T-Mobile Leaks HTC Glacier, Possibly The First Dual-core Android Phone

Benchmarks triple the performance of the HTC EVO 4G.

The HTC EVO 4G and Droid 2 may be the current hot topic among Android enthusiasts, but the HTC Glacier is bound to be heating up discussions in the near future as well. The mysterious handset was first noticed on the GLBenchmark website, which allows Android users to test their CPU speed and upload the results.

The results show the mysterious phone scoring approximately three times the performance of the EVO. Those results have led many to speculate that the mysterious handset may be the first of many multicore Android devices to come.

Qualcomm aired a dual core ARM processor (the 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon variant) earlier this year, and announced plans to produce ARM quad-core processors by 2013. HTC has made heavy use of Snapdragon CPUs in its Android portfolio in the past, so this seems a likely candidate for the device's CPU.

The hot HTC Glacier's benchmarks were posted by a user "mbibick" whose real names is Mike Bibik. Mr. Bibik lives in Seattle and works at T-Mobile, according to his LinkedIn page.

As Mr. Bibik likely has access to advanced T-Mobile handsets, many are speculating that the Glacier is actually "Project Emerald", T-Mobile's rumored upcoming dual-core Android device. All his past tests have been of T-Mobile handsets. The testing results for the HTC Glacier have been pulled since the story first aired, possibly at T-Mobile's request.

The new device has an 800x480 pixel screen, according to the original testing post.

Despite having a dual core processor, it is worth noting that the performance is not much higher than that of Samsung's stellar 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU found in its Samsung Galaxy S (aka. Fascinate, Captivate, Vibrant, etc.) Android handset. That said, it blows away Qualcomm's past offerings.

source