smartphone News - Page 28 of 74 - CNX Software

October 18, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Google Pixel Visual Core is a Custom Designed Co-Processor for Smartphone Cameras

Google unveiled their latest Pixel 2 & Pixel 2 XL premium smartphones powered by Snapdragon 835 SoC earlier this month, and while they are expected to go on sale tomorrow, reviewers have got their hands on samples, and one of the key feature is the camera that takes really good photos and videos as reported here and there. You’d think the ISP and DSP inside Snapdragon 835 SoC would handle any sort of processing required to take photos. But apparently that was not enough, as Google decided to design their own custom co-processor – called Pixel Visual Core -, and integrated it into Pixel 2 phones. The co-processor features a Cortex A53 core, an LPDDR4 memory interface, PCIe interface and MIPI CSI interface, as well as an image processing unit (IPU) IO block with 8 IPU cores. Google explains the IPU block will allow 3rd party applications to leverage features […]

October 18, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Delivers Up to 40% Better Performance Over Snapdragon 630, Supports FHD+ Displays

Qualcomm has announced a new “Mobile Platform” with Snapdragon 636 that combines eight Kryo 260 cores, an Adreno 509 GPU, and X12 LTE modem for “high quality devices with top-level features at a low price point”, which must mean “mid range”. The new Snapdragon 636 offers an update to Snapdragon 630 / 660 solutions released last year with up to 40% performance boost, 10% faster 3D graphics, and support for ultra-wide FHD+ displays (18:9 aspect ratio). Key features for Snapdragon 636: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 260 cores clocked at up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Adreno 509 with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 full,Vulkan, DX12 DSP – Hexagon 680 DSP with All-Ways Aware Technology, Neural Processing Engine SDK, Caffe/Caffe2 and Tensorflow support Memory I/F – LPDDR4/4X, dual channel up to 1333MHz, 8GB RAM Storage I/F – eMMC and UFS flash Display – Up to 2160×1080 FHD+ resolution; […]

October 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Snapdragon X50 5G Modem Makes it First Data Connection

5G technology is expected to launch in 2019, and Qualcomm has recently made a step towards this goal with the company announcing their first 5G data connection with Snapdragon X50 modem on on 28GHz mmWave Spectrum. The demonstration took place in Qualcomm Technologies’ laboratories in San Diego, and achieved Gigabit download speeds using several 100 MHz 5G carriers. Snapdragon X50 5G Modem’s product page lists some of the key features of the chip: Up to 5 gigabits per second download speeds Initial support for operation in the 28 GHz millimeter wave band. It can connect using up to 800 MHz of bandwidth via 8×100 MHz carrier aggregation. Supports advanced multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) techniques such as adaptive beamforming and beam tracking Composed of the modem as well as the SDR051 mmWave transceiver The modem can be paired with a Snapdragon processor to provide multi-mode 4G/5G capability, and the company […]

October 16, 2017April 30, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Xiaomi Mi A1 Review – Part 1: Unboxing, First Boot, Firmware Update, and Benchmarks

Xiaomi Mi A1 hardware specifications are pretty much standard for a mid-range smartphone, except possibly for its dual rear camera, and what makes it stand apart is really Android One program that promises regular firmware update, including to the latest “pure” Android version, during a 2-year period from launch. In my case, the phone is also interesting because so far I had only used smartphones with Mediatek SoCs, and Mi A1 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. SD625 should be slower than the Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core processor I’ve been using in Vernee Apollo Lite, but I’m curious to find out if some apps have been better optimized for Qualcomm processors. I’ll soon find out as GearBest sent me a review sample.I’ll start with an unboxing and first boot post, before writing the second part of the review in a couple of weeks once I’ve finished testing the […]

October 10, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Purism Librem 5 Open Source Linux Smartphone Meets its 1.5 Million Dollars Funding Target

Back in the summer, we reported about Purism Librem 5, a privacy-focused, open source Linux smartphone. The hardware has not been developed yet, at the time the company was still considering either i.MX 6 Cortex A9 processor or i.MX8 Cortex A53 processor for the phone, and asked for 1.5 million dollars in their self-managed crowdfunding campaign to get the phone delivered in 2019. The project was interesting but with the current status for the project, amount to be raised, and delivery timeline, it was a long shot. But it turns out there’s some demands for smartphones outside of Android and iOS ecosystem, and since then, KDE and the GNOME foundation have joined the project leading to more coverage & people getting involved, and Librem 5 phone is now fully funded with 13 days to go. The processor will likely be NXP i.MX 8M Quad quad core Cortex A53 SoC, as […]

October 7, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Intrinsyc Launches Open-Q 660 HDK Snapdragon 660 Development Kit

For many years now, Intrinsyc has been releasing Qualcomm mobile development platforms that that are used by companies wanting to design and manufacture smartphones or other products based on Snapdragon processors. Those are usually full featured, including a smartphone display, and well suited to such product development. Their latest development kit is the Open-Q 600 HDK (Hardware Development Kit) powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC, an upgrade to Snapdragon 653 with about 20 percent improvement in CPU performance, and 30 percent in GPU performance. The kit is also equipped with 6GB RAM, 64GB flash, a display, wireless modules, sensors, camera interfaces, expansion headers, and more. Intrinsyc Open-Q 600 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 octa-core processor with Four Kryo 260 performance cores @ up to 2.2GHz, four Kryo 260 low power cores @ up to 1.8GHz Adreno 512 GPU @ up to 650 MHz supporting OpenGL ES 3.0/3.2, Vulkan, DX12 FL […]

October 5, 2017October 5, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Google Introduces Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL Smartphones running Android 8.0 on Snapdragon 835 SoC

When Google introduced Nexus brand, it aimed to provide affordable yet decently spec’d Android smartphone. The Nexus has now been deprecated, Google left the low/mid range market, leaving other fills the void, and instead launch the Pixel brand for premium devices. The company announced several new hardware devices yesterday, including two new Pixel smartphones: Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, both powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and running the latest Android 8.0 Oreo. Both phones share most of the same specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with 4x Kryo 280 “performance” cores @ 2.35GHz, 4x Kryo 280 “efficiency” cores @ 1.90GHz, Adreno 540 GPU, security module System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4x Storage – 64GB or 128GB flash Display Pixel 2 – 5.0″ always-on AMOLED display with 1920×1080 resolution (16:9 aspect ratio); 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Pixel 2 XL – 6.0″ always-on pOLED display with 2880×1440 resolution (18:9 […]