ASUS PadFone 2 unveiled in Taiwan, boasts quad-core CPU, LTE, NFC and lighter tablet (video)

ASUS PadFone 2 unveiled in Taiwan, packs quadcore chip, NFC and lighter tablet

Today’s no doubt a big day for ASUS: while chairman Jonney Shih is gearing up to introduce the PadFone 2 in Milan later today, we just saw CEO Jerry Shen wowing the crowd with the same phone-in-tablet combo back in Taipei. Just as the recent leaks have shown, ASUS’ surprisingly quick follow-up to the original PadFone is simply bigger and better in many ways, notably with a screen upgrade to 4.7-inch 720p Super IPS+ panel (with up to 550nits brightness thanks to Sharp’s IGZO technology), Qualcomm’s awesome quad-core APQ8064 SoC instead of its dual-core sibling, 13-megapixel f/2.4 BSI sensor from Sony, 1.2-megapixel front camera, and a much slimmer PadFone Station slate — partly because it no longer features a docking bay cover! New owners will be greeted by Android Ice Cream Sandwich, but ASUS promises a Jelly Bean upgrade soon. There’s much more than meets the eyes so read on to find out more.

Continue reading ASUS PadFone 2 unveiled in Taiwan, boasts quad-core CPU, LTE, NFC and lighter tablet (video)

Filed under: , , ,

ASUS PadFone 2 unveiled in Taiwan, boasts quad-core CPU, LTE, NFC and lighter tablet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 01:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

LG’s rumored Nexus, the E960 Mako, poses for Belarusian glamour pics

LG's rumored Nexus, the E960 Mako, poses for Belarusian glamour pics

While Google and LG have kept quiet on the subject of any prospective Nexus phone, the leaky ship that is the LG E960 “Mako” popped another hole today as Belarusian site Onliner.by has apparently gotten its hands on a prototype unit. According to the site the specs match many of the previous leaks saying it’s similar to the Optimus G, rocking a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 1280×768 4.7-inch display and 2GB of RAM, but only 8GB of storage built-in and an 8MP camera. It’s running the just-released Android 4.1.2 for now, so unfortunately there’s no hint of any potential Android 4.2 features. Hit the source link to check out a few more quality snaps of the “with Google” handset, but at this rate we’ll probably have more details any minute now.

Continue reading LG’s rumored Nexus, the E960 Mako, poses for Belarusian glamour pics

Filed under: , ,

LG’s rumored Nexus, the E960 Mako, poses for Belarusian glamour pics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOnliner.by  | Email this | Comments

ARROWS A 201F, Fujitsu new 4G Quad Core Android 4.1 smartphone.

Here you are another phone announced today by Softbank but this time manufacturer by Fujitsu with the ARROWS A 201F. Here as well the ARROWS A 201F comes with a nice 1.5GHz Quad Core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of memory but “only” come with a 4.7″ 720p screen! The ARROWS A 201F is also compatible with Softbank 4G AXGP network, Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, a 13.1Mpix camera with AF and Android 4.1!
Unfortunately and like the AQUOS PHONE Xx 203SH, the ARROWS A 201F won’t become …

Qualcomm reveals quad-core Snapdragon S4 Play processors, ramps up entry smartphone speeds

Qualcomm reveals quadcore Snapdragon S4 Play processors, ramps up entry smartphone speeds

Don’t think Qualcomm is limiting its quad-core processors to superstar phones. The Snapdragon S4 Play line is growing to include the MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q, parallels to the existing two Play chips that bring four cores to entry-level devices. Besides the speed improvements that you’d expect from all that extra parallelism, the Q variants support the extra bandwidth of low-power DDR2 (LPDDR2) memory and can handle both 720p displays and movie-making. Neither is quite an all-encompassing solution, although the two will cover the bases for much of the starter demographic: while local wireless such as Bluetooth, FM radio and WiFi have to remain separate from the main processor, the two newcomers manage to pack either single-mode UMTS 3G (in the 8225Q) or dual-mode CDMA and UMTS (in the 8625Q) for their cellular fix. Along with the already promised, China-focused S4 Plus MSM8930, test samples of the faster S4 Play editions will be ready before the end of the year, with shipping phones on the way in early 2013 — just in time to go head-to-head with a similar push by MediaTek to make quad-core the norm for a much larger slice of the population.

Continue reading Qualcomm reveals quad-core Snapdragon S4 Play processors, ramps up entry smartphone speeds

Filed under: ,

Qualcomm reveals quad-core Snapdragon S4 Play processors, ramps up entry smartphone speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

MediaTek plans for quad-core chips in budget smartphones by early 2013

MediaTek chip

As much as MediaTek is known for powering budget smartphones, the company is keen to make a fast track into the big leagues. Or bigger, at any rate. General manager Xie Qingjiang explains to China Times that MediaTek should have a quad-core, 28-nanometer mobile processor in production between the fall and the very start of 2013 — not bad for a firm that just introduced a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 design this summer. Smartphones built around the new part should arrive before the first quarter of 2013 is over. Details aren’t available for the processor in question, although it’s reasonable to say that MediaTek is more likely to serve a cost-conscious crowd than to compete in the lofty realms of the similarly 28nm Snapdragon S4 Pro. The move to quad-core could nonetheless be a welcome spike in performance for an audience that often has to settle for old technology.

Filed under: ,

MediaTek plans for quad-core chips in budget smartphones by early 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Unwired View  |  sourceChina Times (translated)  | Email this | Comments

Oppo CEO says quad-core Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC

Oppo CEO says quadcore Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC

Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but recently Oppo Mobile CEO Chen Mingyong teased that his upcoming flagship phone, the Find 5, will again feature a non-removable but “certainly big enough” battery (for the sake of anti-counterfeiting and, consequently, safety) as well as a 1080p, 441ppi display. That’s right, 441ppi! We’re finally getting a phone with a display that’s impossibly sharper than the 326ppi on the latest iPhones (up to 4-inch, 1,136 x 640), the 331ppi on the Nokia Lumia 920 (4.5-inch, 1,280 x 768) or even the 342ppi on the Sony Xperia acro S and the Xiaomi Phone 2 (4.3-inch, 1,280 x 720).

Assuming Chen’s talking about a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a quick calculation based on these two numbers would give us a 5-inch screen size, which matches what LG Display announced back in May. Taking into account that a reliable source of ours got to see HTC’s 5-inch 6435LVW phablet recently, this would make the Find 5 unofficially the second device to receive the same full HD panel. Still, there’s a significant difference inside these two phones: Chen had previously mentioned that the Find 5 will be joining the quad-core APQ8064 party, while the HTC device appears to sport the dual-core, LTE-enabled MSM8960. Speaking of which, the same source informed us that much like the Flyer, HTC’s 6435LVW will also feature N-trig stylus technology. Will Oppo follow in the same footsteps? And will it bring back the slide-out keyboard à la Find X903 (pictured above)? Go on, Mr. Chen, tell us more.

Filed under: ,

Oppo CEO says quad-core Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Tom’s Hardware  |  sourceSina Weibo (login required)  | Email this | Comments

Xiaomi Phone 2 pre-production units available on September 22nd, limited to 600 lucky buyers

Xiaomi Phone 2 pre-production units available on September 22nd, limited to 600 units only

Much like the run-up to the previous flagship product launch, Qualcomm-backed Xiaomi has just announced that it’ll be selling a small batch of pre-production second-gen Xiaomi Phones, in the hopes to get some keen users to perform last-minute checks before mass production. To be exact, only 600 of these quad-core Jelly Bean phones will be made available online at local time 10am on September 22nd (that’s 10pm ET on the 21st); and even if you have CN¥1,999 ($310) to spare, you’ll still need to be one of the 1,200 expert members from the Xiaomi and MIUI online communities to be able to hit the “order” button. Nice hype drive, if you ask us.

Later on, successful buyers can simply swap their engineering units in for a final version of the 16GB or 32GB Xiaomi Phone 2 — the latter a new addition that co-founder Lei Jun announced on Sina Weibo last Saturday (where he also cheekily asked if anyone need a 64GB flavor). For those who qualify but would rather avoid the digital bloodshed next week, we suggest you wait until the official Chinese launch in the second-half of October; or try Taiwan by the end of the year.

Filed under: ,

Xiaomi Phone 2 pre-production units available on September 22nd, limited to 600 lucky buyers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSina Weibo (login required)  | Email this | Comments

VIA EPIA-P910 stuffs 3D display support, quad-core into a Pico-ITX size

VIA EPIAP910 stuffs 3D display support, quadcore into a PicoITX size

If there’s been a race in the Pico-ITX realm to catch up to full-size PCs, VIA just leapt ahead by a few bounds with the EPIA-P910. The tiny PC mates one of VIA’s 1GHz QuadCore E-Series processors with a VX11H media core to handle the kinds of tasks that would break just about any other system its size: stereoscopic 3D displays and DirectX 11 3D graphics are entirely within the realm of possibility. Likewise, there’s a surprising amount of expansion headroom compared to many of the P910’s similarly small counterparts, such as the 8GB RAM ceiling and support for both HDMI 1.4a and USB 3.0. You’ll need to get in touch with VIA if you want to find out how much it costs to work the new EPIA into an embedded PC, and it’s more likely to be headed to corporate buyers than to homebrew projects. We’re still looking forward to the shot of visual adrenaline, whether it’s in a mini PC or a store display.

Continue reading VIA EPIA-P910 stuffs 3D display support, quad-core into a Pico-ITX size

Filed under: ,

VIA EPIA-P910 stuffs 3D display support, quad-core into a Pico-ITX size originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 01:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceVIA  | Email this | Comments

Huawei’s D1 Quad now available in China for $425 unsubsidized

Huawei's D1 Quad now available in China

Following the MediaPad 10 FHD quad-core tablet, Huawei’s also starting to sell another device powered by its very own HiSilicon K3V2 (Hi3620) chip. Over the weekend, the Ascend D1 Quad (formerly without the “1” in the name) joins the familiar-looking D1 and D1 XL as the third member of the family, but unsurprisingly costs the most out of these three Android 4.0 phones — we’re looking at ¥2,699 or about $425 unsubsidized on Huawei’s Chinese online store, while the remaining TI OMAP4460-powered candybars cost ¥100 ($16) and ¥200 ($32) less. Huawei Device chairman Richard Yu said on Sina Weibo that while some local competitors — namely Xiaomi, K-Touch and Beidou — are able to offer quad-core devices below ¥2,000 ($315), he assured fans that Huawei’s build quality and user experience are worth the price. Staying true to his macho style, Yu also used this opportunity to take a dig at the Galaxy S III’s price-to-performance ratio. Meow!

Just a quick recap: the D1 Quad comes with a 1.4GHz 40nm Cortex-A9 chip, a mysterious 16-core GPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, 160GB cloud storage and microSD expansion, complemented by a 4.5-inch Toshiba IPS+ HD display, Gorilla Glass 2, eight-megapixel BSI main camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, pentaband WCDMA radio, old-school mini-SIM slot and a generous 2,600mAh non-removable cell (same as the D1 XL’s). The more we look at this, the more tempted we are. At least until the APQ8064-powered Xiaomi Phone 2 lands in October, anyway.

Filed under: ,

Huawei’s D1 Quad now available in China for $425 unsubsidized originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Unwired View  |  sourceHuawei, Sina Weibo (requires login)  | Email this | Comments

Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD hitting stores starting in September with new specs in tow

Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD hitting shops worldwide in September

The Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD has made a somewhat circuitous journey across our eyes, through our hands and past the FCC’s screwguns. Finally we know when you can get one, as they go on sale starting in September. The devices are already available in China, and will be rolled out to Europe next month with the rest of the world “to follow,” according to Huawei. Its specs have changed since we last saw it, as it’ll now feature a quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 processor instead of the K3 Balong CPU we saw earlier. Everything else stays the same: Android 4.0, a 10.1-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 IPS display, an 8-megapixel rear camera that captures 1080P video, and 150Mbps LTE compatibility. We’ve already expressed our ardor about its gorgeous screen, great aluminum body and decent performance — if you feel the same, check the PR to see when it’s coming to your neck of the woods.

Continue reading Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD hitting stores starting in September with new specs in tow

Filed under: ,

Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD hitting stores starting in September with new specs in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 06:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments