Samsung announces Orion, Cortex A9

[Bateluer]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/samsungs-orion-is-the-1ghz-dual-core-arm-cortex-a9-weve-all-be/

We still consider Samsung's Hummingbird application processor to be among the very best for mobile computers, but this morning Sammy itself is stepping up the charge to make it look real old real fast. The freshly announced dual-core Orion promises to whip us all into a frenzy of geek lust with "5 times the 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung," 1080p video encoding and decoding at 30fps, embedded GPS, a native triple display controller, and on-chip HDMI 1.3a interface. Those last two bits mean you can drive two displays on your mobile device while feeding a third, such as a HDTV, all thanks to the one all-powerful chip inside. Availability for "select customers" is coming late this year, with mass production set for the first half of 2011. To say we're looking forward to it would be a massive understatement.

Nice, very nice. Hopefully we see some cool devices built around it.

 

[jpeyton]

As mentioned in the Anand Galaxy review, Samsung's engineering prowess in multiple essential areas of smartphone design, in addition to their close relationship with Apple, will make them a dominant force in the smartphone industry.

I got a Galaxy S today and I have to say that TouchWiz isn't bad at all. Better than HTC Sense and light years ahead of MotoBlur.

It's also going to be interesting to see how (or if) Apple responds to the blistering pace of Android handset development.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

motoblur. lulz.

 

[Bateluer]

I got a Galaxy S today and I have to say that TouchWiz isn't bad at all. Better than HTC Sense and light years ahead of MotoBlur.

Odd, most reviews I've read have TouchWiz tied with MotoBlur at the bottom of the stack of UI skins.

 

[Raduque]

Touchwiz 2 and below was crap, but TW3 is much much much better.

Also those reviews are done by people who are anti-skinning fanboys. Touchwiz, Sense and yes even Motoblegh, bring a much-needed polish to android 2.X. Stock Android 2.x is pretty damn meh. The only fancy thing it does is parallaxing the wallpaper.

And don't give me that "wait till gingerbread/honeycomb!" crap, cause Android 2.x is what's here, now, and it's boring to look at.

 

[dguy6789]

Modern Motoblur(the kind on the X and 2) is largely discussed with virtually everyone doing the discussion having no clue what they are talking about. It is nothing what so ever like Touchwiz and Sense, it is not a UI overhaul in any way.

Motoblur on the new devices is nothing more than some new widgets(that can easily be closed and it doesn't remove any of the stock widgets) and some of the apps and buttons have different icons. It is by far the closest to vanilla Android you can get without actually being truly vanilla. For people that prefer vanilla(such as myself), it blows away Touchwiz and Sense.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Sweet, I welcome 2 hours of battery life on my smartphone.

 

[slightlyhuman]

sigh. i'll stick with my cappy. what's the point of all this if the battery is going to last 4 hours?

 

[dguy6789]

Sweet, I welcome 2 hours of battery life on my smartphone.

Agreed. I said it when the Nexus One came out and I'll say it again now: I'm happy with the performance of modern smartphones. What I'd like from a future device is the same performance that we get now but with the battery life of a dumb phone, not more performance and even less battery life.

 

[MrX8503]

Agreed. I said it when the Nexus One came out and I'll say it again now: I'm happy with the performance of modern smartphones. What I'd like from a future device is the same performance that we get now but with the battery life of a dumb phone, not more performance and even less battery life.

I say we shoot for more performance and better battery life. This is possible.

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

Thing is, with smaller production processes we should be able to have our cake and eat it too. I imagine the power consumption on a 32nm chip would be much lower than what we're seeing today on devices like the Evo and X.

 

[Bateluer]

Sweet, I welcome 2 hours of battery life on my smartphone.

Pretty sure battery life will be equal to or better than today's top devices. Orion is likely going to be built on a 28-32nm process, possibly 22nm or smaller, less than half the size of today's ICs. Its power draw is going to be a fraction of A8/Snapdragon ICs. Hopefully, we'll see some battery tech design improvement and improvements in screen technology as well.

Still waiting for that high res capacitive touch screen that I can use in full daylight.

 

[destrekor]

I am so hoping a Cortex A9 finds its way into a phone with LTE around April 2011. That's when my contract ends, and dammit I am not upgrading to another CDMA phone, not with LTE right around the corner. Then again, with my Droid the way it is right now, I won't have a single issue holding onto this phone past the contract expiration.

From what has been teased about A9, I am stoked to see it in phones soon.