Snapdragon
Qualcomm this morning is taking the wraps off of a new smartphone SoC for the mid-range market, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The second of Qualcomm’s down-market ‘S’ tier Snapdragon 7 parts, the 7s series is functionally the entry-level tier for the Snapdragon 7 family – and really, most Qualcomm-powered handsets in North America. With three tiers of Snapdragon 7 chips, the 7s can easily be lost in the noise that comes with more powerful chips. But the latest iteration of the 7s is a bit more interesting than usual, as rather than reusing an existing die, Qualcomm has seemingly minted a whole new die for this part. As a result, the company has upgraded the 7s family to use Arm’s current Armv9 CPU cores...
Xiaomi Launches the Mi Max: $230-$310, 6.4-inch, 4850 mAh, 7.5mm, Dual SIM
After posting several teasers on the official twitter feed, Xiaomi has now announced a large battery, large screen ‘smartphone’ that blurs the line between 7-inch tablets and 6-inch smartphone...
11 by Ian Cutress on 5/10/2016HTC 10: A Quick Look At Battery Life & Storage Performance
While I’m still working on the full review for the HTC 10, there’s obviously a lot of questions flying around for at least a few of the claims that...
50 by Joshua Ho on 4/14/2016Hands On With The HTC 10: A Fresh Start
At this point it’s probably not a secret that HTC has been struggling for the past few years. While the One M8 was a solid upgrade to the One...
130 by Joshua Ho on 4/12/2016Qualcomm’s New SDK Enables Development of VR Apps on Snapdragon 820
Qualcomm on Monday introduced its first virtual reality software development kit, designed for its Snapdragon 820 mobile SoC. The new tools will enable software makers to create programs that...
9 by Anton Shilov on 3/15/2016The Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge Review, Part 1
For some time now, Samsung has been the dominant player in the Android space, especially at the high end of the market. From the Galaxy S2 onwards, Samsung has...
202 by Joshua Ho on 3/8/2016Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge
If you've followed our reviews for the past year, it was probably evident that the Galaxy S6 was one of the best phones launched last year. With one of...
123 by Joshua Ho on 2/21/2016Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon Wear 2100 IoT SoC
Along with today's announcements of the Snapdragon 425, 435 and 625, we also see the reveal of a new wearables-oriented SoC: the Snapdragon Wear 2100. In the past we've...
23 by Andrei Frumusanu on 2/11/2016Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 625, 425 & 435 Mid- and Low-End SoCs
Today Qualcomm announced three new SoCs in the mid and low-end Snapdragon lineup. At the lowest end we find the Snapdragon 425 offering a very frugal CPU configuration consisting...
22 by Andrei Frumusanu on 2/11/2016Intel and Google Equip Smartphones with 3D Cameras and Computer Vision
Computer vision and sensing are crucial for cars, robots, drones and many other applications. However, existing devices such as personal computers or mobile gadgets can also take advantage of...
9 by Anton Shilov on 1/12/2016Hands On With the Huawei Honor 5X
We’ve reviewed Huawei Honor devices before, but by and large they were designed to target China and similar markets. There were also a number of growing pains as seen...
14 by Joshua Ho on 1/6/2016Qualcomm renames Snapdragon 618,620 to 650,652
Earlier in the year we were able to cover Qualcomm's announcement of the Snapdragon 618 and 620 mid-range SoCs. We haven't heard much about the SoCs since the original...
21 by Andrei Frumusanu on 12/17/2015The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Performance Preview: Meet Kryo
I don’t think there’s any way to sugarcoat this, but 2015 has not been a particularly great year for Qualcomm in the high-end SoC business. The company remains a...
146 by Ryan Smith & Andrei Frumusanu on 12/10/2015Qualcomm Details Hexagon 680 DSP in Snapdragon 820: Accelerated Imaging
Although we tend not to focus too much on the tertiary aspects of a SoC, they are often important to enabling many aspects of the user experience. DSPs are...
41 by Joshua Ho on 8/24/2015Understanding Qualcomm's ImproveTouch
Although the Xperia Z4 Tablet was announced as far back as MWC, it wasn’t until recently that the enhanced noise rejection of the touchscreen was really shown off. At...
13 by Joshua Ho on 8/18/2015Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon Sense ID Fingerprint Scanning
In addition to a new SoC, Qualcomm is announcing a new fingerprint sensing technology for Snapdragon-based devices. While most fingerprint sensors currently use high-resolution capacitive sensors, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sense ID...
7 by Joshua Ho on 3/2/2015Qualcomm Announces New SoC Lineup, Modem Branding
Qualcomm today announced 4 new additions to its Snapdragon 400 and 600 lineup of SoCs, along with a reshuffle and rebranding of their modem lineup. Let's begin with the...
40 by Andrei Frumusanu on 2/18/2015Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Performance Preview
Last year Qualcomm announced a new tier in its high end SoC roadmap with the Snapdragon 805. Priced somewhat above the current Snapdragon 800/801, the 805 would be the...
149 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/21/2014Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808/810: 20nm High-End 64-bit SoCs with LTE Category 6/7 Support in 2015
Today Qualcomm is rounding out its 64-bit family with the Snapdragon 808 and 810. Like the previous 64-bit announcements (Snapdragon 410, 610 and 615), the 808 and 810 leverage...
101 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/7/2014Sony Launches Xperia Z2, Z2 Tablet, and M2 at MWC 2014
Sony Xperia Z2 Sony has just announced the Xperia Z2, which is the direct successor to the Xperia Z1 that released in the fall. While quite a bit stays the...
23 by Joshua Ho on 2/24/2014Nexus 7 (2013) - Mini Review
At an event in San Francisco, Google announced an updated version of the popular Nexus 7 tablet which first appeared at last year’s Google I/O. The big new features...
253 by Brian Klug on 7/27/2013