Watch: What Kind of Chinese Processors Chips You Should Look for on Your Android Tablet

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 12:24 AM, 603 views, 1 Comment »,

There are many cheap Chinese Android tablets on the market right now, if you were thinking of picking one up you might want some advice on what type of processor you should look for and avoid. The folks over at MobileGeeks has given us a brief explanation on a dual core Rockchip and an IMAP processor, both are common Chinese ARM processors in the same price range. Rockchip is manufactured by Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics company. Their chips are widly used in many China domestic brand that made low-cost Android tablets. While IMAP processor is produced by Shanghai InfoTM Microelectronics company, is a less developed IC design company compare to Rockchip. Allwinner processor is the new kids on the block. The red-hot Chinese fabless company has flooded the Chinese tablet market with its own turnkey system, and now Rockchip faces stiff competition. This year, Taiwan-based IC developer MediaTek joined in the party, the recent announced Lenovo budget Android tablets are all powered by MediaTek’s quad core SoC.

Asus Transformer AiO Will Officially Cost You US$1,299

Star Chang, Mar 9, 2013 7:29 AM, 358 views, 1 Comment »,

Asus first showed us its Transformer AiO — an 18.4-inch Full HD all-in-one/tablet combo that runs both Windows 8 and Android — back at last year Computex, then it showed up again at this year CES, the Tanwanese PC maker has finally given us a release date and a price for its giant tablet. Transformer AiO is a powerful desktop PC, running Windows 8, Intel Core CPU, a bunch of memory and hardisk storage. As a tablet, you can keep running Windows 8 in remote desktop mode or you can run Android Jelly Bean on the device with ARM processor. The Transformer AiO is expected to be available early second quarter at US$1,299 for the basic model. You will get a Windows 8 machine running on a Core i3, 4 GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive storage, and it also comes with a DVD-RW optical drive which properly nobody is going to use it. Popping it from the dock you will get a super-size tablet with its own internal specs: a quad-core Tegra 3, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of flash storage. We will see how the market respond to this crazy all-in-one concept.

New HTC One to Debut in China Before May

Star Chang, Mar 8, 2013 6:30 AM, 438 views, 1 Comment »,

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said that its newest flagship model, the HTC One, will hit store shelves in China before May. The company has been in talks with the top three telecom operators in China to sell the HTC One and the phone will likely go on sale before that country’s week-long holiday begins on May 1. The plan of the launching timetable is well assorted with the strong buying season during the country’s long holidays. HTC is also working on increasing the supply of the HTC One, the new phone has received strong demand from global operators. HTC has just announced the pricing for the flagship model in their home-grown market. HTC One will be priced starting from NT$19,900 (US$670), while the 32GB and 64GB models will be sold at NT$21,900 (US$738) and NT$24,900 (US$839), respectively (standalone device, without contract). The 16GB model of the HTC One will not be sold in China because it is a special version for Taiwan only.

Chinese Authorities Concern Too Much China’s Smartphones Run Google’s Android

Star Chang, Mar 6, 2013 5:44 PM, 507 views, 1 Comment »,

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Google has too much control over China’s smartphone industry via its Android OS, and the communist believe they had the ability to create its own mobile operating system. The authorities are not so happy while the core technology and roadmap is strictly controlled by Google. They are having a report saying Google had discriminated against some Chinese companies developing their operating systems by delaying the sharing of codes. Google had also used commercial agreements to restrain the business development of mobile devices of these companies …

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Xiaomi M3 Leaked From Foxconn, Showing It’s a Phablet With Aluminum Back Cover

Herman Lai, Feb 27, 2013 12:58 AM, 1,048 views, Got something to say ?,

Much of the spotlights are focusing on the latest smartphone and electronic devices at Mobile World Congress over in Barcelona. Unfortunately, we don’t see the Chinese superstar Xiaomi’s latest M2 at the show, but it seems like the company is working on the next gen Xiaomi phone with Foxconn right now. The photo above is allegedly taken inside the factory, which is believed to be one of the prototypes of Xiaomi M3 comparing with Xiaomi M2 back cover. Having a 5-inch or bigger display is certainly going to happen, but it’s unlikely to see a fancy glowing LED Xiaomi’s logo at the back cover as previous concept shot showed. There’s another M3 prototype leaked on the Chinese internet as well, but it looks totally different from what you see above. Check it out after the break to see which one you prefer.

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ZTE Grand Memo Debuts with 5.7-inch HD Screen and Qualcomm’s Fastest Chip (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 26, 2013 12:14 AM, 473 views, Got something to say ?,

ZTE had entered the phablet arena with the Grand S device launched at the CES last month. Now, as expected, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer has introduced another new phablet, called the Grand Memo that officially made its debut at this year’s Mobile World congress. The ZTE Grand Memo was earlier teased at an event in Hong Kong last month. Measuring 8.3mm, the ZTE Grand Memo sports a 5.7-inch screen with a 720p resolution and comes with Android 4.1.2 on-board. There’s a 13-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p video recording. Internally, the device is powered by a Qualcomm quad-core processor, clock speed at 1.7GHz. It is loaded with 1GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The Grand Memo becomes the first Android device to feature Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 800 CPU …

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Asus Want to Sell You a Cheap 7-inch Phone with an Awkward Style (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 25, 2013 8:30 PM, 645 views, 1 Comment »,

After announcing the third-gen PadFone, Asus has also unveiled the Fonepad, a 7-inch tablet that offers phone functionality, including 3G connectivity for mobile data and full telephony support. The new tablet is powered by a new 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2420 processor. It runs Android 4.1 and features an HD display with IPS technology for wide viewing angles and clarity. The tablet has 1GB of RAM, and use a PowerVR SGX540 chip for processing graphics. It weighs 340 grams and has a slim 10.4mm profile. The device sports a 3-megapixel rear camera with auto focus and a 1.2-megapixel front camera. We think that the add-on of telephony support doesn’t make the Fonepad a perfect combination of tablet and phone in one single device, it just creates embarrassment while using it, but hey, Asus is going to sell you at a very low price for this kind of awkward style …

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Asus Latest PadFone Infinity Delivers on Specs with a Premium Pricing (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 25, 2013 5:58 PM, 301 views, Got something to say ?,

Asus has officially announced PadFone Infinity, an LTE smartphone with a 5-inch Full HD display, that becomes a 10.1-inch tablet when docked to its companion PadFone Infinity Station, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013. This is the third-generation of the PadFone series. The previous PadFone 2 was launched last year October. The latest iteration of the smartphone-tablet hybrid consists of improved specifications especially in terms of design and hardware in comparison to the PadFone 2. The PadFone Infinity runs Android 4.2 and is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, and an Adreno 320 GPU. It is loaded 2GB of RAM and offers 32GB/64GB of internal storage. The new PadFone also supports NFC connectivity…

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Lenovo Announces New Budget Android Tablets to Compete with Nexus 7 (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 25, 2013 1:54 PM, 386 views, Got something to say ?,

Lenovo has announced a new lineup of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablets with varied form factors and configurations in the budget/mid-level segment at the Mobile World Congress currently underway in Barcelona.The range consists of two new A Series tablets dubbed as the A1000 and the A3000 sporting 7-inch screens and an S6000 which stands at the top of the line with a 10-inch screen. The A3000, which is the spotlight, is the Chinese PC maker’s answer to the Nexus 7. It’s specced very similarly to Google’s tablet, although its 7-inch 1024 x 600 display and quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek processor fall short of the Nexus 7’s 1280 x 800 display and Tegra 3 processor. Lenovo has also fitted the tablet with a micoSD slot — something missing from the Nexus 7 — and there’ll be a 3G variant with dual SIM slots …

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Huawei Ascend P2 Unveils, 4.7-inch, 720P Display with Fastest 4G Connectivity (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 24, 2013 10:31 PM, 365 views, 1 Comment »,

Huawei has finally announced their new flagship smartphone, the Huawei Ascend P2. The Ascend P2 should come as no surprise, as it’s a followup device to last year’s Ascend P1, which was announced at CES 2012. The new Chinese handset has been making its rounds on the internet for quite a while, showing up in leaked photos. The P2 runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with Huawei’s Emotion UI on top. It features a 4.7-inch, 720p HD display with a 315-pixel density and promises high contrast for outdoor legibility. As for the decision to go with a 720p resolution rather than the Full HD resolution favored by today’s top phones, Huawei defended it with the claim that user eyes can’t identify those extra more pixel. The screen also comes with a feature called “Magic Touch” which allows the user to interact with the phone even with gloves on. In addition, Ascend P2 is the first smartphone in the world that can support LTE Cat-4, meaning you could theoretically get speeds up to 150Mbps …

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