The battle for faster processing power, while keeping power usage low (and in turn, less heat to dissipate and therefore, potentially a longer time before failure) is happening in the android headunit battleground.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a software tool used to measure a systems performance. In terms of an android headunit, the performance is processing power and the benchmarking tool is AnTuTu.
AnTuTu is a software benchmarking tool commonly used to benchmark phones and other devices. It is not possible to compare between different benchmark apps, so the antutu has become the standard tool.
While benchmarking with AnTuTu – or any tool is not an exact science, the numbers generated can give a very good way to get a general comparison between the perceived speed of each android headunit SoC.
AC8257 Benchmark
The AC8257 SoC with 4Gb RAM typically benchmarks on AnTuTu at around the 9000 level. This figure alone is meaningless, but only useful when comparing with another AnTuTu benchmark.
PX6 Benchmark
The PX6 (RK3399) SoC with 4Gb RAM will Antutu benchmark at around 11500.
Compare PX6 with AC8257 Benchmark
The PX6 scores around 11500 which is a significant jump over the AC8257 score of 9000. But a score of 9000 is still very respectable compared to the processors that came before it. While they will both perform very well in an android headunit, the PX6 will run more quickly and won’t buckle under the later generation of apps that demand more processing power to run smoothly.
Overall
Don’t allow just the processor to sway your decision on which android headunit to buy. There are many other factors, such as 360 camera built in, or HDMI output that may be just as important. Both SoC processors mentioned are good, but if everything else is equal, the PX6 based units will beat the AC8257 every time.
