The form factor on this Android phone is about the same as an iPhone. It has a 3.5″ HVGA capacitive touch screen and a Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM11 processor. But this one is designed to be sold around $200 unlocked or on pre-paid plans. This Android Smartphone is cheap.
Category: Android
Live from the Samsung MWC event!
Posted by – February 14, 2011
Well this is not exactly live, but you get the point. Samsung organized a gigantic event in something that looks like a stadium, huge show, funky music, awesome devices.
Samsung Galaxy Mini
Posted by – February 14, 2011
The cheapest new Samsung Galaxy phone. It uses the Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM11 processor.
Netflix on OMAP4
Posted by – February 14, 2011
Texas Instruments implements some security features in the new OMAP4 processor which allows for access to DRM sites like Netflix on Android.
Samsung Galaxy S2, Tab2 details, infos, release dates
I’ll post my videos once I get the bandwidth tomorrow. Here are some infos I grabbed from the awesome Samsung event, I don’t know if those are common knowledge or if those pieces of infos are interesting:
– Samsung Galaxy 10.1 is Nvidia Tegra2 based, to be released next month, design is pretty awesome (except a bit heavy, no HDMI, no kick-stand), Honeycomb is freaking awesome, the first real tablet OS ever made. (iPad OS is not a real tablet OS). Wow Google made awesome work.
– Samsung Galaxy S2 has a MHL (Multimedia High-definition Link) connector, which basically allows the Micro-USB to do much more than just be a Micro-USB connector, it can for example output 1080p with a Micro-USB to HDMI cable, it can do USB host stuff such as USB keyboards, which basically means, if Samsung wants, they can make it do most of the things the Motorola Atrix 4G does. My understanding is Samsung’s Exynos is better than Nvidia Tegra2, has better/faster memory bandwidth, better graphics in ARM Mali-400 (did they say it does 320 Million triangles/polygons per second?). The units on display were hot, but that’s probably just cause of the hot lights and many people fondling them while launching videos and 3D stuff. It may also be I guess because the Exynos are pre-production and being over-clocked for good performance in these pre-production prototypes, but they told me that was not the case. The Linux kernel in S2 Gingerbread supports Dual-core, but I think Samsung and Google have plenty of software optimizations still to do to fully utilize the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 power. This might be what happens once 2.4 comes out with all the 3.0 tablet features and hardware acceleration but adapted for smartphones.
– I think Samsung should turn the S2 into an Atrix 4G-like all-in-one chameleon of a device, basically just provide the right types of accessories for it, hopefully they’d price those more reasonably than Motorola. Also, Samsung says the MHL standard is going to be a standard for the industry, first introduced with S2, so perhaps any third party accessory makers could make alternative and compatible Laptop Docks, TV Docks, Desktop Docks, Keyboard Attachments and more interesting stuff.
– Samsung Galaxy Family, they are releasing a whole range of cheap Android phones. The Samsung Galaxy Mini is the cheapest of the bunch. Prices are confidential, up to carriers or/and distributors to decide, but I expect the Mini to be available below $150, perhaps towards $100, for unlocked or/and prepaid plans. Those are extremely great capacitive smartphones, 3.something inch screens (some weird Samsung LCD sizes), but most are QVGA, and the middle range Samsung Galaxy Ace goes to 3.5″ HVGA.
You can probably find much more real infos on other blogs, but here are some of the things I heard. Overall, the S2 is totally awesome, just beautiful slim nice phone, Tab2 is probably the best Tegra2 tablet I’ve seen. To be seen and retested what Acer and LG does with that.
Look for tons of my videos starting tomorrow. I’m at Mobile World Congress, no sim card in sight, only roaming. I’ll get a Yoigo SIM card tomorrow.
Samsung Galaxy S2, Tab2, new images
Posted by – February 13, 2011
Look for my videos on these as early as later today. My wild guess is Samsung may need their new Super AMOLED factory that may not be ready before June, before they mass release the new Galaxy S2 with the new Samsung Orion processor that starts mass manufacturing next month. Samsung has a press conference on these at 6PM Barcelona time, check back for a lot more.
Source: samsunghub.com
Related articles
- Samsung Galaxy S2 and Tab2 may use Samsung Orion ARM Cortex-A9 (armdevices.net)
- Confirmed: Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab 2 Shown Off Tomorrow (phandroid.com)
- Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1″ officially pictured (slashgear.com)
$99 Android phones by ZTE
Posted by – February 12, 2011
Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei are bringing cheap Android phones to the market. Those cheap Android phones can for example be bought for below £100 in the UK on Orange’s pre-paid plan today. US carriers such as Virgin-Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS are also bringing these types of cheap Android phones to the US market on pre-paid plans, no contracts needed. This video features the upcoming cheap Android phones ZTE Racer+, ZTE Blade, ZTE P735E (with sliding keyboard), ZTE V852 Dreamer and ZTE V881.
This is exactly how Android has now become the number 1 fastest selling smartphone platform in the world. You thought Android’s 888% market share progress in 2010 was impressive? You haven’t seen nothing yet, as these types of sub-$100 Android phones are bringing Android smartphones to everyone else in the world who hasn’t got one yet. 1 Billion people in China, 1 Billion people in India, all those people are going to have access to the best of Android at more and more affordable prices.
Consumers in Europe and the USA are also going to buy these cheap phones in greater numbers even than the established $500 phones (unsubsidized), as consumers in Europe and the USA choose pre-paid plans for smartphones more and more.
Hacking away with Android pt 7 – February 2011 overview on what you can- and can not do with Android (devices)
“Hacking away with Android” on Beyond The Keyboard takes a look at Android tablets, what they can do, what they are not yet capable of and what they should do in their opinion.
It has several nice and colorful graphics to compare and show the positioning, differences, gaps, possibilities and shortcomings of tablets in general and tablets compared with each other.
One of the “problems” with Android identified is the lack of hardware drivers for printers and scanners and the lack of support for multiple external drives.
Tablets brands compared are: Archos, Dell, Samsung and Creative. The iPad 1 is – due to its impact on the tablet market – added as a reference.
Broadcom announces ARM Cortex-A9 to be shown at MWC
Here’s the press release:
The new BCM28150 HSPA+ baseband integrates a Broadcom® Merlyn™ applications processor with the latest VideoCore® IV mobile multimedia/graphics technology. This new baseband offers customers one of the highest performance, smallest footprint size and lowest power smartphone solutions available for Android™ and other open operating systems.
Broadcom’s new Merlyn applications processor technology is integrated into the BCM28150. Merlyn processors combine ARM Cortex A9 class processors with Broadcom’s high performance low latency bus architecture and world class multimedia to create a scalable processing engine for all future Broadcom basebands targeted at smartphone applications.
The accompanying reference platform includes the 40 nanometer (40nm) BCM28150 HSPA+ system-on-a-chip (SoC) smartphone processer, the BCM2091 radio frequency IC, the BCM59056 advanced power management unit (PMU) with charger and audio support, and a full complement of Broadcom’s world-class connectivity technologies. Broadcom will be demonstrating its newBCM28150 smartphone processor reference design at next week’s 2011 Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain, fromFebruary 14th through February 17th.
Highlights/Key Facts:
- The BCM28150 HSPA+ baseband processor integrates the Broadcom Merlyn applications processor technology, providing an optimal combination of high performance and low power applications and multimedia processing power for smartphones. Key features of the BCM28150 SoC include:
- Dual ARM Cortex™ A9 cores at 1.1 GHz frequencies that incorporate the ARM Neon™ 128-bit SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) engine, which is vitally important for delivering flexible, powerful acceleration and low power operation for consumer multimedia applications such as Adobe® Flash®.
- An integrated HSPA+ release 8 category 14 modem that supports 21 Megabits per second (Mbps) of downstream connectivity, as well as Class 33 EDGE support for greater flexibility and worldwide roaming.
- Broadcom’s industry-leading VideoCore IV with vector processing unit (VPU) offering a ‘third processing core’ for offloading MHz from the Cortex A9 cores, reducing power consumption while improving the Android user interface experience.VideoCore‘s high performance graphics engine supports powerful shaders and over 1Gpx/s fill rates and can render 3D mobile games natively at up to 1080p resolution at high frame rates which, in combination with a HDMI output, allows a console-quality gaming experience on large screen HDTVs.
- Advanced imaging with support for 20Mpx sensors and multiple camera inputs for stereoscopic (3D) capture and gesture recognition with advanced ISP feature support (red eye, face tracking, smile detection, etc.).
- A small 12×12 PoP memory package.
- The BCM21850 baseband reference platform has been tailored to deliver the most advanced smartphone features along with built-in HSPA+ connectivity, enabled entirely with Broadcom silicon to ensure the highest level of integration and seamless functionality across its various components.
- Installed with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and support for popular audio and video codecs, including VP8 and Vorbis audio for support of HTML5.
- Other platform features include:
- 4.3-inch WVGA TFT LCD with capacitive touch screen
- 1080p30 camcorder using Broadcom’s integrated ISP
- Simultaneous LCD and 1080p60 HDMI output with 3D graphics
- High quality 3D gaming and graphics at 1Gpx/s
- Blu-ray-quality 1080p60 video playback at very low power levels
- 12 megapixel camera imaging (up to 20Mpx)
- Release 8 Category 14 (21 Mbps) HSPA+ modem support
- The reference platform also incorporates Broadcom’s industry-leading wireless connectivity technology:
- Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and other connectivity options are pre-integrated into the platform, enabling OEMs to efficiently add best-in-class wireless technologies and expanded functionality for next generation smartphones.
- BCM4329 for best-in-class integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM technologies
- BCM47511 GPS transceiver with integrated support for GLONASS, providing a high-performance solution with access to the widest possible constellation of satellites for improved location performance
Broadcom’s InConcert® co-existence technology is also featured within the Merlyn platform, applying interference mitigation techniques to make Broadcom’s leading wireless technologies work better together and with less interference.
Related articles
- Broadcom Rolls Out Range of Components (pocketnow.com)
- Broadcom announces yet another Android-friendly dual-core processor (engadget.com)
- Broadcom Enters the Dual Core Mobile Chip Wars (gigaom.com)
- Broadcom intros dual-core 1.1GHz ARM chip with 1080p video (electronista.com)
Motorola Atrix 4G to cost $3220 on AT&T ?
Posted by – February 10, 2011
So the first reviews of this awesome “Best of CES 2011” device are reaching some blogs today including slashgear, bgr, crunchgear, engadget.
The talk on the blogosphere and on blogs.forbes.com is that the Motorola Atrix 4G will be $199 alone on 2-year contract, or $499 with the Laptop Dock on 2-year contract. I’m not sure what the Multimedia/Desktop Dock will cost, my guess is $199? (if someone knows the price of the multimedia/desktop dock, please post in the comments).
Notice, as most phones sold in the USA, consumers have to signup for a 2-year contract. I always think all blogs should make it a rule that all prices should include minimum and maximum pricing both unlocked, terminated (with early termination fees) and with those 2-year contracts.
AT&T 2-year contracts seem to cost approximately like this:
– $85 per month for 400 minutes of voice,
– $95 per month for 900 minutes of voice,
– $105 per month for Unlimited minutes of voice
with 2GB data and WiFi hotspot support. That’s between $2040 and $2520 for 2 years.
Total price of Motorola Atrix 4G (with both Laptop and Multimedia Docks) on AT&T for 2-years: between $2740 and $3220
This is not really new. Telco carriers are in the business of making tons of cash and money. This is business as usual.
Yet, as AT&T is making so many tons of money on the 2-year contract, I don’t exactly understand why AT&T doesn’t just give the Motorola Atrix 4G with both docking accessories at a more affordable price than something like this $700 upfront payment.
I mean, comon AT&T. Don’t you want to have some price competitive Android super phone options to destroy the iPhone now that your exclusive distribution deal with Apple is finished?
I’d hardly even consider the Motorola Atrix 4G for $499 with both Docks when the whole thing would be sold unlocked. I may be looking at a package for something like $1000 if I want it unlocked.
Anyways, it’s for sure Motorola still deserves “Best of CES 2011” award, no matter the pricing. Just because they are courageous enough to push the industry forward in terms of all-in-one ARM Powered device. It is understandable that Motorola wants to take ample profit margins on the accessories and not sell the laptop dock for $150 and TV dock for below $100 as they are supposed to. But for AT&T, well, it’s up to them. How fast do they want to sell these devices in the USA? If AT&T would sell the phone $199 on contract, and provide the accessories for $150 for laptop dock and $100 for tv/desktop dock, then they would have something really powerful to outsell the iPhone quickly and quickly get mass adoption. One can hope AT&T and the other carriers around the world who are looking into selling the Motorola Atrix 4G, that they all think hard about pricing, and that they bring the device with accessories to as many people as possible at some reasonable pricing.
Kyocera Echo dual-screen Android phone looks awesome
Posted by – February 8, 2011
Last month I filmed the awesome dual-7″-screen LT-W prototype from NEC, already then was it really fun to have an idea of how cool dual-screen web browsing can be and to imagine other apps such as email that can become more useful when used over 2 screens. I really like the idea of the pocketable dual-screen convertible Android touch screen device. Typing mode may not be as fast as with a hardware keyboard, but some really interesting dual-screen applications can be imagined. I’m definitely saying Thumbs up for the innovative design, perhaps their next one can have even less screen bezel in between the two screens to make it more seamless as one big foldable touch screen.
This video was published at: blog.laptopmag.com
Related articles
- Sprint Announces the Kyocera Echo Dual-Screen Smartphone – Examiner.com (news.google.com)
- Sprint Kyocera Echo Dual-Screen Smartphone Coming Soon for $199 on Contract (devicemag.com)
- Sprint to Debut Kyocera Echo, Dual-Screen Phone/Tablet Hybrid? (pocketnow.com)
- Hands on: Dual-screen Kyocera Echo (electronista.com)
- Sprint’s Kyocera Echo dual-screen Android phone announced, we go hands-on (engadget.com)
- Kyocera Echo Dual-Screen Android Hands On (Video) (pocketnow.com)
Alcatel One Touch and Archos partner up for low cost Android Tablet and Smartphone combined data plans
Posted by – February 8, 2011
Alcatel One Touch is one of the makers of cheap Android Smartphones such as the Alcatel OT-980 which is sold for only £99 on pre-paid plans in the UK. Alcatel One Touch is a brand of TCL Corporation, a $16.7 Billion valued Chinese consumer electronics company.
Alcatel One Touch’s partnership with Archos would enable an easy sharing of data from a low cost Android Smartphone using a ‘’One Touch Connect’’ button to share the 3G data automatically with the Archos tablet over a mobile WiFi hotspot. This may be a one-click process, and the carrier may be able to limit access of that WiFi hotspot only to the Archos tablet through Mac address filtering and not as a totally open or encrypted WiFi hotspot for use with other devices.
The idea is that one affordable subscription plan include the voice and data through the low cost Android smartphone as well as the low cost yet high-end Android tablet. This way, consumers don’t need to subscribe to more than one package. I think it can be expected that Alcatel One Touch will present a new range of cheap Android Smartphones at Mobile World Congress next week with this One Touch Connect mobile hotspot functionality built-in.
Here is expectation/guess/suggestion for a pricing model which I think would make this kind of offer a sure hit:
Pre-paid only, no contract: $299 for the basic 3.5″ capacitive Alcatel-OT Smartphone and the latest Archos 7″ capacitive tablet, both are on pre-paid and no contracts are needed, pricing for pre-paid should be below $30 per month for something like 300 minutes or unlimited use of voice and 3GB to 5GB of data per month to be used on the Tablet and the Smartphone. The 3GB monthly data hotspot may be open for other devices as well if the carrier wants to allow it. For example $10 to $20 extra per month it could open up the mobile hotspot to any other device and increase monthly limit to something like 10GB per month.
Phone alone on pre-paid no contract should be $149. Tablet alone no contract needed would be $249.
6-month contract, then pre-pay: $249 for the Smartphone+Tablet package, $30/month for unlimited voice/data to use on both devices or more. $50 early termination fee, lowered $5 each month.
12-month contract, then pre-pay: $199 for the Smartphone+Tablet package, $30/month for unlimited voice/data to use on both devices or more. $100 early termination fee, lowered $5 each month.
18-month contract, then pre-pay: $149 for the Smartphone+Tablet package, $30/month for unlimited voice/data to use on both devices or more, $150 early termination fee, lowered $5 each month.
24-month contract, then pre-pay: $99 for the Smartphone+Tablet package, $30/month for unlimited voice/data to use on both devices or more. $200 early termination fee, lowered $5 each month.
What do you think of the idea to use a cheap Smartphone mostly for voice and basic apps and tether it with a larger screen Tablet, use all on one same low cost voice+data plan, and even have this work for pre-paid plans?
France: Archos has 22% Tablet marketshare
According to French market analyst GfK, Archos is now the second biggest tablet maker on the French market, far in front of Samsung (4%), Toshiba (3%), Huawei, Viewsonic and others. Sure enough Apple has the biggest market share with 67%, but I think that’s mostly due to Apple having more cash for manufacturing and distribution. If Archos had been able to spend more money producing more units and having better stock availability at all resellers and never run out of stock during these past 3 months, then I think Archos would probably be number 1 in market share, even in front of Apple.
Source: archoslounge.net
As I run the biggest Archos fansite community at http://forum.archosfans.com and I have been publishing the earliest and most popular video reviews of Archos products for over 6 years, publishing the earliest and most popular videos of Archos full Tablet line such as the 70 Internet Tablet, 7 Home Tablet, 101 Internet Tablet, 32 Internet Tablet, 43 Internet Tablet, I may be biased. But I am sure that if all stores had enough Archos in stock to satisfy the demand for tablets over these past 3 months, Archos would sell even more than Apple.
What matters to the consumer is the value proposition. What features they can get for what price. Archos newest Gen8 Android tablets are about half the price of the iPad and provide more features.
Android sells 2x faster than the iPhone worldwide , even more than Symbian in Q4 2010
Posted by – January 31, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Android
Market research firm Canalys released this global smart phone market data analysis for Q4 2010, October-December 2010, revealing that over 100 million smart phones have been sold worldwide in those 3 months in which Android is the new leader in worldwide smart phone sales, even in front of Symbian sales and selling more than double as many as the iPhone.
I don’t think the Verizon iPhone is going to change anything, on the contrary, now AT&T will focus selling more Android phones than Verizon is to sell iPhones. AT&T plans to launch at least 12 Android phones this year and Google is looking forward to enable the release of cheaper Android phones, as Eric Schmidt recently said:
we want to increase the availability of inexpensive smartphones in the poorest parts of the world. We envision literally a billion people getting inexpensive, browser-based touchscreen phones over the next few years. Can you imagine how this will change their awareness of local and global information and their notion of education? And that will be just the start.
Related articles
- Android Becomes Best-selling Smartphone OS, Says Canalys – PC World (news.google.com)
- Android Is Now the Top Smartphone Platform: Report (fastcompany.com)
- Android Wrests Top Smartphone OS Title From Symbian (gigaom.com)
- Canalys: Android handsets outsold Symbian handsets during Q4 2010 [The sky is falling] (intomobile.com)
- Canalys stats show Android became world’s leading smartphone platform in Q4 2010 (slashgear.com)
- Android phones currently sell more than 2x faster than the iPhone in the US (armdevices.net)
- Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world’s best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010 (engadget.com)
Hott MD980 7″ Android Tablet
This type of ARM9 Rockchip RK2818 based 7″ capacitive tablet presented by Hott can now be manufactured for below $140, possibly sold around or below $199 at US retail stores. It supports USB host, 3G USB dongle or a built-in 3G modem can be included for about $50 more.
Geniatech Android TV Set-Top-Box
Posted by – January 27, 2011
Shenzhen Geniatech Co. Ltd presents some interesting Android Powered Set-top-boxes. These could be sold for around $100 like the Apple TV or Roku box, but they just run the full Android OS including support for lots of video codecs. While Android is not yet really optimized for use on a TV with a remote control, this type of device will support the Google TV software (in this case, without HDMI pass-through overlay features) pretty soon once Google releases that software source code. As you can see on androidauthority.com, it has an AmLogic ARM Cortex-A9 800Mhz processor. Same ARM cortex-A9 platform as used by InnoDigital for their next generation WebTube product.
Android Bicycle, In-flight Entertainment and 32″ Touch screen
Posted by – January 27, 2011
Touch Revolution makes projected capacitive touch screens, and demonstrates here at CES 2011 some of their large capacitive touch screens integrated in demonstration prototypes for training bicycle, in-flight entertainment and just some very large 32″ multi-touching fun showcase.
Sharp’s big move into Android phones and tablets
Posted by – January 24, 2011
At CES 2011, Sharp showed their 3.8″ parallax barrier 3D screen in their Android powered 3D phone on the Softbank network. Sharp is making the 3D screen that is in the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, it allows for amazing 3D screen without the need for 3D glasses. Thus as Sharp is ramping up mass production of that “parallax barrier” 3.8″ WVGA 3D screen, they are able to put it in Smart phones as well, which is how they are now shipping in Japan the Sharp 003SH and 005SH (with slide-out keyboard). Sharp is also entering the Tablet market with their new Tablet optimized screens at 5.5″ and 10.8″ super sharp high resolution LCD screens in the Galapagos Tablets now released in the Japanese market.
Related articles
- Japan only: Sharp Galapagos 003SH and 005SH rock Android, glasses-free 3D screens! (intomobile.com)
- CES 2011: Hands-On With Sharp’s Galapagos 003SH Glasses-Free 3D Android Phone. Surprisingly, It Works! [Video] (androidpolice.com)
- CES 2011: In pictures: Sharp Galapagos tablet (techradar.com)
- 3D Sharp Galapagos 003SH First Disney Mobile Smartphone (pocketnow.com)
LG Optimus V Android phone at $150 on Virgin Mobile USA pre-paid (no contract)
Posted by – January 24, 2011
Here’s a 3.2″ 480×320 resolution capacitive touch screen. Has an ARM11 600Mhz Qualcomm MSM7627 processor with Adreno 200 graphics acceleration (also called AMD z430) it has smooth Android 2.2 support. The really cool thing is you will be able to buy this in ever super market, CVS Pharmacy, Wallgreeens, for $150 with no contracts required, it uses the pre-paid Virgin Mobile network. And the same phone is also available as “LG Optimus M” on MetroPCS (seems to be $229 on there no contract required) and it’s also on Sprint and T-Mobile, but I don’t know if those networks offer pre-paid plans with no contracts required.
Source: androidcentral.com
As more and more Android phones reach sub-$150 pricing on pre-paid plans, this is becoming a big deal, especially when those get to approach or overtake the 3.5″ capacitive form factor, most consumers might think the experience with Android on those is just as good as any iPhone or other expensive Android phone on 2-year $2400 contracts, this is a big deal, look forward to more on cheap Android phones leading up to my Mobile World Congress coverage.
This video was published at mobiletechreview.com
Related articles
- LG teases Optimus Me budget Android phone (electronista.com)
- LG Optimus Me P350 Leaked (phandroid.com)
- LG Reveals No-Frills Optimus Me P350 on Android 2.2 (pocketnow.com)
Motorola Xoom to cost $800
Logically, this kind of pricing is probably not with a 2-year contract, instead with one of those pay-as-you-go 3G, possibly $40 per month or some kind of price per-day pricing, on Verizon’s 3G and later, somehow, upgradeable to 4G connectivity.
Found via: engadget.com
Source: androidcentral.com
