Flash 10.1 on Froyo goes tete-a-tete with Flash Lite 4 on Eclair: butter vs. stutter (video)

Believe it or not, your newly-upgraded Nexus One isn't the first Android smartphone to have Adobe Flash video capability, nor even the first to play said content on a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU -- Europe's been rocking the HTC Desire since April, which sports a little something called Flash Lite even on the older Android 2.1 OS. Will frozen yogurt outperform puff pastry on its home turf? Find out in a blind taste test video showdown after the break.

Please note that results are not necessarily representative of Adobe's newfound video processing prowess alone -- we hear Android 2.2 makes things speedier across the board.

[chaddledee Posted May 23rd 2010 11:21AM]

@SCXFAN No, we live in the present. A present in which Flash does everything except video better than things in the HTML5 spec, and in which everything on the web currently uses Flash. You stop living in the future.

[69camaroSS Posted May 23rd 2010 1:02PM]

@SCXFAN

Hmmmm. . . If we are geeks, what does that make you? A person who scans tech sites with little or no knowledge about technology, commenting like they actually have real insight. What do you call that? Hmmmmm. . troll. Yeah, that's it. A troll.

[JOEmedia Posted May 23rd 2010 1:08PM]

@69camaroSS

Troll this!
http://url.joemedia.com.au/android

[dforbes Posted May 23rd 2010 3:56PM]

@69camaroSS

Most Flash videos these days are h264 -- the premiere HTML5 codec.

I'm interested in Flash for a lot more than video. It is chuckle-inducing how the antidroid are clucking about heat/battery life: Yeah, video does that. Same deal when I launch a divx movie in the internal player. Video is not free.

[InfDaMarvel Posted May 23rd 2010 10:54PM]

@SCXFAN
Since when does alternative mean better?

[ECH Posted May 23rd 2010 9:38AM]

Wish I could see the video on my droid so I could see what I'm missing :-(

Oh well, I guess I can wait a month or two.

[SCXFAN Posted May 23rd 2010 9:46AM]

I wonder why Adobe cannot get Flash to run good on a Mac.

Certainly one reason Jobs hates Flash.

Adobe did it to themselves.

[chaddledee Posted May 23rd 2010 11:17AM]

@SCXFAN Actually it's because until 4 weeks ago, Apple didn't allow them access to certain hardware APIs. Less than a week after they did, Adobe released a test with hardware acceleration, boasting less CPU and battery usage. It was pretty much all because of Apple that Flash sucked on Mac.

[seven5suited Posted May 23rd 2010 11:17AM]

@SCXFAN Apple refused to release the graphics APIs to Adobe, so they couldn't take advantage of video acceleration like they do on PCs. Look it up, and then see how successful the Apple spin-machine is at making Apple look good in any given situation.

[Jack Posted May 24th 2010 1:28PM]

@chaddledee

Right, because that explains the constant crashing. It's not about performance as much as unreliability, bugs and crashing.

[ajwoodhouse Posted May 23rd 2010 9:56AM]

engadget really needs to stop bashing flash at every single opportunity just because their beloved apple doesn't run it properly/at all.

[SCXFAN Posted May 23rd 2010 10:10AM]

@ajwoodhouse

I can't see the video on my iPad so they must not be bashing flash too much.

[gletob Posted May 23rd 2010 9:57AM]

Why didn't they do a 2.1 Nexus v. 2.2 Nexus? Did the 2.1 have flash?

[Richard Lai Posted May 23rd 2010 4:36PM]

@gletob No, the Nexus One's 2.1 firmware didn't come with Flash Lite.

[Ayanami Posted May 23rd 2010 9:59AM]

@The Madman

+1, I lol'ed!

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 23rd 2010 10:27AM]

What is a "beeta" ?

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 23rd 2010 10:36AM]

@mdoherty
It's about time! I mean, it's sweet that flash on mobiles is finally here, but seriously -- what took so long? And where is flash on Palm \ Symbian \ RIM that was also promised to ship a year ago?

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 23rd 2010 10:44AM]

@mdoherty
I forgot windows mobile too, it looks like alot of news sites have reported (articles from last year of course) that flash was supposed to ship on WM devices in 2009.
Still waiting...but now the ship date has been missed so many times i doubt that will ever happen since WP7 is the hot item right now in microsoft land.

[jsbaugh Posted May 23rd 2010 11:13AM]

When are the nerds on here going realize sites are moving away from flash? There are better alternatives. There are also millions of people that don't give a shit if there phones play flash sites. Congrats to adobe for sort of getting it working but you are to late. I have a palm pre and an android phone and don't really care about viewing flash on a 4 inch screen.

[seven5suited Posted May 23rd 2010 11:20AM]

@jsbaugh Well, thats one person's opinion. You're entitled to it. I'm going to let this play out and see how it really ends before I make sweeping statements and assumptions about the future of this technology.

[MaTdg Posted May 23rd 2010 1:23PM]

@jsbaugh I think the nerds are aware of that and it's the more common people that are crying over flash now. I have this feeling the majority of flashlovers are also applehaters/windowsfanboys and they became flashlovers the moment they knew the iPhone and/or iPad didn't have flash only to have something they can complain off.

[Hamaki Posted May 23rd 2010 5:06PM]

@jsbaugh

Actually, only nerds are talking about HTML5. Common people, instead, just wonder why the f**k can't they see that damn video in the Internet on the 500$ iPad they just bought.

They -common people- don't even know what the hell is this "HTML thing" we are discussing.

So i wonder when some nerds will realiza THEY are NOT common people.

[stabbytheicepic Posted May 23rd 2010 11:19AM]

I can't hear all your whines over watching hulu on my nexus one. sorry.

[seven5suited Posted May 23rd 2010 11:21AM]

@stabbytheicepic Ugh I miss watching Hulu on my Tilt with Skyfire. I hate them for blocking it... Oh well, my EVO is reserved...

[masta vaan Posted May 23rd 2010 3:24PM]

@stabbytheicepic
I thought they blocked hulu for android? i wouldnt know because i have a Droid...

[Hotrod Posted May 23rd 2010 11:34AM]

Not exactly the best video clip to demonstrate.

[idoozy Posted May 23rd 2010 11:36AM]

no thanks. looks terrible

[stabbytheicepic Posted May 23rd 2010 11:43AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLktJwesGe0

html 5 waiting room

[Jizzality Posted May 23rd 2010 11:46AM]

Droid does too...to some extent :P

[optimusprimed Posted May 23rd 2010 11:59AM]

how long before a flash blocker to block all the flash ads comes out? enjoy yoself!

[69camaroSS Posted May 23rd 2010 1:06PM]

@optimusprimed

I see no lack of adds on HTML 5 based sites.

[Johnny Rockets Posted May 23rd 2010 1:20PM]

@optimusprimed

The browser lets you disable Flash by default.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1787/disableplugins.png

"Enjoy yourself"...

Idiot.

[stabbytheicepic Posted May 23rd 2010 1:28PM]

@optimusprimed enjoy your iads that you won't be able to turn off.

[jckchn Posted May 23rd 2010 2:00PM]

This test would be more "fair" if two N1s were used instead of the Desire and an N1. They both have the same processor, etc. but it's not 100% identical. Not talking about iPhone vs Android, but I do believe HTML5 is the future. Sure, it's not as fully featured as Flash as of now, but viewing HTML5 content uses less battery than Flash content. Flash is a pain even on desktops. HTML5 will develop and become better with time. I believe in Apple because the iPhone has a much better GUI than stock Android. Most people don't care about Flash or HTML5 and only care about what they see. They see the iPhone's UI and Android's UI. Most of them prefer iPhone. They like the games and media capabilities. Android's media capability is crap to be honest.

[maati Posted May 23rd 2010 3:30PM]

@jckchn You're repeating the anti-Flash FUD that's spread over the net without having a clue. Stupid.

Get your facts straight. You'll realize that on mobile devices, HTML5 sucks. It's slow, it's buggy and it's ineffiecient. It's even much worse than the Flash Lite plugin you see on that HTC Desire.

HTML5 may get better over time, but for now, only Flash works acceptably on phones. And of course it's much more efficient than HTML5, thus much less of a battery drainer.

Let's see how long it takes HTML5 to catch up, if ever. Till then, please stop repeating the stupid Apple propaganda or you'll make a fool of yourself, showing you have no clue what you're actually talking about.

[maythetechbewithyou Posted May 23rd 2010 4:03PM]

I've had flash on my Eris for a while, congrats on perfecting it though.

[n00neimp0rtant Posted May 23rd 2010 8:50PM]

No. NO ONE calls it a "beetuh."

[joshbeck2010 Posted May 23rd 2010 9:16PM]

I put together a side by side comparison of 2 Nexus Ones
running 2.1 and 2.2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2JqykEgW8

The 2.2 is definitely smooth.

Josh

[cmelbye Posted May 23rd 2010 11:47PM]

Is it just me, or does Flash performance still look somewhat bad on Froyo? HTML5 for the win. Apple's native video player will outperform some crappy Flash video player any day of the week.

[Congorbulox Posted May 24th 2010 3:02AM]

I just got excited to watch the video, then I realized I was on an iPad :/. I can't wait to sell my moment and get an eve FFA.

[Congorbulox Posted May 24th 2010 3:05AM]

@Congorbulox Evo/Ffs*

[slee62 Posted May 24th 2010 5:25AM]

HTC Hero, rocking flash lite since mid last year anyone ?

[darksharpie Posted May 24th 2010 10:35AM]

@slee62 Didn't the video demonstrate that flash lite isn't so good? :)

[emceephi Posted May 24th 2010 5:49AM]

So...will I be able to play Super Mario Crossover on the Nexus One now?

[Jack Posted May 24th 2010 1:26PM]

@ddddd

You don't own an iPhone, stop lying thanks.

[bonedog73 Posted May 24th 2010 2:20PM]

Why cant Apple give us iphone/ipad users a little on/off button for flash?