smartphone News - Page 16 of 74 - CNX Software

June 3, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Bye Bye Camera Notch, Hello Under Display Camera

As phone manufacturers tried to stretch the screen to body to the theoretical limit of 100%, some not-always-broadly popular design choices had to be made. And so the camera notch was born to expand the screen, which resulted into an ultra-thin top bezel, combined with a small cut-out for the front-facing camera that many people dislike. If you are one of those people, I have good news: the death of the camera notch could be near thanks to under display cameras. Xiaomi was the first company to release a demo this morning through a tweet by Alvin Tse, Head of Pocophone Global for Xiaomi. Check this out from our R&D team! @Xiaomi continues to innovate and we have some exciting tech up our sleeves. RT if you love under display camera! #xiaomi pic.twitter.com/4Rlzt9uRAd — Alvin T (@atytse) June 3, 2019 We can see two nearly identical poco phones above, except […]

May 22, 2019May 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

299 Euros Motorola One Vision Smartphone Features Samsung Exynos 9609 SoC

I find most new phones’ announcements rather boring, but Motorola One Vision is somewhat interesting as it’s one of the rare non-Samsung phones to features an Exynos processor, more specifically Exynos 9609 which has not been seen in any other smartphones so far. Its other highlight is the 48MP camera sensor normally found in premium phones, and not in a 299 Euros device. Motorola One Vision specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 7609 octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A73 @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.6GHz, and Arm Mali G72MP3 System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 128GB internal storage, microSD card slot Display – 6.3″ LCD touch screen display with 2520 x 1080 resolution (21:9 aspect ratio) Camera 48MP rear camera with OIS based on IMX586 sensor 5MP Depth sensor 25MP front-facing camera Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack Wireless connectivity Cellular – 1x nanoSIM + 1x nanoSIM/microSD hybrid 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi […]

May 13, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

e.Foundation to Sell Refurbished Phones Running Google-Free /e/ Android OS

Most Android phones come with Google services, which is both a boon and a curse, as those services are often convenient, but they come at the loss of your privacy. For example, most people get all upset and lost if a firmware image for an SBC is shipped without Google Play Store, but yet at the same time they worry about their privacy providing all their data to a single company like Google. There must be a better way, and that’s what the e.foundation is attempting with /e/ operating system based on Android, but without any of the Google Services, and targetting your typical end-users, as opposed to geek. /e/ operating system aims to provide privacy both inside the phone, and via cloud services unrelated to Google. It is a fork of LineageOS 14.1 itself a fork of AOSP, and replaces Google services and apps with programs such as MicroG […]

May 8, 2019May 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android 10 Beta 3 Now Available on 15 OEM Phones

Google introduced Android Q in March with the first beta and preview SDK release. The new version of Android introduced more privacy protections, support for foldables, sharing shortcuts, connectivity improvements (e.g. WPA3 security), new camera and multimedia features such as dynamic depth photos and AV1 media codec support, as well as an updated neural network API, higher ART performance, and security improvements. Google has now announced Android 10 Beta 3 with a few new features over the first preview release, and support for 15 OEM phones on top of the 6 Pixel phones already supported. Some of the new improvements in Android 10 Beta 3 include: Scoped Storage feature giving users control over files and preventing apps from accessing sensitive user or app data. See the corresponding developer page for details. Update of BiometricPrompt authentication framework to support biometrics, e.g. face recognition, at a system level. Project Mainline described as […]

May 8, 2019May 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Google Pixel 3a / 3a XL Mid-Range Smartphones Get a Premium Camera, an Headphone Jack

Google launched their Pixel 3 & 3 XL smartphones last fall with a Snapdragon 845 processor, a camera that takes excellent photos even in low-light conditions, and achieves an excellent score of 101 points in Dxo camera benchmark. The phone costs $799 and up in the US, and more in other countries. Most people I know use their phone for calls and SMS, taking photos, messaging with Facebook and LINE, and some casual gaming, so it would make sense to have a mid-range phone with an excellent camera, a slightly less powerful processor, and a significantly lower price tag. That’s what Google has done with Pixel 3a and 3a XL phones, taking many of the features of Pixel 3, including the camera, but selecting a Snapdragon 670 processor instead, shaving a few dollars with other design decision, and bringing the price down to $399. Pixel 3a / 3a XL smartphone […]

April 29, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

UNISOC Unveils Tiger T310 Quad Core Cortex-A75/A55 DynamIQ Processor for 4G Phones

UNISOC, a company born out of the merger between RDA Micro and Spreadtrum Communications, has recently introduced Tiger T310 processor for 4G smartphones. The quad core processor is somewhat unique as it comes with a single Cortex-A75 core coupled with three Cortex-A55 cores using dynamIQ technology. UNISOC Tiger T310 key features include: CPU – 1x Arm Cortex-A75 core @ up to 2.0 GHz, 3x Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz in dynamIQ configuration GPU – TBD Cellular Connectivity – TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, CDMA, GSM Camera – Dual and triple camera support Security – TEE, face unlocking Manufacturing Process – TSMC 12-nanometer process UNISOC Tiger T310 is said to deliver a 120% single-core performance improvement over the current mainstream 4-core processor, and a 20% multi-core performance improvement. The processor’s battery life is said to be 20% better than mainstream 8-core processors, and 15% higher than mainstream 4-core processors […]

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Snapdragon 730, 730G & 665 Mobile Platforms Target High and Mid Tier Devices

Qualcomm has announced three new processor / mobile platforms for high and mid-tier mobile devices. Qualcomm Snapdragon 730, 730G and 665 Mobile Platforms are designed to improve experiences in artificial intelligence (AI), gaming, camera, as well as general performance. Snapdragon 730 & 730G Both processors share many of the same features: Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine AIE CPU – Octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 470 CPU @ up to 2.2 GHz AIE GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU with support for OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.1, OpenGL ES 3.2, DX12 AIE DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX), Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, Qualcomm Hexagon 688 Processor, Qualcomm Hexagon Voice Assistant, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology Neural Processing: Qualcomm® Neural Processing SDK Display On-Device Display Snapdragon 730 – up to FHD+ (18:9), 2520×1080 resolution Snapdragon 730G – up to Quad HD+, HDR10, 3360×1440 External Display up to 4K resolution Camera Qualcomm Spectra 350 image signal […]

March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 855 Hardware Development Kit

Snapdragon 855 processor is found in premium smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S10 or Xiaomi Mi 9, but Snapdragon 855 Mobile Hardware Development Kit has now started to show up on Qualcomm developer website. Beside the octa-core processor, the platform comes with WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GNSS, Gigabit Ethernet, multiple MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, DisplayPort over USB-C and HDMI outputs and more. Snapdragon 855 HDK preliminary specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Octa-core processor with 1x Kryo 485 Gold Prime core at up to 2.8 GHz, 3x Kryo 485 Gold cores at up to 2.4 GHz, and 4x Kryo 485 Silver low-power cores at up to 1.7 GHz, Adreno 640 GPU System Memory – TBD Storage – TBD flash, micro SD card slot Video Output 2x MIPI 4-lane DSI + touch panel 1x HDMI DisplayPort over USB 3.1 type-C port Camera Input – 3x MIPI 4-lane CSI with support […]