Ring! Ring! Lenovo-phone!
Subject: Mobile | January 9, 2013 - 01:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Lenovo, Ideaphone K860, ice cream sandwich, android 4.0, Exynos 4412
The Exynos 4412 powered Lenovo Ideaphone K860 sports very nice 720 x 1280 IPS screen which takes up most of the body of the phone thanks to the thin bezel on the phone. The Inquirer were impressed with the performance of the phone as well as the custom interface Lenovo demonstrated, running Ice Cream Sandwich. They also felt that the phone felt somewhat more rugged than it's competition the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, check out the full preview here.
"We were shocked to discover the size of the phone too, as it didn't feel as big as 5in when held in the hand. That's not to say it's a tiny phone, as with dimensions of 143.5 x7 4.4 x 9.6mm it won't squeeze easily into your skinny jean pocket, However, Lenovo designed the phone with a narrow bezel around the screen, which means it doesn't waste valuable space with white plastic."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Ultrabook Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Dell Precision M6700 review: the ultimate portable workstation @ Hardware.info
- Asus S46CA-XH51 Review @ TechReviewSource
- MSI GX60 Review @ TechReviewSource/A>
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch Review @ TechReviewSource
- Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook @ AnandTech
- Mobile GPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Atom vs Tegra in Windows 8: battle of the mobile chips @ Hardware.info
- LG Optimus L7 Smartphone @ Tweaktown
- AT&T MiFi Liberate 4G LTE Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot Review @ Legit Reviews
CES 2013 Video: Intel Demonstrates Power Efficiency of Clovertrail, Tegra 3 and Krait
Subject: Mobile | January 9, 2013 - 11:18 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tegra 3, qualcomm, power, nvidia, krait, Intel, clovertrail, ces 2013, CES
One of the more interesting demonstrations from CES thus far has come from Intel in the form of power consumption comparisons between three of the current tablet SoC solutions. Intel pits the Clovertrail SoC against NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and Qualcomm's Krait in a battle of power efficiency during video playback. What you'll see is that Intel's test shows the Clovertrail processor able to not only run near but surpass the power efficiency of the ARM-based processors shown.
This is an incredibly powerful collection of tools that Intel has presented and we are hoping to be able to dive into a similar level of detail in the future. By utilizing direct monitoring of power VRMs on the processor we could even see the power consumption of the CPU cores in comparison to the GPU cores and even against the L2 cache in some instances.
Intel is on a mission to prove that they are not only competitive today in the tablet SoC market but that they are a leader in the market. More to follow!!
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Lenovo Shows Off Clover Trail+ Powered K900 Smartphone
Subject: Mobile | January 9, 2013 - 04:07 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: CES, smartphone, Lenovo, k900, Intel, clover trail, Android, ces 2013
Lenovo has shown off a new Android smartphone at CES. However, in an interesting twist the new Lenovo K900 is powered by an Intel Atom processor rather than an ARM SoC. The K900 smartphone is constructed of a stainless steel alloy and poly-carbonate material. Lenovo has managed to pack all the hardware in a 6.9mm thin chassis that weights 162 grams. It will come in one of four colors, including gold, silver, and grey in a brushed aluminum pattern and one that has a diamond-plate design on the back cover.
The K900 features a 5.5” IPS touchscreen display protected by Gorilla Glass 2 and with a resolution of 1920x1080. The chassis also hosts a front-facing webcam with an 88-degree field of view and a rear 13MP (F1.8) camera with a dual LED flash.
The outside is neat, but it is the internal specifications where the Lenovo K900 gets interesting. The smartphone is powered by an Intel Clover Trail+ SoC. While Intel is not yet providing details on the new processor, Engadget speculates that the SoC will be the Intel Atom Z2580, which is a dual core Clover Trail successor running at up to 2GHz. The K900 will also include 2GB of RAM and between 16GB and 64GB of internal storage (plus a microSD card slot). The phone will be running Android along with Lenovo’s Le Phone skin on top (though it can reportedly be disabled).
All in all it looks like a really slick smartphone from the specifications list. Battery life and performance are still unknown, but I’m excited to see benchmarks of this once it is released. Unfortunately, it is not headed to the United States at this time. Instead, the Lenovo K900 will be available in China starting in April of this year. Pricing should be available closer to the product’s release date. Engadget has the full press release along with hands on videos with the hardware.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Razer Edge Back Again. Fiona Always Was Edgy.
Subject: General Tech, Systems, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 9, 2013 - 02:58 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, razer
Last year Project Fiona was presented by Razer and we felt as awkward about it as it looked.
This is a new year and it looks like Razer took a bit of feedback from critics of yester-CES. The design itself looks quite similar than it did except that the controller-handles are now detachable. The Edge can operate in four different modes: tablet, keyboard, the controller-handles, and “home console” mode.
The Home Console mode allows you to dock your tablet and access it using 3 USB ports, HDMI, and 3.5mm audio in/out. You can use it as a desktop or as a home theatre PC. Also with Steam’s Big Picture Mode it sees the big picture as a potential Steam Box.
The technical specifications are slightly more solid than last year:
- Intel Core i7 (2 core, 4 threads) @ 1.9GHz Turbo to 3.0GHz
- Intel HD 4000/NVIDIA GT 640M LE
- 8GB DDR3
- 126/256GB SSD
- Intel WLAN (B/G/N + Bluetooth 4.0)
- 10.1” IPS 1366x768 10-point touchscreen
- Windows 8
So what do you think? While I expect it will be out of my budget and I would probably just barely survive on 256GB due to recent 20-25GB games -- I think it looks pretty good.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: ASUS Systems with No Two Alike
Subject: General Tech, Systems, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2013 - 03:31 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: ces 2013, CES, asus
ASUS has a lot of products to get through so there is no sense in waiting.
The ASUS TAICHI is back in the news with a second model but only one capitalization: upper. As we said in the last article, the device uses two 11.6” 1080p touch displays on both sides of the lid to show mirrored or even unique information to the user and to people behind the laptop. With the lid closed the laptop will then also function as a tablet. The newer addition to the TAICHI family increases the screen size to 13.3”.
- 11.6” 1080p or 13.3” (unlisted, probably also 1080p) IPS Dual touch-displays.
- Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 or i7 processor
- Intel HD 4000 GPU
- USB 3.0
- 4GB of RAM (11.6”, 13.3” unlisted)
The ASUS Transformer AiO is an all-in-one computer with a dockable 18.4” tablet. The dock contains a full-featured desktop with the tablet containing a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processor. The device uses both Windows 8 for the base station or Android 4.1 for the tablet. When the tablet is removed from its base it is still able to function in Windows 8 mode by communicating wirelessly with the base station.
- 18.4” 1080p IPS display with 10-points of touch recognition
- Intel Ivy Bridge processor
The ASUS Transformer Book TX300CA runs in the same vein as the popular Android-based Transformer Prime: a tablet able to dock into a keyboard to function as a laptop. The TX300CA differs from its Prime counterpart by running full Windows 8 on an Intel processor. If you wanted a Transformer Prime but are too locked in to Windows then you might want to look at this.
- Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor
- Intel HD 4000 GPU
- 4GB DDR3 RAM
- Both an SSD and a HDD
- Bluetooth 4.0
- USB 3.0
- Dual Cameras: “HD” (720p?) front-facing and 5MP rear-facing
- 13” 1080p IPS multi-touch display
The ASUS VivoTab Smart Tablet utilizes Clover Trail for a full Windows 8 experience. Unlike the prior models there is not a whole lot to discuss apart from its tech specs below!
- Intel Clover Trail Atom Z2760 dual-core
- 10.1” 1366x768 IPS LED 5-point touch display
- 9.5 hour battery life
- Dual Cameras: 2MP front-facing and 8MP rear-facing
- NFC sensor
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Corsair Voyager Air Offers Wireless Mobile Storage and Home NAS Support
Subject: General Tech, Networking, Storage, Mobile | January 8, 2013 - 09:00 AM | Morry Teitelman
Tagged: wi-fi, Voyager Air, NAS, mobile, corsair, CES
The newest member member of the Corsair Voyager family of devices, the Voyager Air, drives Corsair's entry into the home networking arena with their all-in-one mobile drive and home NAS (network attached storage) solution.
Courtesy of Corsair
The Voyager Air is as versatile as it is sleek, with support for the following hiding beneath its stylish hood:
- Up to 1TB capacity drive
- Rechargeable battery
- Wi-Fi (802.11n/b/g), GigE Ethernet, and USB 3.0 support built-in
- Wireless hub support for shared internet support via passthrough technology
Courtesy of Corsair
The Voyager Air comes in a variety of colors as well, more than enough to match anyone's sense of style. According to Corsair, the Voyager Air units should be accessible at an electronics retailer near you in a 500GB model for $179.99 MRSP and a 1TB model for $219.99 MSRP.
Press release after the break.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Live Hands-on with NVIDIA Shield Powered by Tegra 4
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Mobile | January 8, 2013 - 12:54 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tegra 4, shield, nvidia, live
Powered by the upcoming Tegra 4 SoC, Shield is an Android-powered device built into the form of a gaming controller with a 5-in display attached. Not only will it play Android games in a new and interesting way but NVIDIA has promised the ability to stream PC games from your GeForce-powered desktop directly to your wireless device!
We got our hands on the prototypes of the Shield and got to see the build quality, demo the Android games and even test out the PC game streaming technology.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Haswell Ultrabooks Have New Requirements
Subject: General Tech, Processors, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 05:05 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, haswell, Intel
Oh certification, how I loathe thee.
At the Intel CES 2013 keynote, Intel announced a few new requirements for OEMs to manufacture Haswell-based ultrabooks. Intel clearly wants to push OEMs to utilize several of their more cherished features and as such they will not allow products to be released without these features.
Threat detected.
A fourth-generation ultrabook must contain the following features:
- Touch interaction support
- Intel WiDi support
- Installed Antivirus and Anti-Malware, Intel-owned McAfee will have an announcement soon.
These three certification requirements lead to two major points of contention with me: non-Windows 8 operating systems as well as Intel potentially strong-arming McAfee into your machine. When Intel requires touch support for Haswell-based ultrabooks, they basically declare that Windows 7 and Linux will not be around.
That requirement could seem minor depending on what Intel McAfee will soon announce after Intel’s announcement that Antivirus and Anti-Malware will be required on ultrabooks. Windows 8 already comes with Microsoft Security Essentials pre-installed and as such Intel might strong-arm vendors into using McAfee. It would not be a stretch to speculate that McAfee will have some deep attachment to the Haswell architecture. Unfortunately we will need to wait until Intel makes their announcement.
Intel also claims that ultrabooks will have touch-based products in the $599 price points very soon.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013 Tidbits: PaperTab Tablet
Subject: General Tech, Systems, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 03:54 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, PaperTab, Intel, Plastic Logic, Queen's University
It is not just the big companies who have a presence at CES. Sometimes there are smaller products that are worth looking into. For that, we have CES 2013 Tidbits.
human media lab, a center at Queen’s University which I should preface is my Alma Mater, brought their thin and flexible tablet to the trade show. Input is performed by touching its screen, manipulating the flexible chassis, touching tablets together, or arranging them on the desk.
Technically speaking, the tablet is based on a 10.7” high resolution flexible touchscreen developed by Plastic Logic. The logic behind the plastic is controlled by an Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge processor although no other technical specs have been released.
The tablet was developed as a collaborative effort between human media lab and their partners, Intel and Plastic Logic. The crux of their user interface envisions tablets as a multi-monitor experience and then imagines what forms of interactions are possible as a result.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Tegra 4, the Vision of Windows RT?
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 12:42 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, nvidia, windows rt
It is the day after the NVIDIA keynote and the Tegra 4 floodgates are open. Sure, the rumors were fairly accurate, but I guess speculation waits for a solid basis to be believable.
The Tegra 4 marries 72 of the expected GPU cores with four… “plus one” as the bonus core is present although 4+1 branding does not seem to be… ARM Cortex-A15 cores. This push to an A15-based design provides a significant performance increase over Tegra 3. Another interesting feature is the ability to transmit 4K video should you have a suitable source or the rendered application can support 4K at a suitable framerate. You can then add in Icera’s LTE modem which is interesting in its own right to see a compelling product.
Jen-Hsun spent about as much time justifying the need for speed as he did hyping its performance. Photographers, particularly those who wish to dabble with HDR, are able to use the Tegra 4 to vastly increase the speed of image processing at the time of taking the shot. Tonal mapping for an HDR image will take just 200ms of processing which allows HDR to be used along with burst mode and a flash.
Paul Thurrott over at the Supersite for Windows ponders whether this was Microsoft’s vision for Windows RT. He wonders whether Microsoft will try to take a mulligan on the first generation similar to Windows Phone 7-based devices led us to Windows Phone 8. At the same point, the weight which the Surface was designed to bare is pretty immense if it was just designed to buckle to Tegra 4. I would not put it past Microsoft although the Surface does not strike me as a product designed to have a doughy half-baked middle -- despite what actually shipped.
PC World also notes how Qualcomm continues to improve their products and have just recently transitioned to a 28nm process for the Snapdragon S4. Qualcomm is a giant and even then there is also Samsung to contend with in the ARM space -- then you consider x86 brings at least Intel to the game with its massive advantage in legacy software that are usually not abstracted by a platform-independent runtime layer.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
PC Perspective Upcoming Events
|
