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...

Why Thunderbolt Won't Come to the iPhone Anytime Soon

Before CES there was a bunch of silliness floating around about how Apple might bring Thunderbolt to the iPhone based on a creative interpretation of an Apple patent. Some...

14 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on 1/14/2012

TI Wireless Charging - New Chipsets and 10W charging for Tablets

This morning we stopped by TI's power management group to check out what all they had in store, and got to check out some demos of their new second...

18 by Brian Klug on 1/12/2012

More Shots of the HTC Titan II & Nokia Lumia 900

We covered the launch of HTC's Titan II and Nokia's Lumia 900, the first two AT&T LTE devices running Windows Phone 7.5. We're meeting with Nokia later today but...

4 by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Manveer Wasson on 1/12/2012

TI Shows Off OMAP 5 & ARM Cortex A15 at CES

We weren't allowed to take photos but we've just seen TI's OMAP 5 reference platform up and running Ice Cream Sandwich with full GPU acceleration enabled. The 28nm chip...

13 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on 1/12/2012

Intel's Medfield & Atom Z2460 Arrive for Smartphones: It's Finally Here

It's here. Intel's first smartphone SoC that you'll actually be able to buy in a device before the end of the year. The platform is called Medfield and Paul...

164 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/10/2012

Intel Announces its First Medfield Smartphone Partner at CES 2012 - Lenovo K800

We're at the Intel keynote here at CES 2012 where Intel has announced one of its first Medfield design wins. Lenovo will be launching a phone based around Medfield...

7 by Brian Klug on 1/10/2012

Apple releases iOS 5.1 Beta 3 - Updates Baseband Again, 3G Toggle is Back

We've been tracking and updating our iPhone 4S' to each beta of iOS 5.1, and today Apple has pushed out an OTA version of iOS 5.1 Beta 3 (build...

13 by Brian Klug on 1/9/2012

Huawei Announces Ascend P1 S with 6.68mm thickness

We're at Huawei's press event where we just got to go hands on with the company's two new phones, both running Android Ice Cream Sandwich: the Huawei Ascend P1...

3 by Brian Klug, Sarah Trainor on 1/9/2012

AT&T Flips the LTE Switch in 11 Markets, Sprint Announces its First 4 LTE Markets

Today has been a busy day for wireless carriers in the USA, with both AT&T and Sprint making 4G LTE related announcements. AT&T today enabled LTE service in 11...

5 by Brian Klug on 1/5/2012

Sprint Ad Announces Galaxy Nexus with 1.5 GHz SoC

Sprint seems to be busy with its announcements today, and the latest comes in the form of an unassuming-looking advert on CNet. Ordinarily, a US carrier announcing yet another...

14 by Brian Klug on 1/5/2012

5th Generation WiFi: 802.11ac, "Gigabit" WiFi Primer

Five years have passed since the first 802.11n devices implementing a draft of the now-finalized specification hit the market. Over the years 802.11n support has become ubiquitous in the...

39 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/5/2012

Broadcom Announces Family of 802.11ac Chipsets & 5G WiFi Brand

If you've read our 802.11ac primer you already know that the fifth generation of WiFi is something to be excited about. At 433Mbps of bandwidth per stream with expected...

7 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/5/2012

Scaling to 802.11ac Speeds in Smartphones and Tablets

I promise this is the last thing I'll write about 802.11ac today, but it is very relevant to our smartphone and tablet coverage. If you've followed any of our...

15 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/5/2012

Nokia Lumia 710 Review - T-Mobile's Nokia WP7

Yesterday we took a look at the flagship of Nokia’s Lumia series - the Lumia 800. Today we’re looking at its younger and more entry-level sibling, the Lumia 710...

48 by Brian Klug on 1/5/2012

Nokia Lumia 800 Review - Nokia's Brave New Foray into WP7

The Nokia Lumia 800 is without a doubt one of the most interesting devices produced by the iconic Finnish smartphone manufacturer in a long while. Expectations are high for...

120 by Brian Klug on 1/4/2012

Updated Smartphone & GPU Bench DBs Live!

We've been running our public performance database tool, Bench, for a few years now. Bench allows you to have direct access to the performance data we use in our...

63 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/24/2011

RightWare Launches Basemark ES 2.0 Taiji Free for Android, iOS

For a while now we've been using Basemark ES 2.0 in our smartphone reviews and SoC discussions to gauge OpenGL ES performance. For end users however, getting the same...

19 by Brian Klug on 12/22/2011

Apple Acquires Anobit: Bringing NAND Endurance Technology In-House

I'd seen speculation that Apple was going to drop $500M on Anobit over the past few weeks. Ars Technica also published a piece believing the acquisition to be true...

30 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/21/2011

Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

It seems that each time an LTE handset comes out, there’s invariably some perceived issue with connectivity and stability. This time, focus is being placed on Verizon’s CDMA/LTE variant...

154 by Brian Klug on 12/19/2011

AT&T Will Not Buy T-Mobile

AT&T has dropped its plans for a proposed $39 billion buyout of T-Mobile, citing interference from the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice, the latter of which filed...

28 by Andrew Cunningham on 12/19/2011

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