St-ericssonU8500
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Sony Xperia U review: a little slice of Android that punches above its weight
More Info Sony Xperia P review Sony officially debuts Xperia U at MWC 2012 Sony Xperia U gets torn to pieces, FCC destroys something beautiful There's an oft-used idiom about small packages, which frequently doesn't apply to the world of technology. That's to say that a diminished form factor often doesn't bring the "best things" with it. For example, Sony's NXT family members, revealed between CES and MWC, gifted consumers with the choice of three new handsets: the Xperia P, S and U. The last one in that list is by far the smallest, and in congruence with the general trend of mobile technology, the most lightly armored. However, we're not ones to make assumptions, and heaven forbid we pre-judge something based on size alone. We're as willing to be surprised as anyone, and the new baby of the Sony bunch is as likely a candidate as any to throw us a curveball. Our initial impressions in Barcelona were largely positive, so this review -- as the firm says on its marketing material for the phone -- is all about (the Xperia) U.%Gallery-156734%
Nokia's leaked MeeGo device resembles dual-core ST-Ericsson U8500 reference platform
Yesterday's leaked image of a purported Nokia tablet device seems to have been more informative than we initially believed it to be. An eagle-eyed forum member over on mobile-review has spotted the similarity between it and a reference platform for ST-Ericsson's U8500 system-on-chip. Last we heard, that little powerhouse was running a pair of 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 cores, so excuse us if we find the prospect of it driving Nokia's next flagship a rather exciting one. You can see video of the reference device in question after the break -- it ends on the delicious and unequivocal assertion from the ST-Ericsson rep that Nokia has signed up to deliver the U8500 in an upcoming device. Bear in mind, however, that the video is from November of last year and we still don't know for sure that the Nokia slate above is its MeeGo progenitor or just a prototype. Either way, the U8500 is expected in smartphones at some point in the first half of this year, which kind of fits Nokia's roadmap, no? [Image credit: Cor72z]
ST-Ericsson's U8500 brings dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 to the Android world
Can't get enough of hearing about implementations of ARM's Cortex-A9 MPCore processors? Good. ST-Ericsson's powerhouse U8500 system-on-chip has come a major step closer to appearing in mainstream devices with today's newly announced support for the Android operating system. Having optimized the OS to take advantage of Symmetric Multi Processing -- a method for extending battery life by sharing the load between the two processing cores and underclocking when necessary -- the partner company is now ready to start dropping these 1.2GHz dual-core beasts inside the next generation of smartphones. The claim is that you'll get all that additional power while sacrificing nothing, as devices based on the U8500 would maintain "the cost and power consumption characteristics of a traditional feature phone." We're promised built-in HDMI-out support, 1080p video recording, and 120 hours of audio playback or 12 hours of Full HD video off a 1,000mAh battery -- pledges we'd very much like to see fulfilled.
ST-Ericsson's U8500 platform gives your next smartphone wicked 3D powers
It's one thing for ARM to develop a potent GPU meant to add impressive 3D capabilities to devices that were previously forced to run the likes of "Snake," but it's another thing entirely to see a platform and semiconductor company come forward and take it one step closer to the mainstream. ST-Ericsson has done just that with its U8500 platform, which is the first to integrate ARM's Mali-400 graphics processing unit into a solution that can be easily fitted into future phones. Think your iPhone 3GS GPU is mighty enough? Hop on past the break and mash play -- it'll make those fancy water reflections you're currently drooling over look downright ugly. [Via B4Tech, thanks Chris]
