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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 with LTE now available at AT&T with faster CPU inside
AT&T may be focused on Galaxy Note 3 pre-orders at the moment, but it still has something for those who want a new Samsung gadget right away. The company has quietly launched its expected LTE version of the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 at prices of $300 off-contract, $200 with a two-year agreement and $20 per month on AT&T Next. It's also available for as little as $100 if you buy one on contract at the same time as a Galaxy S 4, Galaxy S 4 Active or Galaxy Note II. While the tablet is mostly unchanged from the WiFi version, it does have a treat inside -- there's now a 1.6GHz Snapdragon 400 processor under the hood instead of the usual 1.2GHz chip. If that's enough to lure you in, you can order the 7-inch slate today at the source link.
HTC One VX for AT&T hands-on: mid-range style on a budget (video)
What do you get when you raid HTC's parts bin and combine the camera from the One V, the screen resolution from the One S and the design language from the One X? Say hello to HTC's One VX for AT&T, a stylish mid-range smartphone running Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4. It features a 4.5-inch qHD Super LCD 2 display with Gorilla Glass 2, Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor (MSM8930) with GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA+/LTE radio, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 8GB of on-board storage and a five megapixel f/2.0 autofocus BSI camera with flash and 1080p video recording. The front glass incorporates the earpiece, AT&T logo and VGA shooter up top along with the usual capacitive buttons (back, home and recent apps / menu) below the display. A silver plastic rim traces the sides of the handset -- it's a simple and familiar layout, with the power / lock key, headphone jack and secondary mic on top, micro-USB port and primary mic at the bottom, and the volume rocker on the right edge. Pop the white plastic back cover and you'll find micro-SIM and microSD card slots, a non-removable 1810mAh battery and the NFC antenna. Unfortunately, we were given a non-functional dummy unit to play with so we can't comment on things like screen quality or subjective performance. We can tell you that the phone is light, thin and feels good in the hand -- it slots somewhere between the One S and the One X in terms of size, and looks nice despite being made of cheaper materials than its stablemates. AT&T and HTC are still mum on availability but we were told to expect aggressive, budget-friendly pricing. Want to see more? Take a look at our gallery below and our hands-on video after the break. Update: we expect to see a working One VX at today's AT&T announcement so stay tuned for more impressions.
Qualcomm reveals quad-core Snapdragon S4 Play processors, ramps up entry smartphone speeds
Don't think Qualcomm is limiting its quad-core processors to superstar phones. The Snapdragon S4 Play line is growing to include the MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q, parallels to the existing two Play chips that bring four cores to entry-level devices. Besides the speed improvements that you'd expect from all that extra parallelism, the Q variants support the extra bandwidth of low-power DDR2 (LPDDR2) memory and can handle both 720p displays and movie-making. Neither is quite an all-encompassing solution, although the two will cover the bases for much of the starter demographic: while local wireless such as Bluetooth, FM radio and WiFi have to remain separate from the main processor, the two newcomers manage to pack either single-mode UMTS 3G (in the 8225Q) or dual-mode CDMA and UMTS (in the 8625Q) for their cellular fix. Along with the already promised, China-focused S4 Plus MSM8930, test samples of the faster S4 Play editions will be ready before the end of the year, with shipping phones on the way in early 2013 -- just in time to go head-to-head with a similar push by MediaTek to make quad-core the norm for a much larger slice of the population.
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU family expands past phones to HDTVs, tablets and Windows 8 PCs
Sure Qualcomm has snagged quite the coup by sliding some of its dual-core S4 CPUs into the US-bound Galaxy S IIIs, but it's not stopping there. The company just revealed versions of these chips will power connected HDTVs and set-top boxes as well as PCs and Windows 8 (including Windows Phone 8) devices. There's four tiers of the upcoming processors: Prime, Pro, Plus and Play. S4 Prime is the smart TV platform that includes the MPQ8064 1.5GHz quad-core CPU with Adreno 320 graphics, while S4 Pro processors are ready to be the brains of Windows RT tablets, laptops and tablet / laptop combos. S4 Plus is the high-end smartphone experience we've come to associate with the Snapdragon brand, and finally S4 Play for more entry level mobile devices. Check after the break for more info on the chips in each family and details on what they can do, and our hands on with some S4 powered Windows 8 devices right here.
Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon roadmap leaks, exhibits great expectations (updated)
Seems like we just can't get ARM's next-generation Cortex-A15 system-on-chip out of our minds. Having figured as a headline item in LG's ARM licensing deal this morning, it's now shown up on a leaked Qualcomm roadmap, landing itself a lynchpin role in that company's Snapdragon future. Alas, Qualcomm had been promising for the earliest of its MSM8930 / 60 and APQ8064 Snapdragons to be sampling in Q2 of this year, but this latest schedule shows them as sampling at the end of 2011 (see update). This isn't hugely surprising in light of ARM's recent forecast of Cortex-A15 devices in "late 2012," but it'll be disappointing to users keen to be exploiting quad-GPU and quad-CPU mobile rigs as soon as humanly possible. Guess that just leaves us waiting for the NGP or NVIDIA's quad-core SOC in August. Hit the source link for more on Qualcomm's plans for the near and distant future. [Thanks, Mike] Update: Qualcomm got in touch to correct the timing here. The company's 3G/LTE MSM8960 chipset remains on track to sample in this quarter, as promised in the company's latest earnings report. The other two parts were already expected to come later, so there's no delay to speak of. Just juicy specs.
Qualcomm unveils next-gen Snapdragon family, including quad-core 2.5GHz CPU
Not one to let the name Snapdragon down, Qualcomm's gone and announced a much faster generation of the processor family, with speeds up to 2.5GHz per core. The multi-core (one, two, and four) 28nm chipsets, codenamed Krait, will feature WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and FM, support NFC and stereoscopic 3D video / photo (capture and playback), and also boast multi-mode LTE modem integration. Qualcomm claims a performance increase of 150 percent and a power consumption drop of 65 percent over current ARM-based CPU cores. Included is a new Adreno 320 GPU with support of up to four 3D cores. Samples for the dual-core MSM8960 will be available in second quarter this year, while single-core MSM8930 and quad-core APQ8064 (for "computing and entertainment devices" -- i.e. tablets) versions are coming early 2012. The power-crazed products housing these chipsets? You'll have to wait even longer to see those.
