ZTE Axon 7 Mini Now Available for Pre-Order

ZTE made a huge splash in the Android community with the release of the Axon 7 smartphone. When other OEMs shifted away from front-facing speakers on their flagships, ZTE used the Axon 7 to offer loud, Hi-Fi audio. The device offers an incredibly solid build for a smartphone in its price range, and it has the hardware specs inside to back it up. The company even made a bootloader unlock method available for the US variants in the first half of August.

Some people feel that the only thing holding back the Axon 7 is the stock software that ZTE chose to go with this year. We talk a lot about how great the OnePlus 3, and yet the Axon 7 has been able to keep up with the OnePlus 3 along the way. These two smartphones really do prove that an excellent build quality, swift software updates, and high-end specs does not need to make a smartphone cost $600 or more.

ZTE is looking to keep the momentum going with the Axon 7 by introducing a smaller variant of the device. The Axon 7 Mini was officially announced at the start of September, but it is now available for pre-order. Some feel that ZTE didn't downsize some components enough, while downsized others a little too much. For example, the ZTE Axon 7 Mini has a 5.2″ 1080p display while some were hoping that it would be closer to 5″. They also used the Snapdragon 617 SoC under the hood instead of continuing to use a high-end chip.

The ZTE Axon 7 Mini still offers a lot of what was truly loved in its original version though. The Hi-Fi front-facing speakers are still in place, there is a microSD card slot, and it supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 spec. The ZTE Axon 7 Mini is available for pre-order on their own website, as well as Amazon for just under $300.

Source: @AxonPhone

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A Look at What Has Changed from the Snapdragon 820 to the Snapdragon 821 in the Google Pixel Phones

We reached out to Qualcomm to get a better look at the Snapdragon 821 processor that is making an appearance in the upcoming Google Pixel and Pixel XL, the Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe, the Xiaomi Mi 5s, and the LeEco Le Pro 3. With the Snapdragon 821 in the Pixel phones running at the same clock speed as the regular Snapdragon 820, many people were asking what benefits the new SoC brings, and why choose it if they're not going to use the higher clock speeds it can bring.

Our interest was piqued when the Android Platform's Performance Lead mentioned that Google was not underclocking the Snapdragon 821 (contrary to popular belief), and thus implied that rather the version that they were using came running at the same speeds as the main version of the Snapdragon 820 by default.

The short version is that not much has physically changed in the design of the Snapdragon 821 from the 820, but we were able to make some interesting discoveries in the process. The Snapdragon 821 is a revision similar to the Snapdragon 801 and 800, and is brought about primarily by improving yields.

These improved yields have allowed Qualcomm to release essentially a revision of the Snapdragon 82x that can either use 5% less power at the same clock speeds as the original version, or be tuned for slightly higher clock speeds at around the same power usage as the 820. This follows closely in the footsteps of the Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 801, where the improved yields allowed Qualcomm to release a slightly improved version of the 800 halfway through their regular development cycle.

Qualcomm informed us that there are indeed two revisions of the Snapdragon 821. One running at the advertised maximum CPU and GPU clock speeds of 2.34 GHz and 653 MHz (respectively), and a separate one running at the same 2.15 GHz and 624 MHz that was found in the main Snapdragon 820. The Pixel phones are using the later one, which we have been informed is called the MSM8996 Pro-AB. While we have not yet been able to get confirmation about the name of the higher clocked model, if it is following the same model as the Snapdragon 800 and 801 chips, it may be either the MSM8996 Pro-AA or the MSM8996 Pro-AC.

One thing to note is that despite rumors to the contrary, Google did not pick the Snapdragon 821 because of the Snapdragon VR SDK. While definitely a nice tool, it works on both the Snapdragon 820 and 821, and is not a distinguishing feature between the two chips.

With how heavily Google was pushing the improvements to the Pixel phones' camera, we thought there might be some Image Signal Processor improvements, and at first glimpse there appeared to be, with the Snapdragon 820 being listed as being capable of processing 25 MP images at 30 Hz, and the Snapdragon 821 being listed as being capable of processing 28 MP images at 30 Hz; but that turned out to be a typo, which has since been corrected. The Qualcomm Spectra ISP in both SoCs are capable of processing the same 28 MP at 30 Hz.

Instead, Google sought out improvements to their HDR+ processing speed by finding ways to better leverage Qualcomm's Hexagon DSP, through the use of Qualcomm's Hexagon Vector eXtensions. Google is offloading substantial portions of processing for HDR+ to the Hexagon DSP that used to be handled by the CPU itself, and that has played a major role in both decreasing the time it takes to process HDR+ shots, and in allowing the Pixel phones to continue shooting HDR+ shots, with DXOMark finding that it could shoot one HDR+ shot every three seconds indefinitely. This pairs very well with the faster shooting capabilities brought about by the Sony Exmor RS IMX378 image sensor to create an exceptional camera.

While not directly related to the processor itself, Google has mentioned that they have put substantial work into helping improve the scheduler found in the Pixel phones, which is fantastic news as schedulers are, in the words of John Poole, "horrendously complicated pieces of code", and small improvements can have major impacts on real world performance.

Overall, the Snapdragon 821 should be a solid revision, but if you're looking for a big jump in performance, you're going to have to wait a couple more months to see the real next generation of chips start appearing in flagship phones next year (the rumored Snapdragon 830), which Qualcomm just announced will be using their new X16 LTE Modem. The new modem is particularly interesting, as it will bring some substantial improvements like LTE Dual SIM Dual Active, Category 16 and 13 downlink and uplink, multi-carrier 4×4 MIMO, 4×20 Carrier aggregation, and a theoretical peak download speed of 1 Gbps.

What do you think of the Snapdragon 821? Are you excited for its use in the Pixel phones, or are you rather anticipating next year's flagships with the Snapdragon 830 and the X16 LTE Modem?

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[LAST CALL!] Win an Honor 8: 4GB RAM, Dual-Camera, Premium Design

CONTEST ENDS TODAY!

We're back with another Honor 8 contest, and like before, it's open to all countries! You can enter the contest in numerous ways. Each point you earn is considered an entry, so the more points you earn, the higher your chances are of winning. As a reminder, the Honor 8 is the current flagship from Honor and sports dual-cameras, USB Type-C with fast-charging, a Kirin 950 CPU with 4GB RAM, and a 5.2″ 1080p display. We will pick the winner around during the week of October 17. Good luck!

Win a New Honor 8!

  Honor 8 XDA Review   Honor 8 Forums

  Win Stuff from Honor

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Introducing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 653, 626, and 427: Qualcomm Announces Successors to Popular Mid-Range SoCs

It has been a good year for Qualcomm so far — the Snapdragon 65x series has garnered rave reviews for providing stellar performance in the mid-range market segment, and the Snapdragon 820 has received an improved critical reception over the Snapdragon 810. To build on the successful year, Qualcomm has announced the successors to some of its popular SoC lineups for the midrange and entry-level market segments, the Snapdragon 653, 626, and 427.

First up is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 SoC, which as you may have guessed, is an incremental upgrade over the Snapdragon 652. When compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 653 provides an improvement of up to 10% higher performance and twice the addressable memory, with support for 8GB of RAM now. Further, the Snapdragon 653 is using the new X9 LTE modem which is found in the Snapdragon 625, an improvement over the X8 LTE modem found in the 652. The X9 LTE modem is still a Category 7 modem for downlink, same as the X8, however it does bring some extra features, namely the addition of Ultra HD Voice (EVS) over VoLTE (which was only supported by the X8 LTE modem on certain SoCs), Snapdragon Upload+, and Category 13 LTE uplink. Interestingly, the Snapdragon 653 also adds support for Qualcomm's Clear Sight dual camera technology, which is a fad that has been mostly limited to flagship devices. Only a couple devices like the Honor 8 and LG V20 have dual cameras so far, and even fewer utilize both cameras at the same time in the way that Qualcomm Clear Sight does. The Snapdragon 653 continues to use a 4xA72 + 4xA53 core combination on a 28 nm process with an Adreno 510 GPU and LPDDR3 RAM, like the Snapdragon 652 before it, however it increases the clock speed of the A72 cores to 1.95 GHz and has support for 802.11ac MU-MIMO.

The extremely power efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 from the lower mid-range is also seeing an upgrade with the Snapdragon 626 coming into the picture. Qualcomm promises an increase in performance of up to 10% over the 625, although the Cortex-A53 cores used in the Snapdragon 625 are not known for being particularly powerful. The Snapdragon 626 also adds support for dual cameras, and uses the X9 LTE modem as well. The Snapdragon 626 continues to use an 8xA53 core configuration on a 14 nm process with an Adreno 506 and USB 3.0 support, but it increases the clock speed to 2.2 GHz and has support for Bluetooth 4.2.

Towards the low end of the market, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 is seeing an upgrade in the form of the Snapdragon 427. The biggest improvement is the modem on this SoC, which is now an X9 LTE modem with support for Category 7 LTE downlink and Category 13 LTE uplink. This is a substantial improvement over the X6 LTE modem that was used in the Snapdragon 425 and 430, which was only capable of Category 4 and 5 downlink and uplink. Qualcomm is pushing for adoption of their Clear Sight technology relatively heavily, with even the Snapdragon 427 gaining support, although we remain skeptical about the finesse with which low end devices can handle dual-cameras. The Snapdragon 427 has the same 1.4GHz 4xA53 core design on a 28 nm process as its predecessor has. It also continues to use the Adreno 308 GPU that was found in the Snapdragon 425, which is disappointing to see, as it limits the SoC to OpenGL ES 3.0, which may cause issues with software updates.

With the Snapdragon 653, 626, and 427 all supporting Qualcomm Clear Sight technology, we may start to see dual camera setups trickle down to mid-range, and potentially even low-end, devices by mid 2017. It will be very interesting to see what effects this has on the cameras of mid-range Android phones, as that has historically been an area where they have struggled, and dual camera technology has shown some relatively impressive results.

Additionally, all three of these new SoCs support Quick Charge 3.0, helping solidify support for fast charging across Qualcomm's entire product lineup. This further increase in SoC support for Qualcomm Quick Charge will make it easier to find devices and accessories that can fast charge, even at the low end of the market. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 and the Snapdragon 626 will be commercially available by the end of 2016, while the Snapdragon 427 is expected to be commercially available in devices in early 2017.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Batteries Were Tested Within the Company

Now that the Galaxy Note 7 has been discontinued permanently, everyone wants to know what caused the issue with the batteries. Not only has Samsung launched an internal investigation into the issue, but the South Korean government has also jumped in with an investigation of their own. A lot of people seem to have their own theory as to what happened with the batteries, but no one has been able to present evidence to prove their case.

Some publications are putting the blame on the rounded edges of the Galaxy Note 7. The theory here is, that due to the rounded corners on the phone, there is a high probability that the battery cells will bend and make contact with another cell. Others have suggested that a tweak made to the hardware to increase the charge time is the underlying cause of the issue. This theory indicates that the batteries themselves were safe, but the way they were being charged was the culprit.

Again, there are multiple theories floating around but none have been proven as of right now. Interestingly enough though, a new report from The Wall Street Journal talks about how Samsung was in charge of the testing process for these batteries. This is unique because other smartphone OEMs use a 3rd-party lab to test whether or not the batteries used in their devices are safe or not.

In order to sell a smartphone in the United States, a handset OEM must have their batteries tested at one of the 28 labs certified by the U.S. wireless industry's trade group. According to CTIA, Samsung is the only manufacturer to use in-house battery-testing facilities. Both Lenovo and Nokia have operated CTIA-certified battery labs in the past, but both say their labs are in the process of being closed down. Further, Samsung's in-house testing had not revealed any issues with the Note 7 batteries.

Samsung says they are "working around the clock" to figure out what caused the issue with the Galaxy Note 7, and also plans to make "significant changes" in its quality-assurance processes. The company declined to comment whether it plans to use third-party labs for battery testing.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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Qualcomm Files Multiple Complaints Against Meizu for Patent Infringement

At the end of June, Qualcomm had filed a lawsuit against Meizu at the Intellectual Property Court in Beijing. The company was seeking 520 million Yuan in the lawsuit that claimed Meizu had infringed on multiple patents that Qualcomm owned. Meizu does not use Qualcomm chips in their smartphones, but they were allegedly using 3G and 4G patents that hadn't been licensed to them. Additionally, Meizu was not paying royalties, nor had asked for permission to make use of these patents either.

It seems the two companies have yet to settle their differences as Qualcomm has taken this fight to three additional countries. Qualcomm has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (aka the ITC), they have filed a patent infringement action in Germany with the Mannheim Regional Court, and they are initiating an infringement-seizure action in France in an attempt to obtain evidence for a possible future infringement action in that country.

Back in June, Meizu did publicly say they would be happy to pay royalties for the patents they were using, as long as the licensing fee was "reasonable." So it sounds like Qualcomm and Meizu were unable to negotiate a licensing fee that would satisfy both companies. Qualcomm says Meizu has refused to negotiate a licensing agreement and continues selling products around the world that infringe on their patents.

Don Rosenberg, the executive vice president and general counsel at Qualcomm, says Meizu is leaving them no other choice but to take legal action against them. Patent laws are in place for a reason and the company is simply protecting the patents they were awarded. Qualcomm feels that if Meizu isn't happy with the licensing deal they were offered, then they should stop selling products that infringe on other company's patents.

Meizu has not issued a public statement about these three new complaints at this time.

Source: Qualcomm

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Samsung Starts Mass Production of SoCs With 10nm FinFET Technology

Samsung has announced today that the company has started mass production of 10nm FinFET based System-on-Chips. The South Korean OEM claims that their SoC is the first one produced with such technology.

In comparison to its 14 nm predecessor, Samsung's new 10nm FinFET process (10LPE) adopts an advanced 3D transistor structure with additional enhancements in both process technology and design enablement. As a result, users should get a 27-percent performance boost, while the power consumption is expected to be reduced by a whopping 40 percent. In plain English and simpler context, this means that future Samsung devices should be more powerful while consuming less battery.

Company's Executive Vice President Jong Shik Yoon finds Samsung a leader in advanced process technology. According to him, the South Korean company will continue to deliver top-notch products to its customers. It's understandable that Samsung faces really strong competition in Qualcomm and MediaTek, with both the chipmakers craving to maintain their great market positions.

Newly announced chips will not be the only produced in the 10nm process. Samsung will also produce a second generation of system-on-chips (10LPP) "with performance boost". From what we learn, production for the same should commence in the second half of 2017.

According to the official press announcement, the company will sport its new chips in digital devices launching early next year. We have to remind that Samsung has recently ceased to produce the Galaxy Note 7 due to hardware defects. So while this new technology provides good opportunity to make up for lost reputation, it is all the more important to take one's time and do things right. We hope the upcoming SoCs help bridge the performance gap that the Android market sees when compared to Apple's SoCs.

What are your thoughts on the beginning of production on the 10nm process? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Samsung

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