Technology Android

[Casey]

HTC stepped up their game, but the S3 will annihilate all competition this year.

 

[Ristol]

HTC stepped up their game, but the S3 will annihilate all competition this year.

That's your comeback? In the Android thread?! WEAK, man.

 

[Shadows]

^i dunno if u have him on FB or another networking site, but the articles he posted on what the S3 is supposed to have, if true, would kill competition.\

No more bitching about battery life and the specs and everything else would be Top Notch, since, usually Samsungs are TOP phones on the regular anyway.

 

[Casey]

That's your comeback? In the Android thread?! WEAK, man.

fuck you

 

[ARon]

Actually it won't be the best so to say. Simply because all signs point to them using a quad core chip with old tech instead of the dual core with new tech. The realllly good phones wont come til the next go round when its quad core a15 chips. Yeah its tech talk and not real world shit but its true. The s3 will be the best phone when it comes out but there is still that issue, which sucks

 

[Pittsey]

Actually it won't be the best so to say. Simply because all signs point to them using a quad core chip with old tech instead of the dual core with new tech. The realllly good phones wont come til the next go round when its quad core a15 chips. Yeah its tech talk and not real world shit but its true. The s3 will be the best phone when it comes out but there is still that issue, which sucks

But.... That will be a year after.... And.... Do we really need that processing power on a phone? What are the real world uses for such CPUs? Obviously I prefer the battery life savings, and want the newer chips. The most appealing phone so far this year is the One S.

 

[Ristol]

fuck you

And a pleasant good day to you too sir.

 

[ARon]

But.... That will be a year after.... And.... Do we really need that processing power on a phone? What are the real world uses for such CPUs? Obviously I prefer the battery life savings, and want the newer chips. The most appealing phone so far this year is the One S.

It won't be the year after it'll be late this year. And the battery life on those will be better since they'll be smaller and consume less power. For me the most appealing phone is the AT&T variant of the One X. It has the same s4 processor that the normal one s. Sucks that it's only going to be on AT&T. I think Sprints Evo X or whatever might have it as well, I'm not sure. Being that I'm on t mobile it's the one s for me. But I'm just going to wait til the s3

 

[masta247]

So I've played with the One X. I say it's a neat phone. Looks better in reality - especially the white version. It feels really very slim and that's the main reason why you can tell that it's a new-gen phone. It's funny because the 4,7 inch screen doesn't feel that big at all. It doesn't feel significantly bigger than my 4,3 inch Arc and I was holding both against each other. So if they design the SGS3 properly (slim, small bezel) I could live with a 4,5-4,7 inch screen I suppose.

I'm not really digging the Sense 4. Honestly? My single core Arc *feels* more responsive. You can't feel the processing power, it doesn't do things faster. I was expecting more I think. Why all the processing power then?
I'm not feeling the physical buttons too. They're strange, they feel like they're too big, stealing from the screen estate.

The screen is good for an LCD but it's the same thing as with my Arc - the quality is very similar and everyone say how great they both are (in reviews) while I'm not too satisfied with mine, and I can say that the one on One X is similar. They are good for LCDs but they are not outstanding in any ways. Feels kind of dim - only the viewing angles are better than on my phone. It's just a normal LCD imho, a pretty good one but you'll be disappointed after reading most reviews. It's not anything that can even begin to compete with any AMOLED. The pixel density feels good though compared to pentile amoleds.

BUT it appears to be a good phone, and I like the fact that it's so slim.

I agree with Casey and Aron - I'm looking forward to the SGS3 and HTC have stepped their game up.
At the same time A9 quad core on the SGS3? That sucks. Not because of performance - but because the A15/Krait are a huuuuge step up. Especially the 28nm tech on these Krait cores makes a difference - they drain less battery and perform much better at the same time.
Anyway I really hope that Samsung will come up with something crazy cool. All of their Galaxy S phones have been far ahead of anything else. I really hope their third one will follow that path too. I hope that HTC, Sony and others will feel silly when the SGS3 comes out.

 

[Pittsey]

Do we know for sure the architecture of the S3?

 

[masta247]

No, but we know new Exynos chips that Samsung boasts about lately. The "best" one is a quad core A9 which is pretty much a faster equivalent of Tegra3. We should all be wishing for a new gen Snapdragon and chances of it appearing in a new Samsung flagship are slim because:
-Samsung don't seem to use Qualcomm SOCs these days.
-The quad core version is not out yet and Samsung wouldn't pack a dual core into their new flagship

Why a new gen Snapdragon? Because it's the only new-gen SOC that's already available AND it's the only 28nm SOC planned for this year I believe. The quad core version is coming up later this year and whatever phone will use it will whoop SGS3's ass. As a matter of fact they will be better than all upcoming Exynos chips - even the 2ghz ones. Qualcomm have stepped their game up and their new Snapdragons are simply great. It's the biggest step up we've seen in the Android game as far as mobile processors are concerned.

Even those 800mhz -> 1ghz and 1ghz->dual core upgrades haven't been as significant because even adding that extra core didn't double the performance and that's what these Snapdragons more than accomplished (compared to similar last gen's dual cores) while maintaining a similar or lower power usage.
On one hand you won't feel that performance because a 1ghz single core is enough to run Android's UI flawlessly and occasional slowdowns are usually caused by memory (ram, memory controllers or memory cards) and not lack of the CPU power. On another hand these CPUs allow you to do serious stuff on your phone, granted there'll be an app for that, of course.

 

[S O F I]

you really need to figure out how to say more with less. goddamn.

 

[masta247]

I know most people here aren't going to read longer posts, but I always feel the need to elaborate.
I'll try to keep my Android posts shorter, if it's going to make the world a better place.

 

[Pittsey]

No, but we know new Exynos chips that Samsung boasts about lately. The "best" one is a quad core A9 which is pretty much a faster equivalent of Tegra3. We should all be wishing for a new gen Snapdragon and chances of it appearing in a new Samsung flagship are slim because:
-Samsung don't seem to use Qualcomm SOCs these days.
-The quad core version is not out yet and Samsung wouldn't pack a dual core into their new flagship

Why a new gen Snapdragon? Because it's the only new-gen SOC that's already available AND it's the only 28nm SOC planned for this year I believe. The quad core version is coming up later this year and whatever phone will use it will whoop SGS3's ass. As a matter of fact they will be better than all upcoming Exynos chips - even the 2ghz ones. Qualcomm have stepped their game up and their new Snapdragons are simply great. It's the biggest step up we've seen in the Android game as far as mobile processors are concerned.

Even those 800mhz -> 1ghz and 1ghz->dual core upgrades haven't been as significant because even adding that extra core didn't double the performance and that's what these Snapdragons more than accomplished (compared to similar last gen's dual cores) while maintaining a similar or lower power usage.
On one hand you won't feel that performance because a 1ghz single core is enough to run Android's UI flawlessly and occasional slowdowns are usually caused by memory (ram, memory controllers or memory cards) and not lack of the CPU power. On another hand these CPUs allow you to do serious stuff on your phone, granted there'll be an app for that, of course.

Which is why I want 2 gig of ram on my phone....

 

[Flipmo]

Google looking to delay Nexus tablet launch until July to ensure right price​

By Daniel Bader on April 6, 2012 at 3:47pm in Mobile News​

Google’s upcoming Nexus tablet, which it is building in conjunction with Asustek in Taiwan, is to be delayed from a proposed May release to a more uncertain July release, say sources close to The Verge. According to the leaked reports, Google would have had trouble hitting a $249 price point if the device was released in May, as costs of internal components such as Nvidia’s Tegra 3 SoC and DDR2 memory are expected to drop by mid-year.​

The tablet is presumed to be a reworked version of Asus’ 7-inch MeMo 370T slate that was shown off this year at CES. It will ship with a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 8-16GB internal storage and WiFi, running Android 4.0 out of the box. The screen is expected to have a sharp 1280×800 resolution, which would give the tablet a high 215ppi pixel density.​

From a content perspective, too, the delay may be due to Google trying to get some more deals signed with major content providers. Currently its Play Music service is only available in the US and its movie collection is only available to rent, not purchase, putting it at a disadvantage of Apple’s iTunes store.​

Source: The Verge​

 

[THEV1LL4N]

I think with Jellybean rumoured to have a full and a light version of the OS (for lower lower end devices), there could maybe be a light version of the nexus device which is another possible reason why the nexus tablet could be cheap in price.

 

[S O F I]

safe to say it's going to get good reviews but be a financial disaster.

 

[masta247]

Why do you think so? It's a 7-inch tablet. Sort of like the Kindle fire. Asus are known for being able to drop their manufacturing costs really low. Unfortunately usually the quality drops (the screen suffers the most).

Personally I think that 7 inch tablets suck. It's either about 10 inchers or if you want a smaller one Samsung's 8.9 inch seems to be the way to go. There's a huge market for 7 inch ones because it's like a "tablet light", and people want tablets, and these are the cheapest.

 

[masta247]

On a side note I saw this one today:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_7_7-review-742.php

And this motherfucker is the coolest tablet I've seen. I'm not sure what makes it so awesome to be honest - possibly the 7.7 freaking Super Amoled screen. It makes it shine and glow. Also it's much lighter than other tablets which makes it feel that much cooler. Most tablets feel heavier than they look - this one doesn't.
Perhaps it's just a tad too small though but still it's great. I'd pick this over the Transformer Prime. Certainly a step in a right direction (give me a new one in 8.9 inch size and I'd buy it).

 

[S O F I]

I think the rise of Android in the smart-phone market was because there was a lot missing from what Apple was offering. People wanted more. But even the biggest Apple haters and Android fanboys (like you) admit that the iPad is a really good product. I think the market has spoken for the near future. There's no battle to be won on the lower-end. It will be won in the high-end with the best product and the product will have to be better than the iPad. I'm not saying that Google won't come up with one. I'm just saying that THIS one won't do that. As far as the segment of the market that the Kindle Fire is carving out, I'm skeptical about its success. Amazon is shady with those sales figures.

When it comes to smartphones, the market consensus is that everyone needs one. That's why Android manufacturers have been succesful. It was either iPhone or something else and there was an Android phone available at every price point. But that's not the same thing with the tablets. No one HAS to have one. So it can very well be iPad or nothing. That is how it is for me right now. I have the money to spend but I can't find a consciously good reason to get a tablet. Also, I'd really like to stay in the Android ecosystem but no tablet has got me excited yet.