smartphone News - Page 20 of 75 - CNX Software

December 10, 2018December 9, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

How to Upgrade Xiaomi Mi A2 to Android 9 Pie

I read Xiaomi Mi A2 got an official upgrade to Android 9 Pie in India around mid November. This got me interested in reviewing Xiaomi Mi A2 with the latest Android operating system, and GearBest sent me a sample for this purpose. However in the first part of Xiaomi Mi A2 review, I only got a security update to November 5 2018 security patch level, but the operating system remained Android 8.1. I was a disappointed, but I did not look into it so far since I was busy with other tasks, but this morning I finally got the update! Hooray! If like me, you are based in Thailand or another country stuck to Android 8.1, and would like to upgrade Xiaomi Mi A2 to Android 9, you can follow those simple steps which I have tested personally: Book a flight ticket to Hong Kong Board the actual flight and […]

December 5, 2018December 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is the First 5G Mobile Processor

Most (all?) CNX Software readers already know 5G cellular technology is coming soon, and companies have already announced 5G modems such as Samsung Exynos 5100, MediaTek M70 or Snapdragon X50, some 5G picocells, but AFAIK, so far nobody had officially unveiled 5G mobile processor. Qualcomm has finally announced their Snapdragon 855 5G mobile processor platform codenamed SDM8150, also delivering 3 times improvement for artificial intelligence workloads thanks to its 4th generation AI engine. As usual, Qualcomm has not provided the full details about the processor during the first announcement, but they just listed some highlights: 4G and 5G connectivity with sub-6 GHz and mmWave support 4th Gen AI engine with 3x performance improvement Improved photography and video via Computer Vision ISP, true 4K HDR video capture Ultrasonic fingerprint support Process – 7nm That’s it, so we have to rely on leaks and benchmarks found around the web to get some […]

December 3, 2018April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Xiaomi Mi A2 Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Firmware Update, Antutu

I’ve been using Xiaomi Mi A1 smartphone for well over a year, and during my initial review I was quite satisfied with the phone, and over time I was also pleased to receive regular firmware updates (monthly), and even an update to Android 8.0 and 8.1. Eventually, I found out the camera would be work that well in all situation as you can see from photos in that post, and a few months ago, I broken the display during a cycling trip, and eventually the phone basically died after one year due to an issue with the eMMC flash that become unbearably slow. I intend to use it at least for 18 months, since we can expect firmware update during that time frame. But it was not meant to be, and I was due for a new phone. Xiaomi Mi A2 / A2 Lite smartphones were launched in August, and […]

November 30, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Necuno Mobile Open Source Linux Smartphone is Powered by NXP i.MX 6 Processor

A few years ago, various companies tried to develop other Linux based mobile operating systems, but most failed with Mozilla Firefox OS discontinued, Samsung Tizen is not being used in smartphones anymore, and Sailfish OS giving up the consumer market focusing on governmental and corporate customers instead. There’s still a niche market however for privacy-focused, open source Linux smartphones, and we’ve already covered NXP i.MX 8M based Purism Librem 5 smartphone scheduled to launch next year with GNOME based PureOS operating system, and the ability to switch to PureOS with KDE Plasma Mobile or Ubuntu Touch. Necuno Mobile will be another Linux smartphone based on an NXP processor, but instead of relying on a 64-bit i.MX 8M processor, it will be equipped with the older 32-bit i.MX 6Quad processor, and according to the company be “100% open source device, from metal to pixel, from hardware to software”. Necuno Mobile preliminary […]

November 14, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Samsung Exynos 9820 Application Processor Supports 2 Gbps LTE, 8K Videos, UFS 3.0 Storage

Samsung has just unveiled a new high-end Exynos processor that comes with an enhanced NPU (Neural Processing Unit), and an LTE Advanced Pro modem supporting 2.0 Gbps downloads. Exynos 9820 is a tri-cluster octa-core processor with two custom Arm cores, two Cortex-A75 cores, and four Cortex-A55 cores coupled with an Arm Mali-G76 MP12, and manufactured using Samsung’s latest 8nm LPP FinFET process, which reduces power consumption by up to 10 percent compared to 10nm LPP process. Samsung Exynos 9820 key features and specifications: CPU – Dual-core custom CPU + dual-core Cortex-A75 + quad-core Cortex-A55 GPU – ARM Mali-G76 MP12 Integrated NPU Memory I/F – LPDDR4x Storage I/F – UFS 3.0, UFS 2.1 Display – WQUXGA (3840×2400), 4K UHD (4096×2160) Cellular Connectivity LTE Modem – LTE-Advanced Pro Cat.20 8CA 2Gbps (DL) / Cat.20 3CA 316Mbps (UL) 4×4 Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO), 256-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), and Enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) technology. Camera […]

November 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Intrinsyc Open-Q 670 HDK Development Kit Features Snapdragon 670 Processor

Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 670 this August with improved camera capabilities and improved performance, including a near doubling of the performance of the AI Engine over the one in Snapdragon 660. Intrinsyc is normally the first company to launch mobile development platform for Qualcomm processor, and this time is no exception, as the company has just introduced Open-Q 670 HDK Development Kit with Snapdragon 670 Mobile Platform. Open-Q 670 HDK specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon SDA670 Octa-core 64-bit Kryo 360 processor with 2x high-performance Gold cores @ 2.016 GHz, 6x low-power Silver cores @ 1.708 GHz, Qualcomm Adreno 615 GPU @ 430 MHz, and Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP dedicated for Computer Vision and Video Post Processing System Memory – 6GB LPDDR4x RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC 5.1 Flash Storage (non-PoP memory) + uSD card socket Display MIPI DSI connector with 1x 4-lane DSI port + Touch for included LCD panel […]

November 9, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linux on DeX (Linux on Samsung Android Phones & Tablets) Enters Private Beta

Samsung unveiled “Linux on Galaxy” a little over a year ago with the aim of allowing developers to running Linux desktop on their high Galaxy smartphones coupled with DeX Station dock, keyboard, mouse and display. It was not quite ready for public consumption yet, so I registered to their mailing list to get more information in due time. This morning, I received an email with the subject “Register for the Linux on DeX beta trail” that reads in part: As an early adopter, you signed up for Linux on Galaxy at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017. This service allows you to project a Linux development environment onto a desktop environment, complete with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. So you can bring your code with you, wherever you go. This year, we have renamed the service Linux on DeX, and are beginning a private beta trial. Please visit our booth […]

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Foldables to Get Official Support in Android, Samsung Unveils Infinity Flex Display

Several Android mobile device categories have been launched to the market with smartphones, tablets, phablets, smartwatches, etc… But there’s a new category coming soon: foldables. They will be two variants: those with two display side-by-side such as ZTE Axon M, and smartphone with flexible displays that bend and fold, and are likely to be more popular. Google has just announced official support for foldables in Android, and Samsung has unveiled their Infinity Flex Display for foldables. Android will support both variants of foldables. When folded, foldables look like normal phones, but when unfolded, the screen size doubles transforming the phone into a tablet of sort. Android will automatically resize the screen in a seamless fashion which Google calls “screen continuity”. You can start a video with the phone folded, and when you open it it will neatly switch to the bigger screen tablet-like experience. Several manufacturers will come with foldables, […]