Video: "Fasttest" v2.3 (a Donut ROM) at 780MHz on my HTC Magic

2010-02-12 Update: The overclocking hack fooled even Android, but the processor output does not lie: It doesn't work. Here's why. All this showed was that a lean, fast ROM at 528MHz *looks* really fast...and so it is. That isn't so bad after all.

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I tried htcclay's "Fasttest" v2.3 ROM on  my testing phone with the Chris Soyars patched kernel allowing to be overclocked to 780MHz. It was so stable over a 24 hour period that I've installed it on my main phone as the primary system. This is a big move for me as my main phone almost always is running either the stock Android load that came with it, it the latest Cyanogen Mod. I need that phone working as perfectly as possible.

The main processor speed is only part of any computing device's overall performance. The Class6 sdcard takes more or less just as long to read and write as it ever did. The network sources of data dish it out as fast as they usually do - more or less....and so on.

The main things I've noticed about running at the higher clock rates are:

- more responsive user-interface
- soft keyboard more responsive
- the display renders more quickly - both on the main screen and in any app presenting a display - like the web browsers or YouTube app.
- the network - LAN or WAN - seems to be able to support faster throughput. This needs more testing.

I've made this video to try to give some sense of what it feels like. At the same time, it shows what a faster clock speed can't address: slow ad sites keeping you waiting. I took a risk going to the NY Times as its servers are on the other side of the planet from New Zealand..but you can see the browser render the content instantly once it has been received.

Have a look. If you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see, let me know. This was what I could think of this afternoon while not thinking about too much. The power went out at work and we were all sent home for rest of the day. Unexpected holiday? Make an android video, of course! :-)