Yes, Android is Optimized for Dual Core

In case any of you are wondering if Android has been written to take advantage of dual cores, here is the answer, from one of the guys who used to work on Android at Google

From quora.com

Is it true that Android is not optimized for dual core processors? 

Robert Love, I work at Google, previously on Android.

7 votes by Neeraj Agrawal, John Clover, Nathan Campos, (more)

No, that is not true. The Motorola Xoom shipped in early 2011 with an Nvidia Tegra 2, a dual core processor. Android utilizes and is optimized for both cores.


Since then, the LG Optimus 2X, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid Bionic 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II, and HTC Evo 3D, among others, have shipped or been announced. All sport dual core processors that are fully utilized by Android.


Given that Android supports multitasking and provides application developers with an efficient and easy-to-use threading API, Android readily takes advantage of additional processor cores.

1 Comment • Aug 22, 2011

Just to add to Robert's answer, the Android Systems team put a great effort into optimizing/debugging Android on SMP for both power and performance (I was there).

Mike Chan • Aug 22, 2011