Whatever Happened To The Idea Of Instant On?Whatever Happened To The Idea Of Instant On?

It takes too long for many of today's most popular mobile devices to boot up. While some people are more patient than others, I contend that 60 seconds is way too long for a mobile device to boot. Let's take a look at how some of today's tech stacks up.First, let's talk a bit about what "instant on" really means. I don't know of any standard definition, so let's set some loose guidelines. Personally, I think "instant" should be 5 or 10 seconds max, but let's call a boot time of 15 seconds "instant" for today's purposes. Anything more than 30 seconds is pokey. A boot time that surpasses 60 seconds is flat out unacceptable.

I tested a whole bunch of devices today and recorded all the boot times. I repeated each power-up test three times and took the average of the three. As far as I am concerned, boot time lasts from the instant the power button is pressed until a user can actually start using said device, be it a laptop or mobile phone. For mobile phones, that means actually connecting to the mobile network and not just turning on.

First I tested my computers. All three run Apple OS.