Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

VIDEO: Qualcomm Tests S4's Thermal Efficiency with Butter

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US

Butter wouldn't melt in its mouth? Not quite, but Qualcomm beats out the competition in its own unique thermal efficiency test.

Snapdragon's S4 SoC is a powerful piece of technology. However, while most of the S4 focuses on the chip's 28nm process or its future powering Windows 8 devices, Qualcomm is out to show off a different aspect of the SoC with its latest video proving the thermal efficiency of the S4.

To demonstrate how its product stands up against rival solutions, the company took three phones, one based on the Snapdragon S4 and two more mystery devices labeled only as 'Competitor A' and 'Competitor B.' Using a thermal camera to measure the thermal footprint that the three phones leave during peak performance, Qualcomm displayed the results on the following heatmap:

 

Still, why look at a heatmap when you can perform a similar test using butter? Its heatmap demonstration complete, Qualcomm placed big chunks of butter on each device. You don't need to be a scientist to figure out what happened next.

"Butter melts at 35 degrees Celsius," said Qualcomm's Vidyasagar Rao, later adding that the phone heating up the most was hitting 55 degrees Celsius. Yikes. Check the video to see the buttery action for yourself. [Ed. note: Now all we need to do is conduct the same test to pop some popcorn!]

Snapdragon Thermal Efficiency - Butter Test

Follow @JaneMcEntegart on Twitter.   

There are 16 Comments. B
Top Comments
  • 13 Ð
    Murissokah , June 7, 2012 8:56 PM
    So it won't make me a sandwich?
Other Comments
  • 13 Ð
    Murissokah , June 7, 2012 8:56 PM
    So it won't make me a sandwich?
  • 5 Ð
    mindless728 , June 7, 2012 9:07 PM
    omg that was hilarious and awesome at the same time
  • 5 Ð
    mt2e , June 7, 2012 9:43 PM
    A and B could be from 2 years ago for all we know......gesh talk about scewed
  • 3 Ð
    mt2e , June 7, 2012 9:43 PM
    skewed!
  • 4 Ð
    tartarsause , June 7, 2012 9:51 PM
    From my knowledge of smartphones, competitor B is the Galaxy S2 and competitor A the Motorola Razr but from personal experience the Razr gets much worse at its Kevlar back in terms of heat than the S2.
  • 1 Ð
    s3anister , June 7, 2012 10:10 PM
    Delicious.
  • -5 Ð
    kikireeki , June 7, 2012 10:44 PM
    Snapdrogon might be cooler, but it is slower as well.
  • 6 Ð
    house70 , June 7, 2012 11:42 PM
    kikireekiSnapdrogon might be cooler, but it is slower as well.

    Recent OneX tests beg to differ.
  • 1 Ð
    nforce4max , June 8, 2012 12:08 AM
    Competitor A == Motorola Razr (powered by TI OMAP)

    Competitor B == Samsung Galaxy S2 (Powered by Exynos)
  • 1 Ð
    830hobbes , June 8, 2012 12:56 AM
    Cool marketing but this doesn't control for the thickness of the phone backing, the material the backing is made of or the distance between the chip and the backing. All of these things can make a huge difference in heat transfer.
  • 1 Ð
    ikyung , June 8, 2012 2:40 AM
    Isn't the U.S. Galaxy S3 coming with the Snapdragon S4 and not the Exynos 4412?
  • 0 Ð
    freggo , June 8, 2012 4:15 AM
    being always the non-trusting type.... did all butter come out of the same freezer or did they include an 'extra' cold one ? :-)
  • 0 Ð
    livebriand , June 8, 2012 5:06 AM
    Now that's innovative!
  • 0 Ð
    anonymous@guest , June 8, 2012 6:16 AM
    I dont see a reason to get the sg3 over the one x now since they are both s4 processor based
  • 1 Ð
    kcorp2003 , June 8, 2012 9:13 AM
    i like when he said melting butter and the video paused. like wtf. hahah nice!
  • 0 Ð
    archange , June 8, 2012 4:16 PM
    nforce4maxCompetitor A == Motorola Razr (powered by TI OMAP)Competitor B == Samsung Galaxy S2 (Powered by Exynos)

    Agree. The reason Competitor B (AKA SGS2) melts butter so proficiently is that it uses the METAL casing surrounding its back camera as a heat transfer material. You can feel this by hand whenever running a benchmark or something.
    On a side note, we can all hope that no cows were hurt in the making of this video.