News & Reviews:   smartphone

Most of the smartphones and tablets in the market are running on ARM-based processors such as those from Qualcomm and Samsung, especially the Android systems, Intel is making big steps to try and break into the mobile market. One of the most major of which is their new Atom microarcitecture called Silvermont. While there are already a number of Intel powered smartphones and tablets (Lenovo K900, Asus FonePad, etc.), they hardly compare to the hordes of ARM based smartphones and tablets already in and coming to the market. ARM is already coming out with a number of new processors targeting both the midrange and the high performance markets so there is a lot riding on the success of Intel's Silvermont.

We fully expected this from our earlier reports but Samsung have dethroned Apple in smartphones sales for Q1 of 2013. According to analysts Samsung sold $26.62 billion worth of smartphones. While Apple have been doing quite well too at $22.95 billion this figure is lower by $7.71 billion compared to the figure reached in Q4 of 2012. Nokia followed up with $3.64 billion while LG got $2.95 billion from their smartphone sales.

A recent interview with Jo Harlow, Executive VP from Nokia may have confirmed that we will soon see Lytro-like cameras in Nokia's Cameraphones. In our earlier articles regarding Pelican Imaging's 16-lens array camera Nokia's involvement with the company hinted that they may use it, this interview just confirms it. While the interview was more about computational photography, it also dropped hints that we may soon see dual-SIM Nokia Lumia smartphones as well.

In our first smartphone view of Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 800 processor, a Pantech smartphone recently got an amazing score on the AnTuTu benchmark site. Previously, the king of the AnTuTu benchmark score was the Exynos 5 Octa powered Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 with an AnTuTu score of 27000+. The new Snapdragon 800 powered Pantech smartphone got a score of 30133, beating the S4 by an amazying 3000 point margin.

Samsung recently released a teaser image for their upcoming Samsung Premiere 2013 event happening on 20 June 2013 in London. They will also be streaming the event live at www.youtube.com/SamsungMobile so you can watch it here in Malaysia as well. From the text it is clear that they intend to release something Galaxy and ATIV related and the chopped up image seems to suggest a new notebook computer or hybrid tablet. However, since the text also mentions Galaxy it could also mean an announcement on new Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

We've only just scratched the surface with 4G LTE, especially here in Malaysia with only Maxis and Celcom offering it (and rumours that DiGi may be offering 4G LTE soon as well). This isn't too different in the rest of the world as well, as 4G LTE adoption has yet to gain the same acceptance as 3G. Regardless of this, Samsung are currently working on 5G technology which they hope to bring to the masses by 2020.

Samsung's Tizen mobile OS smartphones have been rumoured to arrive for quite some time. The Samsung  GT-I8805 Redwood and GT-I8800 Melius were initially estimated to arrive in September but we are now seeing the Samsung Redwood for the first time in leaked images.

Samsung recently released a new feature called SideSync that allows you to work between your Samsung Notebook and Samsung Smartphone through a USB cable. While it does work a lot like Syncing program it offers bit more by allowing you to work seamlessly between your smartphone and computer. This includes the ability to drag and drop text from your notebook computer to your smartphone and vice versa. Type an SMS on your smartphone from the keyboard on your notebook or just use your smartphone like a second display for your notebook computer.

AnTuTu is a benchmark app that posts the scores of various smartphones, tablets and similar devices online. So when a mystery Samsung device posts with the model number GT-P5200 gets AnTuTu scores of 24616, scores which are on the same level as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 based Samsung Galaxy S4, you can bet that we'll take notice. Now, bear in mind that this is a recent happening and that Samsung just don't use the GT-PXXXX naming convention anymore means several things.

When Google bought up Motorola, many people were wondering if that was just the end of Motorola's smartphone lineup. After a while it certainly seemed so, but hope has not yet died out completely as many tech watchers have noted that a Google Motorola X phone could be on the horizon. This hope became just a little more solid as leaks about a mysterious smartphone bearing not only a Motorola logo but also having a model number denoting 'XFON' on the back have appeared.