Comparison of Matlab/Octave .^2 with multiplication by the complex conjugate

cx_conj_vs_pow2.m

a = rand(5);
b = rand(5);
c = a + 1i*b;

% -------------------------------------------------------------------------

% POW
tic();
c1 = real(c).^2 + imag(c).^2;
toc()

% -------------------------------------------------------------------------

% MUL BY COMPLEX CONJ
tic();
c2 = c .* conj(c);
toc()

% -------------------------------------------------------------------------

% Observations:
% - the results match (c1 == c2)
% - time with .^2 is consistently faster than using the complex conjugate.