Smartphones
Samsung is announcing today that it has begun mass production of 12 GB and 16 GB LPDDR5X modules in the industry's thinnest package. Samsung's shrunken memory packages measure approximately 0.65 mm in thickness, making them 0.06 mm (~9%) thinner than standard LPDDR5X packages. The company expects the new DRAM devices to be used to make for thinner smartphones, or improve their performance by enabling better airflow inside. According to the company's press release, Samsung achieved this ultra-thin design by employing new packaging methods, such as optimized printed circuit boards (PCBs) and epoxy molding compound (EMC). Additionally, an optimized back-lapping process was used to further reduce the height of the packages. The newly developed DRAM packages are not only thinner by 9% compared to previous models...
The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (Krait) Preview Part II
Yesterday we presented the first results of Qualcomm's Krait based MSM8960 SoC. While we still await the first Krait based phones (widely expected to begin shipping sometime in Q2)...
49 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/22/2012
LG's Optimus 4X HD: 1.5GHz Tegra 3 Smartphone w/ 4.7-inch HD Display to Launch at MWC 2012
Although we're still waiting on the global announcement, LG Korea has already announced the Optimus 4X HD one of the first Tegra 3 based smartphones. The 4.7-inch display is...
19 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/22/2012
NVIDIA's Rebrands Tegra 3's vSMP as 4-PLUS-1
ARM Cortex A9 cores are relatively tiny and it's not too difficult to put a handful of them down on an SoC. NVIDIA did just that with its Tegra...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/22/2012
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 and mini 2 Announced: Mystery SoC Within
In August of last year, Samsung laid out it's naming strategy for their Galaxy line of phones, with a grand total 5 device categories. Well, turns out they left...
7 by Jason Inofuentes on 2/22/2012
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (Krait) Performance Preview - 1.5 GHz MSM8960 MDP and Adreno 225 Benchmarks
If you've been following our SoC and smartphone related coverage over the past couple of years, you'll probably remember how Qualcomm let us take home an MDP8660 from MWC...
86 by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/21/2012
ZTE Mimosa X: First Smartphone Powered by NVIDIA's Icera 450 Modem
In May of last year NVIDIA was on a roll. Hot off the release of the first Tegra 2 based phones, NVIDIA announced the intent to acquire baseband manufacturer...
4 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/20/2012
LG's Optimus Vu Takes On Samsung's Galaxy Note: Are You Ready For A 5.x" Phone?
When Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note at IFA, we were excited, but a bit perplexed. The Galaxy Note's 1280x800 HD Super AMOLED display could be a big winner, but...
32 by Jason Inofuentes on 2/20/2012
Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX Review - 1.8x The Battery
For a while now, our chief complaint when talking about 4G LTE handsets has been battery life. The combination of 45nm cellular basebands, ever increasing screen size, and 4x...
45 by Brian Klug on 2/14/2012
TI Announces WiLink 8 Family - WiFi, GNSS, NFC, BT, and FM Combo Chip
It goes without saying that connectivity is a hugely important part of smartphones. After all, without some sort of network connection, you've basically just got an expensive PDA or...
15 by Brian Klug on 2/13/2012
HTC Announces Initial Ice Cream Sandwich Rollout Plans
A while back, HTC announced the first suite of devices that it would be rolling out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates to. The devce lineup included the entire...
39 by Brian Klug on 2/9/2012
Google Releases Chrome For Android - Updated
It has finally happened; Google has officially released Chrome for Android. In typical Google fashion, the browser is currently in beta and requires Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to...
30 by Saumitra Bhagwat, Andrew Cunningham & Brian Klug on 2/8/2012
Nokia Announces White Lumia 800
Nokia announced today that their first Windows phone, the Lumia 800 (our review), will be available in white later this month. The initial lineup included three color options: black...
6 by Kristian Vättö on 2/7/2012
CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus 4.0.4 Update Changes Signal Reporting
Back when the Verizon CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus released, there was much talk of a signal related issue, which we investigated. The findings back then were that there was nothing...
6 by Brian Klug on 2/6/2012
Motorola Droid RAZR, RAZR MAXX Update Enables CDRX for Better LTE Battery Life
While we don't usually cover every software update on every platform, I thought it worth noting something special about the new update which will begin going out shortly to...
7 by Brian Klug on 2/3/2012
Qualcomm and Ericsson Demonstrate SR-VCC Voice Handover from LTE to WCDMA on MSM8960
Until now, the way voice has worked on handsets with a 4G LTE air interface has been, well, interesting. That is to say, thus far all voice calls haven't...
9 by Brian Klug on 2/2/2012
US Cellular Announces Initial 4G LTE Markets, Devices
Not to be left in the dust by their big national counterparts, regional carriers are also moving onward to 4G LTE, and US Cellular today announced its initial 4G...
4 by Brian Klug on 2/1/2012
Motorola Announces RAZR XT910 Developer Edition with Unlocked Bootloader
A while ago, Motorola announced plans to start unlocking bootloaders on devices "where operator and channel partners will allow it" sometime in 2011. While it's clear now (with that...
14 by Brian Klug on 1/30/2012_carousel.jpg)
Samsung Announces Galaxy S Advance
Reports about a new Samsung Galaxy series smart phone have been floating around for a few days now, and today Samsung has finally made it official by announcing the...
14 by Kristian Vättö on 1/30/2012
AT&T to Launch New Data Plans For Smartphones, Tablets
Beginning this Sunday, January 22, AT&T will begin offering new data plans to its US smartphone and tablet customers, its first change to the plans since June 2010. The new...
32 by Andrew Cunningham & Manveer Wasson on 1/18/2012
Samsung Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich Review
The evolution of Google’s Nexus line is an interesting one. Each year, Google chooses both a silicon partner and an OEM to make a unique hardware archetype which it...
187 by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/18/2012
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