$80 Doogee X5 Pro Android 5.1 LTE Smartphone Comes with 2GB RAM, 16GB Flash

I’ve been amazed how the price of technology has come down recently, with decent TV boxes selling for $30 to $50, and I’ve now been informed about Doogee X5 Pro, a quad core smartphone running Android 5.1, supporting LTE networks, and featuring with 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, and a 5″ HD screen selling for $80 shipped. Doogee X5 Pro specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6735 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.0 / 1.3 GHz with Mali-720 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB flash (12GB available to user) + micro SD slot up to 32GB Display – 5.0″ IPS HD Screen (1280×720) Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/AGPS Cellular Connectivity 2x Micro SIM slots; Dual SIM dual standby 2G – GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G – WCDMA 900/2100MHz 4G – FDD-LTE 800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz Camera – 5.0MP rear camera (up to 8.0MP by interpolation); 2.0MP font-facing camera (up to 5.0MP […]

Altair FourGee LTE Chipsets Promise 10 Years of Connectivity with AA Batteries for IoT Applications

Connectivity achieved with GSM,. 3G or LTE (4G) cellular networks is great for long distances, but usually costs and power consumption are too high for IoT or M2M communications, which explains why there are competing long range low power WAN standards such as Sigfox, LoRA or Weightless. Altair Semiconductor introduced two new LTE SoCs, namely FourGee-1150/6410 and FourGee-1160/6410 a few months ago, supporting respectively LTE Cat-0 and Cat-1 connectivity, and promising up to 10 years of battery life on AA batteries for smart meters, wearables, security alarms, city lightings, etc… Altair FourGee-1150 and FourGee-1160 key features and specifications: Processor – Multiple MIPS M5150 “Warrior” MCU cores LTE Connectivity FourGee-1150 LTE Release 12 Category-0 (1Mbps / 1Mbps), software upgradeable for supporting Release 13 features Integrated VoLTE/IMS/OTA-DM functionality FourGee-1160 LTE Release 11 Category-1 (10Mbps / 5Mbps), software upgradeable for supporting Releases 12 and 13 features Integrated VoLTE/IMS/OTA-DM with HD voice functionality Software […]

Comparison Table of Low Power WAN Standards for Industrial Applications

WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee are commonly found in consumer devices part of the “IoT ecosystem”, but the range, cost, power consumption, and/or scalability of these wireless standards are not suitable. For example, agricultural and forestry applications normally require long distance, and smart parking or city lighting may requires scalability to a great number of nodes, so alternatives are needed. EDN wrote a thorough article comparing 10 alternative wireless standards: Weightless-W, Weightless-N, Weightless-P, SigFox, LoRaWAN, LTE-Cat M, IEEE P802.11ah, Dash7, Ingenu RPMA, and nWave. The table includes the frequency band, channel width, range, transmit power, packet size (minimal or maximal), downlink and uplink data rates, maximum number of connected devices, topology, roaming capability, and status. If you had to implement something today, four to five solutions are “in deployment”: SigFox, Ingenu RPMA, nWave, LoRa, and possibly Dash7, while the other are only starting to get deployed, or will be finalized in […]

Qualcomm Unveils Octa-core Cortex A53 Snapdragon 430 and 617 Processors

Qualcomm has unveiled two new octacore 64-bit ARM processors for mid-range smartphones with Snapdragon 430 and Snapdragon 617 Cortex A53 SoCs, both of which support the recently announced Quick Charge 3.0 standard and embed LTE connectivity. Snapdragon 430 Snapdragon 430 key features and specifications: CPU – 8x ARM Cortex A53 up to 1.2 GHz GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 505 GPU supporting up to OpenGL ES 3.1+ DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon 536 DSP Memory –  LPDDR3 800MHz Storage –  eMMC 5.1, SD 3.0 (UHS-I) Modem – Snapdragon X6 LTE – LTE Cat 4 (up to 150 Mbps DL/75 Mbps UL) Wireless Connectivity – WiFi 802.11n/ac  (Qualcomm VIVE 2-stream with MU-MIMO),  Bluetooth 4.1 + BLE, GPS (Qualcomm IZat Gen8C) Display – Up to 1080p on device and output Video – Up to 1080p at 30 FPS; Codecs: H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) Audio – Fluence HD noise cancellation technology Camera – Up to […]

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 650 and 652 ARM Cortex A72 / A53 Processors

[Update: Title updated to reflect the new names of the processors. Snapdragon 618 is now Snapdragon 650, and 620 is now 652 to reflect the better Cortex A72 cores used in those processors] Qualcomm has announced four new processors including Snapdragon 415 and 425 octa-core Cortex A53 processor, as well a Snapdragon 618 and 620 big.LITTLE processor with the latest Cortex A72 cores coupled with four Cortex A53 little cores. Snapdragon 618 is the hexa-core version with 2 Cortex A72 cores, while Snapdragon 620 comes with eight cores including 4 Cortex A72, but apart from the difference in number of cores, both share the same technical specifications: CPU Snapdragon 618 – 64-bit dual-core ARM Cortex A72 @ 1.8GHz  and quad-core Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz Snapdragon 620 – 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex A72 @ 1.8GHz  and quad-core Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz GPU – Next generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU with support for […]

Marvell Introduces ARMADA PXA1936 & PXA1908 Octa & Quad Core Cortex A53 LTE SoCs for Smartphones and Tablets

Marvell announced ARMADA PXA1928 quad core Cortex A53 LTE SoC at the beginning of the year, and they’ve now introduced two new Cortex A53 based processors with PXA1936 and PXA1908, featuring respectively eight and four ARM Cortex A53 cores at 1.5 GHz, and 5-mode 4G LTE support (TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and GSM). PXA1936 targets high performance smartphones and tablets, whereas PXA1908 targets mid-range / mainstream mobile devices. Key features of the Marvell ARMADA Mobile PXA1936 include: Octa core Cortex A53 up to 1.5GHz Supports 1080p display, and video encoding and decoding Improved image processor to support 13 to 16MP camera Advanced power management and audio codec for power efficiency and audio performance Enhanced security processor Integrated location and sensor hub functionalities for better usability Field proven DSDS (Dual Sim Dual Standby) software for 5-mode modem While key features of Marvell ARMADA Mobile PXA1908 include: Cost optimized quad-core Cortex A53 […]

Qualcomm Showcases 4K LTE HDMI TV Streaming Dongle

There are now many wireless display adapters supporting Miracast, EZCast, DLNA, Airplay…, and streaming videos from your smartphone to the TV over Wi-Fi in 720p or 1080p resolution. Qualcomm recently unveiled a prototype called “4K Stream Adapter (4SA)” that does about the same but instead support 4K UHD resolution, and allegedly supports LTE thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800+ processor. According to a PCWorld report, Qualcomm mainly expects the device to be used to stream 4K video captured with a phone to a 4k UHD television, but it might also ending up supporting online video services such as Netflix, and mirroring your mobile device’s display onto the big screen. It’s also said to use a “basic Universal Plug and Play protocol” to connect with other devices, and the company is working to support communication with media apps such as BubbleUPnP, VLC and MXPlayer. Currently 4SA is only a prototype to […]

Cube T7 is a 64-bit ARM Android Tablet Powered by Mediatek MT8752 Octa-core LTE SoC

That’s it! The 64-bit ARM era is upon us! ARMv8 servers have been available to companies for a few months, entry-level 64-bit ARM smartphones such as HTC Desire 510 are coming soon, and so are low cost 64-bit ARM development boards, Nexus 9 tablet leaks (Tegra K1 64-bit) are flooding the blogosphere, and Cube T7 tablet / phablet powered by Mediatek MT8752 octa core Cortex A53 processor will start shipping next month, and is available for pre-order right now for about $200. Cube T7 (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT8752 Octa-core Cortex-A53 Processor @ 1.7 Ghz with Mali T-760 MP2 or T-764 GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 16 GB flash + micro SD card slot up to 64 GB Display – 7″ capacitive touchscreen @ 1920×1200. 5 or 10-point multi-touch (TBC) Wireless Connectivity –  Dual band WiFi (802.11 b/g/n and ac), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, FM […]