Xiaomi first released the Mi Note 2 along with the Mi Mix last year, both sporting revolutionary designs that were alien to Xiaomi’s design language. While the Mi Mix would go on to take the main spotlight, the Mi Mix still commanded some admiration for its curved edge design and well-packed line-up. As usual, the device will have a successor and that success believed to be named Mi Note 3 was earlier rumored to launch in the second quarter of the year. That isn’t likely now but there are talks of a Q3 launch for the flagship device.
A new render of the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 have leaked online showing the device will sport a dual camera setup to the rear. It is unlikely that Xiaomi would completely overhaul the design of the Note 3 so it isn’t surprising that the design of the render looks very much like that of the Mi Note 2 except for the dual cameras at the rear. The dual cameras look very much like that of the Mi 6, aligned in a horizontal plane. The render is likely not real so, just take a look and move on.
We still don’t know much about the specs the Mi Note 3 would pack it is expected to feature an OLED display and may pack the Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. The device is said to sport a 5.7-inch display size and others. The Mi Note 3 may likely be unveiled along with the Mi Mix 2 just the same way the Note 2 was launched with the Mi Mix last year.
Android co-founder Andy Rubin has officially taken the wraps off the Essential Phone which has been in development by his company for a while now. The Essential Phone obviously fits into the high-end market but it is left to be seen if the phone will be able to break through the ranks of Samsung and Apple who both have a stronghold on the high-end market.
The Essential Phone is the first smartphone from Andy Rubin’s company, Essential and we had brought you news last week that it would be unveiled on May 30. Rightly, the phone was unveiled today alongside a new operating system called Ambient and a gadget that looks like Amazon Echo.
Design & Specifications
Design wise, the Essential Phone comes with an innovative design which gives it the potential to be able to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the U.S. and elsewhere. The phone comes with an impressive edge-to-edge design with ultra-thin bezels at the edges. The design looks very minimalistic even lacking any logo but is beautiful. The phone sports a 5.6-inch display and has a high screen-to-body ratio with just the space meant for the selfie camera at the top. This screen isn’t made from glass but is made from a combination of Titanium and ceramic which the company claims make it stronger than those offered by Samsung and Apple.There is no physical button at the front but there is enough space to house a virtual button under the display.
The smartphone also looks beautiful when viewed from the back. The device has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and comes with a dual camera setup at the rear. The device will come with a 360-degree camera that can be clipped on the device to enable a whole different kind of phone-based photography.
The beauty of the Essential Phone extends even to the specification as it packs Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 flagship chip. The device also comes with a 4GB RAM and 128GB of native storage. The rear camera is a 13MP sensor while the second one is a monochrome sensor which is said to boost low-light shots. For selfies, the Essential Phone features an 8MP selfie sensor and is capable of recording 4K video. You won’t find a 3.5mm audio jack on the Essential phone as it features a Type-C port. The device will also ship with an adapter cable for the 3.5mm audio jack.
The Essential Phone comes with a high price tag of $699 and will be available in Pure White, Black Moon, Stellar Grey and Ocean Depth colors. There is no word yet on its availability but the phone is expected to become available in the U.S. first.
Since the revival of the Nokia brand under HMD Global Oy, the yearnings of the numerous fans the brand has across the world is for the launch of a true Nokia flagship. That Nokia flagship has of late been tipped to be the Nokia 9. The Nokia device has been the subject of numerous leaks and the leaks still keep coming out.
A new Geekbench listing said to be the Nokia 9 has appeared on Geekbench’s database. The device is listed as “Unknown Heart” but is believed to be the Nokia flagship expected to be released in the third quarter of this year. The most spectacular listing is an 8GB RAM which the device is attributed to have. The device is listed with an octa-core Qualcomm chip clocked at 1.90GHz.
You may wonder the link this GeekBench’s listing has with the Nokia 9. Well, a leaked Nokia 9 photo had earlier appeared online showing some details. The device was revealed to be running CPU-Z software and the system information was on display. The displayed information gave the model name as “Heart (Unknown)” and indication this could be the expected Nokia flagship.
Before now, the Nokia 9 has severally been tipped to come with a Snapdragon 835 chip and would have a dual camera setup. The device is also expected with a 2K display and 4GB of RAM but with this 8GB RAM version, the flagship may just be one of the first devices to feature 8GB of RAM. Now, that is likely not possible but in this industry, you never say never.
This is not the foldable display flip phone Samsung is working on but the Samsung SM-G9298 is an interesting device too. It is a flip phone with two screens. One 4.2” display when the phone is shut and another 4.2” screen when you flip it open. It has been spotted on TENAA and we get to see its full specification details.
The Samsung SM-G9298 improves on the flip phones of old by featuring two 4.2-inch FHD AMOLED displays on both sides along with the traditional alphanumeric keypad.
It is powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 2.15GHz which is definitely the Snapdragon 820 processor. Previous reports had hinted at it featuring the Snapdragon 821 but it appears Samsung still has SD820 chips it needs to clear out.
News has it that Motorola will unveil its new Moto Z2 family line in June. The line includes the Moto Z2 Play, the Z2 Force and the Moto Z2 itself. Images of the Moto Z2 have surfaced online. Although it is wrapped in a case, the images reveal an important info about the phone.
The Moto Z Force and Moto Z were the first Motorola phones to ditch the audio jack. However, recent reports say the 3.55mm port will make a comeback on the Z2 Force. While there was no mention of the Moto Z2 getting the same treatment, these new images confirm the fate of the audio jack. It will not return in the Moto Z2!!!
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The images show the phone from three different angles, two of which cover the top and bottom where the audio jack should be. None of these shots show an audio jack.
The Moto Z2 in the images is gold. It has its SIM tray at the top and there is an antenna line positioned in the middle. The bottom is bare save for the USB Type-C port. We can’t see the rear since its covered with a case up front, there is a selfie flash with a new design and at the bottom is the new pill-shaped fingerprint scanner.
As Nubia’s June 1 flagship conference draw closer, the company continues to tease more and more features of the Z17 as well as the bezel-less device which would likely be launched on that day. The Nubia Z17 has been shown to have a waterproof body and its water resistance feature has been demonstrated in a leaked video. The Z17 is also coming with Qualcomm’s latest chip as well as a dual camera setup. Nubia’s latest teaser focuses on the picture quality of the Z17’s camera.
According to the poster released a few days back, the Nubia Z17 will have good dual cameras which will support 2X zoom shot with the same clarity as without zoom. The dual camera will also have a good night shooting function. The teaser contains an image which projects this powerful feature of the Z17’s camera but which we are not sure is shot be the camera.
The teaser still points at a bezel-less design for the Nubia Z17 and that put us in a confused state if Nubia will be unveiling two smartphones on that day or just the Z17. A leaked image had emerged showing the upper half of a Nubia smartphone with a nearly bezel-less design. The phone is said to be a Nubia bezel-less phone with a screen to body ratio that is likely higher than the Galaxy S8 and even the Xiaomi Mix and not the Z17 but we really can’t be so sure about that. June 1 promises to be an interesting day for tech fans.
The Chinese leakster, mmddj_china was the first one to claim that the Galaxy C10 would be the first Samsung smartphone to come with dual rear cameras. However, he has been consistently hinting that the Galaxy J7 (2017) also features a dual rear camera. Samsung seems to be working on different editions of Galaxy J7 (2017) for varied markets. None of the renders that have appeared so far have revealed dual rear camera module on Galaxy J7 (2017). Today, the leakster has finally revealed that the plastic casing of the Chinese variant of the Galaxy J7 (2017) and he has claimed once again that the Chinese Galaxy J7 (2017) would be the first dual rear camera Samsung smartphone that may arrive before Galaxy C10.
The leaked shots of the protective case reveal that the SM-7310 Galaxy J7 (2017) would be coming with a vertically aligned dual rear cameras. The model number of the Chinese Galaxy J7 (2017) is J7310 and the regular Galaxy J7 (2017) has a model number of SM-J730 which does not feature a dual rear camera system. However, both the smartphones seem to be sporting the same-shaped rear camera housing. There is no information available on the specifications of the Chinese edition of Galaxy J7 (2017), but it may come with specs that are available on J730 model.
Roland Quandt, a known tipster had revealed the press renders of the regular Galaxy J7 (2017) few days ago. He has revealed all the color variants of the phone. The press renders reveal that the phone features a metallic chassis and has an unconventional U-shaped design for the upper and lower antenna bands on the back panel. The Galaxy J7 (2017) Chinese edition also seems to sport the same design.
Even though Samsung has not officially launched the Galaxy J7 (2017), its YouTube video review in Russian language has already surfaced. There is no information on the launch date of Galaxy J7 (2017) Chinese version. It is likely to get introduced in the next month. The Galaxy J7 (2017) has a 5.5-inch full HD display, Exynos 7870 SoC, 3 GB of RAM, 16 GB inbuilt storage, microSD card support, 13-megapixel rear and front cameras, and 3,600-mAh battery
Recent reports about the Galaxy S8’s sales shows Samsung has gotten past its Galaxy Note 7 woes. Latest sales figure were shared by a Samsung official to Korean media, The Investor.
As at Sunday, May 28, Samsung says it has sold 1 million Galaxy S8 units in its home country since it went on sale on April 21. That’s about thirty-seven days, which is a huge improvement over the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7. It took the S6 and the S7 seventy-five and seventy-four days respectively to hit the 1 million mark. That means the S8 is selling twice as fast as its predecessors.
Samsung isn’t usually open about its sales this early. However an industry source says it may be using it as a marketing strategy. It had started with pre-order sales, announcing that pre-orders had crossed half a million within two days. A little over a week later, it confirmed that pre-orders had reached the one million mark.
When its Bixby assistant became available on May 1, Samsung again revealed that the number of adopters on the first day was 160,000. It also stressed that shipments of the phone were over 10 million units when global sales was announced to have reached 5 million.
Samsung had made moves that indicated the company is working on refurbished models of the botched Galaxy Note 7 which was plagued by battery fire incidence last year. The units are said to be known as Galaxy Note 7R and have made a couple of appearance for certification. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7R model recently received Bluetooth certification and now, its real life image has appeared.
The images show the Galaxy Note 7R continues to use the same design as the Note 7 just as expected but it comes with a unique identification mark. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7R comes with a big letter R written on the back of the glass body which will obviously serve as an identification mark for anyone to easily know it is the refurbished model. We still don’t have a word from Samsung as to the launch date or the name the device would adopt. But Samsung is reported to be working on the models with the aim of selling them in the emerging market where price is the major driving force.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7R would feature the same specifications as the initial model but will sport a safer battery. Also, we expect the Note 7R to come with a price cheaper than the original models. We still don’t have any word on its launch date but an earlier rumour tips the model as launching in June.
Google had confirmed earlier in this month during the Google I/O 2017 event that the ASUS ZenFone AR would be launching in summer this year. However, the exact timeframe of its arrival and the regions that will be receiving it were not confirmed. During an interview with Engadget, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen confirmed that the timeframe on when it will be arriving in the home country of Taiwan and the U.S.
The ASUS ZenFone AR was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in January this year. However, at the time of unveiling, ASUS did not confirm on its release. As mentioned above, its summer arrival was confirmed earlier in this month. Shen has confirmed that ZenFone AR will be going on sale in Taiwan in mid-June.
As far as the U.S. release is concerned, it is confirmed to be available for buying in July. Verizon will be the exclusive carrier of ZenFone AR in the U.S. Apart from ASUS, third-party retailers will be also selling the ZenFone AR in the stateside.
The ASUS ZenFone AR powered with Snapdragon 821 chipset is the first smartphone to come with 8 GB of RAM. However, the USP of the phone is that it is the first smartphone that is enabled Google Tango Augmented Reality and Google Daydream Virtual Reality. The Lenovo Phab Pro 2 from last year was the first Tango-enabled smartphone. It did not carry support for Daydream VR.
There are three cameras on the rear side of the ZenFone AR for motion tracking, depth measuring and room mapping. As humans can do, these sensors allow the ZenFone AR to 3D mapping. Earlier this year, GAP, a clothing chain retail firm demonstrated how this technology works. It showed its app could let a Tango enabled smartphone user to try their merchandise on a virtual mannequin with a body that matches with that of the user.
Currently, there are 100 Tango apps available for ZenFone AR. Shen has confirmed that there would over 1,000 Tango apps available for ZenFone AR users. Other specs of ZenFone AR include QHD 5.7-inch AMOLED screen, 64 GB / 128 GB storage options. It is packed with a 3,300mAh battery.
The pricing of ZenFone AR is still under the wraps, but Shen has said that it won’t be costing more than the Galaxy S8. It indicates that the Tango AR and Daydream VR enabled smartphone would be priced less than $799.
Lenovo is hoping to reclaim back its lost position in the smartphone industry. time was when Lenovo was the third-largest smartphone manufacturer globally but the acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014 turned out to be a liability instead of an asset for the company. Lenovo recently admitted that they underestimated the amount of effort needed to turn around the fortunes of Motorola, once a vibrant company, when they bought over its assets and liabilities from Google for a staggering $2.9 billion.
Thankfully, the company still ranks as one of the world’s largest PC maker and that arm has been a profitable one for the company. However, the fortunes of its smartphone business continue to worsen as the company spent more on marketing expenses for new products and of purchasing key components at a higher rate. Apart from that, the competition in the smartphone industry has continued to get stiffer especially in Lenovo’s home country China where fierce competition from the likes of OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, Gionee and others caused it to fall to the eight spot in global ranking in 2016. Presently, the company does not even occupy the top 10 spots.
The company recently announced that it would be reorganising its China business in a bid to shift the focus to the more lucrative high-end models under the Moto brand. The move would see the brand kill the ZUK brand while still providing support for present models. The company would then focus on just the Lenovo and Moto brands with the Moto brand focused on high-end models. Lenovo’s Chairman Yang Yuanqing threw more light on the move at a recent press conference in Hong Kong.
According to the chairman, the company will be prioritizing mature markets where brands and innovative products are needed while they will continue to provide emerging markets with efficient products. He further hinted that there are now two teams catering for two kinds of markets with different product lines.
The Moto products helped project Lenovo to the second-largest vendor position in Brazil after Samsung. Shipments rose by 56% in Brazil in the first quarter of the year toppling the result it recorded in India in the same period. In China, shipments have declined up to 80% year on year and even on quarter-on-quarter basis, it has dropped up to 55%. The strategy now is to focus on the mature market with the innovative, high-end Moto brand while the Lenovo models would focus on the low-end market. With this strategy, the company believes it has less competition to deal with in the high-end market having just Samsung, Huawei, Apple and others to contend with. The company also disclosed that it will have three more telecom partners in the US this year just as its performance in Western Europe improves as well.
Apple is expected to introduce new iPhones in September. With only few months remaining, the rumor mill is consistently revealing leaked images and photos of dummy units of the next-generation iPhones. The year 2017 marks the tenth anniversary of iPhones. Hence, Apple is expected to launch a premium iPhone with edge-to-edge OLED display this year. The rumor mill is referring it with different names such as iPhone 8 and iPhone X. During the weekend, the Computer Aided Design (CAD) schematics of the alleged iPhone 8 were revealed on Twitter by designer and tipster, Benjamin Geskin.
The CAD images reveals the design of the much-awaited iPhone 8/X. However, it is still too early to confirm that it is the final design of the iPhone 8. In the past month, an analyst had revealed that the production of this year’s iPhones may get delayed because the Cupertino company is unable to embed the Touch ID sensor under the display of the iPhone 8. In order to resolve the issue, Apple may announce the iPhone 8 with Touch ID sensor placed under the display, but delay its production.
The second option for Apple would be to place the fingerprint scanner on the rear side of the iPhone 8. Samsung faced a similar issue in the placement of fingerprint scanner on Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones. Since it could not manage to place at the front in time, it ended up placing the fingerprint reader in an un-friendly position right next to the camera at the backside of the Galaxy S8 and S8+.
The third option that Apple may consider is to axe the Touch ID senor entirely and provide user with other biometric identification features like iris scanner or 3D facial recognition. However, these alternative biometric recognition methods are not very secure and may cause issues with Apple Pay transactions.
Coming back to the CAD images, the circle that is seen in the rear side of the alleged iPhone 8’s CAD images may suggest that it has a rear-facing fingerprint sensor. However, Geskin has confirmed that the circle actually represents the position where Apple will place its logo. The front is mainly occupied by the screen and it gives us a hint that the Touch ID sensor may come embedded under the screen. Speculations have it that the alleged iPhone 8 would be coming with a 5.8-inch OLED screen.
The rear side features vertically stacked dual camera setup placed at the top-left corner. Here are some other images published on SlashLeaks that gives us more idea on the iPhone 8’s design. These images show dummy unit of iPhone 8 placed in a protective case.
The above images confirm vertical rear cameras and no rear-facing fingerprint reader as shown in the iPhone 8 CAD images. The Power button appears elongated compared to predecessor models
After several months of leaks on OnePlus 5 from various tipsters, OnePlus has begun teasing on its features which indicates that its launch date is arriving soon. The company knows very well on how to build the hype before launching its flagship phone. It has already revealed that its next flagship will be called “OnePlus 5” and it will launch this summer. It has also confirmed that it will be driven by Snapdragon 835 chipset. The Chinese manufacturer has also confirmed that it will come with front-mounted fingerprint scanner and it will be available in four color variants. Now, the company has shared a camera sample of OnePlus 5 on its official Twitter handle.
As it can be seen in the above tweet, the left side of the image that is marked as no. 1 appears dull. Its right side that is marked as no.2 has a realistic appeal with impressive color reproduction and contains a lot of details even though the image was snapped in evening with less natural light. The tweet carries the text “Can you tell which photo was taken with the OnePlus 5?” Certainly, it appears that the no. 2 part of the image was shot with OnePlus 5.
The image is not available in high-resolution, but it is quite clear that the company wants to indicate that the OnePlus 5 has a marvelous rear camera that can shoot great photos in dim lighting conditions. Rumors are rife that OnePlus 5 would be coming with a dual rear camera. In the previous month, some leaked camera samples that were allegedly snapped using OnePlus 5 had surfaced. The amount of depth in those images suggested that they were shot using the dual rear cameras.
Another report shows that OnePlus would be featuring a single camera featuring a Sony IMX398 sensor with pixel size of 1.12 micron. Other features include f/1.7 aperture and Dual Pixel Autofocus. However, there is no confirmation on whether OnePlus 5 has a dual rear camera system or a single camera lens.
What is confirmed is that OnePlus 5 would be coming with a stellar rear camera. An official tweet from OnePlus confirms that it will be collaborating with DxO Labs (best known for DxOMark benchmarking platform for photography) to deliver impressive camera experience. According to DxO Labs, HTC U11’s 12-megapixel camera is the best smartphone camera as it recorded a benchmark score of 90. The next best camera phone is the Google Pixel with a score of 89. Will OnePlus 5’s rear camera be able to outscore HTC U11 and Google Pixel on DxOMark? Do share your thoughts by posting your comments.
Earlier this year, ASUS announced the Zenfone 3 Zoom. Unlike the previous Zenfone Zoom which sports a single camera with optical zoom, the new phone sports dual rear cameras. While ASUS’ first dual camera phone is priced at over $500 for the 128GB version, ASUS seems to be working on a less expensive model. The ASUS X00KD was spotted on TENAA and it also sports dual rear cameras.
The ASUS X00KD has a 5-inch 720p display, 2GB/3GB RAM and 16GB/32GB ROM. ASUS has included a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.25GHz (probably a MT6737M SoC). There is a 4020mAh battery under the hood and the phone runs Android 7.0.
The dual rear cameras are arranged just like that of the Zenfone 3 Zoom. One is a 13MP sensor and the other is an 8MP camera. There is also a 5MP camera in front for selfies. The ASUS X00KD also has a microSD card slot that accepts up to 2TB cards. There is a physical home button but there is no mention of a fingerprint scanner embedded underneath it.
The much awaited Mi Max 2 was finally released last week. The highlights of the phone are its massive 5300mAh battery and Sony IMX386 main camera. This is the same same sensor in the Mi 6.
As stated above, the Mi Max 2 uses a Sony IMX386 sensor with a 1.25µm sensor. However, it lacks some of the bells and whistles of the Mi 6, such as the 4-axis OIS. There is PDAF, HDR and a dual LED flash though.
Xiaomi has provided camera samples of the Mi Max 2 and we want you to be the judge as regards its performance. Can the Mi Max 2 hold its own against the Mi 6?
The pictures look good and were taken in various locations including Egypt and Tunisia. There are a couple of night shots and images taken under low light conditions. There is also one that compares the Mi Max 2 to the Mi Max.
Nubia has an event slated for June 1 where the company is expected to release a new smartphone in China. The Nubia Z17 is expected to be released on that day and there have been several teaser posters to that effect. Nubia again released a pre-launch teaser today showing its upcoming device will have a borderless design. Now, the poster suggests it’s going to be an entirely bezel-less affair but the leaked photos of the Z17 doesn’t reflect such level of bezel-lessness. There are indications that Nubia will launch a truly bezel-less smartphone apart from the Z17 and the device will have a high screen-to-body ratio.
We have seen a couple of leaked photos said to be those of the Z17 but recently we brought you an exclusive photo of a leaked bezel-less Nubia smartphone. The leaked image, which the source claim isn’t the Z17, only revealed the top half of the device with ultra-thin borders. Well, we were able to come up with a sketch of what the other half of the front of the Nubia phone looks like. Indeed we may be looking at a revolutionary device without bezels on the side edges and very narrow bezels at the top and bottom. The sketch looks so real you might want to think this is the real design in its entirety but the aspect we are sure of is the upper half. From what we can perceive, the device may have a higher screen to body ratio, even higher than the Galaxy S8 and even the Xiaomi Mi Mix.
The top bezel which is just enough for the selfie camera and phone receiver also houses a dual selfie camera setup. On the other hand, the sketch shows that there is still a front virtual home button marked by the trademark Nubia red ring. Whether this is a new Nubia phone launching soon, we’ll find out about that
New details have surfaced online regarding the Moto E4 thanks to leakster Roland Quandt (@rquandt). The info contains a full specification sheet of the phone, shipping date and Canadian price.
Motorola Moto E4: more detailed specs, Canada MSRP is 249,99 CAD, interesting to see NFC (certain markets) and GG3, supposedly ships July 17 pic.twitter.com/IOCddU3o6L
We have already covered the specification details in previous articles but the new addition is that the Moto E4 will have Gorilla Glass 3 protecting its 5-inch screen.
There is 2GB of RAM, 16GB ROM and a microSD card slot that takes up to 128GB cards. It will be powered by Mediatek’s MT6737M processor.
The rear camera on the Moto E4 is an 8MP sensor with LED flash. It has HDR and can shoot panorama images and record videos at 720p. For the front facing camera, you get a 5MP camera.
The Moto E4 has Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, FM Radio and NFC (market dependent). It will run Android 7.1.1 out of the box and will have a removable 2800mAh battery.
This watch is strange on three different levels. First, you can call it the mechanical Apple Watch because of the striking resemblance. Next is its name which is weird and long – H.Moser Swiss Alp Watch Zzzz. Then you can gape at its $26,900 insane price tag!!!
For those into luxury mechanical watches, the name H. Moser should be familiar. The watch making family business was founded in 1828 and started with making pocket watches before moving on to wristwatches. One of its latest watches is the Swiss Alp Watch Zzzz which looks just like the Apple Watch.
So what do you get for $26,900? The watch is totally built by hand. It has a white gold rectangle face with rounded edges that measures 38.2mm × 44mm and is 10.3mm thick. Its all-black dial gives off a look akin to a display but matches well with its white-gold hands.
There is a hand-wound HMC 324 movement inside and a caliber with a 4-day power reserve that can be recharged by hand.
The LG G6 is one of the well-received smartphones of the year. Even though it comes with impressive specs, it does not feature the Snapdragon 835 that is present inside 2017 flagship phones like Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, Xiaomi Mi 6, and HTC U11. Fresh information published on a Korean publication has revealed that LG has already struck a deal with Qualcomm to ensure that the LG G7 features the Snapdragon 845 SoC.
According to The Investor that cites information from the Korean source, Qualcomm and LG have started collaborating since early this month for the LG G7. The Snapdragon 845, the successor of Snapdragon 835, is rumored to feature Cortex A75 and Cortex A55 cores in BIG.Little architecture. Compared to the Snapdragon 835, its successor chip is expected to deliver 30 percent better performance in single-core threading. Also, it is expected to offer 70 percent enhanced performance in multi-core threading.
The LG G6 is a great phone, but the fact that it is powered by Snapdragon 821 is one of the reasons why people may not want to buy it. The Snapdragon 821 is an older chipset that powers flagship phones from 2016. People who wish to buy a flagship phone now would rather prefer to purchase Snapdragon 835 driven smartphones like Galaxy S8, Mi 6, Xperia XZ Premium, or HTC U11.
The LG G7 is rumored to come with support for virtual reality (VR) and AR augmented realty (AR) because of which it appears inevitable that it will be featuring the upcoming Snapdragon 845 SoC. Samsung, too has rumored to have started working on Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus that are rumored to be respectively codenamed as Star and Star 2.
A report published in the previous month revealed that Samsung and Qualcomm have already started working on Snapdragon 845 powered Galaxy S9. Hence, Samsung and LG are expected to rival against each other as the Galaxy S9 and LG G7 are rumored to debut in the first quarter of 2018. With Snapdragon 845 onboard, the LG G7 seems to arrive as an ultimate flagship that will be able to give tough competition to flagship phones form other brands.
ARM announced two new processor cores and one new GPU core earlier today which should power the upcoming smartphones and other gadgets by the end of 2017 / early 2018. The new Cortex A75 processor core succeeds the powerful Cortex A73 cores that’s found inside many high-end chipsets today. The Cortex A55 is one of the most awaited upgrades as it succeeds the super popular Cortex A53 core that’s found in millions of smartphones. There’s a new GPU announced as well, the brand new Mali-G72 succeeding the G71 core announced last year.
DynamicIQ
While these are important upgrades, what’s even more exciting is the announcement of the new DynamicIQ, which has been in the works for the past few years. If you are wondering why it’s important, note that it is the next generation tech in the super popular big.LITTLE architecture that’s currently used by most of the smartphone chipsets in the market including Snapdragon and Helio SoCs.
Considering how the big.LITTLE architecture was announced around 5 years back, it was about time that we got an upgrade to the architecture better suited for new generation requirements. One of the major upgrades in DynamicIQ architecture is the ability to mix different CPUs in a cluster. At present, the big.LITTLE architecture supports multiple clusters but each cluster would have just one type of CPU. For example, if there are two clusters, you can have Cortex A72 in one cluster and Cortex A53 in another cluster. But you couldn’t have them both together in one single cluster.
That changes with DynamicIQ architecture. This means you can have multiple CPUs in one single cluster and the number of CPUs in a single cluster has been increased to eight from the previous four limit in big.Little. So, you can have an octa-core chipset even with just one cluster. In fact, ARM predicts that a number of mid-range SoCs could go for an octa-core single cluster design with multiple CPU combinations. For example, Cortex A75 and Cortex A55 could be used in 1+7 or 2+ 6 or 4 + 4 or even just 1 + 4 combinations. With the support for multiple CPUs in a cluster, you could have lots of combinations.
ARM further predicts one particular combination to be popular among mid-range SoCs — Cortex A72 and Cortex A55 in 1 + 7 combination. This particular combination improves single thread performance up to 2.41x and multi-thread up to 1.42x as compared to an octa-core Cortex A53 SoC.
Another important feature of DynamicIQ is the presence of a DynamicIQ Shared Unit (DSU) which houses the L3 cache, takes care of power management as well as ACP and Peripheral port interfacing.
Note that as of now, only the newly announced Cortex A75 and Cortex A55 support DynamicIQ.
Cortex A75
This is the next generation core that will power the flagships of late 2017 and 2018. The Cortex A75 builds upon the thermal efficiency of A73 and boosts the performance. So, Cortex A75 offers more than 20 percent improvement in performance in a number of scenarios as compared to last year’s Cortex A73. This is achieved while maintaining the same levels of sustained performance. Also, instead of focusing on increasing power efficiency, ARM seems to have focused on keeping the same level of efficiency as the A73 while improving performance.
The Cortex A75 core is not just meant for smartphones as there are a number of large screen devices that could use this powerful chip, like Chromebooks and convertibles.
Cortex A55
The Cortex A55 is a much better upgrade, offering up to twice the boost in performance for memory-bound tasks as compared to the old Cortex A53. But for typical CPU usage tasks, the new processor core offers up to 20 improvement in performance, much like the Cortex A75. Efficiency is also given due importance as the Cortex-A55 comes with 15 percent improvement in power efficiency as compared to its predecessor.
Remember that both, Cortex A55 and Cortex A75 are built on the new ARM v8.2-A architecture and ARM adds that these CPU cores are specifically designed to handle new age requirements like AI and machine learning.
Mali-G72 GPU
The current generation Mali-G71 GPU is found a number of high-end smartphones like the Huawei P10 and even the Samsung Galaxy S8 powered by the Exynos 8895.
The Mali-G72 improves energy efficiency by up to 25 percent as compared to Mali-G71. ARM has also improved performance density by up to 20 percent. This essentially means that you can put more GPU cores in the same die area. This could translate into more cores being packed inside flagship smartphone GPUs. At present, the Kirin 960 uses Mali-G71 MP8 GPU (eight-cores) and Samsung’s Exynos 8895 comes with Mali-G71 MP20 (20 cores). The G71 and G72 GPU support up to 32 cores and we may finally see top-end phones using more GPU cores inside its SoC to boost graphic performance.
It may take a while for chipmakers to implement the new DynamicIQ architecture, but we can expect new smartphones with Cortex A75 and A55 cores sometime early 2018. Best case scenario would be late 2017, but we’ll have to wait and see if new chips can release that early.
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