27
Feb
wm_IMG_9954

Last night we got some hands-on time with HTC's new family of smartphones - the One series. While we didn't get a hands-on video with the One X (largely due to a dead battery), we did spend a fair amount of time with the One S, which shares most of its hardware with its larger sibling.

wm_IMG_9953

wm_IMG_9954 wm_IMG_9955 wm_IMG_9956

The main difference between the two lies in the displays. The One S packs a 4.3" SAMOLED qHD display (540x960), while the One X has HTC's new 4.7" S-LCD2 HD screen (1280x720). Both share the same Qualcomm S4 dual-core processor, clocked at 1.5GHz (the international version of the One X will have a quad-core Tegra 3, but not in the US).

23
Feb
qualcomm-logo

Just two days ago, we saw how blazingly fast Qualcomm's new Krait-based Snapdragon S4 CPU is in dual-core MSM8960 guise. Today, they've announced that the S4 line of CPUs - including the MSM8960 and its quad-core brother APQ8064 (seriously, who came up with this naming system?) - will pack the next-gen 802.11ac Wi-Fi spec.

Support for the new spec comes courtesy of Qualcomm's Atheros WCN3680 chip, which packs a 1x1 802.11ac chip with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM on-board. Luckily for consumers and manufacturers, Qualcomm designed the chip to be pin-compatible with the widely-used WCN3660, the company's 802.11n chip, meaning manufacturers can switch to the 3680 chip without redesigning other parts of the phone.

21
Feb
msm89601

The de facto hardware experts over at AnandTech have spent some time with the newest CPU from Qualcomm: the MSM8960, sporting the new 28nm Krait architecture in dual-core, 1.5GHz form. They've put it through their suite of benchmarks including Linpack, SunSpider, BrowserMark, Vellamo, and Basemark OS. In a nutshell: the MSM8960 absolutely destroys every other phone/CPU on the market right now in every. single. benchmark.

msm89601

An example of what to expect.

The Krait architecture supports 1, 2, and 4 CPUs, and the smaller transistor size (28nm) means that it should outperform most (if not all) comparative 40nm CPUs and offer better battery life.

28
Jan
qualcomm_snapdragon-processor

An intriguing NenaMark2 benchmark showed up earlier today, giving us a glimpse of an unknown device packing Qualcomm's 28nm Snapdragon S4 Krait MSM8960 SoC. The device has a 1.5GHz CPU, 1024x600 display and an Adreno 225 GPU. Did I mention it's running Android 4.0.3?

MSM8960

As you can see, the mystery device's Adreno 225 GPU got an impressive 54.9 fps – a number that's even more astonishing considering the fact that Samsung's Galaxy SII (which has a considerably smaller 800x480 resolution display) scored 46.2 fps with its Mali-400 MP4 GPU.

As AnandTech rightly points out, it will be interesting to see how the Adreno 225 compares to upcoming GPUs including the Mali T-604 and Apple's A6 chip.

14
Feb
image

If the latest iterations of the Snapdragon family have left you feeling hollow, lonely, and disappointed, we bring news to warm your MIPS-craving soul. In a move set to immediately banish the barely-available 45 nm MSM8260 from our minds, Qualcomm have just announced their Krait family. This series of 28 nm chipsets tops out at four 2.5 GHz CPU cores and a matching quartet of 3D processors, utilizing the latest in the Adreno GPU family.

What kind of performance can you expect from these? Well, QC state that performance will jump by 150%, along with a 65% reduction in power consumption - and that's just the CPU.