Smartphones

This week Samsung Electronics and Synopsys announced that Samsung has taped out its first mobile system-on-chip on Samsung Foundry's 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) process technology. The announcement, coming from electronic design automation Synopsys, further notes that Samsung used the Synopsys.ai EDA suite to place-n-route the layout and verify design of the SoC, which in turn enabled higher performance. Samsung's unnamed high-performance mobile SoC relies on 'flagship' general-purpose CPU and GPU architectures as well as various IP blocks from Synopsys. SoC designers used Synopsys.ai EDA software, including the Synopsys DSO.ai to fine-tune design and maximize yields as well as Synopsys Fusion Compiler RTL-to-GDSII solution to achieve higher performance, lower power, and optimize area (PPA). And while the news that Samsung has developed a high-performance SoC using the Synopsys.ai...

MWC 2017: Samsung Press Conference

We're here at Samsung's MWC 2017 press conference. The Galaxy S8 will be a no show, but Samsung has some other mobile devices to show off.

18 by Anton Shilov & Matt Humrick on 2/26/2017

Huawei Launches the P10 and P10 Plus, in Green

Today Huawei is unwrapping their latest mainstream device, evolving from the P8 and P9 into the P10. The yearly cadence regularly brings high-level design features from their Mate series...

17 by Ian Cutress, Brandon Chester & Anton Shilov on 2/26/2017

MWC 2017: Huawei P10 and P10 Plus Press Event Live Blog

We're here at MWC waiting for Huawei's Press Event to start. We're expecting to see the P10 and P10 Plus, given that their names were on the front of...

24 by Ian Cutress & Anton Shilov on 2/26/2017

Announcing the LG G6: Snapdragon 821, 18:9 Display, IP68 Waterproof

Today in Barcelona, LG officially unveiled the G6, the next installment of the venerable G-series that's now classified as a lower-end flagship below LG’s V-series. Like the G5 before...

32 by Matt Humrick on 2/26/2017

Performance & Battery Life Report: Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 with MediaTek Helio X20

As a member of Xiaomi’s more affordable Redmi series, the Note 4 does not have a curved screen, a ceramic body, or the latest flagship hardware like Xiaomi’s more...

34 by Matt Humrick on 2/23/2017

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X20 LTE Modem & New RF Front-End Modules For Mobile Devices

Qualcomm announced its first LTE Advanced Pro modem, the X16 LTE, last February, supporting downlink speeds of up to 1.0 Gbps. Today the company announced its second-generation gigabit class...

17 by Matt Humrick on 2/21/2017

HTC to Exit Entry-Level Phone Market Later This Year

In the highly competitive smartphone industry it’s easy enough to make a name for yourself, but it’s a lot harder to make a profit while doing so. Apple and...

27 by Ryan Smith on 2/17/2017

Netgear Nighthawk M1: LTE Cat 16 Router up to 1 Gbps

Netgear this week announced the Nighthawk M1 mobile router, which is the industry’s first 4G LTE device with download speed up to 1 Gbps. The Nighthawk M1 is powered...

51 by Anton Shilov on 2/2/2017

Apple Announces Record Q1 2017 Results

Today Apple announced their earnings for the first quarter of their 2017 fiscal year. As is normally the case now that the iPhone has moved to a fall launch...

23 by Brett Howse on 1/31/2017

The Huawei Mate 9 Review

Huawei has steadily improved its flagship Mate phablets while adhering to the same blueprint: large screen, slim bezels, aluminum chassis, excellent system performance and battery life. They’ve also shared...

84 by Matt Humrick on 1/27/2017

Update: Xiaomi International VP Hugo Barra to Leave the Company, Join Facebook As VP of VR

Update 1/26: Wasting no time, Facebook has announced that Hugo Barra is joining the company as the Vice President of their VR division, puting him in charge of the...

21 by Ryan Smith on 1/26/2017

Xiaomi Announces the Redmi Note 4 in India

Just before Hugo Barra announced he was leaving the company, he and Xiaomi on Thursday introduced its latest phablet, the Redmi Note 4, in India. The design of the...

18 by Anton Shilov on 1/24/2017

Samsung Reveals Root Cause of Galaxy Note7 Battery Fires

Samsung held a press conference today detailing the results of its investigation into the battery fires that plagued its Galaxy Note7. Reports of phones catching fire appeared soon after...

91 by Matt Humrick on 1/23/2017

United States FTC Charges Qualcomm with Antitrust Violations over Cellular Modem Patents & Technology

Qualcomm’s legal problems are growing. This afternoon the United States Federal Trade Commission, which has been investigating Qualcomm for possible anti-trust issues since 2014, has moved on to the...

39 by Ryan Smith on 1/17/2017

ZTE's CSX "Hawkeye" Concept Phone Detailed, Kickstarter Launched

For some time now ZTE has been running a program to crowdsource the ideas for smartphones. The basis for this is to collect the ideas of consumers in order...

23 by Brandon Chester on 1/17/2017

Synaptics at CES 2017: Advanced Touch and DDIC

To some extent, Synaptics is not nearly as visible to consumers as a company like Intel or Qualcomm, but their role in touch interfaces and display driver ICs is...

22 by Joshua Ho on 1/17/2017

HTC Announces New Phones For U: HTC U Play and HTC U Ultra

HTC added two new smartphones to its lineup today: the HTC U Play and HTC U Ultra. Both phones use an aluminum frame paired with a curved glass back...

36 by Matt Humrick on 1/12/2017

SK Hynix Announces 8 GB LPDDR4X-4266 DRAM Packages

SK Hynix on Monday officially announced the industry’s first 8 GB LPDDR4X (LP4X) packages for next-generation mobile devices. The new memory chips not only increase DRAM performance but also...

5 by Anton Shilov on 1/11/2017

Group Interview with George Zhao, President of Honor

Honor (styled honor) is a sub-brand of Huawei, defining itself for users that ‘feel young at heart’, or charactized in the media for focusing on lower cost devices with...

4 by Ian Cutress on 1/10/2017

SCiO Molecular Sensor Added to Smartphone: Reads Chemical Composition of Materials

I first saw Consumer Physics’ SCiO handheld scanner a couple of years ago and was impressed by its ability to identify materials by scanning and analyzing their chemical composition...

20 by Matt Humrick on 1/9/2017

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