Leaked: AMD Notebook Roadmap for 2012, Gen2 Fusion APUs in the Works

DonanimHaber has once again got their hands on a leaked slide which shows AMDs roadmap for notebook APUs coming out in 2012. The current LIanos APUs will make way for Trinity, the second generation APU that will feature the new Bulldozer cores and a better graphics sub-system based on the VLIW-4 architecture that’s currently used in the HD 6900 series desktop graphics cards. This is still a long way ahead though as the Llanos ‘A’ series notebooks are still hard to find in the market.

Looks promising

The new APUs will fall into different market segments just like the existing ones in the market. AMD will be adding a new flagship APU mostly for high end gaming notebooks which is a 60W chip with four cores. This will most likely compete with Intel’s flagship mobile CPU, the Core i7 2920XM or whatever Intel launches next year. The Trinity APU will also come in two other SKUs with lower TDP values of 45W and 35W and will replace the A8 series APUs. The A6 APUs will make way for Weatherford which will be a quad core APU with two SKUs. As we head further down to the mainstream segment, we find Richland dual core APUs that will make their way in your ‘all-rounder’ notebooks in the 35K-50K price brackets. 

Heading further down to the netbooks segment, Zacate and Ontario APUs will be replaced by Wichita and Krishna APUs. Wichita will be used in the 20K-30K range of the netbooks and low-end notebooks while Krishna APU will be reserved for the 10-inch netbooks which will typically fall in the sub-20K price bracket. With the new CPU and GPU architecture and lower TDP, we should expect a solid boost in performance and better battery life. All this is still way into the future though and we’ll know for sure once prototypes start hitting the web towards the end of 2011.

LG Optimus PRO C660 Surfaces in Italy

Mobile manufacturers these days seem to concentrating on touchscreen plus QWERTY keypad based devices. LG has joined the likes of Nokia, Huawei and Motorola. The LG Optimus Pro C660 is available now in Italy according to Italian website androidworld.it.

According to the website the Optimus pro sports a 2.8-inch screen, EDGE connectivity, 1500mAh battery, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 3Megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. There are no details of the processor yet.

Some of the pictures available on the website show that the phone has a regular candybar design and is another phone in the plethora of smartphones available in the market today.

Pictures courtesy: Androidworld.it

Nokia 700 (ZETA) Pictures Leaked Online

Nokia seems to be manufacturing phones on a whim these days. After a slew of smartphones running on the Symbian (E6, X7) and Meego(N9) platforms were announced recently, there are leaked images of a new touchscreen phone Nokia Beta 700 doing the rounds in the online space.

According to some details found along with the pictures, the phone may come with a 1GHz processor and a 3.2-inch AMOLED display, will support memory cards up to 32GB and will be available in white. It will feature a 5MP camera and is expected to run on Symbian’s new Belle platform, successor to Symbian Anna.

It also packs in Wi-Fi and has fast HSPA speeds (10.2Mbps or 14.4Mbps downlink and 5.76Mbps uplink). The battery was a 1080mAh unit. The report claimed the phone weighs 80 grams and might measure 110 x 51 x 10mm.

Keep reading this space for more updates.

Picture Courtesy: GSMarena

Roadmaps of Qualcomm’s Next-Gen Snapdragon Chips Leaked

Qualcomm has been powering several smartphones and not-so-smart phones with their Snapdragon SoC (system on chip) and they’re quite well known about it. The latest news doing the rounds is that their roadmap for 2012/2013 has been leaked and the future chips will support HSPA+ and LTE connectivity support.

Processors to be launched in "Kraits"

According to sources, in the fourth quarter of 2011, Qualcomm is scheduled to release the MSM8960 dual-core processors that will clock somewhere between 1.5-1.7 GHz codenamed Krait. These chips will also feature an Adreno 225 GPU which supports DirectX 9.3.

Sometime around the third quarter of 2012, there’s a likelihood that the company will be manufacturing lower-end processors (hopefully it means cheaper mid-range smartphones) with the MSM8930 dual-core CPU clocking 1.0-1.2 GHz. Surprisingly the GPU it supports is the Adreno 305 which despite the name is actually slower than the Adreno 225.

Finally, in Q1 of 2013, Qualcomm will be launching MSM8974 quad-core processors clocking 2.0-2.5 GHz with support for 1080p video at 60fps and an Adreno 320 GPU.

So we can see a whole new generation of smart(er)phones wielding quad-core chips and better features.

HTC Eternity Sporting a 1.5 GHz Processor Image Leaked

If you quite agreed with the fact that the HTC Sensation wasn’t very incredible and you were left wanting for more, here’s something nice. The first smartphone from HTC’s stable to run on Windows Phone 7’s Mango OS, is the HTC Eternity. The leaked image also has a full list of specifications, of which we’ll take a look into.

Will this be a sensation throughout eternity?

According to sources, the Eternity will be running on the latest Microsoft operating system which is Windows Phone 7 Mango. The smartphone is powered by a 1.5 GHz processor on a Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset and has the following specifications under the hood:

• 4.7-inch WVGA Super LCD capacitive touchscreen
• 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS with A-GPS, DLNA
• Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
• 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash
• 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls
• 512 MB RAM
• Memory expandable to 16GB
• Stereo FM Radio
• 3.5 mm audio jack

The Super LCD screen sporting a size of 4.7-inch means a huge display. Also, the camera can record videos at 720p, which is a good feature. The only thing that remains to be revealed is the official launch date and pricing of the handset which is not being spoken of for now, but stay tuned to know more about the HTC Eternity.

Sony's Upcoming A77 and A65 Camera Details Leaked

Sony has been on a camera release spree and they’ve been paying more attention to their translucent mirror models. We’ve also seen their A33 and A55 models from their SLT range. Now there are new models on the way - the A77 and A65, which should be officially launched sometime in late August. The A77 will use a 24 MP APS-C sized sensor. Although not officially detailed, ISO range is expected to be between 100 and 1,02,400. The old SLT models had average electronic viewfinders, but the A77 should have an all new 3 million dot EVF which should offer better image quality. Continuous shooting mode is said to be capable of clicking 10 photos in a second and as expected, 1080p video recording will also be supported.

Won't arrive till sometime in August

USB 2.0 goes out the window and it will be replaced by the much faster USB 3.0 standard. There’s also integrated GPS support, so you don’t have to buy a separate module. Suggested pricing for the body only will be around $1000, which isn’t too expensive if you consider the competition's products with similar specifications. The bundled kit lens with the A77 will be an all 16 - 50 mm Zeiss one and it will support SD, CF and MS format cards.

Philips 221P3LPYE - Brilliance is Just the Name

When one hears the name Philips it is usually associated with audio-visual products like televisions and stereo systems. Their reach also extends to household products, lighting products, etc. The brand is not as well known for their computer components and peripherals, but they do manufacturer mice, keyboards, storage devices and monitors.

The easily enabled rotation feature

Computer displays are usually associated with brands such as BenQ, ViewSonic and Samsung. Philips also have released a few monitors of their own with their focus on three segments with LCD monitors for home, office and TV monitors.

From their office segment of LCD monitors they have announced the Philips 221P3LPYE display from the Brilliance series. Today we take a look at this 22-inch TN panel monitor that was designed primarily for office use.

Sturdy and stylish stand

Features

The Philips 221P3LPYE is a feature rich monitor. It is a 21.5-inch LED-backlit, LCD panel display with a native display resolution of 1920x1080. Philips like other manufacturers claims that this sort of backlighting uses less power and produces a brighter image and that the response time of the 221P3LPYE is 5 ms. Connectivity options on this display are DVI, D-Sub and surprisingly, a DisplayPort. A 3.5mm audio and a USB port are also available. However, even though there are more than a sufficient amount of connectivity options, Philips have not added an HDMI port on this monitor - they've added a DisplayPort instead which we feel is good but HDMI is a more common connectivity solution these days. There are front facing speakers on this monitor and it has a 90 degree rotation feature which can be useful for presentations etc.

Stylish

The Philips P3 LPYE has a touch sensitive panel at the bottom of the screen for controlling the menu and the various other settings of this monitor like brightness, contrast, etc. The interface of this display is very simple to use and navigating through it is a lot easier because the touch sensitive keys light up. There are various display presets for content viewing on this monitor. The display has a feature called PowerSensor, which is basically a power saving mode. It adjusts the brightness of the screen based on various factors. While testing this monitor, we turned the feature off due to fluctuations in brightness levels. Overall, the touch sensitive keys are the best feature we found on this monitor.

Design and Build Quality

The Philips 221P3LPYE monitor on the whole is sturdy and stylish in design. The monitor looks decent with its black screen and silver stand. The base of the stand is not that large which is a very good thing and it supports the monitor well. The touch panel control keys are very sensitive and there is a white light where the menu controls are which helps in locating where the menu keys are in a dimly lit room. There are built-in speakers located at the bottom of the monitor, two USB ports located at the bottom left side of the monitor and two USB ports on the rear end. The 3.5 mm port is located near the power connector at the rear as are all other connectivity options like DVI, D-Sub and DisplayPort.

USB connectors at the side

The stand is made of hard plastic with a rotation of 90 degrees. Moving the monitor into either a portrait or landscape view is simple and does not offer much resistance. The base of the stand has a swivel feature. This design of the swivel is interesting however it is quite sensitive and moves too easily. Hence even a slight touch will turn the monitor. Philips says the monitor can swivel minus or plus 60 degrees. It's not common to see such a setup on monitors in this price bracket. The Philips 221P3LPYE is a nice looking monitor and quite sturdy and we had absolutely no qualms with the design and build quality of it.

Performance The Philips 221P3LPYE uses a TN panel, which is common for most 22-inch displays these days, though we did notice some backlighting issues. To test the actual performance of this monitor we ran DisplayMate and calibrated the screen for optimum results. Touch sensitive controls While running DisplayMate, we noticed that in the colour gradient test, blacks on either ends of the spectrum appeared slightly green and red. However, all blocks were distinguishable. While running through some other tests, we noticed that with complex patterns, there was no flickering whatsoever. Patterns can be seen clearly and crisply and all colours are natural with the exception of red, green and yellow. Reds and greens looked brighter than natural and yellow seemed a bit pale. In the colour scales test, we noticed colour bleeding in blue. All other colours are easily visible and no bleeding was noticed. In the background interference tests, one could see the lines clearly which is a good thing. No glare or reflection was noticed in the dark screen check. A problem which we noticed from the time of turning on this monitor was the viewing angles. They are really bad and some waves were noticed which originated at the top of the screen to the centre. The speaker volume on the monitor was really low even with the volume set to maximum. Having front facing speakers, we expected a bit more output from them. The unique addition of a DisplayPort Out of the box colours are bright while watching movies. Testing video playback with settings calibrated after DisplayMate, we noticed video quality to be slightly faded and  images looked dull. Oddly enough, we did notice that while using the video presets, the video playback was rendered a lot better in office mode than in movie mode. TN panel on this 21.5-inch monitor Verdict The Philips 221P3LPYE is priced at a maximum retail price of Rs. 12,999, which is expensive for a 22-inch monitor. It has a TN panel, DisplayPort connectivity and  somewhat unique touch sensitive controls, which are usually found on high end televisions. We feel that one would do better with a 24-inch display. The Philips 221P3LPYE is not a bad monitor and fared rather well when it came to performance, features and design. Alternatives in this price range might have limited features in comparison to this.

Nokia's Dual-SIM C2-06 Image Leaked

We kind of liked the touch-and-type family of mobile phones that Nokia had unveiled, especially after seeing the X3-02 and the kind of features it had to offer. Many of Nokia’s handsets have been wielding Dual-SIM features for quite a while now and it looks like the touch-and-type series will have their own with the C2-06 (some also call it the C2-02).

touching and typing with two numbers (Credit: GSMArena)

A picture of the mobile phone was leaked in Nokia’s conversation blog that was talking about how their Ovi browser was undergoing a transition to the IPv6. As there’s only a picture to talk about, there’s nothing in the specifications department that is available as such.

Now after appearing accidentally on the site, we kind of wonder after how long the handset will be announced officially. We kind of hope to see that it doesn’t face any kind of delays as such because low-budget dual-SIM handsets are always a welcome addition.