PDAGold Compare Performance of WM2003 and WM2003SE

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pdagold.com/articles/detail.asp?a=189' target='_blank'>http://www.pdagold.com/articles/detail.asp?a=189</a><br /><br /></div><i>"When Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 2003, the main reason for upgrading was performance boost due to code optimisation. I was curious to find out whether users can expect any performance improvement with an upgrade to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, too. Considered the current (non-)availability of upgrades, this debate may be a little academic. Still, I compared benchmark results for Toshiba e400 before and after the OS upgrade."</i><br /><br />Pavel from PDAGold then lists five benchmarks in this brief article about what performance benefits folks can expect when moving from WM2003 to WM2003SE (where the OEMs have made upgrades available). I won't give the results away, but I must say I was a little surprised about what the benchmarks showed. What about you?

[ombu]

Well, seems it's almost the same, so more features (O.K., just a few) don't slow performance.

[Myrddin]

I could be totally off base here, but could it be that the benchmarking software isn't totally ready for WM2003SE?

[sgyee]

Microsoft strikes again with more bloat, or actually, fractional bloat!

[Jonathon Watkins]

I could be totally off base here, but could it be that the benchmarking software isn't totally ready for WM2003SE?

Well, I beleive that SPB do know what they are doing. :wink:

I do think that this shows that as Pavel says, there was no optimisation 'under the hood' of WM2003SE compared to WM2003. Disappointing. :|

[maximus]

More feature on the same processor + the same amount of memory = slow down. I think that is only logical.

[rugerx]

Well this will prolly get deleted by the post police, but I still say HP sucks.

They should have given recent purchasers an upgrade.

This has soured my taste for PPC's beyond belief.

This will probably be my last. Tricked out light weight laptops, or perhaps and OQO type device will be the future for me. Also the last thing I want is a cell phone pda, man I drop my phone so often, lol that would last a week at most.

[ricksfiona]

Well this will prolly get deleted by the post police, but I still say HP sucks.

They should have given recent purchasers an upgrade.

This has soured my taste for PPC's beyond belief.

This will probably be my last. Tricked out light weight laptops, or perhaps and OQO type device will be the future for me. Also the last thing I want is a cell phone pda, man I drop my phone so often, lol that would last a week at most.

I had a really good long reply to this post... But then I decided it wasn't worth it. :D

[Janak Parekh]

Well this will prolly get deleted by the post police, but I still say HP sucks.
Why would the moderators delete it? The only thing they might do is to split the thread.

This will probably be my last. Tricked out light weight laptops, or perhaps and OQO type device will be the future for me. Also the last thing I want is a cell phone pda, man I drop my phone so often, lol that would last a week at most.
Well, good luck with whatever you find!

Anyway, back ontopic: SE might not be slower, but it does certainly feel a bit slower in VGA. Of course, that might be because it's moving more pixels around. And it is most definitely much slower rebooting, at least on my e805.

--janak

[ucfgrad93]

Well this will prolly get deleted by the post police, but I still say HP sucks.

They should have given recent purchasers an upgrade.

This has soured my taste for PPC's beyond belief.

This will probably be my last. Tricked out light weight laptops, or perhaps and OQO type device will be the future for me. Also the last thing I want is a cell phone pda, man I drop my phone so often, lol that would last a week at most.

Uh, thanks for staying on topic! :roll:

I have to say, I was surprised at how close the results were. I venture to say that most people won't notice the difference.

[davis77]

I have to say, I was surprised at how close the results were. I venture to say that most people won't notice the difference.

I never really noticed a speed difference. I thought the speed was about the same from what I could tell.

[William]

Did anyone notice that 2003SE is only a little slower on every subject except for the ActiveSync index where it is (relatively) a lot faster? Or did they accidently swap the labels (it is the only graph with 2003SE on top). :roll:

[surur]

I wonder if anyone (with A LOT of time on their hands) could compare wm2003 and wm2003 SE components, and see what has actually been updated. There is an argument over at Brighthand that the OS is so significantly updated that it is very costly to prepare and release an update for older devices. However if only 2 or 3 dll's have been updated, and most stuff stayed the same, that argument will not really hold water.

Surur

[yankeejeep]

Quite honestly, aside from the longer soft reset time, I have not noticed any significant difference in speed by moving to SE. It may be a bit more stable (I have fewer soft resets). For me, the benefits are crisper display (which I agree with other posters must take a bite out of processing speed) and on-the-fly orientation switching. There are some tasks which are handled much more quickly (when I disconnect a dial-up session, it is almost instantaneous in SE). Like previous MS Second Edition releases, this addresses some minor issues and adds a couple of nice features, but is not a general OS upgrade - hence the SE designation. For me, the display improvement on my Toshiba e805 justifies the move. I would suspect that there is little reason for someone without a VGA-capable device to reflash with SE.

[possmann]

I am not surprised at the results - seems like the SE was only a feature update and not that much of a technology update...

[conflagrare]

I can't believe you people actually thought Microsoft could come out with a new version of Windows that's FASTER than the previous one. Boy, their propaganda strategy must be good.

[silver99]

I can't believe you people actually thought Microsoft could come out with a new version of Windows that's FASTER than the previous one. Boy, their propaganda strategy must be good.

I agree - it's very rare the subsequent operatings systems are faster than the previous version. In almost all cases OS updates are slower due to more features (the only exception I can think of is driver updates) which often boost performance/stability.

On one had I'm quite happy with the performance (instant on). On the other hand I can see that if the hardware was substantially boosted there would be a lot more users. I'd appreciate smooth 30 fps video on a VGA device, mountable devices (hard drive keys), and at a minimum double the life of that battery.

My 2 cents!

-Silver

[Janak Parekh]

I can't believe you people actually thought Microsoft could come out with a new version of Windows that's FASTER than the previous one.
WM2003 is quite a bit faster than PPC2002.

--janak

[alizhan]

SE might not be slower, but it does certainly feel a bit slower in VGA. Of course, that might be because it's moving more pixels around. And it is most definitely much slower rebooting, at least on my e805.

Agreed. I recently upgraded my e805 from FE+MyVGA to SE, and the difference was immediately obvious--not objectionable in most cases, but quite noticable. The graphics rendering under SE feels a bit sluggish. Where I really see things tank is when I switch to landscape mode: the first redraw usually takes about 15-30 seconds to complete, after which it is back to normal.

As for the reboot speed, I would really like to know why it takes 5 times longer than it used to. My e805 took 5-10 seconds to reboot under FE, and takes 25-45 seconds 8O under SE. This is the single biggest annoyance I've found with SE, as I have to reset my PDA fairly often.

[alizhan]

It may be a bit more stable (I have fewer soft resets).

Oddly enough, it seems to be less stable for me, but I seem to be in the minority. Pocket Excel in particular seems to lock up the PDA more frequently. :(

There are some tasks which are handled much more quickly (when I disconnect a dial-up session, it is almost instantaneous in SE). Like previous MS Second Edition releases, this addresses some minor issues and adds a couple of nice features, but is not a general OS upgrade - hence the SE designation.

Too bad they didn't fix the networking while they were at it. Connection Manager still sucks rocks, and I've found the networking in general to be quite wonky.

And if I ever find the person who wrote that bloody "would you like to connect" dialog... what's the point in "hiding" the connection if it's going to keep popping it back up every two minutes???

For me, the benefits are crisper display (which I agree with other posters must take a bite out of processing speed) and on-the-fly orientation switching. [...] the display improvement on my Toshiba e805 justifies the move.

For me as well. It may be a touch slower, but the on-the-fly rotation is quite nice. SE_VGA looks like it will add the final piece to the puzzle, as it will allow me the added screen area on those occasions where I really need it.

[scargill]

Does anybody expect much of a speed increase from Windows XP Service pack 2?

I'm not suprised at these results at all - I didn't think that 2003SE was any faster; the only thing that I'm really bothered about in it is landscape mode.

[Don't Panic!]

Inbox/Messaging has been updated in WM2003SE
WMP for PPC has been updated in WM2003SE
PIE has been updated in WMP2003SE
I'm sure other components have been updated as well but these are what I use the most. I realy can't compare speed because my Axim X30 has a 624Mhz processor and my 2215 has a 400Mhz Processor. Needless to say everything is a lot faster on the Dell.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[davis77]

Inbox/Messaging has been updated in WM2003SE
WMP for PPC has been updated in WM2003SE
PIE has been updated in WMP2003SE
I'm sure other components have been updated as well but these are what I use the most. I realy can't compare speed because my Axim X30 has a 624Mhz processor and my 2215 has a 400Mhz Processor. Needless to say everything is a lot faster on the Dell.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

Being able to Rotate my screen on the fly is nice.

Being able to adjust my font size either upward or downward on the fly is also very nice features of SE.

Enhanced Pocket PC Start menu - adds a separate vertical listing of recently launched applications