Category: Samsung

Usmart shows compact Samsung Hummingbird PCB for cheap/compact Smartphones

Posted by – March 7, 2012

http://usmart.com.hk shows their latest compact PCB based on the Samsung Hummingbird ARM Cortex-A8 with all the sensors, basebands for cheap/compact smartphone designs.

LG Optimus Vu vs Samsung Galaxy Note vs Samsung Galaxy Nexus


Here’s a video showing the screen quality and size differences between the LG Optimus Vu, Samsung Galaxy Note and Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Samsung 55″ Super OLED at CES 2012

Posted by – January 20, 2012

Now it seems that the 55″ OLED screens are ready to be shown publicly for the first time. I prefer 55″ or larger 4K LCD TVs though. If they can make the 55″ OLED TVs with 4K resolution and sell them below $2000 that would be great!

MobilTab Sleek Android Tablet

Posted by – January 17, 2012

The MobilTab Sleek uses the Hummingbird ARM Cortex-A8 overclocked at 1.5Ghz, 7″ capacitive 1024×600 capacitive touch screen, they are for now merging some of the UI features of Gingerbread, Honeycomb and ICS, upgrading to ICS when available for the processor. They have a WiFi-only and HSPA+ version available.

Samsung 70″ 4K2K Quad-HD TV

Posted by – January 12, 2012

Here’s a presentation by one of the lead engineers at Samsung on the 4K2K HDTV project. With some details about the cost of the technology.

Samsung LED TV Series 6 and LED TV Series 7

Posted by – January 12, 2012

New performance in LED backlit HDTVs, better refresh rates, better colors, more contrast, faster processing and much more.

FXI Technologies Cotton Candy, Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 with a Mali-400

Posted by – January 11, 2012

Here’s a super compact USB Stick sized ARM desktop computer, can be used as Set-top-box also, here demonstrating some advanced 3D gaming on a HDTV. Your next USB stick (HDMI stick) can actually be a computer, set-top-box, home console, all-in-one.

Samsung announces Exynos 5250, ARM Cortex-A15

Posted by – November 30, 2011
Category: Samsung

Here is the press release:

[SEOUL] Nov 30, 2011 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today the industry’s first dual-core processor samples based on the ARM™ Cortex-A15 core. Designed specifically for high-end tablets, Samsung’s newest 2GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 utilizes 32nm high-k metal gate low-power process technology and will offer system-level designers an exciting new solution intended to meet the graphic-intensive, power-efficient requirements of these next-generation mobile products.

“The ARM Cortex-A15 brings unparalleled performance to our Exynos processor family and the exploding mobile marketplace,” said Dojun Rhee, vice president of System LSI marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. “Designers need an application processor platform that delivers full high definition multimedia capabilities, fast processing speed and high performance graphics to meet end users’ expectation for a connected life on the go. The advanced low-power, high-performance processor technology of the new Exynos 5250 continues to deliver an unprecedented level of performance for users to enjoy a completely new mobile experience.”

Samsung’s new dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 based application processor, the Exynos 5250, is capable of processing 14 billion instructions per second (DMIPS, Dhrystone million instructions per second) at 2.0GHz, nearly doubling the performance over a current state of the art Cortex-A9-based dual core processor running at 1.5GHz capable of 7,500 DMIPS.

In particular, the Exynos 5250 design was architected to drive up to an industry leading 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA) display which reflects the significance of advanced display technology transitioning toward ever higher and sharper resolutions. These leading-edge features enable users to enjoy crisper video images on their mobile devices and deliver readability equivalent to real paper for an ultimate electronic reading experience.

To maximize power efficiencies at the system level, the Exynos 5250 has an embedded DisplayPort (eDP) interface that is compliant with panel self-refresh technology (PSR) applied to the timing controller (T-CON). The embedded PSR technology enables static images to be refreshed directly from the frame buffer memory incorporated in the T-CON, resolving the need for regular display refresh instructions to be made by the application processor in cases such as reading static web pages or e-books.

The 3D graphics processing capabilities, enhanced by more than four-fold over the 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, and a stereoscopic 3D feature raise the bar of user experience on high-specification 3D gaming, user-interfacing and stereoscopic 3D video playback.

Moreover, the Exynos 5250 features a doubled memory bandwidth of 12.8 Gigabytes per second (GB/s) compared to current dual-core processors that support a maximum of 6.4GB/s to enable fast data processing features, superb 3D graphics and high-resolution display. This memory bandwidth is a key requirement for a processor to support WQXGA resolution displays.

Samsung’s Exynos 5250 offers a host of peripheral functions including an embedded image signal processor enabling 8 Megapixel resolution images at 30 frames per second, a full HD 60 frame per second video hardware codec engine for high resolution 1080p video recording and playback, a HDMI 1.4 interface for sharp and crisp multimedia content transmission, along with a diverse scope of embedded booting device interfaces such as SATA, UART, USB and external ports such as USB3.0, eMMC4.5 and eSD3.0.

The Exynos 5250 is currently sampling to customers and is scheduled for mass-production in the second quarter of 2012.

Samsung roadmap guesses

Posted by – November 24, 2011

Here is my speculation for some of the upcoming high-end Samsung Android phones based on the recently rumored new Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 at 1.5Ghz, and based on looking at the Texas Instruments OMAP4 roadmap and thinking the faster OMAP4 processors are fully backwards compatible requiring little design and software changes for Samsung to upgrade:

– Galaxy Nexus 1.2Ghz OMAP4460 dual-core SGX540 308Mhz 45nm launching before Christmas
– Galaxy Nexus 1.5Ghz OMAP4460 dual-core SGX540 384Mhz 45nm around January/February
– Galaxy Nexus 1.8Ghz OMAP4470 dual-core SGX544 384Mhz 45nm around March/April
– Andromeda (Galaxy S3) 1.5Ghz Exynos 4412 quad-core Mali-T604 32nm around May/June/July
– Hydra (Galaxy Nexus 2) 2Ghz OMAP5 ARM Cortex-A15 SGX6 28nm around September
– Quasar (Galaxy S4) 2Ghz Exynos 5 ARM Cortex-A15 Mali-T658 28nm around November

I’m using the names Andromeda, Hydra and Quasar because I think Samsung may at some point stop using the Galaxy name in every new phone.

Samsung will likely also continue to release high-end phones using the best that Qualcomm and Nvidia can come with. Thus expect some Qualcomm Krait and Nvidia Tegra3 in some new Samsung phones also. The reason being Samsung is so big they need to use all the major processors in their phone designs, thus spreading their reach further over the market.

What do you think Samsung is going to release?

FXI Cotton Candy, Exynos 4210 computer in a USB stick

Posted by – November 19, 2011

Norwegian FXI Technologies is showing their new Exynos 4210 ARM Cortex-A9 based computer in a 21 gram USB stick form factor. It has HDMI output, it powers from USB, has a built-in MicroSD card slot, WiFi and Bluetooth. It’s to be released next year.

Video by: booredatwork.com

MHL Consortium shows some of the latest MHL features

Posted by – October 30, 2011

There are now 2 HDTVs that are MHL compliant, the Toshiba WL800A and the Samsung UN46D7000 now also got a firmware update that ads MHL support. Possibly that all new HDTVs will include this functionality. It allows for charging MHL compliant phones and tablets and to remote control them with the TV remote through one simple cable and one Micro-USB connector. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich might add new MHL features to the UI, otherwise the MHL Consortium is trying to convince app developers and smart phone makers to design the apps and the OS to take advantage of the 1920×1080 resolution of the HDTV when using the HDMI output, to provide higher resolution user interfaces, higher resolution games, the ARM Processors and GPU in those phones and tablets are now getting powerful enough to output full 1080p UIs, videos and graphics, it’s time for the industry to take advantage of that! One pocketable phone can now combine the features of Android, Chrome OS and Google TV, it’s now a phone, a desktop, a set-top-box and a home console all in one!

Metaio Augmented Reality showcase

Posted by – October 27, 2011

Here’s a pretty cool looking augmented reality application, he points the smartphone at a city built with paper, and the phone displays some augmented reality overlay on top.

Super Clear LCD vs Super AMOLED Plus

Posted by – September 5, 2011

You can see in this video that the Super Clear LCD is brighter than the Super AMOLED plus. While Super AMOLED has real black, for the rest, is the Super Clear LCD better? It might be Samsung is now making this Super Clear LCD Tegra2 version of the Galaxy S2 in Galaxy R to either both slightly lower the price and perhaps also to satisfy the demand as they might not be able to manufacture them fast enough.

Samsung Galaxy S2 White

Posted by – September 5, 2011

Samsung releases this white version of the Samsung Galaxy S2 Android Smartphone. This is likely the best phone on the market, so if you prefer to have a white version of it, you can consider getting this one.

Samsung Galaxy W

Posted by – September 5, 2011

Samsung releases this new medium range Samsung Galaxy W, it has a 3.7″ WVGA LCD, an unknown 1.4Ghz processor (please write in the comments if you know which processor this has), it runs Gingerbread for now.

My take on Samsung at IFA, awesome but perhaps misplaced

Posted by – September 4, 2011
Category: Opinions, Samsung, IFA

Probably the highlight of this IFA show for me has thus far been the unveiling of the awesome Samsung Galaxy Note (2), Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE and Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 for reasons of the pure awesomeness to see the new high resolution Super AMOLED screens in action (4.5″, 5.3″ and 7.7″) and to get a feeling of the upcoming probable Nexus Prime hardware experience.

There is some talk on blogs about Samsung removing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 from the showfloor today on http://www.techmeme.com/110903/p15#a110903p15 and this has now become the conspiracy theory here in Berlin around the IFA show.

I do not believe for one second that Apple has any authority over Samsung at IFA, regardless of the bogus lawsuits going on in bogus court rooms in Dusseldorf, Netherlands and Australia. Samsung is paying the IFA consumer electronics show millions of euros for their hall, over many years, Apple never spent one single cent at IFA or at any other trade shows worldwide for that matter. Apple thinks they are too cool to compete in trade shows, Apple does not want people to think of them as a mere competitor in a market.

Here’s what I think Samsung might be thinking right now, and what I have been saying from the first second I saw their latest devices:

1. Samsung is now the worlds leading Smart Phone manufacturer, in front of Apple.

2. Just like Apple, Samsung makes much higher profit margins on the smartphones than on the tablets.

3. Even with the new Super AMOLED factory now in function in South Korea, Samsung can simply not output enough Super AMOLED screens of all the different sizes and types before this Christmas sales.

4. The 7.7″ Super AMOLED screen is awesome and all, but Samsung cannot justify the extra cost of manufacturing 7.7″ Super AMOLED vs continuing to use LCD on Tablet sizes.

5. Samsung needs to make about 50 million Smartphone sized Super AMOLED Plus screens during these next few months, there is no space in their factory to also make 7.7″ such screens, and it basically costs 3x to 4x more to make a 7.7″ Super AMOLED screen compared to a 4.5″ size, cause you can fit upwards 3x to 4x more smartphone sized screens on their manufacturing process.

6. Super AMOLED screens are beautiful to look at, bravo. But the LCD manufacturing process is operating at about 40x larger scale worldwide. Also, advances in LCD screens cannot really justify the cost difference in manufacturing those expensive Super AMOLED screens.

7. The reason Samsung can make Super AMOLED screens today even though I would guess the Super AMOLED Plus screen costs 2x more than the highest-end LCD, is that Samsung is still making $250 profit or more per smartphone when they sell them upwards $500 through carriers and unlocked.

8. My main complaint on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 form factor is that it is too wide to fit normal jacket pockets, I cannot fit it inside of my jacket pocket. That means that it makes it much less likely people will carry it around everywhere, but that it would have to mostly stay at home. While being shown at IFA, the device did have a sticker saying something like “this may not be the final design”, maybe Samsung has figured out from mine and others comments at the show, that if they really want to release a 7.7″ tablet, they may have to consider trying to cut more of the bezel off of the device.

Here are some pictures comparing the my Archos 70 Internet Tablet that I have used every day for the past 11 months because I can carry it everywhere in my jacket pocket vs the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7″ shown at IFA that simply does not fit in jacket pockets so has to stay at home:

While the Samsung Galaxy Note also is fantasticly awesome, my suggestion to technology fans is not to expect that Samsung can manufacture enough of those 5.3″ HD Super AMOLED screens before the end of this year. Also, Samsung may be realizing that it may be very hard to sell the feature of using a stylus on top of a capacitive screen, it may be too hard for them to lower the lag time and increase the accuracy enough to make it usable. In which situations does mass market consumers really want to use a stylus often? I can think of situations such as collaborating in real-time on annotating text, but I don’t think a light emitting Super AMOLED screen is the right type of screen for that usage.

So where does Samsung go from here? My guess is that they will focus as much of the Super AMOLED factory as they can on making 4.3″ and 4.5″ screens for the upcoming Nexus Prime = Samsung Galaxy S2 = Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE = Verizon Droid Prime, etc. This is where they are getting the most profit. And while the Samsung Galaxy Note might come out, and can definitely sell plenty more than Dell Stream 5 did a year ago, I think Samsung is probably going to use LCD for the Tablets that they’ll release before the end of this year. My guess is Samsung may release updates for their 7″ and 10.1″ tablets before the end of this year, and those will likely use LCD and not Super AMOLED.

In the medium term, I guess that AMOLED may be phased out again, but it already cannot be considered a failure in any way, it has provided Samsung with a unique differentiator in their market share gaining activities in the most important smartphone market. By the time AMOLED factories may be closed in 2-3 years, the quality of LCD at that time will have increased so much, with technologies such as Pixel Qi, IPS and FFS, that it will not make sense to make any AMOLED anymore. Most importantly, the profit margins on smartphones will quickly be reduced as the smartphone becomes a commodity, the profit margins will not anymore allow for the price difference that there is between LCD and AMOLED.

Samsung SSD 830 Series, new faster 6Gbit/s SATA transfer speed

Posted by – September 2, 2011

Transfer bitrates are now going upwards 520MB/s read speed and 400MB/s write speed. They plan to release those around October, in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities, going upwards 800€ for the 512GB SSD storage.

ViewSonic ViewPad 7e, 149€ 8″ resistive tablet

Posted by – September 2, 2011

It runs Gingerbread using the 1Ghz Samsung ARM Cortex-A8 processor. It’s a resistive 8″ screen, to be sold for around 149€.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, Super AMOLED Plus, 1.4Ghz Dual-core, Honeycomb 3.2 with TouchWiz UI

Posted by – September 1, 2011

Wow, Samsung can make 7.7″ Super AMOLED Plus screens and this new tablet of theirs is thin and quite light. Not the lightest 7″ tablet 335gr as the Archo 70 Internet Tablet released last year is 300gr. Also, while it’s thin and light, they did make it slightly wider in size which seems to make it harder to fit it in all the jacket pockets, that’s too bad. But, the design is not final, maybe before they release it they manage to cut a few millimeters off the bezel to make it fit in jacket pockets. This tablet runs Honeycomb 3.2 nicely but with some TouchWiz UI customizations, this is no vanilla Android.

Pictures of it next to the Archos 70 Internet Tablet:



Samsung Galaxy Note, 5.3″ Super AMOLED Plus, 1.4Ghz Dual-core, with N-Trig S Pen stylus input

Posted by – September 1, 2011

Awesome new 5.3″ Super AMOLED Plus hybrid device from Samsung. It runs on the new 1.4Ghz Dual-core processor (upgraded Exynos?), will probably run Ice Cream Sandwich beautifully. So it’s capacitive and also has what looks to be the N-Trig stylus input technology also used on the HTC flyer to let you input handwritten scribbles and annotations such as in a notepad app but also in new S Pen apps and things like annotating a screenshot of any Android instance. As you can see in this video, the 5.3″ screen is huge compared to the already big 4.3″ Samsung Galaxy S2 screen, which really is awesome because I believe even this device fits nicely and confortably in most pockets.

This extra size, in my opinion, really does provide for extra potential productivity, better video playback, better web browsing on its amazing 1280×800 resolution, this size and resolution offers a better hybrid of the Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich features that are coming up.