute episode of the show using just mobile devices. That such scenario would have no-doubt benefited from overclocking the CPU.

And also don't forget that all CPUs are different, overclocking a MediaTek CPU will not bring a big performance difference compared to overclocking a Qualcomm CPU. Anyone who even bothers trying to overclock a Actions Semiconductor CPU is wasting their time, they're useless.

 

I'm sure a power user who wanted a full desktop computing experience would take a laptop with them or just use a remote desktop link - there isn't much point trying to carry a full desktop OS on a device with small storage (<64GB) unless you're planning on editing word documents or doing on-the-go presentations (Which is exactly what I used my Android 2.2 tablet for after installing Windows CE).

 

The long story short is, it really depends on what the person wants to do on their phone, but everyone's mileage will vary.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31747911

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mediatek+vs+qualcomm+vs+actions

 

Before I go I should also mention RAM. Having a fast CPU clocked at a high stock speed isn't always the answer. If you have a 4GHz dual-core phone and only 1GB of ram, the processor essentially is making no difference to the system's performance, as the RAM would limit what you can do on it simultaneously anyway. The first 1 or 2 applications would open quick, then it would start to slow down. Thankfully Android's minfree file can be edited to change RAM allocation preferences, but I'd rather have a phone with heaps of RAM and a slow CPU that can be overclocked to reach my desired performance requirement, rather than many modern phones with a mere 2GB of RAM (may sound like a lot of ram, but when you have 10-15+ background apps open, it gets heavily used up) and fast CPUs that aren't even able to show their full potential under multitasking workloads.

[silentmelodies]

I overclocked multiple phones with Linux kernel hacking.

HTC HD2 from 998MHz to 1.2GHz. - Improved system performance, stopped screen freezing.

Xperia X8 from 600MHz to 807MHz - Skipped buying a new phone because this became usable, also kernel hacking, allowed me to jump from Android 1.6 to 2.3 without problems

 

Xperia SP from 1.7GHz to 2.1GHz - Improved Antutu score by 4000-5000, 3DMark score by around 1000pts.


And NO, battery does not last shorter if you configure the kernel properly to handle Clock-by-Load and the CPU Scheduler

So, AMA