Of course those mediatek quad core Cortex A7 SoCs have been on the market for a good 6 months, and will have probably around 9 months headstart over these Snapdragon 200 parts by the time they come to the market. Who knows what mediatek will have brewing in a few months time, they have already hit 1.5 Ghz with the MT6589.
OTOH, the mediatek chips are very weak when it comes to cellular connectivity. At best they offer 2 band WCDMA support, and they don't offer DSDA, which is a huge added bonus in these markets. Qualcomm can again leverage its cellular mastery and offer a tri-band or quad-band WCDMA solution and make life difficult for mediatek.
as a matter of functionality, a matter of how ARM devices function, and a matter of performance - I disagree entirely. A dual core environment is a gigantic hamstring on performance, whereas at least with 4 cores you have more flexibility of independent processor threads.
higher frequency cores ensure that: the processor does more. It also ensures that: battery drains faster, which is contrary to the explicit focus of ARM - battery efficiency. No thanks.
Dual Sims are common in asia; where it's cheaper to use multiple sims to send all your texts at lower on network rates even though not all of your friends/family use the same network is common.
I don't see why you mentioned "twice as much radiation." Microwaves, radio waves, and infrared are all non-ionising, and so pose no threat, unless you meant it clutters up the airwaves with one phone emitting what two phones may previously have emitted.
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j_newbie - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
mediatek is getting to them :DI love the competition in the ARM space.
aryonoco - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Yes, these seem to be squarely aimed at MT6589.Of course those mediatek quad core Cortex A7 SoCs have been on the market for a good 6 months, and will have probably around 9 months headstart over these Snapdragon 200 parts by the time they come to the market. Who knows what mediatek will have brewing in a few months time, they have already hit 1.5 Ghz with the MT6589.
OTOH, the mediatek chips are very weak when it comes to cellular connectivity. At best they offer 2 band WCDMA support, and they don't offer DSDA, which is a huge added bonus in these markets. Qualcomm can again leverage its cellular mastery and offer a tri-band or quad-band WCDMA solution and make life difficult for mediatek.
MrSpadge - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I'd rather have 2 weak cores at 1.5+ GHz than 4 weak ones at 1.2 GHz. Even better are 2 strong cores, of course..FwFred - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Agreed, though 1.2GHz seems to be the reasonable limit of an A7 on 28nm. ARM really has a big gap in their core lineup for smartphones.designerfx - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
as a matter of functionality, a matter of how ARM devices function, and a matter of performance - I disagree entirely. A dual core environment is a gigantic hamstring on performance, whereas at least with 4 cores you have more flexibility of independent processor threads.higher frequency cores ensure that: the processor does more. It also ensures that: battery drains faster, which is contrary to the explicit focus of ARM - battery efficiency. No thanks.
designerfx - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
battery (power) efficiency)Parag0n - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Why (and where) are dual sims used? And why might someone choose DSDS over DSDA?DanNeely - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Dual Sims are common in asia; where it's cheaper to use multiple sims to send all your texts at lower on network rates even though not all of your friends/family use the same network is common.madmilk - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
DSDA means two transreceivers. It's more expensive, takes more power, and emits twice as much radiation.McSherry - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
I don't see why you mentioned "twice as much radiation." Microwaves, radio waves, and infrared are all non-ionising, and so pose no threat, unless you meant it clutters up the airwaves with one phone emitting what two phones may previously have emitted.Krysto - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
This is getting pretty confusing. They are giving several different chips the same brand name, but different codenames? What the hell Qualcomm?