Acer A1 Android and F1 WinMo Snapdragon smartphones in September?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jul 15th 2009 2:35AM
posted Jul 15th 2009 2:35AM
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
about time! decisions decisions
I should be friend with these Taiwan's component suppliers. they leak everything!
Please keep the trashy acer custom UI away from these devices...
Which is better, Snapdragon or Tegra?
Tegragon.
Snapdragon.
Tegra for graphics, snapdragon for general processing.
Tegra is better. Snapdragon has a higher speed at 1ghz than different Tegra's at 600, 650 or 800 mhz, but Tegra has 8 processors that make it up and only the specific one that is needed at the particular time is used, therefore it uses very little power and has a phenominal battery life. Tegra has better hd video playback and has Flash acceleration that Snapdragon does not. Check out this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5sEIf5-FJs
tegra by far, it is a SOC solution incorporating a CPU and a very powerful GPU that can decode 1080p video.
No one posting here can honestly answer that question. We just don't know at this point.
"Tegra has 8 processors..." That's like saying that the Cell is an 8 core cpu, while technically correct, it paints an inaccurate picture.
"...it is a SOC solution incorporating a CPU and a very powerful GPU that can decode 1080p video." Snapdragon is also a SoC, and the version on Tegra used in smartphones (APX) can't do 1080p, only 720.
Snapdragon has a better CPU than Tegra, but I believe that Tegra has a better GPU.
I think that each will have strong points, wait for the reviews, and see which is better for what you are going to use it for.
Give me an HTC TouchPro 2 running Snapdragon, and we're in business baby.
Stupid Levi - Shut up.
Non stupid Levi - Was it an XDA ROM? I'd wait and see what the actual handsets runnign signed off ROMs are like.
Which is better, Snapdragon or Tegra?
given the tentative release dates of both, look for your answer "at the end of September and in the fourth quarter."
Snapdragon or Tegra? It doesn't matter because it still runs WinMo garbage. It is the software, stupid. ;)
Android runs on both.
It is indeed the software, however I'm going to bet you've never used WinMo 6.5 and are therefore making an ill informed comment.
Which would make you stupid.
Well, you made a stupid assumption which made you utterly stupid! Never call people stupid when making a stupid assumption. Because calling yourself stupid is utterly stupid!
Different Levi here. I've used 6.5 and it still blows. However, if it were a heavily skinned 6.5 that ran smoothly, like the Tegra concept UI, then I'll take it no matter what the OS is under the hood.
Different Levi... you may as well be Other Levi... making a vague, blanket, reference-less statement "I've used 6.5 and it still blows" without any mention of leaked rom version, device installed, or specific interface/performance issues leads one to find your assumption "heavily skinned" in foolishness.
jon@ tegra vs snapdragon:
"No one posting here can honestly answer that question. We just don't know at this point."
"I think that each will have strong points, wait for the reviews, and see which is better for what you are going to use it for."
Mark Anderson@ WinMo 6.5
"Was it an XDA ROM? I'd wait and see what the actual handsets runnign signed off ROMs are like."
Thank you gentleman,
Why some here think they can offer concise insight on any product that has not been officially released or professionally and personally reviewed is beyond me and many other knowledgeable readers.
definitely Snapdragon.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon uses a 1.0-1.3Ghz custom ARMv7 core that is similar to a heavily upgraded ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, with a better SIMD engine and better power efficiency. It also have a really fast OpenGL2.0 GPU (not as good as Tegra), 600Mhz DSP, and 720P encode/decode.
Nvidia's Tegra uses a dual-core ARM11 architecture running at ~600mhz with a great GPU, considered better than the PowerVR SGX 530/535 used in TI's OMAP3 and better than Snapdragons GPU.
As far as directly comparing raw CPU power, the two ARM11 cores clocked at 600mhz on the Tegra should be capable of just over 1,000. DMIPS. The next-gen Snapdragon core running at 1.0Ghz should be capable of over 2,000. Similarly, it's SIMD unit for media processing is way faster than the ARM11.
I would definitely want Snapdragon over the current implementation of Tegra. Nvidia needs to get with the times and upgrade Tegra so it uses a high speed, 45nm Cortex-A8 core or (eventually) dual Cortex-A9 cores.
@loosely_coupled: Tegra uses the multicore-capable (MP) version of ARM11 for some reason, but has only one ARM11 core (at 600 MHz in the APX2500 cellphone version). Tegra 2, arriving next year, implements a Cortex A9 architecture and should be roughly 4x faster than the first-gen Tegra in CPU performance.
@B3astofthe3ast:
Snapdragon's CPU is an ARMv7 design, slightly faster clock-for-clock than Cortex A8 chips. The Tegra APX2500, on the other hand, uses an ARM11 (ARMv6) CPU at 600 MHz. Cortex A8 is roughly twice as fast clock-for-clock than ARM11, so at 1 GHz, Snapdragon should be roughly 3x faster than Tegra in terms of CPU performance.
Tegra's GPU is significantly faster than the ATI Imageon Z430 in the first-gen Snapdragon. Don't have much benchmark or app performance data yet, but here's a breakdown of some mobile GPUs by rated specs (slowest to fastest):
Mobile GPU: Triangles/sec, Fill Rate
Nintendo DS: 120,000 triangles/s, 30 M pixels/s
PowerVR MBX-Lite (iPhone 3G): 1 M triangles/s, 100 M pixels/s
Samsung S3C6410 (Omnia II): 4 M triangles/s, 125.6 M pixels/s
ATI Imageon (Qualcomm MSM72xx): 4 M triangles/s, 133 M pixels/s
PowerVR SGX 530 (Palm Pre): 14 M triangles/s, ___ M pixels/s
ATI Imageon Z430 (Toshiba TG01): 22 M triangles/s, 133 M pixels/s
PowerVR SGX 535 (iPhone 3GS): 28 M triangles/s, 400 M pixels/s
Sony PSP: 33 M triangles/s, 664 M pixels/s
PowerVR SGX 540 (TI OMAP4): 35 M triangles/s, 1000 M pixels/s
Nvidia Tegra APX2500 (Zune HD): 40 M triangles/s, 600 M pixels/s
ATI Imageon _ (Qualcomm QSD8672): 80 M triangles/s, >500 M pixels/s
The one at the bottom (QSD8672) is the next-gen dual-core 45nm Snapdragon, which should be quite a beast.
Giving a rundown of technical specs only works yourself out of the initial question.
hands-on performance>specs
The gpu heavy reliance on other parts for an end-user performance level leaves little to ascertain which of the two is, or will be, better.
we need cheap Android devices, lets hope Acer keeps this around 300bucks or less
engadget editors work 24/7? not tired of waking up ramdomly?
Maybe there's different people in different timezones, meaning there's always someone awake but they're working normal hours for their timezone?
Unless this Acer phone is unbelievable out out of the gate is unbelievable, they will not succeed in the phone business. I'm betting on the latter.
That looks like a design ripoff of the HTC Touch HD. everything from how the sensors are placed to the buttons on the bottom!
also: http://www.tweaktown.com/news/12353/nvidia_tegra_mobile_devices_whip_atom_supposedly/
A NVIDIA press conference?! If it's anything like yesteryear's NVIDIA vs ATI press conferences, I'd settle more for indenpendent testing and reviews.
Hopefully the F1 will have a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 7. Can't wait.
The awesome thing about the A1 is that the Android OS still has NOT seen any decent hardware. Case in point: It has full support for OpenGL hardware acceleration, yet all the Tmobile devices released thus far do NOT have any graphics acceleration. It actually runs the interface very well for only running on software rendering.
I can't wait to see how Android actually performs with native graphics acceleration and a next-gen processor!