I'm still here! Work has been taking up a lot of my time as of late, and I've resumed my Cisco studies. My goal is to be able to take the CCNA exam at the end of August. I'm already well versed in ICND1 (which I'm halfway through re-reviewing now) and I'll commit 3 weeks to studying ICND2 before taking the CCNA exam.
Helping motivate me is my friend Bob, who recently went to work for Google. He's studying for the CCNA too, and we're meeting weekly via Google+'s new Hangout system to discuss our progress.
For those of you still interested in Android phone news, check out this article by AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4551/motorola-droid-3-review-third-times-a-charm
As usual for AnandTech, the review is excellent.
Showing posts with label phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phones. Show all posts
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
The Empire Strikes Back: Qualcomm's Dual-Core benchmarked
AnandTech has gotten their hands on a Qualcomm prototype, brought it home and benchmarked it. The dual-core, 1.5 Ghz development phone runs at max clock speeds and isn't a perfect example of what we'll see in production handsets, but it does give a taste of what Qualcomm has in store for the mobile industry later this year, and the results are impressive. This unit also packs a next-gen Adreno 220 GPU and is optimized for graphics performance.
Take a look!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4243/dual-core-snapdragon-gpu-performance-1-5-ghz-msm8660-adreno-220-benchmarks
Take a look!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4243/dual-core-snapdragon-gpu-performance-1-5-ghz-msm8660-adreno-220-benchmarks
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friends don't let friends use Quadrant...
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Flaws in Quadrant demonstrate the need for care when analyzing benchmarks
Android benchmark enthusiasts, check out this article: http://briefmobile.com/cyanogen-demonstrates-quadrants-flaws
I'm not sure how I've missed this article, but it's quite interesting. I knew that the problem with the Quadrant I/O performance in the Galaxy S phones (causing them to score significantly below phones like the Droid X, which do not have as powerful a CPU or GPU) could be remedied on the I9000 Galaxy S and the Captivate using a fix from XDA developers.
The above article demonstrates however that the issue may go beyond the way the file system is set up in the Galaxy S. While the fix does produce actual performance gains on the hardware, phones like my Epic 4G apparently have no need for the fix. While Quadrant scores are still affected, Samsung appears to have made changes to the file system on the Epic 4G to allow for quicker loading of data from NAND flash instead of the SD card.
TL;DR - An I/O bug in other Galaxy S phones was rectified in the Epic 4G, but the performance gain is not reflected by Quadrant benchmarks.
I'm not sure how I've missed this article, but it's quite interesting. I knew that the problem with the Quadrant I/O performance in the Galaxy S phones (causing them to score significantly below phones like the Droid X, which do not have as powerful a CPU or GPU) could be remedied on the I9000 Galaxy S and the Captivate using a fix from XDA developers.
The above article demonstrates however that the issue may go beyond the way the file system is set up in the Galaxy S. While the fix does produce actual performance gains on the hardware, phones like my Epic 4G apparently have no need for the fix. While Quadrant scores are still affected, Samsung appears to have made changes to the file system on the Epic 4G to allow for quicker loading of data from NAND flash instead of the SD card.
TL;DR - An I/O bug in other Galaxy S phones was rectified in the Epic 4G, but the performance gain is not reflected by Quadrant benchmarks.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
FroYo on the Epic, coming Soon™
Report is in that Sprint has released Android 2.2 (FroYo) for the Epic in beta form to select Sprint employees. The FroYo build was leaked to XDA-Developer "noobnl", who has chosen not to leak it partly because the build is incomplete and buggy, and partly to protect the indentity of the Sprint employee who distributed it. He did however distribute the build to two other trusted developers who will use the code to prepare custom FroYo mods.
The FroYo build does not appear to contain USB TV-Out and FM tuner options that many Epic owners have been clamoring for, since it appears it's merely a software / firmware issue to enable these features. We may have to wait for XDA-Developers or Cyanogen to add these features. And, speaking of Cyanogen, it appears that they have been working on Cyanogen 6.1 for the Epic, which could end up being pretty... well... epic.
So, long story short, FroYo is coming to the Epic 4G as promised... so fellow owners, hang in there.
UPDATE, 11/13: It seems XDA-Developers has been working faster than expected. Only 1 day after I posted this, the following rooted leak of Android 2.2 was posted. This build is, for the most part, stable, though some applications will force close (however, this is quickly being rectified on a day-by-day basis). Stock browser performance is somewhat poor and there are a few other minor quirks. Quadrant performance is not stellar, but it is a beta build and we've already discussed why Quadrant scores should be taken with a grain of salt on Galaxy S phones.
I may load it onto my phone later today if I have time.
The FroYo build does not appear to contain USB TV-Out and FM tuner options that many Epic owners have been clamoring for, since it appears it's merely a software / firmware issue to enable these features. We may have to wait for XDA-Developers or Cyanogen to add these features. And, speaking of Cyanogen, it appears that they have been working on Cyanogen 6.1 for the Epic, which could end up being pretty... well... epic.
So, long story short, FroYo is coming to the Epic 4G as promised... so fellow owners, hang in there.
UPDATE, 11/13: It seems XDA-Developers has been working faster than expected. Only 1 day after I posted this, the following rooted leak of Android 2.2 was posted. This build is, for the most part, stable, though some applications will force close (however, this is quickly being rectified on a day-by-day basis). Stock browser performance is somewhat poor and there are a few other minor quirks. Quadrant performance is not stellar, but it is a beta build and we've already discussed why Quadrant scores should be taken with a grain of salt on Galaxy S phones.
I may load it onto my phone later today if I have time.
The Epic Experience
I finally got around to rooting my Epic 4G the other night, and after replacing the stock recovery boot software I proceeded to install the Phoenix kernel and the Epic Experience shell.
I have to say, I'm very impressed with the performance of the kernel and the features provided by the shell. In addition to some nice little tweaks offered by the shell (such as 270 degree rotation, performance tweaks, additional options, removal of ads, and all the software on the other Galaxy S phones), the kernel has managed to run my Epic for over 16 hours from full to empty, including 10 hours of standby, 1 hour of light use, 2 hours streaming Pandora via the speaker at nearly max volume, and about 3 hours of video playback with the screen brightness at max and speaker blaring. All with a boot sequence that takes about half as long and no loss of Android speed or performance.Very cool!
I have to say, I'm very impressed with the performance of the kernel and the features provided by the shell. In addition to some nice little tweaks offered by the shell (such as 270 degree rotation, performance tweaks, additional options, removal of ads, and all the software on the other Galaxy S phones), the kernel has managed to run my Epic for over 16 hours from full to empty, including 10 hours of standby, 1 hour of light use, 2 hours streaming Pandora via the speaker at nearly max volume, and about 3 hours of video playback with the screen brightness at max and speaker blaring. All with a boot sequence that takes about half as long and no loss of Android speed or performance.Very cool!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Samsung Transform - Sub-par hardware in a pretty package.
Just finished reading the review on Engadget of the Samsung Transform, a "mid-end" Android phone launching on Sprint that shares a lot of similarities with my Epic 4G on the surface. But as the review notes, hardware performance is pretty terrible. And that's not surprising since the Samsung S3C6410 inside is an ARM11 chip that was released in 2008.
That's some pretty tired hardware chugging underneath the surface of the Transform, almost comparable to the hardware in the Droid Eris. The problem is, the hardware in the Eris was called old when it launched nearly a year ago. We shouldn't be seeing ARM11 chips anymore. We're almost 2 generations ahead of that tech.
Keep in mind that Cortex-A8 chips are way faster MHz for MHz than the ARM11 chips. The 667 MHz processor in the Transform accomplishes the same amount of instructions per second as a Cortex-A8 running at 417 MHz. On top of that, Cortex-A8's ARMv7 architecture accomplishes more with less instructions than the Transform's ARMv6.
In short, the 550 MHz Cortex-A8 processor in the original Droid (which launched almost a year ago) kicks the pants off this chip. And that's not even going into graphics processing power, where the Mali-200 GPU in the Transform doesn't fare any better.
Releasing phones like this is not healthy for Android, which is moving in a direction that requires phones with better hardware, not stuff that's nearly 3 years old. The new JIT compiler in FroYo (Android 2.2) will allow this chip to perform at least reasonably well by boosting average CPU performance over 4 times. This seems to be the only possible justification that Sprint might have used to launch this phone. Unfortunately, they've made one major oversight; it won't help the miserable performance of the GPU.
Here's hoping this isn't a trend. Improvements to Android's compiler should not be used as an excuse to launching obsolete hardware.
That's some pretty tired hardware chugging underneath the surface of the Transform, almost comparable to the hardware in the Droid Eris. The problem is, the hardware in the Eris was called old when it launched nearly a year ago. We shouldn't be seeing ARM11 chips anymore. We're almost 2 generations ahead of that tech.
Keep in mind that Cortex-A8 chips are way faster MHz for MHz than the ARM11 chips. The 667 MHz processor in the Transform accomplishes the same amount of instructions per second as a Cortex-A8 running at 417 MHz. On top of that, Cortex-A8's ARMv7 architecture accomplishes more with less instructions than the Transform's ARMv6.
In short, the 550 MHz Cortex-A8 processor in the original Droid (which launched almost a year ago) kicks the pants off this chip. And that's not even going into graphics processing power, where the Mali-200 GPU in the Transform doesn't fare any better.
Releasing phones like this is not healthy for Android, which is moving in a direction that requires phones with better hardware, not stuff that's nearly 3 years old. The new JIT compiler in FroYo (Android 2.2) will allow this chip to perform at least reasonably well by boosting average CPU performance over 4 times. This seems to be the only possible justification that Sprint might have used to launch this phone. Unfortunately, they've made one major oversight; it won't help the miserable performance of the GPU.
Here's hoping this isn't a trend. Improvements to Android's compiler should not be used as an excuse to launching obsolete hardware.
Monday, October 4, 2010
An Epic upgrade...
As you may have guessed, I've gone and gotten an Epic 4G from Sprint, which I'm currently taking for a trial run.
Sprint's network has definitely proven to be a bit more spotty than Verizon's, but not unbearably so. I've been spoiled on Verizon. 4G coverage is actually reasonably good, even if the speeds still don't compare to the WiFi connection I have when at home.
I've had the phone for almost 3 weeks now (yeah... sorry for not mentioning anything earlier, life has been busy), so I'm coming up on the end of my trial run. I think I'll be sticking with Sprint, though the network may prove to test my patience.
I'm not going to rattle on too long about the phone, there's dozens of reviews on the web that'll tell you about the Epic 4G. All I can say is that it definitely meets my expectations and is an excellent piece of hardware. It is not, however without its faults, as Samsung's build quality issues do show through. In the first couple of days I got the phone, sometimes the capacitive Menu button would spontaneously and repeatedly act as if it had been touched, even if I wasn't touching it. Other times it would not respond at all. I found that the device was running a pre-production ROM, and had to manually update it. Once I did, I immediately got an OTA update and the problem disappeared. Perhaps Sprint should take the blame for that one. There are also a few very thin gaps (fractions of a millimeter) between the glass on the front and the bezel, which already are gathering small amounts of dust.
But the complaints are few when compared to the great things I have to say about this device. The screen is amazingly bright, colorful, and responsive. Tilt and acceleration sensors are very accurate. Battery life is good, all things considered. I've had no issues with the GPS since the updates have come through. Front camera works right in the main camera app (Self-Portrait option) and the slide-out keyboard has a nice spring open, feels solid, and the keys themselves are well spaced and have excellent response and travel.
The phone is zippy, but does hit an occasional snag. I'm hoping Froyo works this out of the system with the new JIT compiler, though the problem ultimately likely lies with the I/O bug that plagues the Galaxy S line. I know that the XDA developers have produced a fix for the Captivate, hopefully we'll see one soon for the Epic.
As for Samsung's UI, I've played around with a couple custom home launchers and themes but I keep finding myself coming back to TouchWiz. It might not be pretty, but it does get the job done. Perhaps I'll get rid of it when I get around to rooting my phone, but I've got my 7 homescreens already organized at this point and I'm perfectly fine with the way it looks.
I'll leave things at that for the time being. I'll have further things to write about regarding the phone and Android in general in the coming week, so stay tuned... I'll try to do a better job of keeping my blog up to date, I promise!
I've had the phone for almost 3 weeks now (yeah... sorry for not mentioning anything earlier, life has been busy), so I'm coming up on the end of my trial run. I think I'll be sticking with Sprint, though the network may prove to test my patience.
I'm not going to rattle on too long about the phone, there's dozens of reviews on the web that'll tell you about the Epic 4G. All I can say is that it definitely meets my expectations and is an excellent piece of hardware. It is not, however without its faults, as Samsung's build quality issues do show through. In the first couple of days I got the phone, sometimes the capacitive Menu button would spontaneously and repeatedly act as if it had been touched, even if I wasn't touching it. Other times it would not respond at all. I found that the device was running a pre-production ROM, and had to manually update it. Once I did, I immediately got an OTA update and the problem disappeared. Perhaps Sprint should take the blame for that one. There are also a few very thin gaps (fractions of a millimeter) between the glass on the front and the bezel, which already are gathering small amounts of dust.
But the complaints are few when compared to the great things I have to say about this device. The screen is amazingly bright, colorful, and responsive. Tilt and acceleration sensors are very accurate. Battery life is good, all things considered. I've had no issues with the GPS since the updates have come through. Front camera works right in the main camera app (Self-Portrait option) and the slide-out keyboard has a nice spring open, feels solid, and the keys themselves are well spaced and have excellent response and travel.
The phone is zippy, but does hit an occasional snag. I'm hoping Froyo works this out of the system with the new JIT compiler, though the problem ultimately likely lies with the I/O bug that plagues the Galaxy S line. I know that the XDA developers have produced a fix for the Captivate, hopefully we'll see one soon for the Epic.
As for Samsung's UI, I've played around with a couple custom home launchers and themes but I keep finding myself coming back to TouchWiz. It might not be pretty, but it does get the job done. Perhaps I'll get rid of it when I get around to rooting my phone, but I've got my 7 homescreens already organized at this point and I'm perfectly fine with the way it looks.
I'll leave things at that for the time being. I'll have further things to write about regarding the phone and Android in general in the coming week, so stay tuned... I'll try to do a better job of keeping my blog up to date, I promise!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Help me pick my Galaxy S...
Alright folks, I need your help. I have to decide which Galaxy S phone I'm going to buy this fall.
Currently, I'm torn primarily between the Verizon Fascinate and the Sprint Epic 4G. Here's the Pros vs. Cons for me:
Fascinate
Pros:
Already on Verizon (and so is my girlfriend)
Better network
Thinner and lighter
Cons:
Bing Search (Per Engadget it can't be changed to Google either!)
No front-facing camera.
Expensive monthly payment
Only 3G connection
Epic 4G
Pros:
4G connection (available in my city too)
QWERTY keyboard
Front-facing camera
Cons:
Would have to switch carriers (and my girlfriend doesn't really want Sprint)
Less reliable network
Still a fairly expensive monthly payment, and $10 extra for 4G data service.
Phone is heavier and thicker
Currently, I'm torn primarily between the Verizon Fascinate and the Sprint Epic 4G. Here's the Pros vs. Cons for me:
Fascinate
Pros:
Already on Verizon (and so is my girlfriend)
Better network
Thinner and lighter
Cons:
Bing Search (Per Engadget it can't be changed to Google either!)
No front-facing camera.
Expensive monthly payment
Only 3G connection
Epic 4G
Pros:
4G connection (available in my city too)
QWERTY keyboard
Front-facing camera
Cons:
Would have to switch carriers (and my girlfriend doesn't really want Sprint)
Less reliable network
Still a fairly expensive monthly payment, and $10 extra for 4G data service.
Phone is heavier and thicker
Thursday, August 12, 2010
HTC Glacier and my friends over at AlienBabelTech.com...
A couple weeks back, I was checking on a comment posted in response to my Android Benchmark blog post regarding some interesting performance values for the Droid X on GLBenchmark.com.
GLBenchmark has been a useful tool for me in the past; specifically I used iPhone 3GS performance values to estimate graphics performance in my Hummingbird vs Snapdragon article. I replied to the comment and noticed something strange, a new contender named "HTC Glacier" sitting on GLBenchmark's results list above the Galaxy S phones which were reigning supreme at the time.
It made me raise my eyebrows... an HTC phone of that power could only contain a new Snapdragon of some sort. I started to dig into the specs a bit... and then I was pulled away from my computer by the joys of fatherhood. HTC Glacier was forgotten as I scraped up food flung all over the place by my misbehaving daughter. I remember being tired that night, heading to bed soon after I managed to get my temperamental child down for the night.
Fortunately, someone else was paying better attention; my good friend MrK over at AlienBabelTech.com who has hosted my article and several of my blog posts, and with whom I communicate regularly. He spotted the HTC Glacier as well, and wasted no time in doing some sleuthing, finding that the person who posted the HTC Glacier was a T-Mobile Design Manager... quickly answering the question of which carrier Glacier will end up on. He also theorized that the Glacier contains the 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8672, and it wasn't long before his article was being linked on tech blogs across the web.
GLBenchmark has been a useful tool for me in the past; specifically I used iPhone 3GS performance values to estimate graphics performance in my Hummingbird vs Snapdragon article. I replied to the comment and noticed something strange, a new contender named "HTC Glacier" sitting on GLBenchmark's results list above the Galaxy S phones which were reigning supreme at the time.
It made me raise my eyebrows... an HTC phone of that power could only contain a new Snapdragon of some sort. I started to dig into the specs a bit... and then I was pulled away from my computer by the joys of fatherhood. HTC Glacier was forgotten as I scraped up food flung all over the place by my misbehaving daughter. I remember being tired that night, heading to bed soon after I managed to get my temperamental child down for the night.
Fortunately, someone else was paying better attention; my good friend MrK over at AlienBabelTech.com who has hosted my article and several of my blog posts, and with whom I communicate regularly. He spotted the HTC Glacier as well, and wasted no time in doing some sleuthing, finding that the person who posted the HTC Glacier was a T-Mobile Design Manager... quickly answering the question of which carrier Glacier will end up on. He also theorized that the Glacier contains the 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8672, and it wasn't long before his article was being linked on tech blogs across the web.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Hands-on with T-Mobile's Galaxy S: the Samsung Vibrant.
Took a pit-stop by T-Mobile on my way home today to finally take a hands-on look at T-Mobile's Vibrant, the original Samsung Galaxy S.
All-in-all, very impressed. The phone was playing Avatar when I came in, no stutter whatsoever, and the display truly was amazing. The colors just popped from the phone, and alongside other phones displayed nearby, it definitely stood out.
All-in-all, very impressed. The phone was playing Avatar when I came in, no stutter whatsoever, and the display truly was amazing. The colors just popped from the phone, and alongside other phones displayed nearby, it definitely stood out.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Samsung Galaxy S Pro exists; fulfills my every desire.
You may have read my article, "Hummingbird vs. Snapdragon: The 1 GHz Smartphone Showdown". I definitely favored the Samsung Galaxy S in my performance review, but personally, the lack of an LED flash has been a detractor for me.
I've also preferred a hardware keyboard, and my understanding was that this was something I'd have to give up for my new smartphone. I'd dismissed rumors of the Samsung Galaxy S Pro, as there was no visual proof and it seemed far-fetched.
But the Samsung Galaxy S Pro has been outed as a reality, and the idea of getting a Galaxy S with a keyboard has been an exciting possibility, however the recent info on the Droid X has been enough to make me ponder my other smartphone options, as it sports a 4.3 inch display and supposedly a 45 nm 1 GHz TI OMAP 3640 SoC (no, not a 3630, Engadget got it wrong, that's the 720 MHz version).
Two game-changers have been dropped on me to make me change my mind, and both hit me with 1 spy shot of the new Galaxy S Pro.
And here are some other shots of the front:
I've also preferred a hardware keyboard, and my understanding was that this was something I'd have to give up for my new smartphone. I'd dismissed rumors of the Samsung Galaxy S Pro, as there was no visual proof and it seemed far-fetched.
But the Samsung Galaxy S Pro has been outed as a reality, and the idea of getting a Galaxy S with a keyboard has been an exciting possibility, however the recent info on the Droid X has been enough to make me ponder my other smartphone options, as it sports a 4.3 inch display and supposedly a 45 nm 1 GHz TI OMAP 3640 SoC (no, not a 3630, Engadget got it wrong, that's the 720 MHz version).
Two game-changers have been dropped on me to make me change my mind, and both hit me with 1 spy shot of the new Galaxy S Pro.
The very first thing I noticed is an LED flash. Awesome! Now no more worries about taking pictures in low light. But what's that above, next to the Sprint logo... 4G?! Sweet! Wait... doesn't Sprint have a tiny 4G network? Yes. But wait... my home city of Rochester is on Sprint's 4G launch list for July?!
... Yeah, I know what my next phone is going to be. This thing is the dream device I've been waiting for since last year. Amazing processor and graphics hardware, 4 inch Super-AMOLED display, 5 MP camera with flash, front-facing camera, slide-out physical keyboard, and 4G connection (with 4G available!)
Knowing my luck, something even more amazing will show up a week before it launches... no, let's not even imagine that!
Source: http://androidcommunity.com/exclusive-first-picture-of-the-galaxy-s-pro-20100614/ and http://androidcommunity.com/exclusive-more-pictures-of-the-galaxy-s-pro-20100614/
Friday, March 26, 2010
Hummingbird vs Snapdragon: the 1 Ghz smartphone showdown
NOTE: This article has been officially hosted at AlienBabelTech.com. For a better reading experience, you may want to view the article here!
If you follow smartphone technology at all, you're sure to have heard of the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It's the reigning smartphone CPU heavyweight; a 1 GHz processor packed with a multitude of features, based upon the same ARM CPU technology that modern smartphones such as the Droid, Palm Pre, Nokia N900 and iPhone 3GS use. However, unlike those processors, the Snapdragon runs at 1 GHz while the others run at 600 MHz and under, and thus has become the chip of choice for premium smartphones.
The Snapdragon SoC (System on a Chip) has appeared on the market in several devices recently. The most well-known example is probably the Google Nexus One, though it had already appeared in a previous device, the HTC HD2. The HD2, released November 11th 2009, had a Snapdragon processor as well as a massive 4.3-inch display (diagonally measured), and received rave reviews that almost unanimously ended with one major complaint: the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. It’s an operating system largely unchanged from its predecessors and prone to software problems. In addition, to really make good use of the processing power of the phone, applications needed to exist that made use of that power, and the majority of applications written for Microsoft’s mobile OS just didn’t take advantage. The industry begged for an HD2 with Google’s Android mobile operating system, and HTC responded that it wasn’t going to happen.
But then Sprint announced the HTC EVO 4G at the CTIA 2010 trade show, and the mobile industry collectively went wild. Here was the phone everyone had been dreaming of; a 4.3-inch display and 1 GHz Snapdragon like the HD2, as well as a deployable kickstand, 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, HDMI port, and 4G WiMAX connectivity. The HD2 had essentially been reborn, new and improved, for the Android OS. Judging by the limelight cast upon the EVO 4G by the mobile enthusiast community, the EVO 4G is positioned to become one of the best selling smartphones of the year.
However, another device debuted at CTIA 2010 that was largely overshadowed by the launch of the EVO 4G: the Samsung GT-i9000 Galaxy S. This new phone, in contrast, has a 4-inch Super AMOLED display (more on that later), 5MP rear camera, 0.3MP front camera, (GSM/HSPDA) 3G/3.5G connectivity… and was mentioned almost as an afterthought to contain Samsung’s own 1 GHz processor. Samsung spent a lot of time at CTIA 2010 talking about the Super AMOLED display, and in contrast only a few moments disclosing details on the new SoC, stating that it has over 3x better performance than the leading competition (referring to graphics performance), and bests all other smartphone processors on the market today. Only later was it confirmed that the SoC was Samsung’s new 45 nm “Hummingbird” platform, the only production 1 GHz ARM processor thus far to challenge Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.
When the news of these phones hit the tech blogs, nearly all of the attention went to the HTC EVO 4G. The EVO 4G was what many had been waiting for, and the Samsung was typically given hardly a second glance. But let’s take a moment to really compare the hardware of these two Android 2.1 smartphones, and then we’ll even go a bit deeper into how the SoCs actually stack against one another when it comes to CPU and GPU processing power.
If you follow smartphone technology at all, you're sure to have heard of the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It's the reigning smartphone CPU heavyweight; a 1 GHz processor packed with a multitude of features, based upon the same ARM CPU technology that modern smartphones such as the Droid, Palm Pre, Nokia N900 and iPhone 3GS use. However, unlike those processors, the Snapdragon runs at 1 GHz while the others run at 600 MHz and under, and thus has become the chip of choice for premium smartphones.
The Snapdragon SoC (System on a Chip) has appeared on the market in several devices recently. The most well-known example is probably the Google Nexus One, though it had already appeared in a previous device, the HTC HD2. The HD2, released November 11th 2009, had a Snapdragon processor as well as a massive 4.3-inch display (diagonally measured), and received rave reviews that almost unanimously ended with one major complaint: the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. It’s an operating system largely unchanged from its predecessors and prone to software problems. In addition, to really make good use of the processing power of the phone, applications needed to exist that made use of that power, and the majority of applications written for Microsoft’s mobile OS just didn’t take advantage. The industry begged for an HD2 with Google’s Android mobile operating system, and HTC responded that it wasn’t going to happen.
But then Sprint announced the HTC EVO 4G at the CTIA 2010 trade show, and the mobile industry collectively went wild. Here was the phone everyone had been dreaming of; a 4.3-inch display and 1 GHz Snapdragon like the HD2, as well as a deployable kickstand, 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, HDMI port, and 4G WiMAX connectivity. The HD2 had essentially been reborn, new and improved, for the Android OS. Judging by the limelight cast upon the EVO 4G by the mobile enthusiast community, the EVO 4G is positioned to become one of the best selling smartphones of the year.
However, another device debuted at CTIA 2010 that was largely overshadowed by the launch of the EVO 4G: the Samsung GT-i9000 Galaxy S. This new phone, in contrast, has a 4-inch Super AMOLED display (more on that later), 5MP rear camera, 0.3MP front camera, (GSM/HSPDA) 3G/3.5G connectivity… and was mentioned almost as an afterthought to contain Samsung’s own 1 GHz processor. Samsung spent a lot of time at CTIA 2010 talking about the Super AMOLED display, and in contrast only a few moments disclosing details on the new SoC, stating that it has over 3x better performance than the leading competition (referring to graphics performance), and bests all other smartphone processors on the market today. Only later was it confirmed that the SoC was Samsung’s new 45 nm “Hummingbird” platform, the only production 1 GHz ARM processor thus far to challenge Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.
When the news of these phones hit the tech blogs, nearly all of the attention went to the HTC EVO 4G. The EVO 4G was what many had been waiting for, and the Samsung was typically given hardly a second glance. But let’s take a moment to really compare the hardware of these two Android 2.1 smartphones, and then we’ll even go a bit deeper into how the SoCs actually stack against one another when it comes to CPU and GPU processing power.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sprint debuts the HTC EVO 4G: blows our minds.
Sprint's new 4G WiMAX-capable superphone has been announced, and currently outspecs any other phone on the market.
http://now.sprint.com/evo/
Packed into a slim package, this Android phone running 2.1 (with Sense) has a 4.3-inch-across capacitive multi-touch display, a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, an 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP forward-facing VGA camera, shoots 720p HD video, has mini-USB and HDMI outputs, has 512 megs of RAM, a 1 GB internal drive (with microSD slot for expandability), full Flash support, can function as a mobile 3G/4G connected WiFi hotspot, will come with mobile TV support, and even has a deployable kickstand for your viewing pleasure.
http://now.sprint.com/evo/
Packed into a slim package, this Android phone running 2.1 (with Sense) has a 4.3-inch-across capacitive multi-touch display, a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, an 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP forward-facing VGA camera, shoots 720p HD video, has mini-USB and HDMI outputs, has 512 megs of RAM, a 1 GB internal drive (with microSD slot for expandability), full Flash support, can function as a mobile 3G/4G connected WiFi hotspot, will come with mobile TV support, and even has a deployable kickstand for your viewing pleasure.
It suffers only one flaw: it's on Sprint!
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