Well, the thing is two cores running at, say, 800MHz burns less battery than one core running at 1.6GHz. So you get the similar (but not quite the same) process

Well, the thing is two cores running at, say, 800MHz burns less battery than one core running at 1.6GHz. So you get the similar (but not quite the same) processing power for less battery power. You also get less heat dissipation. Great clock rates on handheld devices are currently out of the question because they would overheat, and handset designers are reluctant to make the device big enough to fit a heatsink. Random corroborating source (with annoying popup): http://www.wirelessweek.com/articles/2011/07/devices-multi-core-app-processors-smartphones/ http://www.wirelessweek.com/articles/2011/07/devices-multi-c...