Motorola Droid X: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Brian Klug on July 20, 2010 4:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola Droid X
- OMAP
- Mobile
What's Next? OMAP 4 in 2011, Mainstream 3630
While we've already seen hardware based on it today, in 2011 TI expects that its high end customers will be shipping devices based on the OMAP 4 SoC. Like NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, OMAP 4 will use ARM’s first Out of Order microprocessor - the Cortex A9. The L2 cache will jump to a beefy (for a mobile SoC) 1MB, the memory interface will be upgraded to LPDDR2 and overall performance will take a big step forward towards Intel’s Atom platform.
With that in mind, where will this leave today’s 3630? The mainstream market of course.
Today, SoCs like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and TI’s OMAP 3630 are found only in the highest end flagship phones. ARM11 based offerings are still quite popular elsewhere in the market. Eventually, TI expects this to change.
The move to 45nm will allow TI to move the 3630 and its derivatives into more mainstream devices. The OMAP 4 however will push the 3630 down and become the new flagship SoC going forward. In other words, the Cortex A8 will finally start replacing ARM11 in mainstream smartphones.
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jeffjcom - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
Monoprice cables are Mini not Micro.MrPete123 - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
A little bit off topic but....I haven't seen any mention of Android 2.2 and battery life. Do we know if executing code significantly faster allows the CPU to sleep more often, saving power? Or perhaps there's other power saving alterations in 2.2?bplewis24 - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
I'm interested in this as well. Maybe update the Nexus One review with this info?Brandon
stlc8tr - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
"It’s interesting that Motorola is sticking to FWVGA - this is admittedly exactly 16:9 aspect ratio"Well, I guess it depends on how digits of precision you're using. 854x480 is actually 16:8.992974. :-)
soydios - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
Whichever author wrote that, you are not being too picky about the short 3-foot length of the included USB cable. 6 feet or bust. I'd say that the majority of us like to have the phone on the nightstand or desk while it's charging, not on the floor next to the power socket.Piano Man - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
Now this is what I call a smartphone review. I'm glad that these smartphones are getting full review treatment like they were computer systems. Since I got my Moto Droid at work 7 months ago, I think about 25-30 more have followed suit. I really thing these phones are gonna become our primary all-in-one electronic system sooner than we think. Glad they're getting the review they deserve. Please keep it up for the future biggie's (Samsung Galaxy, and the new OMAP processors).jleach1 - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
"droid x lastest longest on a single charge"not sure if this was an accent -=D
dumpsterj - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
man i want this phone lol. I was gonna wait to see how windows phone 7 works out cuz i love zune . However it seems verizon is pissing all over microsoft lately with the kin and i wonder if vz will even get the damn phones.VashHT - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Anyone else notice there evo benchmarks a lot better in this article than in the official evo review? It seems like the updates might have actually helped it out, it went from being slower to the incredible to faster in this review (in browsing tests I mean), you guys should update your evo review with the patches,i think they fixed the few little flaws the evo had when it first came out.One43637 - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Great to hear Brian. I just picked up a Vibrant after owning a G1 for the duration. Phone is great, and I was pleasantly surprised how unobtrusive TouchWiz 3.0 is. Phone does not feel cheap at all, just because it has a plastic back.Can't wait to read your review and Froyo!