Announcement month begins

[s44]

Qualcomm says Snapdragon 600 is ~40% over S4 Pro just by raising the clocks...Now I really wanna see how much more amazing the 800 with Adreno 330 can do.

The One isn't going to run at max 600 clocks, so Brian's estimate of 25-30% seems more plausible. And the 800... A15 quads will be out by then.

 

[lothar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_(system_on_chip)

I'm new about these animals but the charts do a good job showing which phone's got which dragon.



According to the charts,

Dual-core Krait 200 = Snapdragon S4 Plus = HTC One X
Quad-core Krait 200 = Snapdragon S4 Pro = Nexus 4, Optimus G

Quad-core Krait 300 = Snapdragon S4 600 = Optimus G Pro, HTC One

Now I understand. Qualcomm is keeping the old names for the old chips, but is going with the 600/800 model numbers for all new chips to be released this year.

Unless I missed something, so based on this Wikipedia chart the only difference between an S4 Pro and a Snapdragon 600 is the CPU clockspeed(1.7GHz vs 1.9GHz). How can Qualcomm claim a 40% performance increase over current phones(Nexus 4, Optimus G, Droid DNA, Xperia Z, etc...) on only a 12% increase in clock speed?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

theys gonna be SO MANY SGS3's on craigs in a month....

 

[s44]

So what do y'all think... will the One outsell the Z/ZL (combined)?

 

[Mopetar]

How can Qualcomm claim a 40% performance increase over current phones(Nexus 4, Optimus G, Droid DNA, Xperia Z, etc...) on only a 12% increase in clock speed?

Perhaps they've changed something else (e.g. memory interface, FPU, etc.) with the chip as well. My guess is that they changed something and that there's some benchmark out there that sees a 40% increase in performance. The average improvement isn't anywhere near as good, but marketing will never give you the straight and simple truth.

 

[IamDavid]

Any new WP's on the possible horizon?

 

[s44]

MWC preview

I'd guess the Asus promo was for the new TF, but the slogan (Pad and Phone come together?) suggests otherwise.

 

[s44]

Well, MWC came and went, but now it's time for pre-S4 leaks.

EXIF tags (last week)
full AnTuTu results/specs (today)

Almost certain the EXIF tagged pics are real -- apparently 13mp, f2.2 -- but I have no idea about the AnTuTu readout. The latter seems to confirm Exynos and not Snapdragon.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

well not surprised about it being Exynos. We've seen three generations of Galaxy S phones with Exynos. The only reason we might have non-Exynos is for US LTE perhaps?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

well not surprised about it being Exynos. We've seen three generations of Galaxy S phones with Exynos. The only reason we might have non-Exynos is for US LTE perhaps?

That hasn't been an issue for a while know, all of the US versions of the Note 2 have Exynos + LTE.

Most likely we would see Snapdragon powered SGS4 models due to supply problems with Exynos 5 Octa.

 

[poofyhairguy]

That hasn't been an issue for a while know, all of the US versions of the Note 2 have Exynos + LTE.

Most likely we would see Snapdragon powered SGS4 models due to supply problems with Exynos 5 Octa.

I will be so angry if the AT&T version is Qualcomm after seeing those benches.

 

[bearxor]

I don't suspect the US versions will be Qualcomm now that Qualcomm has a stand-alone LTE chip.

Good on them for going PowerVR. A 544 should finally give an Android device an undisputed lead in GPU power, at least until Apple does whatever they do in September (SGX600?). I imagine it will just be a leapfrog game from this point forward unless ARM does something magical with Mali.

I still can't believe it's going to be 4x4 instead of 2x2. Given the amount of die space likely to be used by a 544MP2/3/4 (however many cores it turns out to be) the thought of dedicating the space for a 4x4 configuration is just as baffling to me as Apple insistenance to use a lot of space for the GPU. But I suppose when your screen is 5", you've got a lot of internal space to play with.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I don't suspect the US versions will be Qualcomm now that Qualcomm has a stand-alone LTE chip.

Good on them for going PowerVR. A 544 should finally give an Android device an undisputed lead in GPU power, at least until Apple does whatever they do in September (SGX600?). I imagine it will just be a leapfrog game from this point forward unless ARM does something magical with Mali.

I still can't believe it's going to be 4x4 instead of 2x2. Given the amount of die space likely to be used by a 544MP2/3/4 (however many cores it turns out to be) the thought of dedicating the space for a 4x4 configuration is just as baffling to me as Apple insistenance to use a lot of space for the GPU. But I suppose when your screen is 5", you've got a lot of internal space to play with.

Cortex A7 cores are tiny so the die space used going from 2 of them to 4 is insignificant. The Cortex A15's are bigger naturally but they still aren't that big compared to the overall size of the soc, at least based on the rather poor die images I have been able to find.

 

[Fingolfin269]

At this point something radical needs to happen on the hardware front for me to care. I'd say we're at least a couple of years away from that though.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Cortex A7 cores are tiny so the die space used going from 2 of them to 4 is insignificant. The Cortex A15's are bigger naturally but they still aren't that big compared to the overall size of the soc, at least based on the rather poor die images I have been able to find.

IIRC an A7 core is at most 2mm^2 at 28nm. In fact I would say the A7s are the real workhorses than the A15s since ARM out of all people will know 90+% of things people do with their phones will run comfortably within the meager processing power of the A7 cores, Throwing A15 level performance would be like having i7s for web browsing instead Celerons...Eating up tons of unnecessarily power with next to zero real world gains for the user.

 

[lopri]

Unless I missed something, so based on this Wikipedia chart the only difference between an S4 Pro and a Snapdragon 600 is the CPU clockspeed(1.7GHz vs 1.9GHz). How can Qualcomm claim a 40% performance increase over current phones(Nexus 4, Optimus G, Droid DNA, Xperia Z, etc...) on only a 12% increase in clock speed?

Probably usual tricks that every new CPU stepping tends to bring and some design tweaks (e.g. faster/larger cache) accompanying it.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

imma reely wunt dat gnu s-fo, but caint giddit wifout losin' ma date a plan. damn yous, varizin!

 

[Bateluer]

Kinda disappointed that Asus didn't launch a new Transformer Pad, just the FonePad and Padfone. I wanted to see a TF900 with a Tegra 4 and stereo speakers, but maybe they've just learned not to announce products until they're within a few weeks of shipping?

 

[s44]

Only Sony launched a big tablet, and that because they're using S600. Waiting for T4 does allow OEMs to wait for KLP as well, so perhaps that's it.

 

[lothar]

Only Sony launched a big tablet, and that because they're using S600. Waiting for T4 does allow OEMs to wait for KLP as well, so perhaps that's it.

Even if the OEM's are waiting for Tegra 4(for whatever reason, whether KLP or what have you), they will have been announced as a launch partner by now.

Nvidia's announced launch partners for Tegra 4 so far:
1.) Themselves: According to Nvidia, "Project Shield" will be the first Tegra 4 device.
2.) Vizio: They supposedly will be making a 10" tablet. No idea when it will be released.
3.) ZTE: They supposedly will be making phones. No idea when it will be released.

That's it...No Asus, Sony, LG, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, or any of the 1st world Android manufacturers.
I'm not interested in ever owning a ZTE or Huawei product. I'm also not interested in ever owning a 10" tablet over a 7-8" one, more so especially from a "so-so" manufacturer like Vizio that has yet to prove itself in the Android world.

 

[Red Storm]

Kinda disappointed that Asus didn't launch a new Transformer Pad, just the FonePad and Padfone. I wanted to see a TF900 with a Tegra 4 and stereo speakers, but maybe they've just learned not to announce products until they're within a few weeks of shipping?

Yeah I'm waiting on the new Transformer announcement. I've pretty much decided to give up PC gaming until Star Citizen and Project Eternity are released, so I have around two years at the minimum of not needing a Windows machine, and a new Transformer is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[xero404]

theys gonna be SO MANY SGS3's on craigs in a month....

Hope its really the 8-core exynos that come out to sprint and if so my GS3 will be gone. too bad my upgrade is in June or i'd upgrade earlier.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Hope its really the 8-core exynos that come out to sprint and if so my GS3 will be gone. too bad my upgrade is in June or i'd upgrade earlier.

at least you upgrade is scheduled sooner than mine which is.....never.....

i pittie you if youre usin' it on sprint...

 

[xian37]

as I can see, many users waiting for HTC One to be available on the market

HTC is pretty good and much affordable.

 

[lopri]

In a slightly off-track (but related) entertainment, I've found this gem:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2300406

The collective panic and blind faith was amusing at first sight, but by the 3rd page or so the thread becomes downright scary. It's almost like some religious cult gathering, top to bottom, waiting for the 2nd coming or something.