This confuses and interests me also. This goes a little bit offtopic, but I have been wondering nowadays' Android phones with 8-core processors etc.

I have no knowledge at processors/threads/strings/whatever, but I do remember when AMD published the first 6-cores for gaming. It was said that only some few programs really know what to do with those six cores. And I remember some performance tests where AMD 4-core processors performed better than otherwise identical 6-cores.

Many things may have changed from those times, but every time I read about a device having 8-core processor or even multiple processors, I start wondering. So the question is: Can an Android device really put all those processors and cores to good use? I guess it also depends on what you do with that device. For example do you get the benefits of multiple cores only when multitasking or heavy gaming, or does it also give energy savings and longer usage time?