Smartphones
Samsung is announcing today that it has begun mass production of 12 GB and 16 GB LPDDR5X modules in the industry's thinnest package. Samsung's shrunken memory packages measure approximately 0.65 mm in thickness, making them 0.06 mm (~9%) thinner than standard LPDDR5X packages. The company expects the new DRAM devices to be used to make for thinner smartphones, or improve their performance by enabling better airflow inside. According to the company's press release, Samsung achieved this ultra-thin design by employing new packaging methods, such as optimized printed circuit boards (PCBs) and epoxy molding compound (EMC). Additionally, an optimized back-lapping process was used to further reduce the height of the packages. The newly developed DRAM packages are not only thinner by 9% compared to previous models...
Smartphone Audio Quality Testing
We spend a lot of time watching and listening to our smartphones and tablets. The younger you are the more likely you are to turn to them for watching...
188 by Chris Heinonen on 12/8/2013
A Month with the HTC One max
A Month with the HTC One max In October I was contacted by HTC’s PR agency here in London, and after a series of discussions they sent me a HTC...
43 by Ian Cutress on 12/5/2013
Google Nexus 5 Review
Each year, Google picks a silicon vendor, a hardware partner, and releases a new version of Android running on top of them. The result is a Nexus phone, and...
231 by Brian Klug on 12/5/2013
A Look at LG G Flex and its Deformable Plastic OLED DIsplay
Today we had a chance to get hands on with LG's very hyped flexible, curved smartphone, the aptly named LG G Flex. We're going to be reviewing it and...
23 by Brian Klug on 12/4/2013
Futuremark Begins Delisting "Cheating" Mobile Devices from 3DMark Database
Over the summer, following a tip from @AndreiF7, we documented an interesting behavior on the Exynos 5 Octa versions of Samsung's Galaxy S 4. Upon detecting certain benchmarks the...
46 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/26/2013
A Post about Removable Storage, Removable Batteries and Smartphones
There's been a lot of talk lately about our position on removable storage and removable batteries in smartphones. Most of the discussion has centered around what we've said in...
376 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on 11/25/2013
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 805: 2.5GHz, 128-bit Memory Interface, D3D11-class Graphics & More
Qualcomm has had an incredible year. It wasn’t too long ago that I was complaining about Qualcomm’s release cadence, the lull between Scorpion and Krait allowed competitors like NVIDIA...
105 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/22/2013
Qualcomm Announces Fourth Gen Cat 6 LTE Modem – MDM9x35
In addition to the IPQ8064 news this morning, Qualcomm released a host of other product announcements we're working our way through. Among them is news of its fourth generation...
16 by Brian Klug on 11/20/2013
Qualcomm Atheros Announces New Internet Processor Category - IPQ8064 and IPQ8062
Today Qualcomm Atheros is announcing two new products and an entirely new category on its roadmap, the Internet Processor, prefixed IPQ (Internet Processor Qualcomm). The two new SoCs are...
22 by Brian Klug on 11/20/2013
Android 4.4 Factory Images Now Available for Nexus 4, 7 (2012 and 2013), and 10
Although Google started its official rollout of Android 4.4 KitKat over the air updates to Nexus devices a few days ago, it always takes days or weeks before the...
33 by Brian Klug on 11/14/2013
Motorola's Affordable Moto G: $179 Off-Contract
Earlier this morning Motorola announced the Moto G, the second member of its new smartphone lineup and a far more affordable alternative to the Moto X we reviewed back...
50 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on 11/13/2013
Qualcomm's Modem Workshop - Lots of Comparisons
Last year Qualcomm flew me out to their San Diego headquarters to talk about modems and transceivers, and what ended up being of the biggest public disclosures made from...
18 by Brian Klug on 11/8/2013
Pebble Releases Update – Better iOS 7 Integration, New APIs, Enables Bluetooth LE
Today Pebble has released a major update for its popular smartwatch, enabling better integration and notification delivery from attached iOS 7 devices, a new version of the SDK (2.0...
12 by Brian Klug on 11/6/2013
Google Announces The Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 Details
It’s been leaked, teased, and practically dissected for a while now, but today Google is finally making the Nexus 4’s successor official. The Nexus 5 is finally formally announced...
120 by Brian Klug on 10/31/2013
Sprint Announces Spark - Its Tri-Band LTE Network
Today Sprint announced the official name for its new tri-band LTE network, Sprint Spark. For those who have been following operator rollouts of LTE in the US, today's announcement...
33 by Brian Klug on 10/30/2013_carousel.jpg)
Intel Announces PCIe M.2 LTE Modules with XMM7160, Notes Galaxy Tab 3 (10.1) Socket Win
Intel has been ramping up how much it's talking about its first available multimode LTE solution, XMM7160, which we've seen public disclosure of and talked about before. For those...
11 by Brian Klug on 10/30/2013
Motorola's Project Ara: Phonebloks from an OEM
Phonebloks was a campaign that focused upon attracting the interest of OEMs by showing that there was an incredible amount of interest for a modular phone. This was mostly...
55 by Joshua Ho on 10/29/2013
New Version of Google Glass coming, Free Swap for Current Glass Explorers
One of the shortcomings of the initial Glass hardware was its inability to be used in conjunction with prescription eyewear. Although users could sometimes get away with wearing Glass...
13 by Brian Klug on 10/28/2013
HTC One max Review - It's Huge
Big phones are all the rage right now. Although tablets promised the kind of extra screen real estate that would increase productivity while still retaining portability, there’s ultimately nothing...
197 by Brian Klug on 10/28/2013
A quick look at Blackberry 10.2 and web browsing performance on Z10
Blackberry has started rolling out OS 10.2 to BB10 devices such as Z10, Q10 and Q5. Update appears to be available in Canada and UK for a start. The...
45 by Rahul Garg on 10/26/2013
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