Xiaomi Unveils $130 Redmi Note Octa-core Android Smartphone

Xiaomi Redmi Note is an Android smartphone boasting a 5.5″ display, Mediatek MT6592 Octa-core clocked at 1.4 or 1.7 GHz, 1 to 2 GB RAM, and 8 GB Flash that is now available for pre-order in China for just 799 CNY or 999 CNY (~$130 and ~$160) depending on the versions.  The only differences between the two versions are Mediatek CPU frequency (1.4 vs 1.7 GHz), and the RAM capacity (1 vs 2 GB). Xiaomi is a Chinese manufacturer, but they’ve recently started to sell phone overseas, so a similar phone may be soon available in more countries. Let’s check out the complete specifications: SoC- Mediatek MT6592 octa-core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.4 or 1.7 GHz with ARM Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1 or 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB NAND Flash + micro SD card up to 32GB Display – 5.5″ IPS display with 1280×720 resolution Cellular […]

Huawei Kirin 920 Octa-core big.LITTLE ARM SoC Benchmarked

Huawei / Hisilicon Kirin 920 application processor has yet to be formally announced, but in the last few days, more details have surfaced. Huawei SoC will feature an octa-core processor with four ARM Cortex A7 and four Cortex A15 cores in big.LITTLE configuration, together with a Mali-628MP4 GPU and a 4G LTE modem. There’s also Kirin 910 with 4 cores @ 1.6 to 1.8 GHz and Mali-450MP4 GPU. The big.LITTLE processor will support DDR3 memory up to 800 MHz, cameras up to 32MP, screens up to WQXGA resolution (2560×1600), and be manufactured using 28nm process technology. According to AndroidPC.es it should be found in Huawei Ascend D3 smartphone to be released this September. A device called HUAWEI H300 has shown up in Antutu showing a score 37,363 with Kirin 920 SoC, just a few points shy of the score for hardware powered by Snapdragon 805 (37,780) with four Krait 450 […]

BroadLink SP2 Wi-Fi Smart Socket for iOS and Android Adds Support for Energy Monitoring, Motion Sensing

Broadlink SP1, a low cost Wi-Fi smart socket released last year,  allows you to control your electric appliance with your mobile device running iOS or Android. You could turn it on or off, set timers, and so on. An updated model is now available, Broadlink SP2, that adds energy monitoring to the features found in the previous model, to track your historic and live power consumption on your smartphone or tablet, as well as a motion sensor to automatically turn off the lights, for instance, if you are away (Auto Home / Auto Away feature). The hardware specifications are very similar to SP1 except it’s using a case made of polycarbonate plastic instead of ABS, and the device is a bit bigger: Material – PC Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n Power Plug – Three flat-pin plug (Australia type) Voltage – 100~265V @ 50-60 Hz Output Current – 10A Output Power – […]

Mediatek Smartphone SoC Roadmap Until 2015

Mediatek already has over a dozen of dual, quad and octa processors for smartphone and tablets based on ARM Cortex A7, A9 and A15 cores, and they’ve already announced a 64-Bit ARM SoC (MT6732) as well as MT6595 with four Cortex A17 cores. A leaked product roadmap show the timeline for Mediatek smartphone SoCs, as well as showing some new application processors such as MT6591 Hexa-core SoC, MT6571 dual core Cortex A7 and MT6752 octa core Cortex A53 with LTE. So let’s recapitulate the new and upcoming SoCs from Mediatek: MT6572/M – Dual core Cortex A7 @ 1.3 GHz / 1.0 GHz with qHD/HVGA screen support. Available since Q3 2013, and found in phones such as Cubot GT72. MT6582/M – Quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.3 GHz with HA720/qHD screen support. Available since Q4 2013, found in phones such as W450. MT6588 – Quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.7 GHz […]

Marvell ARMADA Mobile PXA1928 SoC Features Four Cortex A53 Cores, Vivante GC5000 GPU, and LTE

So here we are with another 64-bit ARM SoC for mobile device thanks to Marvell ARMADA Mobile PXA1928 with four ARM Cortex A53 cores, Vivante GC5000 GPU, and a 5-mode modem with LTE TDD/FDD, HSPA+, TD-HSPA+, and EDGE. The SoC will be used in conjunction with the company’s Avastar 88W8887 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 + FM + Near Field Communication (NFC) single chip solution, as well as 88L2000 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) hybrid location processor, and the new 88NV1088 eMMC 5.0 NAND Flash controller. Key features of Marvell ARMADA Mobile PXA1928 include: 5-Mode Cellular Modem Solution for LTE Cat 4, UMTS Release 7, TD-HSPA+ Release 8, and class 12 GSM/EDGE, and supports multi-radio, CSFB, and VoLTE voice solutions for LTE networks 3G/4G protocol stacks certified on major carrier networks and validated via extensive IOT, GCF and field trial testing Quad-core ARM Cortex A53MP Application Processor Subsystem Support for […]

Samsung Galaxy S5 Features Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, an Heart Rate Monitor and a Finger Scanner

[Update: See comment below. There will be two version of the Samsung Galaxy S5. One with Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Quad core SoC @ 2.5 GHz, and the other with an Exynos Octacore processor @ 2.1 GHz] Samsung has unveiled the expect Galaxy S5 smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2014. It’s not based on any new Exynos processors however, as it appears to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, an update of Snapdragon 800 with a higher CPU clock (2.5 GHz), GPU clock (578 MHz) and support for eMMC 5.0. The phone is quite a major leap compared to Galaxy S4, but the company has added an heart rate monitor, a finger scanner as well as LTE-Advance, and 4K video recording. Samsung Galaxy S5 Specifications (Preliminary): SoC – 2.5GHz quad-core application processor. Turns out it should be Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974-AC) quad core Krait SoC with Adreno 330 GPU System Memory – […]

Intel Unveils Atom Z3460 & Z3480 (Merrifield) and Z3560 & Z3580 (Moorefield) Mobile SoCs

Intel has introduced four new SoCs part of Z34xx series (Merrifield) and Z35xx series (Moorefield) with Intel XMM LTE modems to be used in smartphones and tablets at Mobile World Congress 2014. The SoCs share the following specifications: Processor Z34xx series (Merrifield) – 2 cores/2 threads with out-of-order execution, maximum core frequency up to 2.13 GHz Z35xx series (Moorefield)- 4 cores/4 threads with out-of-order execution, maximum core frequency up to 2.33 GHz Graphics – Imagination PowerVR G6400 (Merrifield) or GC6430 (Moorefield) with OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL and RenderScript support Image Signal Processor (ISP) – 13 MP support hardware-capable; 8 MP enabled on Form Factor Device (FFD) Memory – LPDDR3 (COPoP); 2×32 bit, up to 4 GB; Merrifield: 533MHz max, Moorefield: 800 MHz max. Multi-Band, Multi-Mode LTE Modem – Intel XMM 7160 with support for up to 15 LTE bands, up to 150 Mbps download/50 Mbps upload speed. Z35xx series can […]

Nokia Launches Nokia X Android Phones with Microsoft Services

After months of speculations and leaks, Nokia has formally announced Nokia X family of Android phones that instead of coming with Google services, comes with Microsoft services and user interface, as well as Nokia apps. Three phones has been announced, namely NokiaX, Nokia+ and NokiaXL. Let’s look at the specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual core @ 1 GHz System Memory – 512 MB RAM (Nokia X), or 768 MB RAM (Nokia X+/XL) Storage – 4GB NAND flash + micro SD card up to 32 GB Display Nokia X/X+ – 4″ IPS LCD touch screen – WVGA (800 x 480) Nokia XL – 5″ IPS LCD touch screen – WVGA (800 x 480) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 + HS Cellular Networking – GSM: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, WCDMA:  900 MHz, 2100 MHz. Dual (micro) SIM card slots. Camera Nokia X/X+ – 3MP […]