I spent a few hours researching and pulling together information on the SmartQ5 this morning and feel more positive about it now than I did a few weeks ago.
The SmartQ5 looks good and has an amazing price (local price in China approx $132.) It has a good screen size/resolution and with Ubuntu (ARM), an good supply of software. As a media/internet/e-book reader/photo browser/travel device, there’s definitely a lot of pocketable value there. The 667Mhz ARM11 CPU should make it faster than the Nokia tablet devices and the large 7.5wh battery should keep it running for a long long time between charges.
If it was ever available in Europe or US though, you’d be looking at something like $199 which puts it close to the offers that occasionally float around for the N810. (cdw.com have it for $226 as I write) With GPS, keyboard, camera, a healthy user-base and local-country support, the N810 is the better MID option in my eyes but that’s only if you can find an offer.
It’s difficult to comment with any authority when you’ve never even had hands-on so if you’ve been thinking about the Smart Q, keep an eye on the new SmartQ5 product page where we’ll be adding info, images and links as they come along. One of the first to be added was an unboxing photo-set from Kam Leung. There’s also an unboxing from ‘Sky’ over at UMPCFever. [translation link]
Netbooknews.de have posted a video via (PDA.pl) from ARM that shows the Wistron Netbook, a thin, Sony Vaio-like netbook baed on the Quallcom Snapdragon CPU and running Linux. Jump to the action at 2:32
I really realy want to get my hands on a snapdragon-based device as soon as possible. I want to feed back to you all on the real-world browsing speed and capabilities.
While it’s very exciting to be thinking about OMAP 4 and Sparrow, they are a long, long way away from being a reality in a device. More interesting today are the Cortex A8-based products. Texas Instruments have the OMAP3 platform which includes a Cortex A8 core and you can find it in a number of leading-edge computing products like Open Pandora, the BeagleBoard and, when it launches, the Palm Pre. As these and other OMAP34xx devices reach the market, Ti will be feeding in a new range of OMAP3 platforms known as the OMAP36xx series. The platform doesn’t change much in terms of building blocks but there are important incremental improvements all round. The platforms will be available for sampling in Q3 2009 which probably means 2010 production and products.
Most important are the improvements brought by moving to a 45nm process (as the Intel Atom uses) which are said to improve efficiency by up to 25%. An extra 30 minutes mobile browsing time here and there is never a bad thing! Key features reported on the press release are shown below.
45 nm CMOS process technology delivers higher performance with lower power consumption versus the OMAP34x family, including an approximately 25% reduction in power and 75% improvement in graphics performance.
Robust multi-tasking platform that supports running multiple applications in parallel by simultaneously exercising the CPU, multimedia performance and 2D/3D graphics engines.
Dedicated 2D/3D graphics hardware accelerator, enabling more immersive user interfaces and compelling graphics for applications like realistic 3D gaming.
Smart pixel technology via OpenGL ES 2.0 delivers stunning imaging capabilities through advanced reflection effects and life-like facial features.
Supports multi-standard 720p HD functionality for HD video recording and playback.
Integrated image signal processor (ISP) supporting up to 12 megapixel (MP) imaging for enhanced photographic image quality and fast shot-to-shot camera performance.
Pre-integrated support for mobile connectivity, including TI’s current and future combo WiLinkTM Wi-Fi solutions, NaviLinkTM GPS solutions, and BlueLinkTM Bluetooth(r) solutions.
That’s not me adding the ‘MID’ label there, that’s exactly what Texas Instruments are saying as they announce the OMAP 4 series of platforms.
OMAP 4 is built using the next generation of ARM Cores, Cortex A9 MPCore, which allow for dual-core builds.
Helping Smartphone and Mobile Internet Device (MID) manufacturers shape the future of the mobile market with innovative devices, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced the new OMAPâ„¢ 4 mobile applications platform. The OMAP 4 platform delivers new, stunning, multimedia-rich user experiences such as 1080p video record and playback, 20 megapixel (MP) imaging and approximately a week of audio play time. The new platform provides significant improvements in performance and play time compared to today’s most popular Smartphones, with 10x faster Web page loading times, more than 7x higher computing performance, 6x higher video resolution, 10x better graphics performance and 6x longer audio play time.
The last time I spoke to Ti, their definition of MIDs was slightly wider ranging than the average definition out there and included voice-enabled sliders, tablets and netbooks so you can see why they are giving it such weighting.
Putting the figures into perspective from the above excerpt, I’d say they’re talking about performance levels well above the baseline 800Mhz Silverthorne Atom from Intel. Maybe something around the 1.3Ghz Atom level that we see today. Of course that’s an educated guess. Real-world speed really depends on software and ergonomics in addition to raw power.
There’s a lot of information to digest on the press release and accompanying white papers but don’t worry too much unless you intend to use it in multi-million quantities , it’s initially aimed at large volume wireless carriers and won’t be in production until late 2010. For you, me and the rest of the potential customers out there, we’ve still got the OMAP 3 platform to look forward to. Now where’s that new Nokia Tablet?
Maybe its just something that Intel said but it looks like the Atom vs Cortex (ARM V7) fight is continuing into the next round at MWC. ARM have just send out a press release highlighting that there will be a Cortex-A8 processor vs Intel Atom power comparison on the stand at MWC!
Note that it say’s ‘power’ comparison. Well it’s not exactly hard to demo that one. The best Intel Atom device takes 3-4W. The best Cortex based devices take about 2W under similar usage scenarios. Simple. The problem is, it could take twice as long to do something on a Cortex device. I hope they demo web pages rather than the mostly irrelevant video playback comparison that most companies fall back on. Lets see decoding of a full-screen YouTube SD video in CPU and running 5 tabs of flash-enabled web pages, constantly refreshing!
Other highlights include a Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha release, Cortex A9 demo, Pegatron Netbook.
first public demonstration of two new technologies working together that will be key to the future of the mobile industry: The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore™ multicore processor delivering notebook performance with the power footprint of mobile, and Symbian OS SMP capability
Launch of wide range of innovative devices including the G1 handset and the first Cortex™-A8 processor-powered mobile phones.
Cortex-A8 processor vs Intel Atom power comparison
Pegatron Netbook running Ubuntu
Hybrid Notebook
Ubuntu with Firefox 3
Phoenix Technologies™ Hyperspace™ running on Cortex-A8 processor
Thinkfree™ office suite with Sun’s Java SE on Qualcomm SnapDragon™-powered Inventec Netbook
TI® OMAP™ Zoom2 reference design running Android.
Alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04 for ARM will be shown running on Cortex-A8 processor-based systems. Ubuntu 9.04 is scheduled for full release in April 2009.
No hint of a new Nokia Tablet there but maybe Nokia want to keep it to themselves! Don’t get you’re hopes up too high though. We’re not expecting a new tablet to be available until the summer.
Engadget seem quite impressed with the Pegatron Freescale-based netbooks. 8.9-inch screen, 8 hour battery life, 8GB of storage and retail prices near the $199 mark. Pegatron will be working with Ubuntu to get the ARM-compatable distribution cleaned up and ready for a late Spring launch.
Maybe it’s just the design that Engadget are impressed with though. “The limitation here is obviously straight-up processing power — it’s not very impressive, and certainly slower than Intel’s Atom” say Engadget but it’s clear (check the video below) that it’s a whole lot faster than ARM devices we’ve seen in the past. Cortex A8 seems to be hitting the right mark.
VRLabs just tipped me off on an article they have about Zii. ‘Stem Cell Computing’ is the tag-line that Creative are using and the product appears to be a processing engine built around two ARM9 cores aimed at a wide range of consumer focused products.
Its difficult to tell exactly if it’s a single chip computer or a complete computer ecosystem including hardware and software but just by looking at some of the marketing images, it’s clear that one of it’s target markets is low-cost connected and media devices. MIDs.
Creative is going to make the SDKs available to developers today, and is also working with many OEM partners worldwide to bring out products based on the ZMS. One familiar name is MSI, which will be working closely with ZiiLABS for their future low cost, high performance Internet-ready devices.
We’ll keep a close eye on this and try to get more detail ASAP.
I haven’t go much to add to this video except to say that I can’t wait to see the next one where EvilDragon will demonstrate Firefox. For more info on OpenPandora, the Ti OMAP-based open-source mini PC see our info page or the OpenPandora website.
