The SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test shows that the iPad 2 performs 1.5x faster than the iPad 1 on iOS 4.3 and 4x faster than the iPad 1 on 4.2. According to CNET UK, which ran a JavaScript SunSpider benchmark test on iPad 2 during a brief demo at San Francisco, the iPad 2 will outperform the competition and even other Apple’s devices when it comes to web browsing experience of the browser application. The SunSpider test is a good test of how a browser will perform with “heavy” webpages with lots of content and functionalities such as Facebook. Hit the break to see iPad 2 vs iPad 1 speed test.




A word from CNET...

Incidentally, when you compare the iPad to the other devices we tested, Android phones and tablets don’t come out particularly well. The Galaxy Tab is more than 3x slower than the iPad 2 in this test, and about 2x slower than the original iPad with the new software. The Google Nexus S smart phone doesn’t fare too well either, at nearly 3x slower than the iPad 2. There’s really good news for iPhone 4 owners out there: when it arrives, iOS 4.3 will deliver a 2.5x speed increase in this test.
The one device we’d like to test, but can’t, is the Motorola Xoom. This tablet has a dual-core processor and runs the latest version of Android, 3.0 Honeycomb.

The deciding factor here is the iOS firmware version the iPad is running. This will be released to everyone with the old iPad, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS on 11 March. When iPad 1 was running iOS 4.3, the performance gap between the two devices narrowed, with the iPad 2 coming out at just 1.5x faster than the iPad 1.