Looking to harness the real power inside of your
Pre (or Pre Plus) -- and you've upgraded to webOS 1.4? If that's the case, you're going to love what a couple of Palm-loving hackers have come up with. Namely, a major overclock kernel patch for the device which boosts the CPU speed from a measly 500MHz all the way up to a finger-searing 800MHz (there's also a more tame 720MHz variation available). The two phone magicians, unixpsycho and caj2008, had
previously tapped into the power of the Pre's CPU on webOS 1.3.5 with a small file that can be semi-easily installed using WebOSQuickInstall and a tiny bit of Linux command-line activity, and now it's
on for 1.4. So far, it looks like phones being tested with the somewhat risky tweak haven't experienced too much of the normally expected issues (crashes, freezing, phones exploding). Also a surprise is the fact that the creators of the hack say battery life drain is only an additional 2-4 percent hit... though if you're already struggling to make it through a day, this could be the nail in the coffin. We installed the patch on a Verizon Pre Plus, and we definitely observed a noticeable bump in app load times and improved fluidity when working with the phone -- though we've already had one major crash. If you don't mind possibly destroying your phone and must have a faster device
right now, you can check out the patch in action and learn how to get it yourself in the video after the break.
Update: From the looks of things, that crash we experienced early on is likely due to a bug in webOS 1.4 and not related to the overclock. Actually, we haven't experienced any further problems... in fact, the phone is seeming super speedy, and battery life has not taken a substantial hit, verifying caj2008 and unixpsycho's claims (so far). Someone at Palm should take note -- these guys have some good ideas!
[Thanks, G. Scott]
posted March 26th 2010 1:26PM
@BrownSound
It's about 80%
@Roisen a little more than 80%, because clock for clock, OMAP is a little more efficient than Snapdragon. Snapdragon ordinarily runs so much faster clock speeds than OMAP that OMAP is slower. This is known as the "megahertz myth", especially in mobile phone technology, these systems on a chip perform quite a bit differently than each other at the same clock speeds. Sometimes the difference is so great, like the ARM11 in early-generation Android phones vs. the OMAP in the 3GS and Pre (or Snapdragon for that matter) that you can have a Samsung Moment running at 800MHz under-performing the Pre or iPhone 3GS running at 500MHz.
I just ran VisualBoyAdvance & play Super Mario Bros 3 & Mario Kart without lag with this 800mhz overclock! It's awesome...
@ruddogg
Oh damn I forgot about the emulator! I'll have to load that back up again!
I'm fairly certain that the OMAP 3430 processors that the Palm Pre uses are just lower binned versions of the 3440 which operate at 800MHz stock. This means that by all means the processors in the Pre were designed to run at 800MHz in the first place, but TI binned them lower because of a small defect or just to get lower cost processors on the market without having to redesign an entire new processor.
Also the reason that the increase in battery usage is so small is because the Processor accounts for a very small drain to begin with. The battery usage of the antennae and screen completely overshadow the energy usage of the processor.
@Roisen I agree on the battery usage parts. I believe the trade off in processor using slightly more battery vs. me using the screen less since I finish tasks much faster actually negate eachother out.
I notice an amazing improvement with this patch. It's like having a new phone...
@mhunterjr
I wanted ask you whether you've experienced any problems since this was posted . . . still fast? still no problems?
thanks
@andreb no problems at all.. it still works like charm...
This is the real deal. I'm convinced Palm has the best OS out there. They only have a few months to get the hardware thing up to the level of HTC EVO 4G or I plan on jumping ship.
i just really really love WebOS. i do think the phone is too clunky looking, the plastic on it is terrible, the colour is horrible and makes it look cheap, finger marks come off on the phone like hell. its like a super modern OS on a phone thats 10 years old.
doesnt anyone else think that it not really a marketing problem for palm, just that the phone is just...ugly on the outside?
@damakaveli naah just you... lol
@damakaveli personally I thought the design of the phone is beautiful and unique. To each their own of course.
Been using it for a day now. No extra heat when tethering with wifi, & no perceivable difference in battery life.
Love it! This really shows you what webOS is capable of. I don't think Nilay can complain about the speed of the Pre any longer (as long as this patch is running on one).
Now all I need is a slate, Snapdragon, bigger battery, 4G webos phone and I won't have to buy the EVO.
wow... just wow!! This really works amazingly well!
Installed. tested. blazin'. awesome!
Kinda ironic the need to overclock the Pre when its CPU was supposed to be a variable 600 to 800mhz processor when it was first spec'd. Same for the Droid.
This means if the next pre had a 1ghz snapdragon, it would be lightning fast.
even if it was THREE TIMES as fast it would still be TOO FREAKIN SMALL !!!!!
@hated one: I do believe selling zero would prove zero desirability. But maybe my math is off.
@ananimus (or maybe my sarcasm detector...)
what if you decide you want to undo this? haha
@apenaroks
The uninstall process is just as easy as the install.
@MegaZac oh
definitely an excellent patch. My pre was already pretty smooth @ 600mhz, but the extra second or two bump in speed at 800mhz is noticeable in feel.
makes me happy to be a pre owner and brings back some of that fond 'new gadget' feeling.
@hated one Unless my intelligence is off, 80 million phones is pretty good.
just installed the patch! This is my ony phone and wanted to see if anyone had any issues after install. The patch makes the phn road runner fast! Extremely pleased with the results and the install was easy!! The engadget app runs so much faster!
Are there similar patches for...the Instinct? I can't find any D:
Hello I'm SkyArq and I LARP
(Who wrote that? lol)
Show the Pixi owners some love?
is this worth doing to my pre??
@guribe94
One word: Yes.
Nice hack. I didn't even have to reinstall my apps.
Will this work on the Pixi Plus?
Acording to the two developers of this patch, there has been no reports of bricked phones with the patch applied, and most, if not all issues, were related to the latest WebOS update (to 1.4), as removing the patch did not alleviate the issues, but performing a WebOS doctor fix to it did, and when the patch was re-appied, the original issues were gone.
According to the fourms at Pre-Central, most are reporting extreme speed and performance increases, little to no extra heat observed, and, most importantly, no battery drain issues (in fact, some have reported a more efficient battery usage pattern as a result).
If any of you are wondering whether this is worth it, Id suggest you go to Precentral.net and read up on it yourself to decide; it appears to be a free no brainer - like getting a brand new device that is as good as, or better, than any contemporary smartphone just introduced in performance/speed, with the added benefit of true multitasking (courtesy of WebOS)
So far no phones have experienced any bricking or crashes due to the 800Mhz patch according to the alpha testers.(myself included) And this is not available for the Pixi/Pixi Plus for all of those who ask. This patch is only in mind for the CPU in the Pre and the Pre Plus(OMAP3430).
My personal experience with it is things are running much smoother and apps load in half the time making it a much more pleasant experience while not taking a huge battery hit.
This patch is AWESOME! It really helps and is so much faster. I have a friend who owns an Iphone and my Palm Pre blew them away. I even got them to drop their phone for the Pre.
Personally I have not had ANY issues and I am very computer naive. It was so easy to install and well worth it. I hope Palm gets the message and installs this themselves. Anyone who owns this phone should def install this patch. They will not be dissapointed!
The best thing I have done since I owned my Pre and I have had it since the release day!
Just another voice to say installed the 800 patch and working great. It really is like a whole new phone.
No decrease in battery life that I have noticed(but have not spent a lot of time with the 3-D games yet).
Also running the battery temp monitor and no problems on overheating so far.
Also, in the FWIW department, the processor is rated at 600mhz but Palm has it running at 500 stock. No way Palm is going to overclock it itself since would be going over the chip specs. They also, for that same reason, will never officially sanction such a patch but hopefully after their one release will now just look the other way since, as long as it stays as stable as it has been the first week, it really improves their phone.
Has anyone had problems with this. I know palm says it voids the warrenty but how will verizon know if you go in there upon it's (possible, yet unoccured) crashing and say it won't boot up?