HTC Butterfly review: The droid monarch

We stress test the four Krait cores

The HTC Butterfly runs one of the top setups among flagship droids - a Qualcomm S4 Pro chip with four Krait cores clocked at 1.5 GHz, 2 gigs of RAM and the Adreno 320 graphics processor. In other words it matches the Nexus 4, Xperia Z, Oppo Find 5, and DROID DNA.

Initially, we were really impressed by the Oppo Find 5, until the Xperia Z managed to blow it out of the water. So the HTC Butterfly has a tall task entering the competition. Unfortunately, Quadrant and GLBenchmark reported errors and were taken out of the running.

We'll start you off with BenchmarkPi which tests calculations per core. In theory the Krait cores are the best in the business right now (until those Cortex-A15s start flaunting their stuff in a few months) and should post impressive scores.

The HTC Butterfly was 2 points short of a record here - but that one belongs to the Xperia Z.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• Oppo Find 5
  267
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  330
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  350
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  359
• Meizu MX 4-core
  362
• Nexus 4
  431

Linpack also tests calculations per second, but unlike the single-thread-focused BenchmarkPi, it tests multi-threaded performance. Here, the Butterfly was second only to the Xperia Z, again. But only just.

Linpack

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z
  630
• HTC Butterfly
  624
• LG Optimus G
  608
• Oppo Find 5
  593
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214.3
• Nexus 4
  213.5
• Meizu MX 4-core
  189.1
• HTC One X+
  177.7
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175.5
• HTC One X
  160.9
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141.5

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark which means it tests just about everything it can. Here the Butterfly didn't post an impressive result. It's lower than the significantly underpowered One X+.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15547
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Nexus 4
  15146
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  13562
• HTC One X+
  13519
• HTC Butterfly
  12631
• Meizu MX 4-core
  11820
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  11633
• LG Optimus G
  11226

We land on the first real GPU-based benchmark Epic Citadel. It's based on the Unreal engine and really stresses the graphics chip to its limit. Here, the Butterfly managed to match the current champion Sony Xperia Z, which is normal considering that both devices run on the same GPU. At 55.6 frames per second average you can bet that things run as smooth as silk.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

• HTC Butterfly
  55.6
• Sony Xperia Z
  55.6
• Nexus 4
  53.9
• LG Optimus G
  52.6
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  41.3
• Oppo Find 5
  38.6

Another compound benchmark, Geekbench 2, lets us see how the most powerful droids compare to Apple's finest. The HTC Butterfly was slightly behind the Xperia Z and way in front of the iPhone 5 and slightly in front the likes of the Optimus G and Galaxy S III.

Geekbench 2

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z
  2173
• HTC Butterfly
  2143
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1845
• LG Optimus G
  1723
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1661
• Sony Xperia V
  1638
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  1634
• Sony Xperia T
  1625
• iPhone 5
  1601
• HTC One S
  1589
• Sony Xperia E dual
  496

When it comes to JavaScript performance it's no secret that manufacturers tend to "coach" their devices to perform better. Here the Butterfly was second to last, beating only the Xperia Z which also got a horrid result.

On BrowserMark 2, however, the HTC flagship managed to beat everyone else, except for the LG Optimus G.

Finally Vellamo, which like BrowserMark 2 is primarily HTML5-based, showed the HTC Butterfly as an above average contender - although not the best.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Ativ S
  891
• Apple iPhone 5
  915
• Nokia Lumia 920
  910
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  972
• HTC One X+
  1001
• Motorola RAZR i XT890
  1059
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1192
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1312
• LG Optimus G
  1353
• HTC Butterfly
  1433
• Sony Xperia Z
  1906
• Nexus 4
  1971
• Oppo Find 5
  2045

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• LG Optimus G
  2555
• Sony Xperia Z
  1865
• Oppo Find 5
  1797
• Nexus 4
  1794
• Nokia Lumia 920
  1774
• Nokia Lumia 820
  1760
• Samsung Omnia W
  1632
• HTC Butterfly
  1475
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1247

Vellamo

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2418
• Sony Xperia Z
  2189
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  2078
• HTC Butterfly
  1866
• Oppo Find 5
  1658
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1641
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• LG Optimus G
  1522
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1468
• Nexus 4
  1310

We expected the HTC Butterfly to rip the competition apart and perform among the lines of the Xperia Z. And the results did not disappoint for the most part, save for the unfortunate lack of GLBenchmark and Quadrant scores. However the Sony flagship was able to ultimately notch the victory in its favor.

We should point out that Sense UI is among the heaviest launchers available and at times the phone struggles to perform glitch-free. That being said, Project Butter has really improved navigation and animations are smooth throughout the OS, with any stutter associated with Sense only just noticeable. Pages load quickly, graphics are stellar, placing and removing widgets is done in a heartbeat and no matter how many apps are running, the HTC Butterfly doesn't seem to ever deplete its available RAM.