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Whatever Happened To The Idea Of Instant On?

It takes too long for many of today's most popular mobile devices to boot up. While some people are more patient than others, I contend that 60 seconds is way too long for a mobile device to boot. Let's take a look at how some of today's tech stacks up.

First, let's talk a bit about what "instant on" really means. I don't know of any standard definition, so let's set some loose guidelines. Personally, I think "instant" should be 5 or 10 seconds max, but let's call a boot time of 15 seconds "instant" for today's purposes. Anything more than 30 seconds is pokey. A boot time that surpasses 60 seconds is flat out unacceptable.

I tested a whole bunch of devices today and recorded all the boot times. I repeated each power-up test three times and took the average of the three. As far as I am concerned, boot time lasts from the instant the power button is pressed until a user can actually start using said device, be it a laptop or mobile phone. For mobile phones, that means actually connecting to the mobile network and not just turning on.

First I tested my computers. All three run Apple OS.

2003 Apple G5 Tower, dual 1.8GHz processors with 1GB of RAM: 67.1 seconds
2007 Apple MacBook, dual 2.0GHz processors with 2GB of RAM: 61.9 seconds
2008 Apple MacBook Pro, dual 2.4GHz processors with 4GB of RAM: 49.9 seconds.

For full computers, these times are acceptable. But how do mobile devices compare?

iPhone (2007): 44.4 seconds (all three iPhones are running OS 3.1)
iPhone 3G: 39.7 seconds
iPhone 3GS: 27.5 seconds

Nokia E71: 35.1 seconds
Nokia N95: 47.5 seconds
Nokia Twist: 38.9 seconds

BlackBerry Storm: 25.7 seconds (3:05:07 to reboot after a battery pull)

HTC myTouch 3G: 67.3 seconds
HTC Hero (CDMA): 78.4 seconds

Samsung Rogue: 33.8 seconds.

As you can see, not a single device fully booted in less than 15 seconds, let alone 10 or 5. None of these devices qualifies for the "instant on" rating in my book.

For most people in most circumstances, 30 seconds probably isn't a big deal to wait for a device to boot up. Neither is 60, though it does feel like an eternity. But what about instances when timing matters, such as an emergency? Is 30-60 seconds too long? What do you think?

I'd like to see device boot times, especially those of smartphones, shrink to 15 seconds. If that can't be done, I'd like to see devices be able to reach some low-functioning state quickly so a phone call can be made if circumstances require.

Are today's tech makers up to the task?

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