BGR is reporting that the next batch of Amazon Kindle Fires will run a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor clocked "at about" 2GHz. It’s hard to believe that Amazon would go with Qualcomm’s top chipset on a tablet that’s supposed to compete as a cheaper alternative to the iPad. Extreme overkill, much? On the other hand, it would be pretty dope to see what the chipset can do.
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Several months after the first market availability of the original HTC One, the HTC One mini emerges as a compact amalgamation of everything that was right about its predecessor. Working with a smaller body, a lower resolution on a sized-down display, and a processor that’s not quite as powerful as the Qualcomm SoC on the HTC One, can this miniature second wave of a smartphone strike true for those of us with a smaller palm?
This machine’s 720 x 1280 display (across 4.3 inches of screen real-estate) does not disappoint. While the HTC One is slightly sharper mathematically, we’re well into the “I wouldn’t have noticed if you’d not said something” zone. This machine’s display is so close to the surface of the glass that protects it, it’s difficult to tell that they are, indeed, two separate pieces of hardware. Right from the moment you turn this smartphone on, you can feel HTC’s efforts continue to hit top-notch.
The HTC One mini comes in at 132 x 63.2 x 9.25 mm in size and 122g in weight, shaving off just about as much on its left and right as it does on its top and bottom, feeling in the end to be essentially the same thickness – even if it is a smidgen different (0.05 mm thinner, to be exact). Where the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini feels like a shadow of the full-sized Galaxy S 4, the HTC One mini feels like a companion to the HTC One – more like an alternate reality approach.
While it would appear at a glance that the HTC One mini’s plastic ring around its edges were placed there only to be a differentiator for the final build between this and the original, it does serve to make one feel less fearful of dropping the whole unit. It’s not as if this ring is going to do a whole lot more to protect the front or back of the smartphone from a concrete slab ground, but there’s more of a sense of safety here, even if it does dare us to suggest that it makes the device feel more like a Samsung handset (it doesn’t).
Instead it would seem that the aluminum back panel and two speaker grill-filled front panels serve, with the single pane of Gorilla Glass up front, to keep this device well in the premium build universe. Up front you’ve still got the double-dose of sensors peeking out at you on the left up top, and one of two high-powered cameras up on the right.
There’s also a notification light up in the topside speaker grill – 12th hole in from the right, second row from the bottom – one single pin hole and a world of difference for those who demand such a shiner. This light serves to tell you the HTC One mini is being charged up, for the most part, but you’ll also find a set of checkmarks you can toggle in settings under “Notification flash”, including Calls, Voice mail, Messages, Calendar, Mail, and Alarms.
Behind the speaker grills up front are stereo speakers, working with HTC’s own branded audio setup BoomSound and sounding every bit as powerful as they do on the HTC One. It’s surprising, really, that HTC brings this premium feature to devices other than the HTC One – you’ll find it in HTC 8XT as well – though we’ve yet to test that unit for comparable ear-shattering. Here on the HTC One mini you’ve got the same best-in-glass speaker setup first delivered with the HTC One, top and bottom both.
On the right side of this smartphone you’ll find two volume buttons instead of a rocker – this is modified from the HTC One which used a single piece of metal with a circular pattern through its form. Up top is a standard-sized headphone jack alongside a power / lock button that, instead of having an IR-blaster built in, is simply a bit more aluminum this time around.
The left side of the HTC One mini holds this device’s single microSIM card slot which can be popped out with an HTC-provided pin, while the bottom holds one of two mic holes (the other is on the back panel) near an off-set microUSB port for power and PC connections. This is an offset port in that it’s not right in the center, where many major smartphones’ usb ports tend to find themselves.
The back panel of the HTC One is split into three – there’s a top section that’s roughly the same size as the bottom, then a center single panel that takes up the majority of the machine. This center panel holds the 3D alternate-shade of aluminum spelling out HTC as well as the second of two HTC One mini-bound cameras and a single LED flash. The second of two microphone holes sits on the left between the top and middle panels, the opposite side of the hole on the HTC One.
You’ll also find the Beats Audio brand intact here, this time a bit more subdued (at least on this light silver edition) than the original (which blasts the logo out in hot red). FCC and other certification data finishes out the package at the bottom in a silver so light you can barely see it.
Inside you’ve got 4G LTE and HSPA compatibility with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 (ready for LE/ Bluetooth Smart in Android 4.3 eventually) as well as aptX support for high-powered wireless audio. You’ll not be getting any NFC this time around, unfortunately – not a deal-breaker for most, but as the NFC universe expands, one must consider such a thing.
The software is nearly a perfect replica of what’s found on the original HTC One here on the international edition of the HTC One mini. The big differences come in the app selection and the compatibility (or lack thereof) with certain functions due to hardware changes. No IR-blaster means no Sense TV, no NFC means no Android Beam. These are compromises you should be willing to make when you jump in on this miniaturized version of the full-sized hero.
The HTC One mini adds Mocana’s KeyVPN app right out of the box – this allows you to connect to secure networks, of course, and does so as one might expect. Google’s full suite of Google Play apps is here, including Play Movies, Play Music, Play Magazines, and Play Books, these running alongside HTC’s iterations with additions like “Music”.
HTC’s music app is the same as it was on the HTC One, here delivering the ability to play lyrics from songs and show wild animations during track playback. HTC also includes a simple PDF Viewer that can access the device’s own storage as well as cloud apps like Dropbox. Editing of PDFs is done by Polaris Office.
Dropbox is also – once again – included with the basic build of this HTC smartphone. You’ll also be seeing music sales with 7digital, music identification with SoundHound, and internet radio with TuneIn Radio. These along with Play Movies and YouTube have HTC making sure you’re going to be putting your BoomSound speakers to good use.
The first page you see when you enter past your HTC One mini’s lockscreen is a system called HTC BlinkFeed. This first appeared with the HTC One and continues here with its entire set of abilities still ready to roll.
You’ll be able to collect news sources and updates from your social networking profiles to create one big image-intensive collection of quick-views. Each of these rectangles is able to be tapped to expand, and you’re able to turn each of your news sources on/off at will.
The system is set by default to refresh only when on wi-fi, but you can change it to work with mobile data if you wish. By all eyeballing accounts, this and every other part of the UI in the HTC One mini appear to be moving every bit as swift as the original, despite the lower capacity for processing power in this smaller device’s interior architecture.
The HTC One mini works with a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. This means it’s not quite up to the task of taking on the HTC One’s Snapdragon 600 with its four CPU cores, but here on a device with a smaller device with a smaller display with a lower resolution, the results appear the same. We’ve noticed no slowdown in everyday use, and we’ve not yet seen lag even when opening some of the most demanding games on the market. It would appear that we’ve reached a point in the smartphone chip-making world where the power has out-run the demand.
Have a peek at the benchmarks above and see what you think. While this device doesn’t make too much of an effort to break down any top-tier barriers, it’s well ready to do its own job, and do it well.
The camera here continues to work with HTC Zoe, Full HD (1080p) video recording and high-quality results on both the front and back-facing camera. The back-facing camera continues to work with the full HTC One-born UltraPixel setup, complete with results just as impressive as the original.
While it might seem that working with a slightly less powerful processor might result in lower-quality results in image processing, or at least slower processing therein, the differences are minor, if noticeable at all. This device has the same f/2.0 aperture in play as well as the same dedicated ImageChip 2 image processor – this is in addition to the main device processor, mind you.
What you’ve got is a system that shoots photos and video as well as the HTC One, with one difference: the HTC One mini does not work with Optical Image Stabilization. The big place this takes effect is in filming videos, which here can be a bit more “shaky” as a result. If you’ve never used the HTC One and felt that bump in quality, this change-over won’t make a difference to you.
Have a peek at a collection of sample shots above and let us know what you think of the system compared to the original. It certainly feels the same, and as always, it’s as much about the photographer as it is about the camera.
The HTC One mini works with a non-removable 1800mAh battery which, paired with Qualcomm’s battery conservation features in its Snapdragon processor and HTC’s own battery saver mode in this phone’s settings, you’ll be getting a massive amount of battery life on standby. In fact, if you leave your device in your pocket and turn off data altogether, you might just get a few days’ worth of life out of it.
If you’re a heavy user, on the other hand, this phone will need a charge by the time the day is through. If you’re doing nothing but streaming video and playing games, you’ll get no more than 8 hours out of the HTC One mini, while light users – email, chat, and the like, will easily get a full work day without plugging this machine in to the wall.
In the end you’ll have to base your decision to purchase this device on whether or not you’re willing to make a trade-off in size and for a few odd features for a lower price point. If you’re not seeing this decision between the HTC One and the HTC One mini as a trade-of, and instead simply want a smaller device that fits your hand better than the original, then you’ll be good to go! In the end, this machine takes everything that was great about the HTC One and jams it into a smaller package.
Let us know if there’s anything else about this device that you’d like SlashGear to test – this is a living review, after all, and we’ll continue to update as you, the reader, would ask us to. We’re here to provide you with the information you want on the HTC One mini – the same being true of all our reviews – stay tuned!
HTC One mini Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week SlashGear had the opportunity to have a chat with Murthy Renduchintala, EVP of Qualcomm Technologies, about the company’s most recent earnings report and the launch of their next big-name processor: Snapdragon 800. This smartphone processor is part of the next level, one of a family of processors introduced earlier this year and deployed on a number of hero devices for companies like HTC and Samsung with the Snapdragon 600. Now it’s time for the 800 to shine.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 has been tapped to be released on a couple of confirmed products already in the past several weeks. We’ve seen the massive Sony Xperia Z Ultra sporting this processor with its 6.4-inch display on one hand, and the Samsung Galaxy S 4 LTE-Advanced appear on the other.
The Samsung model comes to serve as an example of where Qualcomm is headed with LTE as well, bringing LTE-Advanced connectivity to the world even as they aim for multi-band with what’s called RF360. This global radio RF360 was introduced earlier this year as a solution for the problematic fragmentation of LTE connectivity beginning to affect the planet.
Renduchintala suggested that this problem will, when Qualcomm begins its spread of Snapdragon 800 architecture, be a thing of the past. The Snapdragon 800 will be deploying with the global RF360 as a front-end solution. And – good news for Qualcomm lovers – the Snapdragon 800 won’t be too hard to find soon enough!
As Renduchintala said, “Virtually every global OEM with a premium tier smartphone is designing with a Snapdragon 800 in the coming months.*” His one limit was that this collection of manufacturers was just *aside from those who make their own processor architecture.
So though that could very well mean Samsung with their Exynos processor family, for example, the Galaxy S 4 LTE-A already fills that gap. So say hello, everyone else with premium hardware in their pipeline, you’ve got Snapdragon!
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 coming to “virtually every global OEM” in the coming months is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Here with the 2013 reboot of the Nexus 7, Qualcomm scores a bit hit with a new version of the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro (with Adreno 320 GPU), coming up to battle the original tablet’s NVIDIA Tegra 3. This new device works with a much more high-definition display and a new edition of Android with version 4.3, so benchmark comparisons won’t be especially telling – or fair, for that matter – but let’s have a peek anyway!
What you’re seeing first is SunSpider. This is just about the most basic test you can run on any device with a web browser, and we’re running it here to check Javascript performance on the Nexus 7 2 inside Chrome. In this test, a lower number is better, because it tests load speed – quickness!
BONUS: More benchmarks on the way, including comparisons with the original Nexus 7 – stay tuned!
Next you’ll find Quadrant, this test showing several factors in the machine’s ability to work with CPU and GPU processing tasks. While this benchmark – along with the other processor-based tests – are perfect for testing one device’s abilities against itself when you’ve got different software builds, or if a company releases the same device twice with different hardware bits, it’s just OK when it comes to comparing two different devices like these Nexus 7 generations 1 and 2.
Antutu is next – this test is rather similar to Quadrant and also works to overclock your Android device if you’re in the mood for hacking. This device once again appears to overpower most devices on the market today, but doesn’t come close to the performance of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, a processor present in such devices as the HTC One and Galaxy S 4. We’ll be seeing Tegra 4 performance on tablets soon, as well.
Then comes the Geekbench. This is Geekbench 2, a test that’s also available on desktop machines and Android devices. Have an iPad mini handy? Have a peek at how it performs and see how well this much higher-definition device does against it. Fight!
We’ll be rolling out with a full-on Nexus 7 2013 Review sooner than later, stick around for the full bit of action in our Nexus 7 tag portal and/or our Android hub, right this minute!
Nexus 7 2013 benchmarked: Snapdragon S4 Pro in full effect is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you picked up an HTC One, a Samsung Galaxy S 4, an LG Optimus G, or a Motorola DROID RAZR HD device over the past few months, you’re now working with Qualcomm hardware. That’s exactly as this company intended for this year’s smart device push – and exactly what Qualcomm’s earnings report this week shows. Qualcomm’s fiscal Q3 2013 starts with a cool $6.24 billion in revenues, up 35% compared to the same quarter last year.
Up there at the top end of the smartphone spectrum, Qualcomm made a killing in sales this quarter. They also sat in the entire range of Windows Phone 8 devices released this year (and throughout the OS’s history, for that matter), and have been part of quite a few of each of the top manufacturer’s midrange phones as well.
It was more common over the past several months to hear of a smartphone being released with a Qualcomm processor than it was to hear of a smartphone being released with a processor made by any other company. Qualcomm let it be known that for the three months in this third quarter of their fiscal 2013, they had MSM chip shipments at 172 million units. That represents a 22% growth over this same quarter one year ago.
Qualcomm currently has $30.4 billion of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities (as of June 30, 2013), and has announced a return of capital to stockholders in the form of $1.64 billion – that’s including $604 million, or $0.35 per share, of cash dividends paid as well as $1.04 billion through repurchases of 16.7 million shares of common stock.
That’s not half bad for what’s easily on of the most visible mobile chipmakers on the planet – Qualcomm also notes that they’ve now got an operating cash flow at $2.08 billion, up 125% year-over-year. The Snapdragon-toting group of processor makers reports operating income at $1.68 billion as well – that’s up 21% compared to this same quarter one year ago.
Qualcomm earnings show record quarter as Snapdragon keys in on smartphone heroes is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Right here a the start of another week of Moto X leaks leading up to the official August 1st device reveal comes Motorola’s next hero phone spilling essentially in full, complete with specifications, benchmarks, and all. The device is captured by a leakster who has decided to photograph the phone with benchmarks running hot, 3DMark and AnTuTu included. BONUS: The FCC has been so kind as to drop some additional details on this machine here as well, dimensions galore!
The Moto X has been all but confirmed here by the FCC to be working with a body thats 128.5mm by 65mm large, this containing what’s almost certainly a non-removable battery that’s 2200 mAh space-wise. The FCC has spilled the full-on next-generation abilities of this machine to go 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-fi full-speed-ahead!
The iteration of this device appearing through this leak appears to be the GSM version – that being one of the basics that’ll be sold directly through Motorola complete with customizations on its outer hardware. This exact model likely has slightly less-than-final software aboard, but we can tell from here that it’s essentially running the newest version of Android available: 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
That means that the final device will either be running this newest Android as it exists on the Nexus 4 and Google Play editions of the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One, or it’s simply a tester (it really is, don’t fool yourself) that’ll eventually get an upgrade to a newer Android, 4.3 more likely.
Inside you’ll find the device-code XT1058 “Ghost”, this pointing toward it possibly being along AT&T’s line of innards. Inside you’ll also find 16GB of internal storage, working with NFC, and sporting two cameras. The front-facing camera comes in at 2.1-megapixels while the back-facing camera comes in at a cool 10.5-megapixels.
This next-generation camera should be encouraging for those guessing that this Motorola smartphone will ONLY be winning out on hardware customizability, not specifications market topping. That said, this machine wont be killing the rest of the market for processing abilities, running here a Qualcomm S4 Pro MSM8960DT 1.7GHz SoC with Adreno 320 GPU.
That’s dual-core and essentially one-upping the Nexus 4 without growing so powerful as the HTC One or Galaxy S 4, each of them working with the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600. This Moto X and its S4 Pro hit 18753 in AnTuTu in this tester’s leaks along with a 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme score of 7143 – not half bad!
ALso you’ll find this 4.3-inch display’s processor to be rolling out with 720p – aka 720 x 1184 pixels in this case, with a screen density at 320 dpi. Or at least that’s what AnTuTu says. It’s quite possible the machine’s display is 4.5-inches without on-screen buttons or 4.7 counting said buttons – but it’s all still up in the air until we see the final product!
SOURCE: Android Police
Moto X benchmarks leak specifications in black is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This afternoon two rather up-close-and-personal videos have appeared showing the Motorola smartphone Moto X, the following involving a CPU/GPU test which shows a bit about this machine’s innards. What we’re told here by the user leaking the smartphone (once again) is that this smartphone works with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core SoC – but what we’re able to see quite clearly in the tests he runs is that this is merely an upgraded MSM8960 with an Adreno 320 GPU, meaning it’s one step above the Motorola RAZR HD, but still below the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4.
This test shows that the combination of CPU and GPU we’ve got brings this device up to an MSM8960T, that being the Snapdragon S4 Pro one step above the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus released in the waves of smartphones shown in 2012. This device’s processor is closest to the LG-made Nexus 4 and Sony Xperia Z, working with just a couple of different bits and pieces:
• MSM8960T 28nm LP ARMv7 dual-core Krait (up to 1.7GHz) Adreno 320 (WUXGA/1080p) Dual-channel 500MHz memory
• APQ8064 28nm LP ARMv7 dual-core Krait (up to 1.7GHz) Adreno 320 (QXGA/1080p) Dual-channel 533MHz memory
The first of these, again, works in the Moto X while the second works in the LG Nexus 4. While this system reader says the machine works with MSM8960dt, MSM8960T should be close enough for what the end-user will be concerned with.
The results of the test run here on the device – with non-final software, we must assume – shows that the processing power is near that of the Snapdragon 600. This bodes well for the processor’s ability to roll out on the competition even though it’s from a previous generation. It’s also quite possible that this app test is not entirely accurate, of course, and that the processor itself is only tagged MSM8960dt because the library the app works with only has said name available with the CPU/GPU combination.
UPDATE: Above you’ll see another result from what we must assume is the same exact model, not just the same phone, from a collection shared by TechKiddy.
We shall see! Meanwhile you can get a whole heck of a lot more information on this smartphone by heading back to the aforementioned second leak of a look made by Rogers. There you’ll see the Moto X’s ability to hear your voice when it’s asleep, power your camera on with a flick of your wrist, and work with voice commands galore – with Google Now, of course.
VIA: Android Community
GSM Moto X spills with early processor power test [UPDATE] is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
A set of photos has appeared depicting a miniature version of the hero device created by HTC to lead their smart device family through 2013. This device has been code-named HTC One Mini until the company makes it official, here appearing in black where previous rumors and information leaks had only shown the machine in its original silver metal iteration. This device will likely be unveiled by HTC by the end of this summer.
What you’re seeing here is a palm-sized HTC device made to be the smaller version of the HTC One. This version has been suggested – multiple times, from several sources – to be carrying a 4.2-inch 720p display, that bringing its sharpness up to 342 PPI – well under the original’s industry-leading 468 PPI.
The HTC One Mini has also been suggested to work with a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor along with 2GB of RAM, the processor not quite ringing up to the Snapdragon 600′s quad-core power, but staying ahead of last year’s Snapdragon S4 model present in several HTC One models (HTC One S, HTC One X USA-edition).
This device will likely bring the same HTC BoomSound front-facing speaker set and UltraPixel camera technology as the original, and will be delivered with Android 4.2.2 or higher with the newest version of HTC’s own user interface Sense.
UPDATE: It would appear that the images shared of this machine posted to the original source, SmartNews, have now been taken down at the request of local PR. This source also mentioned – before it’s takedown – that the device would be delivered by the end of the third quarter of this year.
HTC One Mini leaked in black, aimed at Q3 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Today the slightly more impressive version of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 has been made public with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. For those of you out there with the Samsung Galaxy S 4 without this processor or the added bit of super-speed connectivity this new model adds, it might be a bit of a
If you hadn’t already guessed that the August 7th New York City event being held by LG would be home to their next-generation hero, follow-up to the LG Optimus G from last year, you may as well give in this weekend. Today a set of three (count them – three!) screenshots have leaked with 1080p
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