TI Announces OMAP4470 and Specs: PowerVR SGX544, 1.8 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9

The last time we visited TI's OMAP 4 SoC was at Mobile World Congress, there we benchmarked the LG Optimus 3D and came away decently impressed with performance even on a pre-launch device. Back then, Anand wrote that the remainder of this year and the next is going to be a heated battle for dual core and quad core SoCs fighting in the tablet and smartphone space. After today, you can add Windows 8 to that list as well. Today, TI is announcing its latest SoC, the OMAP4470, which offers a 20% increase in CPU clocks and an entirely different SGX544 GPU over OMAP4460. 

Read on for more details. 

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Computex 2011: AMD Announces Bobcat-based Z Series APUs for Tablet Market

While AMD does not have a true SoC to combat the likes of Intel, NVIDIA, and ARM, this doesn’t mean they’re completely ignoring the market for the type of devices SoCs normally go in. Announced today at Computex 2011 and shipping immediately will be AMD’z Z series APUs, AMD’s formal entry into the modern tablet market.

While at this time it’s neigh-on impossible to get into a phone without a SoC (just ask Intel), tablets can be more forgiving. With a larger device and a larger battery, such devices don’t necessarily have the same extreme integration requirements and battery life requirements as a phone, even if the processors used in such devices are often the same. As a result of AMD’s current resources and technologies, it’s the tablet market that they have decided to go after first.

The Z-series, codename “Desna”, currently has a single APU that is shipping immediately: the Z-01.

AMD APU LineupAPU ModelNumber of Bobcat CoresCPU Clock SpeedGPUNumber of GPU CoresGPU Clock SpeedTDPAMD Z-0121.0GHzRadeon HD 625080276Mhz5.9WAMD C-3011.2GHzRadeon HD 625080280MHz9WAMD C-5021.0GHzRadeon HD 625080280MHz9WAMD E-24011.5GHzRadeon HD 631080500MHz18WAMD E-35021.6GHzRadeon HD 631080500MHz18W

The Z-01, as near as we can tell, is a power optimized version of AMD’s existing C-50 APU. It features the same dual-core CPU design, using a pair of Bobcat CPU cores running at 1GHz. The GPU meanwhile is a Radeon HD 6250, and while AMD hasn’t listed the clocks, we believe it’s clocked at the same 280MHz as in the C-50. We don’t have any information on whether AMD is using the same packaging for the Z-01 as they are the C series, but otherwise the available specifications are identical to the C-50 with one exception: TDP. While the C-50 is rated for 9W, the Z-01 is rated for 5.9W. Given the 33% power reduction, it’s a fair guess that AMD is binning Ontario chips to find ones that operate at the low voltages Z-01 would require.

Based on what we’ve seen with the C-50, the Z-01 should perform far above any other tablet processor. However the 5.9W TDP means that it’s not going to be in the same market as the likes of OMAP 4, Tegra 2, Apple’s A5, or even Intel’s Moorestown. All of these SoCs/platforms use well under 5.9W, and with the exception of Moorestown are all ARM based.

So what kind of tablets is AMD shooting for with the Z-01? The primary market is going to be full-fledged Windows 7 tablets, although Z-01 is capable of running the x86 branch of Android too. The first product will be the MSI Windpad 110W, which we actually saw earlier in the day before AMD’s announcement. The 110W is a 10” tablet running Windows 7 (Win7 Pro on the showfloor), which should retail for around $599.

Ultimately the biggest factor differentiating Z-01 tablets from ARM tablets is going to be Windows 7, given that a suitable version of Android is not yet available. Tablets like the 110W are going to be sold based on their ability to use applications like Microsoft Office, Windows Media Center, Windows games (that will run on a Radeon HD 6250 of course), and any other common Windows applications. So while devices like the iPad are based around media consumption, for Z-01 tablets AMD’s goals are more about a balance of consumption and creation, putting Z-01 tablets in a somewhat different market segment altogether.

We’ll have more on the Z-01 and the MSI Windpad 110W later this year once the tablet ships.

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Computex 2011: NVIDIA Announces Wired 3D Vision Glasses

Technically Computex 2011 doesn’t start for another day, but already companies are announcing new hardware right ahead of the event in order to try to beat the rush. NVIDIA is one of those companies; at Computex they’re announcing their new wired 3D Vision glasses.

As a bit of background, since the introduction of 3D Vision in 2009 the hardware has remained relatively unchanged. NVIDIA launched with their wireless 3D Vision glasses kit at $199; more recently they dropped the price down to $149, but other than a slightly tweaked revision of the glasses offering double the battery life, the glasses themselves haven’t changed. Meanwhile, though wireless glasses are generally going to be the best way to use an active shutter 3D system, it does have a couple of downfalls: there’s only so much cost cutting that can be done, the need to have batteries and USB connectors on-board dictates design to some degree, and $150 objects that are not tied down tend to grow legs and walk away.

As the market for 3D Vision expands, driven by declining prices for the necessary 120Hz LCD monitors, NVIDIA has finally had to deal with these problems, both to keep costs in-line with cheaper monitors and to build a set of glasses suitable for some new markets. The result is that we’ve come full-circle: 3D shutter glasses are now wired once again.

Being announced today and shipping in late June are the NVIDIA 3D Vision wired glasses, which NVIDIA intends to fill the above niche. As the name implies, it’s a set of 3D vision glasses that are wired – in this case using USB 2.0 – instead of the wireless glasses + hub solution that NVIDIA’s wireless kit uses. By ditching the batteries and the IR gear, and by integrating the functions of the 3D Vision hub into the USB connector itself, NVIDIA has been able to cut production costs. Priced at $99, these are intended to be the new low-end glasses to go with the aforementioned cheaper 120Hz monitors, while the wireless glasses will continue to be offered at $149. Besides the fact that the wireless glasses are wireless, it looks like the other features differentiating the two will be the 3D Vision control functionality the wireless hub offers - convergence controls and turning 3D Vision on & off - as there's no analog on the wired glasses.

The wired glasses will also be serving as NVIDIA’s first official foray into LAN/cyber-café business. As wireless glasses can’t be easily secured and can be easily stolen, NVIDIA designed and will be pitching the wired glasses as a practical alternative to café owners that want to offer 3D Vision without their investments walking out the door. The wired glasses feature a Kensington lock slot in the USB connector/hub, which means the glasses can be locked down like the rest of a café’s hardware. We wouldn’t venture to guess just how many cafes are actually interested in offering 3D Vision right now, but clearly NVIDIA believes it’s a worthwhile market to chance.

The existing wireless glasses

Finally, in spite of the wired nature of the glasses, they may end up being more comfortable than the existing wireless glasses. NVIDIA isn’t heavily promoting it, but the wired glasses do have a different fit thanks to the fact that there’s no longer a need to embed batteries, IR receivers, or a controller into the glasses themselves. Of the few different editors here at AnandTech that have used the wireless 3D Vision glasses, the most common complaint is the fit; as the glasses are one size fits all, we’ve found that the glasses pinch our (apparently) big heads. Although only NVIDIA really has any data to back up how many users shy away from 3D Vision due to the fit of the glasses, we suspect we’re not the only ones that the existing glasses poorly fit – the merits of the technology mean little if the glasses themselves can’t be worn comfortably for any length of time. Once we receive our sample glasses we’ll be taking a look at the fit to see if these are any better than the wireless glasses.

Wrapping things up, the wired glasses will cost $99 and be shipping in late June from NVIDIA and other retailers. NVIDIA hasn’t talked about any long-term plans for the wired glasses, but we wouldn’t rule out the possibility that they’re going to replace the wireless glasses in monitor bundles that already include glasses. A few manufacturers are building the IR transmitter directly into the monitor’s bezel these days, but for the rest this would be another way to bring down the price of a complete 3D Vision kit.

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NVIDIA announces Optimus for Desktops @ www.anandtech.com

NVIDIA Synergy to Bring Optimus to Desktops

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Google Announces 160 Million Chrome Users, Massive Improvements Coming

Chrome's user base "more than doubled" in the past year with browser uptake increasing from 70 million to 160 million thanks to Linux, Windows, and OS X versions of the browser finally reaching parity. Google is touting speed and security as their major priorities with each Chrome release.

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Google Announces Chromebooks For Business, At $28 Monthly Per User

Google Product VP Sundar Pichai announced today at Google I/O that the Chromebooks functionality for consumers will be expanded for businesses. According to Pichai, 50% of companies today are running the ten-year-old Windows XP software. In addition, that fact that users are increasingly using their laptops to move in and out of the company firewalls has created problems for CIOs and IT admins.Said Pichai, "Many companies have a hard time upgrading OS and most users use laptops today. They take them in and out of enterprise firewalls and this is challenging for IT admins. CIOs and IT admins are moving computing to the cloud."]]>

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GIGABYTE Announces A Wireless Mouse With Class - GM-M7800S

GIGABYTE has announced the arrival of their black GM-M7800S Elegant Vogue Wireless Mouse. First announced in June 2009, the black’s predecessor GM-M7800S Brown has surprised the world with its elegant and luxurious design. Made with CRYSTALLIZED - Swarovski elements and exquisite black leather, the long-awaited GM-M7800S Black is ready to tickle your fashion sense again.

Gigabyte GM-M7800S Elegant Vogue Wireless Mouse Features:

• Made with CRYSTALLIZED - Swarovski Elements
• Made of exquisite leather
• Ultra-precise laser engine
• Reliable 2.4GHz wireless connection
• Portable nano transceiver
• 800/1600 DPI switch
• 4-way scrolling
• Browser back & forward button

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Intel Announces first 22nm 3D Tri-Gate Transistors, Shipping in 2H 2011

Earlier this week Intel sent us a cryptic message:

I wanted to invite you to an Intel press conference on Wednesday May 4th at 9:30am Pacific time. Intel will be making its most significant technology announcement of the year. No further details will be provided in advance. The event will be held in San Francisco so for those of you are local in the SF Bay Area please attend in person if you like. It will also webcasted live. Tune-in details and logistics are below. Please let me know if you can attend.

A while ago Intel decided that a nice way to drive up its stock price would be to behave more like Apple, keeping major announcements under wraps and introducing them on its own terms to hopefully build up anticipation and excitement for Intel's announcements. You've seen examples of this with how closely Intel held Sandy Bridge's architectural details before its presentation at IDF, and how little we knew about Quick Sync (Sandy Bridge's hardware video transcoder) until Intel decided it was time to talk about it.

Apple can get away with it since most of its products are tangible, consumer facing devices. Intel's technologies are arguably even more important, but they're just not as easy for the general populace to get excited about. Today's announcement is the perfect example of just that.

Earlier today Intel announced that its 22nm process would not use conventional planar transistors but rather be the first time Intel is using 3D Tri-Gate transistors. This is a huge announcement that fuels Intel's leadership in the mobile/desktop/server CPU space and makes it a lot more attractive in the SoC space, let's understand why.

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Google Announces Google Talk Video Chat for Android 2.3.4

Back when we reviewed the Nexus S and Android 2.3, one of our only complaints was that gingerbread sorely needed front facing video chat support. Third party video chat clients take time to be updated to support new devices, and at that point there wasn't a simple solution. It seemed inevitable that Google would leverage existing Google Talk video support to enable video chat not just between phones but also the desktop.

Google today announced just what we've been waiting for. First party video chat support is coming in Android 2.3.4 to Nexus S devices as an OTA update in the next few weeks. Other Android 2.3+ devices will get the update in the future depending on manufacturer OTA update releases. 

The update will enable video chat support on devices over 3G, 4G (if your carrier supports it) or WiFi between enabled Android 2.3+ smartphones and tablets, and the desktop Google Talk client. 

 

In the client, a video or voice chat button will appear next to contacts which can then be tapped to initiate the chat. The client will suspend video chat and continue audio as well if the video chat session loses focus in Android, and any text chat recieved will be superimposed on the ongoing video chat. The interface looks like a slimmed-down version of what we saw in Android 3.0 on the Motorola Xoom. 

Google has also provided a short video demonstrating overall functionality. 

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Netbook Navigator Announces $649 Windows 7 Tablet PC - NAV7

Netbook Navigator today announced the launch of the NAV7 Slate PC. Powered by Windows 7 and loaded with innovative best-in-class features, this cutting-edge new tablet redefines the concept of wireless PC mobility. Weighing just 1.25 lbs and equipped with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, up to 2GB RAM, 1.8" Solid State hard drive with up to 64GB of storage, 2 USB ports, front-side webcam, WIFI, Bluetooth and optional embedded 3G broadband. Battery life is so-so, as the device has a swappable battery good for roughly 4 hours of use per charge. The NAV7 is now available for pre-order in limited quantities on first come, first serve basis with over 30 different configuration options starting from $649. Orders placed in March are expected to ship in May 2011.

"We are really excited about the launch of our NAV7 tablet," said Matthew Gross, CEO and Founder of Netbook Navigator. "Unlike most other tablets on the market, the NAV7 offers the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously on a single screen without any limitations whatsoever. With millions of PC applications to choose from, the possibilities are endless."

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Corsair Announces DDR3 2000MHz Vengeance Memory Kits

Corsair today announced the availability of 2000MHz versions of the award-winning Vengeance family of DDR3 memory. The new 2000MHz kits are equipped with aluminum heat spreaders anodized in Jet Black. They join the 1600MHz Vengeance DDR3 memory kits, which are available in either Jet Black or Cerulean Blue, and the 1866MHz Vengeance DDR3 kit, available in Jet Black. The new 2000MHz kits have SPD timings of 9-9-9-24 and operate at just 1.5V.

"Our new 2000MHz Vengeance memory is perfect for PC gamers and enthusiasts, as well as systems integrators who value the outstanding overclockability of the Vengeance family, and are looking for even more speed." said Thi La, Vice President of Memory Products at Corsair. "They're a great choice for anyone looking to make the most of their high-performance system."

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NVIDIA Announces CUDA 4.0

The last time we discussed CUDA and Tesla in depth was in September of 2010. At the time NVIDIA had just recently launched their lineup of Fermi-powered Tesla products, and was using the occasion to announce the 3.2 version of their CUDA GPGPU toolchain. And though when we’re discussing the fast pace of the GPU industry we’re normally referring to NVIDIA’s massive consumer GPU products arm, the Tesla and Quadro businesses are not to be underestimated. An aggressive 6 month refresh schedule is not just good for consumer products it seems, but it’s good for the professional side too. NVIDIA’s CUDA team seems to have taken this to heart, and so here we are just shy of 6 months later with NVIDIA preparing to launch the next version of CUDA: CUDA 4.0.

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Asus announces Lamborghini VX7 Gaming Laptop

Asus is one of the most popular Laptop making brands and this time it has come out with a Lamborghini VX7 Gaming Laptop. This device runs on the Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS. It has some fantastic specifications which makes it unique. This new laptop comes with an 8 cell 5200mAh battery.

VX7 has got a 15.6 inch LED backlit display which provides a resolution count of 1920×1080 pixels. It also comes with a 2MP web camera, Blu ray combo drive, two speakers and 3GB of dedicated memory. The connectivity ports available are one USB 3.0 port and one HDMI output.

Other features that come packed with Lamborghini VX7 Gaming Laptop include a 2GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM quad core processor along with NVIDIA discrete graphics. This device is based on the Intel Huron River platform and has also got a GeForce GTX 460M graphics card.VX7 supports 16GB of RAM and has dual HDDs with up to 1.5TB of capacity.

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Asus announces Ultra thin laptop-Asus U36S

Asus has released a new ultra-thin laptop, called the Asus U36S. This laptop is base on 2nd-gen Intel Core i5-2520M Sandy Bridge processor, dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, up to 750GB hard drive, Express Gate instant-on OS and Super Hybrid Engine power saving technology.

This Asus U36S laptop is equipped with a 13.3-inch glossy display, Wi-Fi, a multi-card reader, Gigabit Ethernet LAN, USB 3.0, two USB ports, HDMI and VGA output, and a 4-cell or 8-cell battery. Windows 7 is the installed operating system.

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Toshiba announces its latest tablet - Regza AT300 tablet Review , Specification, Price

Now Toshiba announced its now tablet Called as Regza AT300 Honeycomb tablet. Toshiba already is in the Laptop market and having lots of laptops version are available in the market.

Now is going to prove in tablet market where alots of competitor are available in the market like Samsung with its product Samsung Galaxy tab, Apple with iPad2, Acer with Iconia etc

This new Toshiba tablet is powered by the 1GHz NVIDA Tegra 2 dual core processor which offers great processing speed. This is an Android based device which runs on the 3.0 Honeycomb version of this OS. The 10.1 inch size of this device is flaunted by the capacitive touchscreen which offers a resolution count of 1280×800 pixels. There also comes a 1GB RAM along with 16GB of internal memory space.
A 5MP camera fitted on the rear side and a 2MP front facing camera offers the facility of video calling to the users. The connectivity options offered by Regza AT300 are Wifi internet browsing option as well as Bluetooth. The additional specifications provided are USB port, mini USB port, HDMI port and SD card space.

Toshiba Regza AT300 Tablet Specifications
* powered by NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor
* 10.1-inch “Adaptive Display” at 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution
* 1GB RAM
* 16GB internal memory
* Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS
* Dual camera with 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera
* WiFi 802.11b/g/n & Bluetooth for connectivity
* interfaces: HDMI, SD, miniUSB, headphones socket
* battery life: 7 hours
* weight: 765g, size: 177×273×15.8mm
* Features REGZA Apps Connect for connect the Regza AT300
  with other Toshiba Regza devices like HDTVs, Blu-ray player, laptops, smartphones or media players

1st it is going to be launched in Japan Market then world wide price of this Tablet yet to be announced in Us and India market but Japan Price will be  ¥60,000
 Release date will be before June 2011.

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Qualcomm's Announces Krait CPU: The Successor to Scorpion

Krait, like Scorpion before it, is a ground-up CPU design by Qualcomm. The architecture will debut at 28nm and run at speeds of up to 2.5GHz. This is compared to the ~2GHz target frequency for high end Cortex A15 devices. Again we know nothing about the architecture or pipeline of Krait so it's impossible to draw any conclusions based on this information alone. Qualcomm announced that Krait is up to 150% faster than "currently available ARM-based CPU cores". Again this could mean anything as ARM11, Cortex A8 and Cortex A9 cores are all "currently available". The Krait cores will be integrated into SoCs in single, dual and quad-core configurations.  First let me explain Qualcomm's nomenclature. There are three prefixes you need to be familiar with: QSD, MSM and APQ. QSD was the original prefix applied to Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs, it has since been retired and replaced with MSM. Going forward you won't see any more QSD products, they'll all be called MSM-something (e.g. MSM8960). The QSD prefix was a remnant of the original marketing strategy behind Snapdragon. If you paid attention to HP's webOS announcements you'll know that the new TouchPad uses a new Qualcomm SoC - the APQ8660. The APQ prefix stands for Application Processor Qualcomm and it refers to an SoC that does not have an integrated modem. The MSM line all have integrated Qualcomm modems making them a single chip solution for those customers who want the added integration. With that out of the way let's get to what's being announced today. Krait will debut in three configurations: a single-core MSM8930, dual-core MSM8960 and quad-core APQ8064. The MSM8960 will be available first, sampling in Q2 2011 and likely in devices a year or so later. The sampling schedule seems a bit aggressive given that it's 28nm but that's what Qualcomm is saying. The MSM8960 integrates a multi-mode 3G/LTE modem, which should make this a very attractive SoC for future high end smartphones. The SoC adds a dual-channel LPDDR2 memory controller and uses an Adreno 225 GPU. Qualcomm states that the 225 is eight times the speed of the original Adreno 200. Given that the Adreno 205 was 2x the 200, that would make the Adreno 225 4x the performance of the fastest Adreno GPUs we have today.  Both the single-core MSM8930 and the quad-core APQ8064 will be sampling in early 2012. The MSM8930 also integrates a 3G/LTE modem but it adds an Adreno 305 GPU. The 305 is supposed to be six times the performance of the original 200. I expect the MSM8930 to be used in upper mainstream smartphones, while the MSM8960 will be more of a high end smartphone SoC. As an APQ, the quad-core 8064 has no integrated modem but it does have four Krait cores (capable of running at asynchronous clock speeds so core 0 could run at a different frequency than core 3 depending on load). This sounds a lot like a tablet SoC. The APQ8064 integrates an Adreno 320 GPU, which Qualcomm says offers performance similar to today's gaming consoles. The 320 features four GPU cores. The Adreno 320 is listed as being 15x the performance of the original Adreno 200.Feeding the CPU cores is LPDDR2 memory interface, although standard DDR3 can also be used. The 8064 also has a PCIe interface and support for up to a 20MP camera. These Krait based SoCs will go up against ARM Cortex A15 based solutions (e.g. TI's OMAP 5). Intel's Medfield (32nm Atom) SoC will also be a competitor here.]]>

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Microsoft Announces a Host of Windows Phone 7 Updates

At MWC 2011, Microsoft just announced a number of improvements for WP7 including the timeline for when its first update will be pushed to devices.

The update with app-loading performance improvements and copy paste support we demoed back at CES finally got a more specific release date - it's slated to launch in early March. A number of other updates are slated for 2011, though Microsoft wouldn't assign a specific date. Those updates include multitasking support for 3rd party applications, better cloud synchronization, more web-services built into hubs, and a completely new web browser.

Microsoft recognizes that the browser is probably the single most important mobile application. It needs to be speedy, needs to be usable, and needs to have full feature parity with desktop browsers. Though the WP7 browser feels very fast translating and zooming around, JavaScript was slow and HTML5 support was nonexistent. It was based on the older Trident engine used in pre-IE9 browsers, and never felt like it really belonged in the Web 2.0 or HTML5 era. Coming in 2011, WP7 will get a major update with an IE9 browser complete with the same level of GPU acceleration and HTML5 compatibility of its desktop brother. WP7's mobile IE9 browser will use the same core rendering engine as IE9's. 

Mobile IE9 includes HTML5 support for the video tag as well. That's the same H.264 support as IE9 has on the desktop.

 

Next, WP7 will better leverage Microsoft's cloud assets, including SkyDrive support in the office hub. Other hubs are getting updates that include faster cloud sync. One of the major curiosities when WP7 launched was the absence of twitter support. Also part of 2011 will be an update that brings twitter integration in the people hub. 

Probably the most major update, however will be inclusion of 3rd party multitasking support. Fast application re-hydration and a task manager menu are the key changes. The new multitasking interface allows for task switching using the back button. Pressing and holding the back button brings up a ring-switcher interface with screenshots of running applications.

Finally, Microsoft demonstrated an impressive example of cross WP7 and Xbox connectivity with a demo of users controlling the placement of obstacles in Kinect Adventures. Microsoft needs to move quickly to deliver WP7 updates into the hands of existing users to keep the platform competitive as Android and iOS also roll out updates. 

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Sony Ericsson Announces Xperia Play, Neo, and Pro

Sony Ericsson’s big news from Barcelona is obviously the Xperia Play, the mysterious and oft-rumoured PSP-phone. But they’ve also announced two new additions to the Xperia line - the Pro and the Neo. Between today’s new phones and the Xperia Arc from CES, SE has a complete stable of new devices to take on the rest of the smartphone world.

Read on for more details.

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LG Announces 4-Pronged Mobile Strategy for 2011

On the first day of MWC 2011, LG announced its four-part smartphone and tablet strategy for 2011 as part of what it's calling a "new beginning" for becoming a key contender in the mobile space.

The strategy is simple and four-pronged. The first is dual-core and multi-core processing for performance. We've already taken a look at the LG Optimus 2X, the first dual-core phone, and found that it brought Android an appreciable speed increase. The software on the Optimus 2X is getting more stable - we're told the instability we saw in our review unit is totally fixed in newer builds, which we're having flashed. 

The second part is display innovation, which no doubt is a reference to the LG Optimus Black and its super-bright NOVA display, or the inclusion of 3D stereoscopic displays on other LG smartphones. We got to look at the NOVA briefly at CES and were impressed with how bright and contrasty the display is, and we'll look at it in due time. Hopefully NOVA displays will move into more displays beyond just the Black. 

The third arm is 3D - which brings us to the LG Optimus 3D. As we already mentioned, the LG Optimus 3D is OMAP4 based with an OMAP4 4430 and features a glasses-free autostereoscopic 3D display and stereoscopic camera. The 3D camera system consists of two rear-facing 4 MP cameras spaced 24 mm apart. Recording in 3D also includes a live 3D preview with real-time adjustible depth control. We got a few minutes to look at the Optimus 3D and came away decently impressed with the glasses-free 3D screen. You can't see it above, but that golf game is entirely 3D on the Optimus 3D.

LG is aggressively  marketing fact that the Optimus 3D is both dual-core and dual-channel. By dual-channel, LG is referencing OMAP4's dual-channel LPDDR2 memory interface. The Optimus 3D is listed as having 4 Gigabits of RAM translating to 512 MB. LG showed off the overall quadrant score of the 3D, and though we're not completely sold on Quadrant being a competent benchmark that truly reflects performance, the 2958 score is impressive next to 2670 which we saw on the Optimus 2X. The Optimus 3D captures 3D at 720P and 2D in 1080P. We look forward to benchmarking OMAP4 in due time. 

Physical Comparison Samsung Galaxy S FascinateLG Optimus 2XMotorola Atrix 4GSamsung Galaxy S IILG Optimus 3DHeight106.17 mm (4.18")123.9 mm (4.87")117.8mm125.3mm128.8 mmWidth63.5 mm (2.5")63.2 mm (2.48")63.5mm66.1mm68 mmDepth9.91 mm (0.39")10.9 mm (0.43")10.95mm8.48mm11.9 mmWeight127 grams (4.5 oz)139.0 grams (4.90 oz)135.0 grams116 grams168 gramsCPU1 GHz Samsung HummingbirdNVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core Cortex-A9 (AP20H) @ 1 GHzNVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core Cortex-A9 (AP20H) @ 1 GHzSamsung Exynos 4210 Dual-Core Cortex A9 @ 1GHzTI OMAP 4430 Dual-Core A9 @ 1 GHzGPUPowerVR SGX 540ULV GeForce @ 100-300 MHzULV GeForce @ 100-300 MHzARM Mali-400 MPPowerVR SGX 540RAM512 MB LPDDR1512 MB LPDDR2 @ 600 MHz data rate1024 MB LPDDR2 @ 600 MHz data rate1GB512 MB LPDDR2 - Dual-ChannelNAND2 GB, 16 GB microSD (Class 2)8 GB integrated (5.51 GB internal SD, 1.12 phone storage), up to 32 microSD16 GB integrated, up to 32 microSD16 GB integrated, up to 32 microSD8 GB integrated, up to 32 microSDCamera5 MP with auto focus and LED flash8 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 1080p24 video recording, 1.3 MP front facing5 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 720p video recording, VGA MP front facing8 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 1080p video recording, 2MP front facingDual 5 MP autofocus stereoscopic - 720P 3D capture, 1080P 2DScreen4" Super AMOLED 800 x 4804" IPS LCD 800 x 480

4" PenTile LCD 960 x 540

4.3" Super AMOLED Plus 800x480

4.3" Autostereoscopic 3D LCD 800x480

LG has secured a strategic partnership with YouTube to enable the Optimus 3D to both upload and locally play 3D content. YouTube feels that the Optimus 3D provides a leading 3D experience by enabling record and playback, and and in this way will catalyze 3D adoption.

The Optimus 3D also has a dedicated 3D interface, including some preloaded 3D games from gameloft. It looks like NOVA (as in the game, not the display - how's that for a namespace collision) will be an included HD 3D title. 

 

The fourth part of LG's strategy is getting into the "true tablet war" with the Optimus Pad. 

LG wants the Optimus Pad to be an optimal balance between portability and productivity with an 8.9" size, and thinks it has the form factor right. The size is indeed an interesting balance between the 7" and 10" form factors we've seen thus far. LG made numerous illustrative comparisons with the Galaxy Tab and iPad.

The Optimus Pad is NVIDIA Tegra 2 powered, running Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and also incorporates a 3D camera system consisting of two 5 MP cameras. There's a host of preview modes, including mixed, anaglyph, and side-by-side viewing. There's also HDMI 1.4 output to playback that 3D on appropriate displays. The Optimus Pad also brings a 2 MP front facing camera (which seems to be the new standard) for HD video conferencing. We got some time with the Optimus Pad and plan to publish our impressions of the tablets we've seen so far in the next few days of MWC.

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The Optimus Pad will be available in April, the Optimus 3D in May.

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HP Announces TouchPad, Veer and Pre 3: All Powered by Qualcomm

We're here at HP's webOS 2.1 event in San Francisco. HP has announced a couple of big things today; a tablet (HP TouchPad), a (tiny) smartphone (HP Veer) and a professional phone (the Pre 3), all running the webOS 2.1 operating system.

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