In Monaco earlier today, ZTE officially unveiled its ZTE Grand X2 In Intel-powered flagship smartphone, once again eschewing its stigma of peddling lower-end handsets by offering an all-around high end smartphone slated for release in Europe this autumn for an unspecified amount. There’s no word yet whether this handset will make its way to the US.
Perhaps the ZTE Grand X2 In’s greatest claim to fame is the hardware found under its hood – a dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 2GHz processor, as well as 8GB of storage and 1GB of RAM (storage expansion available via microSD up to 32GB). The Intel-Inside aspect aside, the handset also has a higher-end display, measuring in at 4.5-inches with an HD 1280 x 720 resolution. The phone runs Android Jelly Bean.
Another notable feature on the Grand X2 In is its 8-megapixel rear camera, which – in addition to offering 1080p recording – also features a rapid-shot mode capable of up to 24-frames-per-second without shutter lag. There’s also smart scene and facial recognition, and a real-time x2 axis stabilizer. There’s also auto-focus, an automatic flash, and a 1-megapixel front camera for video chatting.
The ZTE Grand X2 In also offers wireless display sharing (WiDi), as well as an unspecified integrated audio enhancement technology said to make the resulting audio of a higher quality. The phone itself is seamless and features a soft-touch finish, which helps keep fingerprints to a minimum. The battery has a decent capacity at 2,000mAh.
ZTE France’s Terminal Director William Chhao said: “We are proud to announce the ZTE Grand X2 In smartphone pursuing our multi-year strategic collaboration with Intel. The ZTE Grand X2 In is set to build on the success of the ZTE Grand X In, our first flagship smartphone in Europe to feature Intel Inside, and further increase ZTE’s growth in the high-performance smartphone market segment.”
In an effort to compete more in the mobile market, Intel has overhauled its Atom processor line in order to take on Qualcomm in the smartphone chip market. Intel’s new Atom architecture, which is codenamed “Silvermont,” comes with a boost in performance, yet Intel claims it cuts down on power consumption.
Intel’s Chief Product Officer, Dadi Perlmutter, says that the new Atom architecture offers up to three times more computing power than current chips, and gobbles up five times less power than traditional mobile chips. Intel is up against strong competition, though, as many chip makers are partnered up with ARM, a direct rival with Intel in the mobile business.
Intel’s Atom processors have never been widely adopted in smartphones, and while a handful of them are out there in the wild (including the Lenovo IdeaPhone K900), Qualcomm still reigns supreme as one of the largest smartphone chip makers around. Ever since introducing the Atom line of chips in 2008, Intel has failed to bring the mobile chips to products other than netbooks.
Silvermont will be the model for Intel’s 22-nanometer Bay Trail tablet chips that are expected to arrive later this year, which are claimed to be twice as fast as their current generation of tablet offerings. Silvermont will also be used in the company’s Merrifield chips and Avoton chips that will be released later this year for microservers. This news comes after Intel’s detail on its “Haswell” chips, as well as the appointment of a new CEO for the company.
This week the folks at Intel have launched a brand new solution for simple video transcoding and streaming between mobile devices and your Smart TV. This system is based on the Intel Atom Media Processor CE5300 Series and will be allowing you the ability to simultaneously share HD video as well as multimedia galore across multiple mobile devices. You’ll also be able to stream HD video and multimedia content to your Smart TV to your heart’s content – easily and efficiently.
WIth the Intel Atom CE5300 series you’ll be working with brands such as Asustor, Synology, and Thecus – just for starters. These systems will be working with the low power system-on-chip (SoC) of the CE5300 and will be rolling hard with “browse, click, and play” ease. So says Bev Crair, general manager, of Intel’s Storage Division, who adds that the power runs hand-in-hand with the simplicity here in the very near future:
“Streaming content across numerous mobile devices, not just from the cloud but locally, has become a common practice for today’s consumers. New storage solutions based on the Intel Atom CE5300 series elevate this to a whole new level by making it simple to ‘browse, click, and play’. The new SoC provides an excellent foundation for creating compelling entertainment experiences.” – Crair
You’ll be working with your storage system as either an iTunes-based server or as a media server blasting forth with full DLNA capabilities. With DLNA (Digital Network Living Alliance, that is), you’ll be transcoding 1080p video on the run with intelligent adaptation for any screen resolution you’ve got on hand. HD 1080p content will be knocked down to 480p when your smartphone is such a small size, while larger displays can easily bust out the full 1080 pixels of power.
With Asustor you’ll soon be working with 2 bays of up to 8 Terabytes or 4 bays up to 16 Terabytes. Once again with Thecus you’ll have the ability kick out 2 bays of up to 8 Terabytes – and the 4 bays up to 16 Terabytes holds true here as well. Finally with Synology you’ll only be pushing forth with 2 bays up to 8 Terabytes – but who needs more than that these days?
With the ASUS-made Google Nexus 7 still selling like hotcakes here several months after its initial debut, a second “bargain basement” device appearing this week shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. This device goes by the code name ME371MG and comes with Intel inside instead of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 that comes with the Nexus 7. This means in this case that you’ll be seeing a budget-friendly solution without a doubt, processor first.
In this case a single core really isn’t going to be much compared to the four (plus 1) cores you’ll get with the Tegra 3 on the Nexus 7. The Intel Atom Z2420 single-core processor has been tipped as running in this tablet somewhere between 1 and 2GHz clock speed. This processor exists thus far only in rather inexpensive devices made with low-cost parts in mind – and benchmarks have shown the processor to be nothing compared to multi-core processors across the board.
This tablet will be working with a 7-inch display with IPS LCD technology and a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Inside you’ll find 1GB of RAM with options for for 8, 16, or 32GB of internal storage. This tablet will also come with a microSD card slot for memory expansion as well as Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box.
With a 3 megapixel camera on the back and a 1.2 megapixel camera on the front, this device will be ready for a market release across the world soon, but such “bonuses” above the Nexus 7 won’t be enough to keep the first of two ASUS tablets at bay. If this is an attempt by ASUS to out-do the Google Nexus counterpart to this tablet, they’ve not done their job very well.
If on the other hand they’re able to release this device for half the price of the Nexus 7, minds may change rather quickly. Stay tuned for more information on this “aluminum housed” tablet coming in rather rapidly!
This week we’re having a look at the Acer Iconia W500 series, specifically in the model tagged Iconia W510-1422 with full Windows 8 and multiple modes of computing action. This machine works as a tablet, as a notebook with its keyboard dock (in the box with this model), and with 295 degrees of twist in its hinge – a third “presentation” mode, complete with the extra battery power of the dock in-tact. This machine takes full Windows 8 to the tablet universe with a rather solid setup and a base cost of right around $750 USD – if that sounds like a deal to you, make with the tapping.
Hardware
The Acer Iconia W510-1422 is not just a tablet first, notebook second sort of situation like many modern multi-mode machines are. Instead you’ve got full Windows 8 (as opposed to the tablet-centric Windows RT) along with a solid touchscreen display and a keyboard dock thats clearly made to be part of the full package rather than an after-thought. The keyboard here is clearly the bottom half of the unit rather than the piece you leave at home when you’re feeling no need to key.
Because you can bend the display back to a display position (with the keys of the keyboard then facing down towards the table) you’ve got a rather nice and nearly unique situation on your hands. While we’ve seen this position for tablet convertible machines several times over the past few months, you can rest assured that Acer does it right with a well-balanced and relatively rugged delivery of all pieces involved. And it feels natural to use this machine in each of its three major positions – that’s important when it comes to this modern touch-friendly Windows 8 environment we’re in here in the first part of 2013.
On this unit you’ve got a LED-backlit TFT LCD HD 10.1-inch display up front with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution covered by a smooth sheet of Gorilla Glass 2. Viewing angles are essentially perfect across the grid and the brightness you’ve got here is ready for everyday action (everywhere save direct sunlight). You’ll be rolling out with 5-finger touch as opposed to the 10 you’ll find on desktop PCs in 2013 for the most part, but unless you’ve got something rather unique on your hands that needs more than a couple fingers at a time, you’ll never notice.
Inside you’ve got wireless connectivity as well as Bluetooth 4.0+HS and all around the rim you’ve got high-quality connections and blasters of media. Two speakers sit on the sides of the tablet portion of this setup to the left and the right, this allowing sound to bounce off your palm and into your ears with ease. This machine has an integrated digital microphone that works well with the cameras in front and back and you’ve got a set of ports for USB connectivity as well.
On the tablet itself you’ve got a microUSB port and a microHDMI port for 1080p output as well as multi-display. With this port you’re able to use a massive display as a second screen – as you well should – and it works smooth as if it were a single-unit solution. The microUSB port allows you to connect to whatever other PC you’ve got handy and works with the microUSB-to-full size USB converter accessory that comes in the box as well – great for mice.
The keyboard portion of this setup also has a full-sized USB port for additional accessories, and the whole setup is powered by a port (with included power cord) that exists on the tablet itself and on the keyboard dock. When the tablet is connected to the keyboard, it does so with this port, leaving the keyboard dock to do all the powering of the whole unit.
Camera
The front-facing camera you’ve got here is more than ready for great video chat – better than some desktop machines these days with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 1080p video recording ready for action. The back-facing camera is also decent, though not exactly on-par with the camera you’re getting on most modern smartphones with the same specifications. have a peek at a few demo photos below to get an idea of what you’re working with here.
Note that most of the photos are taken with the back-facing camera indoors while the photo looking upward at the dog was taken with the front-facing camera. Again, this front-facing camera should be used primarily for video chat rather than photography, mind you.
Software and Performance
The full Windows 8 experience you’ll be working with here offers up a collection of Acer-added applications for cloud computing, security, connectivity with your other wireless devices on the web, and everything in-between. This machine features the “Acer Ring” with its ability to quick-launch apps and websites as well as take screenshots on-the-fly. Acer Ring is essentially a home screen replacement app that allow you to take control of your machine in tablet mode, this version of the app made specifically for this device. You’ll find each of the ports sitting in their right places and all of your media action controllable from one location – great stuff!
You’ll be able to run nearly every kind of app you’d be able to run on any other Windows 8 machine (within reason.) While the whole experience is fluid and surprisingly powerful for what the physical size of the unit implies, you wont be anywhere near the monstrous power of desktop machines like the Acer Predator. Don’t expect to play Hawken at full power here (not yet, at least).
Benchmark Score – Acer ICONIA W510
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (32-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
1587
1410
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
1391
Memory
Memory performance
1203
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
1271
Under the hood you’ve got an Intel Atom Dual-Core processor from the Clover Trail generation that proves its might by doing well with every app the device comes with and some of the more interesting nearly high-powered oddities you’ll find like Remote Desktop. With Remote Desktop you’ll be able to work with your computer from another over a wireless network – the Iconia W510-1422 keeps up rather nicely. The exact model we’ve got here is the Intel Atom Z2760 1.5GHz (dual core) complete with Intel Burst Technology up to 1.8GHz (1MB L2 cache).
System – Acer ICONIA W510
Manufacturer
Acer
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit)
Motherboard
Acer ICONIA W510
Processor
Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU Z2760 @ 1.80GHz
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 53 Stepping 1
Processor Frequency
1.80 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
24.0 KB
L2 Cache
512 KB
L3 Cache
0.00 B
Memory
1.96 GB -1MHz
FSB
18.4 EHz
BIOS
Acer V1.0B
Also under the hood you’ve got a 64GB Solid State Drive, 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, and Intel Graphic Media Accelerator technology with 64MB of dedicated system memory. Battery time with the tablet alone has proven to be right between 7 and 8 hours when we’re using it and several days if it’s just sitting on the desk on its own, asleep. The tablet itself works with a 3450mAh battery while the base includes an additional battery that adds nearly as much battery time again. Together you’re looking at several days of standby time at LEAST with around 11 hours of up-time just so long as you’re browsing the web and playing videos (high-powered games give you a bit less).
Wrap-up
This machine is ready for the 2013 season of Windows 8 action, but it’s not going to replace your MacBook Air. It’s not meant to – if you’re a Windows user and want a mobile device ready for everyday action and a relatively large amount of battery time, that’s where you’ll find the greatness in the Iconia W5. The whole setup is solid, the presentation is ready to take on the top competition in the market today, and it’s easily one of our top choices for convertible tablets running full Windows 8 today – and not just because there aren’t many of them out there!
The Lenovo K900 is a big phone, yes, but it’s a designy big phone. It’s handsome, skinny, and slick like the finest smartphones ever made. We never thought we would be into a 5.5-inch phone until the K900’s brushed metal back landed in our hands. More »
This year, Intel launched its Medfield Atom processor in a big push to enter the smartphone market. The processor was lacking when compared to the competition, however, and a leaked roadmap image appeared soon after showing the processor’s successor: the dual-core Merrifield. Now a benchmark has surfaced of Intel’s “Redhookbay,” which shows it equipped with the new processor.
Redhookbay is shown as running Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, with a 1280 x 720 resolution display and the multi-core Merrifield, which scored 31,612 on AnTuTu benchmark. The processor is between 1.6GHz and 2GHz. The reported GPU is a PowerVR SGX 544MP. Unlike the Medfield, Merrifield offers 4G LTE support.
This coincides with a piece over at Digitimes claiming that Intel will announce a smartphone platform and Atom processors at the 2013 Mobile World Congress, which is taking place in Spain in February. The sources in the article state what we already know: that Intel’s Medfield tanked because it was under-powered compared to its competition.
According to the unnamed source, Intel probably won’t release its own branded smartphones “because it does not have close relationships with mobile telecom carriers.” It is possible we’ll see Intel pair up with telecoms in India and China and other similar markets, however, to release enter-level handsets. Still, the company faces pretty stiff competition.
Fujitsy announced last week two new interesting windows 8 powered devices with the ARROWS Tab Wi-Fi QH55/J and STYLISTIC QH77/J The ARROWS Tab Wi-Fi QH55/J is the world’s slimmest water-resistant tablet running Windows 8. It offers high performance, enabling it to be comfortably used for either personal or business applications, in a slim 9.9 mm body. Weighing approximately 574 g, it enables approximately 10.5 hours of video playback. In addition, it is IPX5/7/8 water-resistant, so it …
Just a week after Acer’s announcement of their Windows 8 Iconia W700, the company announced yesterday in the USA the Iconia W510 another Windows 8 Tablet but this time powered by an Intel Clover Trail Atom Z2760 CPU! the Iconia W510 will come in four different flavors (see details below) with a price starting at $499.99 USD and sold without its docking keyboard (That also includes an internal battery). By default the Iconia W510 will come for all models with an Atom Z2760, 2GB of RAM, …
Acer recently announced pricing and availability for its Iconia W700, and now its other Windows 8 tablet, the Iconia W510, is getting that same treatment. The 10.1-inch slate will ship for $500 and up when it goes on sale November 9th.
The W510 sports an IPS display with a 1,366 x 768 resolution, and that panel is coated in Gorilla Glass 2 for some extra scratch resistance. Unlike the Ivy Bridge-packing W700, this device runs a 1.5GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2760 processor (from the Clover Trail series) with 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of solid-state storage. Connections include a microSD card reader, micro-HDMI and a micro-USB 2.0 port. Acer also offers a $150 keyboard dock, which connects to the tablet from the top and offers a full-size USB 2.0 port. Without the dock, the tablet is rated for up to nine hours of battery life; the dock adds another nine. We got a chance to play with an early unit of the W510 — head over to our in-depth preview for a closer look.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
