Smartphone Silicon: The 2010 CTIA Wireless Show Roundup
by Ganesh T S on March 31, 2010 11:11 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
We looked at two interesting silicon platforms introduced at the 2010 CTIA wireless show. The wireless radio chipset from Sequans shows the coming to fruition of a nascent market opportunity, but the competition in that space is bound to heat up soon with the established companies such as Qualcomm becoming ready to introduce their own offerings.
If Sprint can deliver excellent performance on its WiMAX network, the HTC EVO 4G may end up being the Android phone to get.
The app processor used in the Samsung Galaxy S is a precursor to what we will be seeing in this year's iPhone line product. Subtle variations in this app processor have already been introduced by Samsung for other product lines such as smartbooks and media streamers. The competition in this space is becoming more and more interesting with the capabilities of the various competing products.
At present, there is little separating the OMAP4000, Marvell ARMADA 610, Qualcomm Snapdragon and the Samsung S5PC110. A detailed analysis of the various smartphone app processor platforms will appear soon on AnandTech. In the meanwhile, we will continue to bring you a roundup of the interesting hardware platforms getting introduced in the upcoming trade shows. Stay tuned!
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ksherman - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
That HTC EVO 4G phone is looking AWESOME. I live near Chicago, one of the home bases for Clear/Sprint's WiMAX areas. First phone I've seen yet that will make me drop my iPhone 3G to get. Really excited about it's ability to become a local WiFi access point for my laptop which will be extremely valuable to me as a photojournalist. I won't have to have two separate plans.JonnyBlaze - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
You can make almost any current Android phone act as a wireless access point right now.ksherman - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Sure, but none have WiMax. I used to tether my iPhone 3G's 3G signal to upload pictures and it was virtually useless.sinchesterjenkins - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
Not a 4G wireless hotspot for up to 8 devices. This phone is a game changer.jordanclock - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Why are their so many mentions of whether these platforms support HD encoding/decoding? The encoding makes a little sense, but who is really going to take HD video clips with their phone? And I'm really not concerned that I won't be able to watch HD videos on my 480x800 screen. There isn't even a video output (unless you count USB?) to hook it up to an external monitor.I'm GLAD when they don't waste silicon on being able to handle HD from my phone. I want that silicon used to make the user interface quick and be able to render web pages faster.
ganeshts - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
While HD encode (recording HD video) remains a checklist feature for app processors, HD decode (playback) has become much more than that. The reason is the abundance of media that people want to store on the go / playback. The rise of media streamers as a market is a case in point.Now, cell phone manufacturers have realized that people really do not need a separate media streamer at home. All they need is a dock to which the cell phone can be connected, and this may connect to the TV through HDMI for video playback.
That said, the Sprint HTC EVO 4G does have a mini HDMI port at the bottom which may enable HD video output to a TV. Also, the Samsung Galaxy S has an optional cradle dock which enables it to be tabled and used for a multitude of purposes other than just wireless communication. Samsung also announced in its press release for this phone that they are planning to team up with content providers to enable downloading of full length movies and other media onto the device. Also, it sports an 'AllShare' feature utilizing the DLNA standard to communicate with other devices (including TVs). So, we might be able to playback HD video on a separate big screen, after all! How well this would work remains to be seen.
jah1subs - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Sprint is showing off their 4G network by emphasizing 720p video for this device. I am using the Sprint 3G/4G modem for work. We're saving a little bit of money right now by using only 3G speeds (I can see a 4G enabled tower by looking out the window) because I am using this primarily for email and browsing, not multimedia.RaistlinZ - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Andand/Mods,Can you guys please be on the lookout for that xoloot poster and others like him that try to advertise their businesses here? Thanks.
Adul - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
block their damn ip address this is getting annoyingAnand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
They usually come back regardless of what IP we block. We have implemented some fixes though :-PTake care,
Anand