ATM, I have a cheap Chinese (Spare the manufacturer's blushes) RK3188 based tablet with a Retina Screen (2048x1536). It's too slow for what I am using it for (Specialised app & E-reader mainly). I bought a Pipo RK3288 based with the same screen. It was just about fast enough, but the 3G gave trouble and I had to return it. I need more GPU than CPU, I have decided, and more Ghz than cores. I need more 2D than 3D.

I now find myself looking at

• qualcomm snapdragon 805 at 2.7Ghz[Using Krait cores and Adreno gpu]
• Nvidia Tegra K1 at 2.3Ghz [4+1 thing with Kepler GPUs]
• Exynos 5422/5433 [ Big/little Octa-Core with Arm Mali t628]
• RK3288 based things @ 1.8Ghz [quad A15 cores and quad Mali T764]

Some issues: One Tegra based tablet had this in a review: "2.2 Ghz? Forget it, it's 1557Mhz. Antutu score of 28,000." That was only one tablet, but it does point to a heat issue. How is one to know the tablet you choose uses the cpu/gpu to the max?

The 64 bit snapdragon 805 is only of limited use in what is currently a 32 bit system (android <5.0). Am I correct for the next few years?
Few apps use more than 2 cores, I am told, so how much better is an 8 core over a 4 core?
What use is a GPU doing more GFLOPS? How does that translate to user experience?
How bad is missing video standards? Nvidia should have the best GPU, one would think, but supports the fewest standards.
On paper the RK3288 GPU seems good, but just doesn't seem to cut it.

Has anyone any light to shed? What should I read that I haven't read already?

Yeah, don't buy cheap "non-name" tablets if you need performance. Galaxy Tab S rocks


And on a more serious note, generally, comparing raw GPU/CPU/WhateverPU numbers alone won't give a true picture of a devices performance. Benchmark suites will give a better picture as there are a lot of places where manufacturers can make less visible cuts to make price points.

Got a Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 running Android 5.0 Lollipop and it is freakishly fast.

Found Passmark for Android devices
http://www.androidbenchmark.net/g3dmark_chart.html

Also hard to go wrong with Nexus tablets.

TIP: MAKE SURE YOUR TABLET IS GOOGLE PLAY CERTIFIED. If it isn't, you'll find that a lot of apps are suddenly missing from the Play Store.

@ TenTenths: Thanks for the tip. Believe it or not, I'm in Electronics myself, and know all about the sort of trade offs that are made. The obvious one is clock speed in the hardware; the main one I meet seems to be poor or plain bad Android versions. There are even things like bottlenecks inside the Asic that are left because it's too much effort/silicon to replace them. And all ASICs are being filled to capacity with the new larger ARM cores and GPUs.

@Ihatewindows522: Lovely link, thank you. What is striking is the difference between 3D and 2D graphics, and that the older stuff is remarkably similar. The new stuff varies quite a lot, so my hesitation is warranted. The Nexus 9 comes out well, although I don't like what I have seen of HTC's android versions. I feel sure I could batter it into better shape, but samsung does spoil you, as long as you have the ram for all the crap (er, apps) they ship with each phone.

Yeah, after I rooted my tablet those were some of the first things I got rid of. Didn't speed up performance or release RAM as much as internal storage. The SlimLP ROM I use is insanely fast, any chance to get a tablet with Lollipop on it, do it!

I will keep an eye out for that SlimLP rom you mention. Got a link?

The chip that impressed me this time around was the Nvidia Tegra K1: Probably should be the best gpu, but very short on standards in this listing anyhow. Does that matter?

http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/05/...allwinner-a80/

But is it possible to find the current cpu speed on Android?

I have an app (don't know if it's still on the Play Store) called Android System Info. Tells you most anything you want to know about your device.

Here is the link to download SlimLP:
http://slimroms.net/index.php/downlo...ory/611-weekly

That SlimlLP thing looks interesting. Amazing how many guys are doing roms for android. It's getting to the stage when the android system will be installed so you can install a rom over it. Strange device list. Nothing I recognise.