Category Archives: Manufacturer

Samsung unveils new 8-core mobile processor

via assets.sbnation.com

Just as other chip manufacturers have done at CES, Samsung revealed their new Exynos 5, an 8-core mobile processor which keeps in mind ARM’s big.little reference design. It pairs four larger and more power hungry Cortex A15s with four smaller, energy efficient Cortex A7s. This should allow an increase of up to 70% according to ARM, which will help as devices screens are becoming larger and larger, and more demanding applications and games are being developed. Exynos 5 should allow for substantially more powerful devices, even more so than the already powerful the Nexus 10 which has a processor with a dual-core A15 implementation. The Exynos 5 is also being built on a 28nm process as compared to the 32nm process for the Exynos 5 Dual and the Exynos 4 which should also add to the power saving ability of this chip.

big.LITTLE Processing Image

Sources: ARM, Android Central, The Verge, AnandTech

Qualcomm announces new Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 800 chips

Snapdragon

Just as Nvidia unveiled its new processor the Tegra 4, today Qualcomm followed suit and unveiled two new chips, the Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 800. Starting off with the 600, basically a S4 Pro which is in the Nexus 4 or Droid DNA and make everything better and faster, it combines a quad-core Krait 300 CPU with speeds up to 1.9GHz, Adreno 320 GPU, LPDDR3 RAM support, and to top it off will be up to 40 percent faster than the Snapdragon S4 Pro.

The Snapdragon 800 is even faster, which means phones which have this silicon will fly through almost any application. Qualcomm promises a 75 percent increase in CPU performance and to double the graphics compute performance. This is achieved through quad-core Krait 400 speeds up to 2.3GHz, an Adreno 330 GPU, 4g LTE CAT 4 and 802.11ac support, Ultra HD support (4K), support for DTS-HD Dolby Digital Plus and 7.1 surround, and Dual Image Signal Processors (ISPs) up to 55-megapixels.

Both chips have integrated LTE which should provide power benefits over non-integrated solutions, following the precedent of the S4 vs Tegra 3 as was seen in the varying versions of the HTC One X. The Snapdragon 600 and 800 should start arriving mid-year.

Source: AndroidCentral, TheVerge

Nexus 4 Available in White from Carphone Warehouse [UPDATE]

The Nexus 4 is available in White from Carphone Warehouse. Yes, White!

Mandatory blurry cam pic for your pleasure!

So far everything that I have read about and seen never mentioned it coming in any other colours so this is a bit of a surprise. Don’t have any pictures of it yet but will update as soon as we get more on it

Now the CPW employee wouldn’t let me have a snap of the system but we’ve supplied one for  you anyway!

After a chat this morning in my local store, You could get a White Nexus 4 on contract but currently the warehouse stock was empty and the Black Nexus 4 was in stock, however couldn’t be ordered for some reason unknown to the clerk.

Samsung Galaxy S3. Things we hate. [Updated]

  • The colours. Blue isn’t actually blue and the “ceramic white” looks yellow next to a white GS2.
  • Button placement. I personally wish that the buttons where equal distance from the screen to the bottom of the phone. They are more towards the bottom and using the phone horizontally I find my fat hand pressing menu/back
  • Screenshot. Google added the perfectly acceptable and usable ”Power + Volume Down” button combination, Samsung went and removed it completely and now require me to drag the side of my hand across the screen. What you trying to do Samsung clean my fingerprint marks off?! (Update) It turns out that you can do a screenshot with power + home which is better but still requires two hands.
  • Screen. It has this curve, It reminds me of the Nokia Lumia 800 and it feels very strange when moving across the app draw.
  • New MHL Cable required. Finally MHL Cables have fallen to a price that is affordable at around £8. Samsung must not have been happy with this fact and go mess with a standard for what, more money?
  • Samsung logo on the back. Bit of an odd one I  know I find that holding the phone my index finger is sitting on the “SAMSUNG” text on the back, Would be a non-issue apart from its raised. Hope its not made of nickel.
  • Software. Maybe this one we will leave for another day?

HTC One S Vs. Galaxy S II in pictures.

We have a quick comparison of the HTC One S Vs. Sasmsung Galaxy S II.

HTC One S on the left.                             GS2 on the right.

 

Our opinion?

Galaxy S II Look better whilst the HTC One S gives a more true colour, Mostly. However we felt that overall the pictures were good but just not as clear.

Stay tuned for a unboxing and review video at some point this week!

Xperia Handsets getting ICS

If you purchased an Xperia S or Arc S recently you will know these devices came with Gingerbread sadly, But will be happy to know they are getting ICS, However Sony mobiles has decided that some of the older devices may not work correctly so it will not be a mandatory upgrade AND you have to update via their PC Software. Rollouts expecting  to start end of Q2.

Devices to see the update:

  • Xperia S
  • Xperia U
  • Xperia P
  • Xperia Sola
  • Xperia Arc S
  • Xperia Neo V
  • Xperia Ray
  • Xperia Play
  • Xperia Neo
  • Xperia Mini
  • Xperia Mini Pro
  • Xperia Pro
  • Xperia Active

This list is in order of phones to get it first (Probably), But they will all get it.