Snapdragon200
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Sony grows its Xperia line by two with the 6-inch T2 Ultra and Walkman-centric E1
You'd think a company that very recently announced two new flagship smartphones at CES would slow its roll and hold off on the product announcements for a bit. But no, Sony's introducing two more handsets to the mix with the Xperia T2 Ultra and Xperia E1, albeit for very specific markets. Neither the T2 Ultra, which gains its 'Ultra' distinction by virtue of a 6-inch, 720p display, nor the diminutive 4-inch E1, with its 100Db speaker and focus on music, are going after the early adopter crowd. Instead, Sony's crafted these devices for those with less champagne tastes; the T2 Ultra's aimed at "emerging markets", while the E1's a mid-tier take on Sony's Walkman legacy. And both arrive with dual SIM variants.
Qualcomm grows Snapdragon 200 family with six new chips, targets emerging markets
Just because Qualcomm's gone to plaid (aka. reached ludicrous speed) with its Snapdragon 800 flagship doesn't mean the company's been standing still at the other end of the market. The Snapdragon 200 family just received a major boost with the introduction of six new chips geared at China and other emerging markets. Available with dual- and quad-core CPUs, the processors are manufactured using a 28nm process and incorporate HSPA+ (21Mbps) and TD-SCDMA radios. The new SoCs are optimized to provide good multimedia performance and long battery life, with support for dual cameras (up to 8MP rear and 5MP front), multiple SIMs (dual standby, dual active and tri standby), iZat location tech and Quick Charge 1.0. Qualcomm's Adreno 302 GPU rounds up the spec list, making these chips well suited for devices running Android, Windows Phone and Firefox OS. The company's expected to begin shipping these new processors (8x10 and 8x12) in late 2013. Full PR after the break.
HTC Desire 600 announced: quad-core processor, dual-SIM and BlinkFeed
It didn't take long for HTC to go official with the Desire 600. Interestingly, it picks up on several of the new Sense 5 features revealed alongside the HTC One, including its fingertip-baiting BlinkFeed for social network and news updates. BoomSound and the ability to craft video highlights from your photos and clips also make the transition, although apparently not the burst-capture Zoe mode. Hardware-wise, there's a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, with a 4.5-inch Super LCD2 display (at 960 x 540 resolution), an 8-megapixel primary camera capable of up to 720p video capture and a front-facing 1.6-megapixel shooter. The Desire 600 picks up the same dual front-facing speaker setup of the One, although rather than a global appearance, it's currently headed to Russia, Ukraine and the Middle-East for now, landing early this June in white and black options. However, we've already spotted a China-bound version for China Unicom's WCDMA network, the Desire 606w, and if we're honest, we'd probably be happier to see the rumored M4 make an official showing. Now, where's that Desire 200? %Gallery-189185%
The Engadget Interview: Qualcomm's Raj Talluri talks Snapdragon at MWC 2013
Qualcomm finally detailed its Snapdragon 200 and 400 processors here at MWC, and we got the opportunity to discuss the new chips with Raj Talluri, SVP of product management. While the Snapdragon 600 and 800 SoCs are geared towards high-end devices, the 200 and 400 are targeting sub-$100 and $200-300 phones. He explained that the software remains as close as possible to what's available on the 600 and 800, but the hardware is scaled down to support lower-resolution displays and cameras by using ARM cores instead of the company's own Krait architecture. We then talked about the Snapdragon 800, which was decoding 4K video at CES but is being showcased here in Barcelona handling 4K playback with Dolby and DTS in Qualcomm's movie theater (sans popcorn, sadly). He also mentioned some of the other demos at the company's booth -- 4K encoding and streaming (via TransferJet), realtime video editing, voice activation, games (Modern Combat 4 and Need For Speed) and more. Don't miss our video interview after the break.
Qualcomm formally details lower-end Snapdragon 400 and 200 processors
We knew way back at CES that Qualcomm had a few lower-end chips up its sleeve, but now it's official: the Snapdragon 400 and 200 have been formally detailed in a company blog post thrown up today. Following in the footsteps of the high-end Snapdragon 800 and 600, these units are being aimed at "the mid-tier and entry level smartphone segments." The 400 options include dual Krait CPUs running at up to 1.7GHz per core, quad ARM Cortex-A7 CPUs humming along at up to 1.4GHz per core, and an Adreno 305 GPU. You'll also find support for TDSCDMA, DC-HSPA+ (42Mbps), 1x Advanced, W+G CDMA, and multi-SIM capabilities of Dual SIM, Dual Standby (DSDS) and Dual SIM, Dual Active (DSDA), as well as support for up 13.5 megapixel camera sensors, 1080p video capture / playback and Miracast wireless display tech. For the number nerds, Snapdragon 400 processors now include the following part numbers: 8226, 8626, 8230, 8630, 8930, 8030AB, 8230AB, 8630AB and 8930AB. As for the 200, you'll get quad ARM Cortex-A5 CPUs at up to 1.4GHz per core, an Adreno 203 GPU, HD video playback, GPS, LPDDR2 RAM, multi-SIM support and the ability to handle up to 8 megapixel camera sensors. Snapdragon 200 processors now include the following part numbers: 8225Q, 8625Q. Unfortunately, pricing is being kept under wraps, and it seems that Qually is going to leave it to its wondrous partners to actually announce new hardware that'll be powered by its latest duo. With Mobile World Congress kicking off in a matter of days, something tells us you won't have to wait much longer for the nitty-gritty.
