smartphone News - Page 44 of 74 - CNX Software

November 25, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Black Friday 2015 – International Deals

While Black Friday is very much a US tradition, Chinese online retailers have made an habit to launch Black Friday, and to a lesser extend Cyber Monday, promotions discount on their sites bringing the event to an international audience. This year is no different, and have gathered some promotions that may be of interest to CNX Software readers. DealExtreme I have not found specific deals on DealExtreme, but the company launched a Black Friday 2015 Lucky Draw event where you can get partial or full refunds of existing orders, as well as coupons for future order. Here are the rules: This campaign is for all DX customers. Please log in first. One play per valid order number. Valid Orders must meet the following three conditions: Orders made on or after 10:00:00(AM) Oct. 28th and before 9:59:59(AM) Nov. 26th, 2015 (UTC+8). Order should include one or more MVP product(s) and the […]

November 24, 2015November 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

No.1 D3 Smartwatch (Mediatek MT6261) Review

Since I’ve listed the specs and torn down No.1 D3 smartwatch, I’ve spent several days wearing the smartwatch / watchphone, and trying most of its features, so it’s time for a review. I’ll go through all screens of the user interface, include a video review, before providing a conclusion to this review Charging the watch take between 15 to 30 minutes, and you can turn it on by pressing the only button on the side of the watch for a few seconds. The first menu you are likely to see if the one with the phone functions including the Dialer, messaging, phonebook and call logs. You can use these in two ways: with a micro SIM card inserted into the watch, or/and via your smartphone connected over Bluetooth. I mostly used the watch connected to my smartphone, but both methods worked for me. When you receive a call, it’s not […]

November 15, 2015November 15, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Huawei Quick Charging Li-Ion Batteries Promise 10 Times Faster Charge

Watt Lab, part of Huawei’s Central Research Institute, has demonstrated new fast charging batteries for smartphone and tablets at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan. The lab claims these new batteries can be charged 10 times faster than normal batteries, reaching about 50% capacity in a 5 minutes for a 3,000 mAh battery. Two video demos were uploaded online both using a special charger for the battery only, and compared it to a mobile phone charge with a power adapter. The first demo includes a depleted 600 mAh filled to 68% in just 2 minutes. The second demo is quite similar but with a 3,000 mAh battery (620 Wh/L energy density) charged to 48% in 5 minutes. That means you could get about half day worth of battery with a 5 minute charge. The feat can apparently be achieved by adding “heteroatoms“: According to Huawei, the company bonded heteroatoms to […]

November 12, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa-core Processor to Feature Custom ARMv8 Cores and Mali-T880 GPU

Samsung Exynos 7420 processor is at the top of benchmark charts for smartphones, but the company is still pushing for more performance and power efficiency with their upcoming Exynos 8890 processor that promises 30% improvements in performance, and 10% in power efficiency. While Exynos 7 Octa was made with ARM’s own Cortex A53 and A57 cores, Samsung did not go with Cortex A72 in 8890, but instead decided to design their own ARMv8 cores and coupled for of these with four low power ARM Cortex A53 cores, and a Mali-T880 GPU. Samsung also included a LTE Rel.12 Cat.12/13 modem that enables speeds up to 600Mbps DL (Cat.12) and 150Mbps UL (Cat.13), and the processor will be manufactured using 14nm FinFET process technology. Excluding the custom cores, and the manufacturing process, this configuration is similar to the recently unveiled Huawei Kirin 950 processor using four Cortex A72 cores and TSMC 16nm […]

November 5, 2015November 6, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Huawei Kirin 950 Octa-core Processor Comes with 4 Cortex A72 Cores, 4 Cortex A53 Cores, and a Sensor Hub

Smartphone based on MediaTek Helio X20 (MT6797) processor with 10 cores including two Cortex A72 cores should start shipping next month, but MediaTek will soon be joined by another Asian company with a mobile SoC with Cortex A72 cores with Huawei that has recently demonstrated their Kirin 950 Octa-core processor with four Cortex A72 coers and four Cortex A53 cores, achieving over 82,000 points in Antutu 5.6 (why an older version?) on a reference board. For reference the top 10 Antutu scores so far in 2015, only got as high as ~77,000 points fro Meizu Pro 5. Since the benchmark was run on a reference, it’s possible the score will drop once it’s in a tighter package. Some key features of Kirin 950 processors: CPU – 4x Cortex A72 cores @ 2.3 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz GPU – ARM Mali-T880MP4 GPU @ 900 MHz Co-processor – […]

November 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

$80 Doogee X5 Pro Android 5.1 LTE Smartphone Comes with 2GB RAM, 16GB Flash

I’ve been amazed how the price of technology has come down recently, with decent TV boxes selling for $30 to $50, and I’ve now been informed about Doogee X5 Pro, a quad core smartphone running Android 5.1, supporting LTE networks, and featuring with 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, and a 5″ HD screen selling for $80 shipped. Doogee X5 Pro specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6735 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.0 / 1.3 GHz with Mali-720 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB flash (12GB available to user) + micro SD slot up to 32GB Display – 5.0″ IPS HD Screen (1280×720) Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/AGPS Cellular Connectivity 2x Micro SIM slots; Dual SIM dual standby 2G – GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G – WCDMA 900/2100MHz 4G – FDD-LTE 800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz Camera – 5.0MP rear camera (up to 8.0MP by interpolation); 2.0MP font-facing camera (up to 5.0MP […]

October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Top 10 Antutu Scores of 2015 for Smartphones So Far

I’m mainly focusing on Android mini PCs, and not so much on mobile devices. But this year, silicon vendors launched 64-bit ARM processor for TV boxes based on the low power Cortex A53 cores, lowering costs instead of improving performance of their 32-bit ARM processors, as media player don’t usually need very fast processor simply because video decoding is normally handled by the video engine. Two exceptions being Amazon Fire TV 2015 which gets over 51,000 points mostly thanks to MediaTek MT8173‘s two Cortex A72 cores, and Nvidia Shield Android TV box getting over 68,000 points, but sadly these two devices are not (easily) available worldwide yet. But on the mobile space, the race to faster and faster performance is still on, and according to a recent post on Antutu website (in Chinese), the fastest smartphones now reach over 75,000 points in the popular benchmark. I had to look up the […]

October 16, 2015October 16, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

$7 Magnetic Charging micro USB Adapter and Cable Work Like ZNAPS

ZNAPS is a cheap magnetic adapter and connector combo for smartphones with micro USB or lightning ports that had a massively successfully Kickstarter campaign this summer, having raised over 3 millions dollar from around 70,000 backers who should receive their $9 adapter and connector in November. But in case you’ve missed the campaign and own a smartphone with a micro USB port, there’s a magnetic charging USB cable selling for $9.95 AUD (~$7.2) on eBay including shipping. There’s no much to it, as you just insert a micro USB adapter into your device, and it magnetically connects with the USB cable to charge easily. I don’t personally find that gadget very useful, but based on the buzz generated by ZNAPS, many people do, as they probably like to convenience to connect your phone with the charger even when busy while driving a car, cooking, and so on. It also makes […]