Samsung reveals Galaxy S II Plus

Samsung has announced the Galaxy S II Plus. The smartphone runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean straight out of the box. The Galaxy S II plus will be available in two variants – one with NFC and one without. No details of the pricing or availability of the device are out yet.

In terms of specifications, the Galaxy S II Plus shows off a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus WVGA display with 800x400 pixel resolution. A 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM power the device. It boasts of 8GB built-in storage expandable up to 64GB via a microSD card. Under the hood, a 1,650mAh battery powers it. The rear of the camera houses an 8MP camera and the front has a 2MP camera for video chatting.

The Samsung Galaxy S II was one of the best smartphones available in 2011. It went up against HTC’s flagship smartphone of the time, the HTC Sensation and it won the competition hands down becoming the best Android phone money could buy that year.

Samsung has seen quite a bit of success with its Galaxy lineup of smartphones. We have recently seen the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III and the device is 2012’s best Android smartphone money can buy.

Samsung also conquered the hybrid market with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note in 2011. It has a 5.3-inch display, dual-core processor and a stylus with a difference – the S-Pen.

Samsung launched the Note II in 2012, which improved upon the specifications and the performance of the first generation Note. It sports a 5.5-inch display, quad-core processor, runs on Jelly Bean and improved upon the functionality of the S-Pen.

Lenovo K900: Intel Clover Trail+ smartphone

The Intel powered competition for the Samsung Galaxy Note II is on the way, with the Lenovo K900 leading the charge. Like last year when Lenovo announced the K800 smartphone series at CES, this time around, it is the K900 phablet.

The K900 boost the power of Intel Atom processor for smartphones, which Intel talked about recently and is codenamed “Clover Trail”. We don’t have the exact specs, but this is expected to be clocking at 2 Ghz and a whooping 2 GB RAM.

The K900 comes with a 5.5-inch IPS display with a 1080p resolution and Gorilla Glass 2, a 13MP camera and 16GB internal storage.

A lot of effort has been made for the build quality. The thickness of the K900 is 6.9mm and the chassis is a combination of stainless steel and polycarbonate, and will weigh 162 grams.

No pricing details yet, but India is in the list of the countries where the phone will be released. First up, the K900 will hit the Chinese market, with India, Russia, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia confirmed.

Dual Sim Phones: Lenovo on-a-high

While some manufactures saving their smartphones and mobile for MWC 2013 which will take place in 2013. Lenovo has already announced four dual-sim phones in CES 2013.

The new Lenovo lineup includes, firstly, Lenovo IdeaPhone S890. It boasts of a 5-inch qHD display with a 540x960 pixel resolution with a pixel density of 220ppi. The smartphone runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The S890 is relatively slim at 9.3mm and is relatively light at 176 grams and also packs in a generous 8MP camera.

Next up, we have the IdeaPhone S720. It has a smaller 4.5-inch IPS LCD qHD display with a 245ppi. It runs on the  Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It is powered by a dual-core MTK processor. It come with a 8 MP rear camera and 1 MP front camera for video calling. The S720 boasts of a 2000mAh battery.

At last, we have the two budget devices - the A800 and the A690. The Lenovo IdeaPhone A800 shows off a 4.5-inch FWVGA display with a 480x854 resolution giving it a 218ppi, with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a 2000mAh battery. It runs Android 4.0 ICS.

The IdeaPhone A690 on the other hand has a 4-inch display with a 1GHz single core processor. But it’s a little disappointing that it runs an older version of Android 2.3 Ginger Bread. This makes it good for the consumers looking for entry-level devices.

Also checkout, the first Intel Clover Trail+ smartphone, the Lenovo K900.

Nvidia Tegra 4: Its fastest mobile processor

In a pre-CES announcement at Las Vegas, Nvidia’s CEO Jen Hsun Huang launched the successor to the Tegra 3 system-on-chip - the Tegra 4 last night. It will be the first commercial implementation of the ARM quad-core cortex A15 architecture and shall be seen in smartphones, tablets and notebooks.

The new SoC which was codenamed Wayne before launch, has 72 Nvidia GPU cores which is roughly six times the GPU horsepower seen on Tegra 3; along with a quad-core processor and a fifth low power core for minimising battery use in idle state (as was seen in Tegra 3). It also boasts of 4G LTE voice and data support through an additional Icera i500 chip (LTE is not onboard the Tegra 4 SoC). No details were out on the manufacturing process: whether it is 28nm or 40nm. The four cores are expected to run at a speeds up to 1.9GHz.

"Tegra 4 provides enormous processing power and efficiency to power smartphones and tablets, gaming devices, auto systems and PCs," said Phil Carmack, senior vice president of the Tegra business at Nvidia. "Its new capabilities, particularly in the area of computational photography, will help improve a whole range of existing products and lead to the creation of exciting new ones."

Comparing the new mobile processor with competing system-on-chips, Huang claimed that a new Tegra 4 based tablet could load 25 webpages in 27 seconds as compared to 50 seconds on the Google Nexus 10 tablet which uses a Samsung Exynos 5250 chip. Huang further stated that the new SoC is even faster than Apple’s A6X processor seen in the new iPad as far as loading websites go. The chip also support 4K ultra HD videos.

One of the main features of the Tegra 4 SoC is its support for HDR photography. The camera takes two photographs - one at a higher exposure and the other at a lower exposure and recombines them to form a single image with a higher dynamic range. According to Huang, Tegra 4 takes shots at the rate of 0.2 seconds per frame, which is around 10 times faster than the HDR photography on the iPhone 5 which takes 2 seconds for an HDR shot.

So technically, you can get an HDR shot in one-shot and you will hardly notice any lag as such while making an HDR image. HDR is also supported in the video and burst modes. Other applications include HDR Panorama, Strobe motion effects, 3D reconstruction and object tracking ensuring that it stays in focus even when in motion. 

As far as gaming goes, since it has six times the GPU power of Tegra 3, you can expect a smooth gaming performance. Nvidia has also announced Project Shield, a handheld gaming system with a 5-inch multi-touch display to be based on the Tegra 4 chipset.

Source: www.thinkdigit.com

Project Shield: Nvidia's handled gaming console

Nvidia has been sending some major shockwaves throughout the gaming community and CES hasn’t even started yet. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has been on stage pre-CES, making some major announcements like the introduction of a cloud based gaming system, a new optimization tool for the PC gamer and the clincher, a new handheld portable gaming system that can also be a proper console.

Nvidia has announced Project Shield, a prototype Android-based gaming system running on Nvidia’s new Tegra 4 chip. The handheld gaming console can also output full HD (or 4K) video to a screen without any lag (as seen in the image below). Ports included on Shield include an HDMI port, micro-USB, and a microSD port for storage expansion.

What’s also great about this little guy is that it comes with a 5-inch 720p HD screen which folds out to reveal the controller. The console is supposed to be able to play all Android games given it is Android based, but will also stream their PC games and Steam titles thanks to a built-in app that will give them remote access to their Nvidia Kepler-based machines, via 'GeForce Experience' software, over Wi-Fi.

Nvidia also rebranded GeForce Grid to Nvidia Grid, essentially a server rack packed with a multitude of GPUs that will be capable of pushing 3D and HD gaming content to the cloud. Nvidia Grid enables users to synch their games and devices with the cloud (like with Project Shield), so that any game that’s started on a tablet or a PC can be continued on the other device, which is great. Nvidia Grid is currently in testing phase and will be available to partners soon.

The last announcement by Nvidia is aimed at PC gamers, who might actually be pretty excited. Nvidia launched the Nvidia GeForce Experience (which we've briefly touched upon above), a nifty utility for auto-optimizing graphics settings. Based on the PC configuration and setup, Nvidia GeForce Experience tunes the game settings automatically, eliminating the need to tune them manually.

All in all, it’s been a pretty big day not just for Nvidia, but also for a lot of gamers and enterprises. Between the new handheld console and the cloud gaming, Nvidia is definitely starting to push boundaries. For more details about the Tegra 4 processor, check out our in-depth article.

Source: www.thinkdigit.com

AMD: New Processors and GPUs.

AMD introduced new sets of silicon at a press conference here at Vegas. These new processors run the gamut from APUs built for low power use in tablet PCs to multi-GHz performance CPUs and GPUs.

AMD started by trying to coin a new term: Surround Computing, which means having computing power all around you, from smart devices embedded in glasses to room-filling visuals and sounds. In the keynote, AMD representatives touted the company's discrete graphics solutions, as well as APU solutions for laptops, desktops, and tablets.

The Radeon HD brand led off the press conference, emphasizing AMD's commitment to servicing gaming, from the traditional gaming PC to the gaming console, to the infrastructure that supports gaming. After reiterating that games like Far Cry 3, Bioshock Infinite, and the new Tomb Raider are AMD Gaming Evolved titles, AMD announced its dominance of the home gaming console market with AMD technology in three out of the four top consoles (including the new Nintendo Wii U). AMD capped the gaming section with the introduction of the AMD Radeon HD 8000M series for notebook PCs.

Next, AMD introduced its updated A4, A6, A8, and A10 APU lines and OEM partners. A representative from Asus showed the Asus U38 Ultrathin, powered by AMD A-series APUs with AMD Radeon discrete graphics as an option. The U38 Ultrathin has a 1080p screen with capacitive multi-touch. Next up was the HP Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook, which can be equipped with an A8 APU, 15.6-inch 10-finger touch screen.

New processors, ranging from AMD A8 and A10 performance processors (codenamed Richland) to more mainstream A4 and A6 processors (Kabini) were also discussed. Like their competitors, the new CPUs deliver users more performance as well as better battery life. Thanks to built-in Radeon technology, AMD was able to demonstrate a new Kabini processor outperforming a current Intel Core i3 processor.

The company is also going after the tablet space, with Windows-8-capable processors that slot in between ARM-style tablet processors and the low-end x86 processors originally meant for notebooks. Using gaming and HD video to tout the systems as "Performance Tablets", AMD's A4 and A6 (Temash) APUs are expected to slot into Windows 8 tablets in the near future.

Speaking of slotting in, AMD capped the presentation with the announcement that Vizio is going to use AMD APU processors in their all-in-one desktop, thin and light laptop, and new AMD Z-60 APU-based tablet PCs. All Vizio PCs announced will run Windows 8 and have touch screens.

Something Tougher Is Coming: Gorilla Glass 3, better than the Rivals and Gorilla Glass 2.

Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass product for smartphones had recently unveiled the Gorilla Glass 3. This is sporting a feature known as Native Damage Resistance. It is claimed that the new version is three times more scratch resistant than Gorilla Glass 2, will have 40 percent reduction in the numbers of visible scratches and retains 50 percent more strength after the glass is flawed.

Now, they have released a couple of official videos, with the first detailing why a glass on a smartphone breaks, with a detailed manufacturing process. In a nutshell, the video explains how scratches over a period of time creating tension leading to the glass breaking. So, be careful of what accompanies the phone in your pocket, because those scratches from the car keys and coins will leave a mark, in the long run.

The second shows off how Gorilla Glass 2 and Gorilla Glass 3 stand in a test, along with a rival product, though unnamed. According to the test, Gorilla Glass 2 starts to scratch at 1.12lb/0.5kg of pressure, while the Gorilla Glass 3 is seen effortlessly withstanding pressure of as much as 1.8lb/0.8kg.

Snapdragon 200, 400, 600 and 800 series announced: Qualcomm

Close on the heels of the NVIDIA Tegra 4 announcement, Qualcomm has also announced a refresh to its line-up of Snapdragon system-on-chips. Qualcomm announced that it is going to retire the S1, S2, S3 and S4 series of mobile chips and new set of chips will go by the new nomenclature - Snapdragon 200, Snapdragon 400, Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 800. The new series is expected to improve power and speed as compared to current generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

As you may have already deducted from the naming convention, the Snapdragon 600 and 800 will represent the high-performance chips whereas the Snapdragon 200 and 400 will be seen in low-end budget mobile devices.

Snapdragon 600 will be running four Krait 300 cores (clock speeds going up to 1.9 GHz). Krait is the codename for Qualcomm’s custom ARM v7 microprocessor. The 600 will be around 40 percent more powerful than the S4 Pro at the same time consuming comparatively lesser battery. It will house the Adreno 320 GPU. We will start seeing this chip in mobile devices by Q2 2013.

The Snapdragon 800 will be the flagship SoC for 2013. It will be running four Krait 400 cores which are based on the 28nm manufacturing process. The Krait 400 can run to speeds up to 2.3 GHz in the quad configuration and its synchronous SMP architecture will provide dynamic power sensing and control for peak performance per core. The Snapdragon 800 will house an Adreno 330 GPU, support for display resolutions upto 2560x2048, a faster 4G LTE Cat 4 modem within the SoC. The presence of an LTE radio on the SoC is a definite plus over the Tegra 4 which does not include an LTE radio on the SoC, but it can be added optionally. Performance improvement of the Snapdragon 800 over the S4 Pro is claimed to be over 74 per cent which is quite impressive on paper. The Snapdragon 800 processors will be seen in commercial mobile devices in mid-2013.

"With the overwhelming success of our previous Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms, our mobile processors have emerged as the platform of choice for high-end mobile devices," said Steve Mollenkopf, president and chief operating officer of Qualcomm. "With more than 50 design wins already secured with the first products of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 and 800 processors, we are advancing our vision and setting the standard for excellence in mobile computing."

Source: Qualcomm 1 and 2 

Salora's new POWERMaxx with Android 4.0, dual core CPU and 3200 mAh battery

Salora International Ltd. has introduced a new Android-based smartphone called POWERMaxx. Priced at Rs. 15,999, the POWERMaxx comes with a massive 3,200 mAh battery, which is rated to deliver 22 hrs of 3G talktime, 42 hrs of playing music, 10 hrs of playing video and 11 hrs of 3G networking.

The POWERMAxx features dual-SIM (3G + 3G) support, a 11.4-cm (4.5-inch) IPS LCD display with a resolution of 960x540 pixels, and is powered by a 1GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. It bears a 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing camera, 4GB built-in storage and expandable storage up to 32GB. The device runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, but is upgradable to Jelly Bean.