Technology Android

[masta247]

A video of the X Phone leaked

And pricing too. Apparently it's going to be 299$ for the 16gb version and 349$ for the 32gb version. It's a little more than I expected, bordering on too much for what it is. I hope its camera lives up to its hype, so it could make up for the performance difference (Nexus 4 costs 299$ and it has 4 of the same CPU cores instead of 2). Also to put it in perspective the Xperia SP is about 50 Euro cheaper, it has about the same specs, bigger battery, micro sd slot and is waterproof.

This X phone uses AMOLED, but not from Samsung. It dims the screen like cheapest ass LCDs do, by making it flicker black frames.. (1:19 on the video). Samsung's implementation is way more mature. The screen is super reflective too.

 

[dilla]

So, unless I rape the girl or let her know about my bestiality fetish, I think she's gonna buy my $100 tablet for $250. Cash. LOL!

Now that I've said it aloud (on the internet) watch the universe conspire against me.

Gonna try and unload my dad's BlackBerry Shitty 9000 for $150 and see if someone will buy it. If someone agrees to that, I might just feel bad and give it to him for $130 or something. But coons here are crazy, man, about electronics. Base model MacBook Pro is $2000 in Nigeria. Fuck Apple if I was Niggerian. Compaq it is, nigga.

If I can sell this successfully, I'm gonna push my MBP hard for $1300 and include pirated versions of Word, Aperture, PhotoShop, and Logic Pro (every black guy thinks he's the next Dre, so that should work in my favor).

 

[masta247]

That's a huge lol, the X Phone video leaked in March, but it went unnoticed because it looked like an uninteresting mid-end for some American carrier, like Verizon. Look, lmfao:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0EKWvphCUeQ

 

[dilla]

I wish I were lying, but I took a three hour nap and had a nightmare that three guys I'm friends with this semester and I were hanging out and were also friends with this girl (who I do not know) and the tablet was brought up by one of them and the other one asked which one and how much and straight up told them it was a rip off. The third guy got on the phone right away and called the girl to tell her not to buy it, and I stood there feeling as if I had been raped in the mouth by syphillitic horse cocks.

It was horrible. And I wish I was lying that I had this nightmare.

I gotta clear everything on it and get it to her first thing in the morning tomorrow before she changes her mind or, worse yet, looks it up on Amazon and see that it originally ran WebOS. That'll get a girl dry faster than a wet vac would.

 

[dilla]

Fuck, I'm having second doubts again between the 7.2 and the Mini. I watched a review that showed the Mini's hardware being superior to that of the N7. Seems like the overall user experience on the Mini is better.

He is a tad eccentric, but he seems to be pretty objective in his analysis.

 

[masta247]

I watched a review that showed the Mini's hardware being superior to that of the N7.

oO. It's basically 4 A9 cores on the Nexus 7 vs 2 A9 cores on the Ipad Mini. N7's chipset is clearly superior. And N7.2 is about 3 times faster because of Krait CPU architecture that is also higher clocked. At that point lags and choppy UI won't matter anymore.

Asus saved some cash on such things as speakers though, some people complained about it. They are fine imho, not really great though but they do their job.

The Ipad mini has slightly superior GPU compared to the N7, but it only matters in games. The second gen N7 runs Adreno 320 which runs circles around Tegra 3 or Ipad Mini's GPU. It's basically getting close to Xbox 360 performance, to put it in perspective.

iOS benefits from better optimizations, so lots of things might feel smoother on it. They don't need to pack as much punch for smooth UI rendering because of how the OS works.

Funny the video clearly focused on things that are Android-specific flaws (choppy UI), or are known N7s worse sides (the speakers, average front facing camera). The N7 will launch apps quicker because of much faster chipset, will display multimedia content better because of 16:9 screen and generally handle all sorts of file types and tasks better because of Android.
To me, however, the worst part about the Ipad Mini is how weird it feels. The N7 feels just perfect in hand and feels really comfortable to operate and imho provides much better experience. No matter how long you spend with the Ipad Mini it will still feel kinda awkward, because it's too wide to hold comfortably in one hand.
Oh and It's more expensive too.

 

[dilla]

Yeah, maybe that's what gets it the smoother experience. If you watch the video and go to the part where he has the fish in a tank thing going, you'll see the difference in FPS and all. I think it's towards the end.

I talked to a friend that is an Apple Genius and he was telling me that it is possible there is a Mini refresh in October. Whether it has Retina or not, is another issue. I just hope they don't jack up the prices. They should make it $299, if anything, from $329 to compete better with the 7.2.

Also isn't the Mini A5? That's what Wiki is saying.

 

[masta247]

Also isn't the Mini A5? That's what Wiki is saying.

Yeah, Apple A5 is Cortex A9, Samsung's implementation. It's pretty much the same chip that powered the Galaxy S2, but with different GPU (that's where "Apple designed" comes from, they wanted a different GPU from PowerVR).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A5

Tegra 3 has 4 A9 cores, it's pretty much the same that powered the HTC One X, but slightly lower clocked.

 

[masta247]

Tadam:

The screen looks much improved. The colors are better saturated and contrast is higher. Other than that it feels like any Nexus 7, just newer and better. There's a notification LED there too, which is a new addition. Overall it's going to be the coolest tablet again, in my opinion.

 

[masta247]

Soo, I've watched the Google event. Android 4.3 is NOTHING new. Literally. It brings App Permission management for multiple user accounts, notification history and Open GL ES 3.0, that most GPUs don't support and almost nobody will use it anyway. That's it, that's all, there's nothing more. Wish they waited out until 5.0, it'll only give OEMs unnecessary work bringing phones to 4.3. I said the 4.2 upgrade was disappointing but now it's even so much worse.

The new Nexus 7 is awesome though. The announcement made me really want it. It's 50g lighter, 2mm slimmer, the bezels are thinner so the device is narrower and shorter, the battery lasts an hour longer, the screen is awesome now, CPU is Snapdragon Pro, not 600 but it's still plenty fast.

 

[dilla]

I'm going to wait until Anandtech does a benchmark test comparing it to the current Mini and try and extrapolate the data for the updated Mini from there and make a decision then. Honestly, like I said before probably, I can live without a tablet for a few months. Or just never buy one. But I do enjoy reading digital subscriptions to magazines on there and it's nicer to view PowerPoints on it too.

But I'm thinking I can wait a bit, closer to the Holidays, to make a decision. I will just need to restrain myself from making an impulsive buy when either of these tablets are released and I'm back in the States.

 

[masta247]

Frankly I don't really get why you're still considering the Mini. It does nothing the N7 doesn't, is more expensive and less convenient to use. Especially now that the new gen Nexus 7 is damn awesome, packs a full HD screen and a fast chipset and is just being released. Also Android is way more funtional on a tablet.
Even the LTE version is cheaper than the cheapest mini.

 

[dilla]

I am considering the Mini based on its performance. It appears to be more fluid and snappier than the N7. The 7.2, I don't know. I just came back to this thread to watch the video you posted, or any video which shows 4.3 running on the 7.2 to see if any noticeable improvements were made.

What do you mean it is less convenient to use? Airplay sounds like a real neat feature to have too.

I do like Android's OS more, for the reason you said; it is more functional. And while the OS is a big part of a purchasing decision, the fact that apps run smoother on the Mini than on the N7 kind of paradoxically cancels out the arguments. The N7 doesn't do one thing perfectly, like the Mini does with graphics. And if the 7.2 does pass the Mini, it'll be passing antiquated hardware, which is not something to really brag about. And if rumors are true for an October Mini refresh, who's to say the Mini won't pass the 7.2 merely 2-3 months after the 7.2's release?

Which is why "waiting" is the game I'm going to try and play until then. Has anything been mentioned about the wireless charging? Will it come equipped out of the box, or will I need to buy an external pod or stand or whatever? Because then that's -1 for the 7.2.

 

[masta247]

It's not performance on the Mini that is better. It's iOS that renders its UI smoother. The N7 will still push way more computations per second so tasks will get completed faster. iOS pushes all of its resources for UI rendering. I bet playing with the 7.2 you're not likely to be disappointed with performance. It'll be smooth too. I'm even satisfied with my N7's performance, despite the fact that my S4 is visibly smoother (it's super smooth actually).

Wireless charging is in the N7.2. In 4.3 it also works when the device is off.

The new Mini in best case scenario will get the retina display, which will still be less dense than the N7.2's display and the A6X chipset. Although I doubt the latter. A6X cores perform on par with Krait cores, but there are 2 of them in A6X.

Here's a good list of upgrades to the N7:

http://www.gsmarena.com/new_nexus_7_brings_wuxga_screen_nexus_4_chipset-news-6454.php

 

[ARon]

Official 4.3

 

[dilla]

It's not performance on the Mini that is better. It's iOS that renders its UI smoother. The N7 will still push way more computations per second so tasks will get completed faster. iOS pushes all of its resources for UI rendering. I bet playing with the 7.2 you're not likely to be disappointed with performance. It'll be smooth too. I'm even satisfied with my N7's performance, despite the fact that my S4 is visibly smoother (it's super smooth actually).

Wireless charging is in the N7.2. In 4.3 it also works when the device is off.

The new Mini in best case scenario will get the retina display, which will still be less dense than the N7.2's display and the A6X chipset. Although I doubt the latter. A6X cores perform on par with Krait cores, but there are 2 of them in A6X.

Here's a good list of upgrades to the N7:

http://www.gsmarena.com/new_nexus_7_brings_wuxga_screen_nexus_4_chipset-news-6454.php

I'll check the upgrade list out. Last I read about wireless charging, it was still a rumor, so not many details had been posted on how it would work and all.

I am not good with the technical stuff, like computations per second and rendering and this and that, but I do know that when I saw the video, the experience was smoother on iOS, whether it be that fish aquarium app or the Facebook app, both shown in the video. The N7 couldn't even keep up when the load was doubled. How do you explain that?


On a side note, to put into perspective my coonery, a brand new, still-in-box Galaxy Tab 3 is selling for $400. My TouchPad, as mentioned earlier, $250. All on the same island.

 

[Pittsey]

Wireless charging is a wanker. I have wireless charging in my N4. Can't buy the fucking orb in the UK though...! Twats.


And.... Low power Bluetooth. That's enough of an upgrade for me.

Now... How do I stick the 4.3 download on my phone?

 

[masta247]

I am not good with the technical stuff, like computations per second and rendering and this and that, but I do know that when I saw the video, the experience was smoother on iOS, whether it be that fish aquarium app or the Facebook app, both shown in the video. The N7 couldn't even keep up when the load was doubled. How do you explain that?

They are not the same apps. Facebook for iOS is a little smoother and it looks like an ancient version of FB too, before they rebuilt it in native code in the Android version. The fish tank demo was run through a browser and it's a browser benchmark, much less hardware benchmark because it only runs on one CPU core. Chrome for Android is not really a super fast browser - it's a work in progress. It still constantly scores much lower in javascript benchmarks and browser performance benchmarks than Stock browsers and its hardware acceleration is minimal so far.
Also they forgot to make the resolution equal - Nexus 7 has a lot more pixels to push - the pixel density is 50% higher than on Mini. Combine that with the fact that Tegra 3 is a weaker GPU and you get lower frame rates. Adreno 320 in 7.2 is literally over 4 times faster than Tegra 3.
Overall the tests chosen in that video were pretty terrible though.

If you compare app launch times, CPU intensive app performance (or any apps that benefit from multithreading), unzip/unrar/file open time, smoothness in movie players etc etc. it's going to get much better on the N7. The Mini can't even do 720p Youtube movies by the way. It's limited to SD, 480p.

Also, we're still talking about first gen N7, the 7.2 is a really huge improvement.

 

[dilla]

Well, I guess I'll just have to use both at a store and see which is worth it. It would be easier if the Mini was rumored to be updated next year rather than now. I could satiate my impulse to buy now...now.

7" seems just a smidge too small for me. Someone in my class has the Nexus 7 and I still haven't asked to hold it and use it and see how it feels.


So you explain the reasons the N7 can't keep up with the Mini in those benchmarks, but you don't explain why the Mini can't render 720P or why its CPU can't keep up with the N7's.

 

[dilla]

Some benchmarks http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013...ce-preview-a-huge-speed-upgrade-in-every-way/

I still can't get over the fact that I'm buying antiquated hardware. Similar internals to the N4? That's like six months old now. Or more.

Why?

I understand it's a bargain-bin tablet, but this seems like some shit Apple would do yet still label it as "new" and "amazing" and "ground-breaking."