Hasta La Gadget!

Just as we lay to rest the ghost of a phantom Tegra 2 chip inside the LG Revolution, here comes the specter of another unconfirmed appearance for NVIDIA’s dual-core application processor, this time inside Samsung’s Galaxy S II. If you’ll recall, we were initially informed by Samsung’s PR crew that their new Android flagship would run on NVIDIA’s hardware, however a subsequent correction informed us that the processor inside would in fact be Samsung’s own Exynos. Now, it turns out, both might be true. AnandTech have come across some benchmark results showing a GT-i9103 with Tegra 2 listed as its grunt provider, while Pocket-lint and others have noted that Samsung’s own spec sheet for the Galaxy S II states that the dual-core Exynos “may not be applicable in some regions.” The likeliest scenario here is that Samsung hasn’t yet reached sufficient volumes with its own processor production and will rely on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 for handsets outside its critical markets — much in the same vein as it replaced Super AMOLED with Super Clear LCD screens in Russia and some other territories. Don’t fret too much, though, performance disparities between the two aren’t likely to be overly significant.

Samsung’s Galaxy S II to have a Tegra 2 version? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Consider it a mystery solved. Throughout the week here in Barcelona, we’ve spent an inordinate amount of time chasing down suits from LG, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Verizon Wireless to answer one simple question: “What’s up with the processor in the Revolution?” If you’ll recall, NVIDIA actually sent one of its own to Verizon’s LTE press event at CES 2011, specifically to bust out a Revolution and gloat about the Tegra 2 chip within (video’s after the break if you don’t believe us). As it stood, it seemed as if the Thunderbolt and Revolution would be butting heads from a CPU standpoint, with the former definitively sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8655. And then, came the confusion. We showed up at Qualcomm’s booth here at Mobile World Congress to see which phone it was using to demonstrate the recently unveiled Netflix-on-Android support — lo and behold, LG’s Revolution was the handset of choice. Obviously, there had to be a new Snapdragon processor within, as only the newest of the new will have the necessary DRM libraries at a hardware level that are necessary to pass muster with the MPAA.

After venturing over to LG’s booth, we were also able to confirm that the only Revolution it knew of was boasting a Qualcomm CPU, and the shot above (which was sourced from there) proves it. We also confirmed with Verizon Wireless’ paperwork that the version it’s expecting in the next month or so will ship with Qualcomm inside. Finally, NVIDIA refused to comment on the matter, simply suggesting that we contact LG for more details. Put all of that together, and we’re able to come to two main conclusions. First off, it seems as if LG yanked support for the Tegra 2 at some point between CES and MWC — right around four weeks. Hard to say if there were reliability issues, an unsatisfactory amount of power drain, or just irreconcilable differences between the two CEOs (joking, of course). Secondly, it’s reasonably safe to assume that Verizon’s Revolution will be the first Android handset on Big Red to stream Netflix directly, which may please those who were planning on buying one but weren’t looking forward to going without Netflix thanks to the Tegra 2 that was (presumably) slated for inclusion. Qualcomm 1, NVIDIA 0.

Update: NVIDIA finally saw fit to drop us a line and clarify a bit. Turns out, the confirmation in the video below was a gaff to begin with, as the Revolution was never going to be outfitted with NVIDIA innards. Go figure, right?

Vlad Savov contributed to this report.

Continue reading LG Revolution using 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8655, not NVIDIA’s Tegra 2

LG Revolution using 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8655, not NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So it turns out that NVIDIA roadmap we saw last month was as true and pure as driven snow. The barely conceivable quad-core Tegra chip that it listed has now been made official by none other than NVIDIA itself, with the company also informing us that the new silicon is already sampling out to prospective clients. Known as Kal-El internally, this will most likely turn into NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 as and when it’s ready to enter the consumer market. Tonight NVIDIA whetted our appetite for what’s to come with a demo that can most fittingly be described as an exhibition of unadulterated computational muscle. A 2560 x 1440 stream was being decoded on a developmental device, scaled down to that slate’s native 1366 x 768 resolution, and additionally displayed on a connected 30-inch, 2560 x 1600 monitor. That entire voluminous workload was being handled in real time by Kal-El and we saw no signs of it struggling.

By NVIDIA’s own estimation, the quad-core newbie provides roughly double the processing power of Tegra 2 and triple the graphics-crunching prowess. In the second demonstration of the evening, we saw an instance of Great Battles Medieval — ran at 720p with 650 enemy soldiers on the field — on both a Tegra 2 and a Kal-El platform, which showed the baby superhero handily dusting its still very new brethren. This was in large part down to the full dozen GPU cores contained within Kal-El, though before you freak out about battery-draining insanity, NVIDIA claims things are much, much more efficient as well — up to 12 hours of HD video playback are promised under the right circumstances.

It’s a big fat wedge of awesome boasts we’ve heard from the GeForce maker today, however the company’s given us a schedule to hold it to as well. The “August timeframe” is when the quad-core Kal-El is expected to land in tablets, while smartphones will have to wait until the holiday season to benefit from what’s likely to be a slightly downgraded variant. Skip past the break to eye the future Tegra roadmap for the next few years plus video of the wildly impressive demos we were witness to.

Continue reading NVIDIA announces quad-core Kal-El SOC, promises it in tablets by August (video)

NVIDIA announces quad-core Kal-El SOC, promises it in tablets by August (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Acer debuts GN245HQ monitor with HDMI 3D support from NVIDIA

Acer debuts GN245HQ monitor with HDMI 3D support from NVIDIA originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a phone. It’s a laptop. It’s a desktop.

Motorola wants you to think its upcoming “superphone” is all of these. Soon, we’ll be able to find out.

The Atrix 4G, Motorola’s highly anticipated hybrid smartphone offering, will be available for pre-order beginning February 13. The phone will cost $200 with a two-year AT&T contract, and is expected for wide availability on March 6 or earlier, says AT&T.

Aside from the very sweet dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor pumping out 1GHz of power on both cores, the list of attributes found on the Atrix is fairly similar to other recent smartphone offerings. It’s got a 5-megapixel back facing camera, front facing camera for video chat, and is running Android version 2.2 (Froyo). The full gig of RAM is a nice eyebrow-raising amount, however. And the can expand its storage up to 48GB via SD card.

What is most intriguing about this phone is the Atrix’s ability to go multi-platform. Still want to play Angry Birds on your smartphone during your daily commute? Use the Atrix as you would any other smartphone. Need a laptop for taking notes? Plug the Atrix into the separately-sold laptop dock and bang away on them keys.

Have a big-ass monitor at home and miss the desktop computing experience? Hook that bad boy up to the Atrix’s HD multimedia docking station and use the phone like you would a PC.

Here’s the kicker: nothing in life comes cheap. If you want to buy the laptop dock on its own, it’s a cool 500 bucks. Or alternatively, if you want to grab the Atrix and laptop dock together, AT&T is offering a bundled package price — $600 with two-year contract, or $500 with two-year contract after a mail-in rebate and subscription to the Data Pro plus tethering add-on plan.

The HD multimedia dock isn’t a whole lot cheaper at $190, but with the dock you get a nice little Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, along with a remote control.

Will the high prices turn away crowds, or will the Atrix’s supermutant-like morphing capabilities be able to open the hearts and wallets of customers everywhere?

We’ll see come the next few weeks.

Photos: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

See Also:

• Hands-On With Motorola’s @$#%ing Atrix Superphone
• Big, Beautiful and Badass: The 9 Coolest Android Smartphones at …
• Hands-On With LG’s Optimus 2X Superphone
• Motorola, LG Flex Dual-Core Smartphones