Hasta La Gadget!

Android Honeycomb OS, 10-inch screen size with 1280 x 800 resolution, and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 (T20) chip on the inside. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because most manufacturers already have a tablet just like Dell’s upcoming Streak Pro. This slate from Round Rock got us a little hot under the collar recently, when it appeared it would ship with the T25 Tegra 2 silicon — which runs at 1.2GHz and offers 3D support — but nope, it’s same old, same old from Michael and company. Still, the Streak Pro will apparently come will a brushed aluminum back, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB storage options, dual mics, dual cameras (2 megapixel on the front, 5 megapixel ’round back), and a choice of four colors: blue, pink, black, and red. If that’s not enough customization for you, Dell’s also adding its Stage UI atop Android, while support for AT&T’s LTE network is also said to be under consideration. You can see some of the new tablet’s accessories at the source link below, which also advises us to expect the Streak to go Pro in June, as previously anticipated.

Dell Streak Pro Honeycomb tablet pictured, likely to be with us in June originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 03:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s Droid X2 features Nvidia’s dual-core processor, the Tegra 2. Photo courtesy of Motorola

Good news for Verizon customers waiting for powerful hardware: Dual-core is coming to town.

Motorola’s Droid X2 smartphone hits stores on May 26, and you’ll be able to pre-order it online beginning May 19. The phone is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core 1 GHz processor, the powerful chip found in a number of recent tablet and smartphone releases. It’s the first Verizon-carried phone to include a dual-core chip.

Like its predecessor, the Droid X2 will flaunt a 4.3-inch screen, just big enough to watch HD video on without having to squint. It also has HDMI-mirroring capabilities, which means you can watch those videos on your big screen via HDMI output.

The phone only comes running Android version 2.2 (Froyo), but Motorola says it will be upgrading the software to 2.3 (Gingerbread) soon. Of course, we can’t speak to what “soon” actually translates to in actual, real-world wait time.

A big bummer: the Droid X2 only runs on Verizon’s 3G network. That means if you’re tethering up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices using it as a mobile hotspot, you won’t be getting 4G speeds. And from our time spent on the network with the Thunderbolt, we’re digging Verizon’s flavor of 4G.

LG was the first phone manufacturer to release a dual-core phone this year with its Optimus 2X, which initially dropped in Europe before the U.S. version (the G2X) was released in April on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. Motorola was soon to follow with its Atrix on AT&T’s 4G network. All three phones run on the Tegra 2 processor.

Out of the big four U.S. telecommunications companies, Sprint is the only carrier not offering a dual-core smartphone.

The Droid X2 will be available in Verizon Wireless stores for $200 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract beginning May 26.

The Samsung Infuse 4G is a beautiful 4.5-inch tabletphone, but it’s not for the spec junkies of the world — a single-core processor and Android 2.2 just don’t impress such folk these days, regardless of actual performance. However, This is my next reports Samsung’s cooking up a $350 handset that ticks all the boxes on the superphone list — a beast of a smartphone it’s tentatively calling the “Hercules.” Mind you, we’re still in rumor territory, but feast your inner speed demon on the possibility of these: a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor (the same as the HP TouchPad), a 42Mbps HSDPA radio, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage and Android 2.3, along with the same 4.5-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display as the aforementioned Infuse 4G. The same whispers say it’ll have a 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture, MHL support and NFC, and should play for T-Mobile… assuming the buyout doesn’t succeed. Our existing smartphones are already preparing to seethe with jealousy.

Unannounced Samsung ‘Hercules’ headed to T-Mobile, bearing demigod-like specs? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 16:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, the sweet smells of summer: surf, sunscreen, barbecue, Gingerbread. We’ve known all along that HTC’s Android 2.3-packing smartphone was set for release at the “beginning of the summer,” and thanks to some loud-mouthed Google AdWords, we’ve seen June 8th floated as a possibility. Those who understandably doubt the word of search-based text advertisements, take heart: it’s shaping up to be a big weekend for Sensation 4G leaks. First TmoNews got its hands on a Target placard pricing the snappy dual-core Snapdragon handset at $199.99, for what appears to be a June 12th release, and then the site snagged a shot of internal T-Mobile documentation that confirms the earlier June 8th date. Why the discrepancy? Well, it certainly wouldn’t be unheard of for the carrier to give itself a head start, and surely Target wouldn’t mind timing its own release up with its Sunday circulars. In both cases, it looks like the phone’ll be spending a fair amount of time beneath beach umbrellas.

HTC Sensation 4G hitting mid-June for $200? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 03:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For now, the HTC Flyer can console itself for not having a second core (like all the other guys) by noting that its 1.5GHz clock speed is faster than any other tablet. Pretty soon, however, the choice between speed and core count might not have to be made at all, as ZiiLabs has just announced new dual-core and quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 systems-on-chip that run at the same 1500MHz speed as the Flyer. Dubbed ZMS-20 and ZMS-40, respectively, they’re taking the ZMS-08 legacy of focusing on HD video decoding even further, while also throwing in specific optimizations for Android Honeycomb tablets. The earlier-gen SOC was only picked up by parent company Creative, who inserted it in its ZiiO tablets, so let’s hope the new silicon proves compelling enough for us to see it in more manufacturers’ slates. Full PR and an intro video follow after the break.

Continue reading ZiiLabs outs dual-core ZMS-20 and quad-core ZMS-40 for Honeycomb tablets, clocks ’em at 1.5GHz

ZiiLabs outs dual-core ZMS-20 and quad-core ZMS-40 for Honeycomb tablets, clocks ’em at 1.5GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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