While most journalists spent their scant Apple-given minutes with the iPad 2 playing with apps and snapping photos, CNET UK went straight to business, jumping into Safari and running the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark to measure how much better Mobile Safari’s new JavaScript rendering engine was over the original iPad’s.
According to CNET, quite a bit: the iPad 2 is up to four times faster in JavaScript rendering than the original iPad, and it’s not just a matter of beefier hardware. Even on the original iPad running iOS 4.3, there’s a 1.5x boost in JavaScript rendering compared to an iPad running iOS 4.2.
Most impressively, the iPad 2 is faster at JavaScript than all competing tablets, with the Galaxy Tab processing JavaScript at only 1/3rd of the speed of the iPad 2. The web just is faster on iOS.
