Hasta La Gadget!

Qualcomm is having an easy time riding the growing wave of mobile devices. Case in point: its very healthy second quarter earnings. Revenue at the San Diego outfit climbed 24 percent year-over-year to $6.12 billion, while the chip designer’s net profit grew a similarly brisk 17 percent, to $2.07 billion. The figures were respectively up a modest 2 percent and down 6 percent versus last quarter, but that’s to be expected given the usual post-holiday lull. Qualcomm still shipped a more than ample 173 million units of its MSM chips, and it expects to return $431 million to shareholders for their trust. The company also has a rosy-cheeked vision of the future — it expects its third quarter revenues and profits to climb by at least 25 percent and 14 percent each, even with shipments down to as little as 163 million. When Qualcomm is at the heart of the HTC One, many Galaxy S 4 models and the Optimus G Pro, there’s a good chance the company is being realistic about its prospects.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Qualcomm

After selling 7.19 million phones in China last year, Xiaomi is now one step closer to world domination with a new device that’ll take it to new territories: the Xiaomi Phone 2S (or MI-2S). As the name and look (pictured left) suggest, this is pretty much the same device as the 4.3-inch Xiaomi Phone 2, except it comes with Qualcomm’s newer Snapdragon 600 quad-core chip clocked at 1.7GHz, plus a beefed up camera of 13-megapixel resolution (with F2.2 aperture) on the 32GB model. The 16GB 2S, on the other hand, gets the same old 8-megapixel F2.0 imager. The rest of the hardware is the same old: 2GB RAM, 2,000mAH removable battery, 720p IPS display, dual-mic noise cancellation, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz radio (there’s also a CDMA version for China Telecom).

Unlike the previous launch, the 16GB flavor of this phone is already in stock on the day of announcement and is ready for purchase in China today for ¥1,999 or about $320 unsubsidized. Actually, strike that — apparently the first lot of 200,000 units promptly sold out (likely thanks to scalpers). Luckily, Xiaomi is finally tapping into the Hong Kong market via its xiaomi.hk website starting April 23rd, so chances are genuine buyers in Hong Kong won’t have to compete against the machines from mainland China; and Taiwan customers will also be able to buy a 2S from either local carrier Far Eastone towards the end of this month, or from xiaomi.tw starting next month. No word on the availability of the 32GB model just yet, but it’s already priced at ¥2,299 or about $370 unsubsidized.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: Engadget Chinese (2S), (2A)

Source: Xiaomi (2S), (2A)

When Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa was announced, it was believed to be compatible with 3G networks only. As such, the HSPA+ (global) version of the Galaxy S 4 was the only handset to feature the company’s eight-core SoC — the LTE model shipping with Qualcomm’s 4G-capable, quad-core Snapdragon 600 instead. That’s apparently changed, with the Korean giant tweeting that the Exynos 5 Octa now supports LTE on 20 bands. So why even make a Snapdragon 600 version of the Galaxy S 4, then? Perhaps Samsung can’t produce as many chips as Qualcomm to meet the upcoming worldwide demand for its new flagship. This appears likely, with inews24 and new-samsunggalaxys4 reporting that the Exynos 5 Octa with LTE is currently reserved for Korean models only (SHV-E300S, SHV-E300K and SHV-E300L, to be exact). So, anyone fancy a trip to Seoul in the near future?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Via: GSMArena

Source: SamsungExynos (Twitter)

Though the details were a bit less than solid in the official Samsung releases over the past 24 hours, today Qualcomm has confirmed that the GALAXY S 4 will indeed be carrying the all-powerful Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor onboard. This processor is the same motor that runs the HTC One and the LG Optimus G Pro, devices you may have seen SlashGear work with before. This detail adds to the ever-growing list of specifications that the GALAXY S 4 has the same as one of its biggest competitors in the HTC One, and should prove to create an interesting set of benchmarks for comparisons between the two.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 is one of two monstrously powerful quad-core processors the company has revealed this year alone. The other is the Snapdragon 800, a System-on-Chip that’s only thus far been revealed to be carried by the ZTE Grand Memo, a device whose USA release schedule is still not quite solidified. You’ll find more information on the Snapdragon 800′s implementation on the ZTE Grand Memo in our Mobile World Congress 2013 report.

The Snapdragon 600 and 800 were revealed back in the first week of 2013 in a full report detailing how they’ll be appearing on smartphones (and perhaps tablets) throughout the year. As in previous iterations of the Snapdragon SoC, image processing continues to be a high point – have a peek at our LG Optimsu G Pro Photo Tour from Barcelona during Mobile World Congress 2013 as well for a view of how well the device does with the big Q under the hood.

As for the Samsung GALAXY S 4, the Snapdragon 600 will be appearing with a fantastically large performance increase over its predecessors. Compared to the Snapdragon S4 Pro, Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 600 offers a whopping 40% performance increase – the previous Galaxy smartphone had the Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, a step below the S4 Pro, so you can imagine this GALAXY S 4 will be delivering quite the beastly bump compared to last year.

“ The Snapdragon 600 processor helps consumers do more on their mobile devices, providing seamless app switching, high-speed Web browsing, email connectivity, GPS, multimedia, fast gaming, social networking and 4G/LTE connectivity.” – Qualcomm

As it was with the Samsung Galaxy S III, this GALAXY S 4 model will be coming out with different processors in different regions. Inside the USA you’ll be seeing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor while in most (if not all) regions outside the states you’ll find the Samsung Exynos “Octa” processor with 8 CPU cores (4 active, 4 backup). We’ll be interested to see how these two builds compare to one another once they’re both out on the market without a doubt!

Have a peek at the timeline below to see additional insight on the release of the Samsung GALAXY S 4 as well as a set of hands-on experiences and comparisons to other recent smartphone hero models. Stay tuned for more on Qualcomm as well in our fabulous Qualcomm tag portal, too!

Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon 600 for Samsung GALAXY S 4 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week we’re seeing more specification theories, leaks, and downright confirmations coming for the Samsung Galaxy S IV (or S4 if you prefer) than this device’s imminent reveal would suggest. The big Samsung “Be Ready 4 The Next Galaxy” invites have been dropped and note a March 14th, 2013 event to be held in Times Square, New York City – if that’s not a massive venue, we don’t know what is. We’ll certainly be there with bells on, but before we get there, let’s have a peek at what we might to see!

With the Samsung Galaxy S III we’re going to see first and foremost a massive 4.99 (or straight up 5) inch display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. That’s Full HD, if you were wondering, and a pixels per inch ratio that’s on-par with the densest devices on the market today. In contrast you’ll find the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 revealed last week with 189PPI – not too next-level, but still perfectly nice when you’re right up next to it with your face.

Inside you’ll find a real next-level processor in the Exynos 5250. This is Samsung’s quad-core processor -but tips have also suggested that the “OCTA” Exynos processor revealed back during CES 2013 could make its debut here as well. Interestingly enough, we’ve also heard that Qualcomm may be sitting inside. This would follow the trend with the Samsung Galaxy S III working with an Exynos processor outside the USA and Qualcomm taking the reigns inside – here a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC clocked at 1.7Ghz rolling out inside the states.

That same processor exists inside the HTC One revealed less than a month ago. Now we’ve got a real battle on our hands, complete with a 13 megapixel camera on the Galaxy S III to take on the HTC One’s UltraPixel camera technology. The Samsung Galaxy S IV is also being foretold to work with a microSD card slot capable of working with up to 64GB cards and that it’ll be coming in at least two colors: black and white. Of course there will be multiple internal storage size iterations of this device, at least 16, 32, and 64GB versions depending on which carrier you go with – and whatever they offer.

We’ll be having a peek at this device in all its glory soon, and very soon – stick with SlashGear from here until March 14th to see the big bang – and of course afterward when we give it the full once-over in a full review. This device has a lot to live up to, coming after one of the best selling smartphones of all time and continuing the lineup of Samsung’s most successful device ever – get pumped!

Samsung Galaxy S4 specifications tease biggest launch in company history is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.