If 12x slower than safari, that means it's probably already faster than IE7. So maybe it isn't approaching Macbook speed, but it is approaching, or meeting, desktop browser speeds.
So, as a curiosity, I decided to run the SunSpider benchmarks on my MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 4GB RAM machine. Safari fared better at 1.1 sec. Firefox 3.5RC hit 1.4 sec. Then I downloaded Firefox 2. 13.2 sec for Firefox 2 on my MacBook Pro. So, the Phone 3GS might not hit MacBook speed with Safari, but it fares very well against a browser that many of us used not so long ago.
It isn't like Firefox 2 is some terrible browser and since Firefox 2 is handily able to execute the JavaScript contained in most pages on a MacBook Pro, it stands to reason that JavaScript performance shouldn't be a barrier on the iPhone on current generation web stuff. Granted, I'm sure Google and others would like to push the envelope, but it's good to see that mobile browsers aren't so behind.
Interestingly though, a casual browse through the Pre's software that Palm have so far put up shows it's using the webkit engine from Safari3.2. With the various iPhone hardware and software combos present, it gets a bit more interesting. The original 3G with the numerous js and render engine improvments keeping pace with the superior on the hardware front Pre. With firmware 2.2 (probably) using the same Safari 3.2 engine as the Pre, it gets a pasting from the hardware improvements.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 32.9 ms ] threadSure, it is fast for a mobile device, but it is still damn slow compared to a "real" computer.
It isn't like Firefox 2 is some terrible browser and since Firefox 2 is handily able to execute the JavaScript contained in most pages on a MacBook Pro, it stands to reason that JavaScript performance shouldn't be a barrier on the iPhone on current generation web stuff. Granted, I'm sure Google and others would like to push the envelope, but it's good to see that mobile browsers aren't so behind.