Thread: Anandtech News

The other day we reported that Dell had leaked information regarding a high quality, wide color range 24” Ultra HD monitor, named the UP2141Q.  Dell has since placed online a specifications list on their US website to confirm that the panel will operate in 60Hz mode via DP1.2a and MST, the panel is indeed IPS with a brightness of 350 cd/m², and on mounting the monitor will weigh 4.8 kg (10.58 lbs).  The only salient piece of information missing was the price.  Dell has now sent out a press release confirming this:
Dell UltraSharp 24” Ultra HD: $1,399, available now in the Americas and worldwide on Dec 16^th
Dell 28” Ultra HD: <$1000
Dell UltraSharp 32” Ultra HD: $3,499, available worldwide

In the midst of the comments underneath our initial news post, speculation was rife on the pricing: I was expecting in the $2000-$3000 range for the 24” monitor.  But here we have it: the first 60 Hz 4K monitor for under $1500!  Previously around this sub-$1500 price point we had Seiki models (32”, 39”, 50”) that came in as B-grade panels for cheaper, so this is only ever good news.
To complicate matters even further is Dell’s decision to release a 28” version for under $1000 called the P2815Q.  This does not bear the UltraSharp name, so this could mean a variety of things: no out-of-the-factory calibration, smaller color range, fewer connectors (pure speculation at this point).  There is no word on the specifications of this more mainstream model (i.e. if it will support 60 Hz), but Dell is attacking the market with three 4K monitors with the 24” and 28” models looking very appealing from where I am sitting.  Chris has the 32” model in for review, so that will confirm to me if I need UltraSharp or not!
 

More...

Even though we already let in on a sneak preview during our Holiday Guides, today marks the official launch of MSI’s mini-ITX Gaming Platform.  The platform has two aspects: a Z87 Haswell mini-ITX motherboard with 802.11ac wifi built for gaming, and a mini-ITX form factor GTX 760 GPU using MSI’s Gaming brand features and design.
The motherboard marks the second MSI Z87 mini-ITX motherboard on the market (we reviewed the MSI Z87I), and makes some subtle improvements.  The Z87I Gaming comes with the aforementioned dual band 2T2R 802.11ac, as well as Killer E2205 ethernet, Audio Boost (MSI’s name for an upgraded Realtek ALC1150 audio package), a gaming device port, support for five SATA 6 Gbps ports (+ 1 eSATA), six USB 3.0 ports, and Intel WiDi support.  We also get MSI’s updated BIOS and Software for their Z87 gaming range.

The GTX 760 Gaming graphics card builds upon the niche model launched earlier in the year and sticks to the mini-ITX philosophy: no PCB longer than 17 cm.  The GPU even comes out of the box pre-overclocked, giving 1152 CUDA cores at 1033 MHz base clock, boost going up to 1098 MHz.  MSI want to promote their new Radax fan design, a hybrid radial/axial fan that is claimed to provide the benefit of both types.  With the card we also get software for specific modes: OC Mode for core clock boost, Gaming Mode for stable gaming and Silent Mode for low noise.
MSI obviously want these two products paired together for a mini-ITX gaming build.  I always liked the 17cm GPUs just because there is so much power in a small sized graphics card, so as long as the heat removal is good I am all for it.  I am also glad motherboard manufacturers are getting on board with 802.11ac: the days of 1T1R single band are gone.
The MSI Z87I Gaming motherboard is set to be released for $200 in the US, and the GTX 760 Gaming at £220 in the UK - at this point in time we could only source the UK pricing, but take away our 20% sales tax and convert to USD brings it up at $300 or so.  
Update: It looks like the GTX 760 Gaming will be $270 in the US.

More...

Continuing our giveaways this holiday season we have a couple of mini ITX bundles from MSI. We've got two of these motherboard + video card combos to give away, and they start with MSI's Z87I Gaming motherboard. I'm personally a huge fan of the mini-ITX form factor and think it's a great platform for any single-GPU gaming system. The Z87I Gaming AC offers a single PCIe Gen 3 x16 slot, two DDR3 DIMM slots, 5 x 6Gbps SATA ports and an eSATA port. Networking duties are handled by a Killer E2205 Gigabit controller and a dual-band Intel 802.11ac WiFi solution (Intel dual-band Wireless AC 7260). The use of Intel's own 802.11ac WiFi solution enables Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) support. There's also an integrated HDMI 1.4 output on the board itself capable of driving up to a 4K panel.
Complementing the Z87I Gaming AC motherboard is a small form factor GTX 760 Gaming ITX video card. The card itself measures only 17 cm in length (under 7"), making it a great card for any mini ITX build. MSI is particularly proud of the GTX 760 Gaming ITX's compact cooling solution, featuring MSI's hybrid radial/axial fan that it claims is best in class. The card ships with MSI's software bundle including a one button overclocking Gaming App and MSI's Predator screen capture software. The GTX 760 Gaming ITX uses what MSI calls Military Class 4 components. On its motherboards, Military Class 4 refers to certain components being subjected to a number of MIL-STD-810 tests - implying a higher quality of component and a potentially longer lasting device.

We have two of these Z87I Gaming AC + GTX 760 Gaming ITX video card bundles to give away and will be picking two winners at random. To enter, make sure you're a resident of the US and post a comment below (please post only one). We'll be accepting entries until 9AM ET on December 7th. For complete entry details, read the legal copy below. Good luck!

More...

Each year, Google picks a silicon vendor, a hardware partner, and releases a new version of Android running on top them. The result is a Nexus phone, and for five iterations now that process has repeated, resulting in a smartphone that’s the purest expression of Google’s vision for its mobile platform. Today we’re looking at the Nexus 5.

More...

A Month with the HTC One max
In October I was contacted by HTC’s PR agency here in London, and after a series of discussions they sent me a HTC One max to test for a month.  I’ll admit, working on the same website as Brian means that I come across easily as a Luddite to the mobile community enthusiasts: my daily driver since Jan 2011 is a Samsung Galaxy S2 on a 24 month contract, which is slowly dying.  It did not help that I have a custom ROM on there that is broken, but the battery is giving up the ghost and the memory is not big enough to accommodate all I need.  In seeing this, I was shipped a HTC One max retail unit before their release in the UK.  By jove, it is MASSIVE.

Back to my Luddite roots, I only invested my first tablet in September – the Nexus 7 2013 model.  Sitting next to this, the HTC One max (for some reason the M in max is not officially capitalized) is almost there, and then when sat next to my SGS2, it is huge.  Over the course of this month, every time I pulled it out in the company of others, all my friends and family wanted to ask questions about it, and wondered if I had gone back to the 80s in terms of size.
So first things first: I had to get a relevant SIM card.  In the UK we have a choice of almost a dozen carriers: I am with T-Mobile under the umbrella of EE (Everything Everywhere), and my SGS2 takes a full sized sim whereas the max needs a micro-SIM.  A quick jaunt into my area of London and the EE shops do not have the clipper to convert to a micro-SIM – this seemed a little odd.  Carphone Warehouse did have the tool, but my SIM had already been pushed to the edge of the plastic so cutting it would break the SIM itself.  So I had to go back to EE and buy a micro SIM for £10 then spend 15 minutes on the phone to EE’s call desk getting my regular number onto the new SIM.  This took 5 minutes, though they state up to 4-24 hours can happen.  Back home, I set up the phone with my regular Google account and set about with the fingerprint scanner.

The staff at the local EE store wanted to play with the camera

I normally have very basic unlock tools on my phone – I am a person that likes to switch the screen off when I am not using it, even if I end up needing the phone two seconds later.  So I set myself the task of living with the fingerprint scanner for the month.  Two things occurred on this front: firstly, the fingerprint scanner only recognized my finger less than 30% of the time.  Much like what Brian said in the Videocast #2, make sure that you record the finger in the normal way you hold the phone.  I did this, but I seem to hold the phone in many different ways, so it got exceptionally frustrating when I wanted to see email / respond to Google messages but the phone would not recognize my finger.  Therein lies another issue I had to begin with – because the fingerprint sensor is on the back next to the camera, for the first fortnight (14 days), on numerous occasions, I attempted to unlock the phone by swiping the camera.  These two issues combined gave me some serious headaches in terms of slowing me down in my normal swing of work.  I have not tried the iPhone implementation of the fingerprint scanner, but as it stands it is not something I want to use on my phone.

The scanner aside, the HTC One max is clearly a step up in terms of performance of my SGS2, even if I have truly borked the latter.  Everything is smoother, there is less time waiting.  But now that I own (since September) the Nexus 7 2013, I am used to this speed.  It was not as thrilling as the bump to a Nexus 7 was.  Let me put this into perspective: I actually play a number of mobile games on a semi-regular basis.  Typically these are Kairosoft games, or Freecell, or anything else on the Play store that catches my fancy (Minion Run, Sheep Happens).  I used to play Kairosoft games on my SGS2, and now that I have a Nexus 7, they are all on there instead: I use my phone as a phone and email client on the move, and my Nexus 7 gets used at home.  The HTC One max felt like a combination of the two devices.  If you own a HTC One max, essentially there is no need to own a tablet – the screen is large enough that it still does all the tablet functionality.
My third use for my phone, after calling and gaming, is usually as a (bad) photography aid, for snapping very quick shots, usually of stills, when out and about.  By comparison, the HTC One max camera is miles above the SGS2, and I dare say that if I had one around Computex this year, it might even replace my Pentax K-x, purely based on portability.  But one thought did linger in the back of my mind, and that was due to Brian’s OIS vs. EIS video showing the HTC One against the HTC One max.  In that video, it is clear that the HTC One is superior for smoothing out shaky motion.  My hands while taking images/video is more like an earthquake.  So in looking at that video from Brian and my own experience, the question becomes ‘what if it was better?’  I have used the HTC One for several images in recent reviews, as well as some walking around London:

Not exactly sure what part of London this was - near Shoreditch I think 

Gallery: HTC One max: London

During the time I tested the HTC One max, I took on the opportunity to visit my undergrad alma mater and do some overclocking demonstrations with TeamGB Overclockers.  Despite the issues with the fingerprint scanner and it not always working first time, the HTC One max will allow you to take pictures without unlocking the phone.  This meant that in times when the camera is needed in a hurry, it is a lot easier to point and shoot.

Gallery: HTC One max: Hull


At this point I am going to interject on the SD/battery debate that has been going on.  The HTC One max represents the second mobile phone device I have tested in as many years, and both have had user replaceable batteries and microSD cards.  On my SGS2, it was vital: I spent Q1 2012 travelling back and forth between Cambridge and Oxford twice a week via coach (a 3.5hr trip), wherein if I worked I would feel ill, and the only real thing that took my mind off the journey was watching Naruto on my phone.  Note this is my usage case justification for a tablet (media consumption while travelling), but I still did not justify it at the time to actually go buy one.  For that 3.5 hour trip, I needed somewhere to hold 10 episodes of Naruto, and a full battery charge, as by the end of the trip I would have drained my SGS2 from 80% to 10%.  At times this past year I have had to swap out the battery with a friends in order to make some important calls when mine died.  Both of these scenarios warranted removable microSD and batteries to work.  With the HTC One max, while they are there, it does not particularly bother me that much: the battery lasts a lot longer anyway, and the 16GB internal memory is large enough to carry my music – I no longer need to carry episodes as I am not making that commute any more.  Would it be better to remove these features to get a lighter and thinner HTC One max?  In my opinion no – I like a phone to have a sense of bulk.  I have handled the iPhone 5, and it feels too light.  But the sense of bulk brings me on to my next point.
The HTC One max is a big phone.  I live in a big city with a certain crime rate and general need to maintain a status of high alert regarding people around you and where your belongings are (perhaps I am being too cautious, but that is my usual mentality).  Now I am under average height (5’6”), and rather than wear cargo shorts I am more of a jeans or corduroy type wearer.  When using an SGS2, it fits nicely in my pocket and I know where it is – there is no point in taking the Nexus 7 anywhere, it is a bit too bulky.  Now the HTC One max falls on the side of the Nexus 7: it is still too bulky to put into my trouser pocket.  I can do it, and it does work, but I have an ever eternal fear that it is both noticeable to pickpockets, or one sharp knock by another pedestrian and it is going to break as I fall to the ground.  The best place for such a device would be in the pocket of a suit jacket, which brings be to my usage scenario for the HTC One max.

As I have played around with the HTC One max, it brings the power of two devices into one – my phone and my tablet.  I can take calls with it, and also consume media.  Perhaps on this account, the microSD is a good thing, in case I have a lot of media to consume.  For the size, it makes sense first and foremost as a work device – something a travelling worker can use on the train when going from city to city and be large enough to not need to take out the laptop/ultrabook to read a presentation.  It fits into a normal suit pocket and is obvious that it is there when you wear the jacket.  As a casual phone, to me personally, it is a bit too big to be carrying around casually in a trouser pocket.
Now one of the other points that Brian mentioned is that the HTC One max is not a one hand phone, and I would agree in part.  Taking that into account, I noticed during my month that I do use the phone a lot one handed, and despite my stature it works in one hand for almost everything.  The only issue I came across was actually writing on the device – it definitely needs two hands for this.  While I can type the message in one hand (usually my right), it was always an annoyance to move my hand enough to reach the newline button on the keyboard.  More often than not I found myself resting the phone in one hand while performing all the actions with the other, rather than the tablet usage model of holding the device on either side with both hands.
Conclusion
The HTC One max is certainly out of my price range, given how much I use my phone: I work from home, so I have the internet and a land line, so the only time I do use calls/minutes/texts/internet is when I am on the move, or as I recently did, move house.  My current call plan is 300 mins / 300 texts / unlimited (*) internet, but I have only ever hit the limit (2GB internet before it goes slow) when I moved house.  So getting a plan with the HTC One for my requirements does not really exist (carriers here like to push more minutes and text messages at the expense of data), and as a one-off cost, it also is way out of my price range.  If I did not have a tablet, I could possibly see a justification for a HTC One max, but in my Luddite ways I might actually prefer a smaller device to be honest, something that is truly one handed but is similar to the One max in terms of battery life and storage.  It does feel like the sort of phone for a company contract though, where it would be used continuously either to consume media, read reports or take calls.  Stick it in your suit pocket, and away you go - I could definitely see that as the HTC One max use case.
 

More...

For the next in our series of memory reviews on Haswell, we have another ADATA kit to test: this time a low voltage 2x8 GB kit featuring DDR3-1600 C9 timings.  Being lower down the chain on a SKU list, the heatsinks are also smaller than the ones previously tested, and the kit comes in at £125.  Previously in our big roundup of Haswell testing we suggested 1866 C9 being the minimum people should consider: would going 1600 C9 LV matter that much in results?

More...

We spend a lot of time watching and listening to our smartphones and tablets. The younger you are the more likely you are to turn to them for watching a movie or TV show instead of an actual TV. For a lot of us it is our primary source of music with our own content or streaming services. Very rarely when new phones or tablets are announced does a company place any emphasis on the quality of the audio.

More...

I've been a huge fan of SSDs ever since I started looking into them back in 2008. The impact to the overall PC user experience is nothing short of tremendous. Honestly, whenever I use a system without an SSD I end up frustrated at just how slow it feels. I said it back in '08 and it's just as true today: moving to an SSD is the single biggest upgrade you can do for your machine. With all of that said, I'm very excited about today's continuation of our Holiday 2013 giveaway series. Crucial.com is providing us with two M500 SSDs to give away.
The M500 uses a Marvell 88SS9187 controller paired with Crucial's own firmware. The NAND comes courtesy of Crucial's parent company, Micron, and ships in a very unique 128Gbit configuration. The result is one of the best values in MLC SSDs, particularly at the highest 960GB capacity. The M500's performance is competitive, and it remains one of the only drives that supports Microsoft's eDrive standard. The M500's eDrive support allows Windows 8 users (on a properly enabled system) to allow Bitlocker to leverage the drive's hardware encryption engine rather than doing it all in software. The end result is virtually no additional CPU overhead for enabling Bitlocker in Windows 8, something you can't do without eDrive support.
Crucial.com sent us two high-capacity drives: a 480GB drive and a 960GB drive. We'll be drawing two winners at random, who will receive either a 480GB drive or a 960GB drive (prize distribution will also be at random). We'll be accepting entries until 12/12 at 9AM ET. To enter just leave a comment below (please only post once) and make sure you're a US resident with a US mailing address. For all entry details check out our official terms below. Good luck!

More...

Today has been a busy day for Samsung's SSD department with three releases/announcements. With three different topics, I've separated this article into three, so let's begin with the hardware.
Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA
Samsung has been making mSATA SSDs for a couple of years but until now they've only been available to OEMs. The 840 EVO mSATA is Samsung's first retail mSATA SSD and like its 2.5" sibling, it's based on Samsung's own MDX controller and 19nm TLC NAND. Feature wise the EVO mSATA is similar to the regular EVO and supports both RAPID and TurboWrite. 

Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA Specifications
Capacities (GB)	120, 250, 500, 1000
Controller	Samsung MDX
NAND	19nm Samsung Toggle-Mode TLC NAND
Sequential Read	Up to 540MB/s
Sequential Write	Up to 520MB/s
4KB Random Read	98K IOPS
4KB Random Write	90K IOPS

The part that's really interesting in the EVO mSATA is the fact that it's available in capacities of up to 1TB. To date the biggest mSATA SSDs we've seen have been 512GB (Crucial M500 and Samsung's OEM SSDs), although most mSATA solutions have maxed out at 256GB. The limitation has been due to the fact that the mSATA spec supports only four NAND dies as there isn't space for more. To achieve a capacity of 1TB with only four NAND packages, Samsung has done something we've not seen before: There are sixteen 128Gb (16GB) NAND dies per package. We've only seen up to eight dies per package before, so it'll be interesting to see what Samsung has done in terms of technology to double the amount of dies per package. My hypothesis is that instead of connecting each die separately to the package, the dies are now connected to each other in some way. The problem with high amount of dies per package has been the length of the interconnect for the dies on the top, but by connecting the dies to each other that is less of an issue. A start-up (can't remember the name, unfortunately) showed a technology like that at last year's Flash Memory Summit, so I'm eager to find out if Samsung has done something similar.
The drive will be available later this month but pricing is to be announced. We are already waiting for our review sample to arrive and will put it through our regular tests once we receive it.
RAPID for SSD 840 Pro
When the EVO was released in September this year, one of the new features it brought was RAPID (Real-time Accelerated Processing of I/O Data). RAPID uses some of the system's RAM to buffer reads and writes to enable higher performance (check our review for deeper explanation and benchmarks) but in the beginning it was only available for the 840 EVO. Now, with the introduction of Samsung SSD Magician 4.3 (download here), RAPID is also available for the 840 Pro.
eDrive for SSD 840 EVO
Back when the 840 EVO was launched, Samsung promised that support for Windows 8's eDrive (hardware based encryption, click here to read more) would be coming shortly after the release via firmware update. It took Samsung a bit longer than expected but firmware EXT0BB6Q is now available and it brings support for TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE 1667 (the required standards for eDrive). The update is available through Samsung's SSD Magician software but if you prefer the good old ISO update method, click here to get the ISO file. 

More...

ARM told us to expect some of the first 64-bit ARMv8 based SoCs to ship in 2014, and it looks like we're seeing just that. Today Qualcomm is officially announcing its first 64-bit SoC: the Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916). 
Given that there's no 64-bit Android available at this point, most of the pressure to go to 64-bit in the Android space is actually being driven by the OEMs who view 64-bit support as a necessary checkbox feature at this point thanks to Apple's move with the A7. Combine that with the fact that the most ready 64-bit IP from ARM is the Cortex A53 (successor to the Cortex A5/A7 line), and all of the sudden it makes sense why Qualcomm's first 64-bit mobile SoC is aimed at the mainstream market (Snapdragon 400 instead of 600/800).
I'll get to explaining ARM's Cortex A53 in a moment, but first let's look at the specs of the SoC:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
Internal Model Number	MSM8916
Manufacturing Process	28nm LP
CPU	4 x ARM Cortex A53 1.2GHz+
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 306
Memory Interface	1 x 64-bit LPDDR2/3
Integrated Modem	9x25 core, LTE Category 4, DC-HSPA+

At a high level we're talking about four ARM Cortex A53 cores, likely running around 1.2 - 1.4GHz. Having four cores still seems like a requirement for OEMs in many emerging markets unfortunately, although I'd personally much rather see two higher clocked A53s. Qualcomm said the following about 64-bit in its 410 press-release:
"The Snapdragon 410 chipset will also be the first of many 64-bit capable processors as Qualcomm Technologies helps lead the transition of the mobile ecosystem to 64-bit processing.”
Keep in mind that Qualcomm presently uses a mix of ARM and custom developed cores in its lineup. The Snapdragon 400 line already includes ARM (Cortex A7) and Krait based designs, so the move to Cortex A53 in the Snapdragon 410 isn't unprecedented. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the higher-end SKUs. I don't assume that Qualcomm will want to have a split between 32 and 64-bit designs, which means we'll either see a 64-bit Krait successor this year or we'll see more designs that leverage ARM IP in the interim. 
As you'll see from my notes below however, ARM's Cortex A53 looks like a really good choice for Qualcomm. It's an extremely power efficient design that should be significantly faster than the Cortex A5/A7s we've seen Qualcomm use in this class of SoC in the past.
The Cortex A53 CPU cores are paired with an Adreno 306 GPU, a variant of the Adreno 305 used in Snapdragon 400 based SoCs (MSM8x28/8x26).
The Snapdragon 410 also features an updated ISP compared to previous 400 offerings, adding support for up to a 13MP primary camera (no word on max throughput however).
Snapdragon 410 also integrates a Qualcomm 9x25 based LTE modem block (also included in the Snapdragon 800/MSM8974), featuring support for LTE Category 4, DC-HSPA+ and the usual legacy 3G air interfaces.
All of these IP blocks sit behind a single-channel 64-bit LPDDR2/3 memory interface.
The SoC is built on a 28nm LP process and will be sampling in the first half of 2014, with devices shipping in the second half of 2014. Given its relatively aggressive schedule, the Snapdragon 410 may be one of the first (if not the first) Cortex A53 based SoCs in the market. 
A Brief Look at ARM's Cortex A53

ARM's Cortex A53 is a dual-issue in-order design, similar to the Cortex A7. Although the machine width is unchanged, the A53 is far more flexible in how instructions can be co-issued compared to the Cortex A7 (e.g. branch, data processing, load-store, & FP/NEON all dual-issue from both decode paths). 
The A53 is fully ISA compatible with the upcoming Cortex A57, making A53 the first ARMv8 LITTLE processor (for use in big.LITTLE) configurations with an A57
The overall pipeline depth hasn't changed compared to the Cortex A7. We're still dealing with an 8-stage pipeline (3-stage fetch pipeline + 5 stage decode/execute for integer or 7 for NEON/FP). The vast majority of instructions will execute in one cycle, leaving branch prediction as a big lever for increasing performance. ARM significantly increased branch prediction accuracy with the Cortex A53, so much that it was actually leveraged in the dual-issue, out-of-order Cortex A12. ARM also improved the back end a bit, improving datapath throughput. 
The result of all of this is a dual-issue design that's pushed pretty much as far as you can without going out-of-order. Below are some core-level performance numbers, all taken in AArch32 mode, comparing the Cortex A53 to its A5/A7 competitors:

Core Level Performance Comparison
All cores running at 1.2GHz	DMIPS	CoreMark	SPECint2000
ARM Cortex A5	1920	-	350
ARM Cortex A7	2280	3840	420
ARM Cortex A9 r4p1	-	-	468
ARM Cortex A53	2760	4440	600

Even ignoring any uplift from new instructions or 64-bit, the Cortex A53 is going to be substantially faster than its predecessors. I threw in hypothetical SPECint2000 numbers for a 1.2GHz Cortex A9 to put A53's performance in even better perspective. You should expect to see better performance than a Cortex A9r4 at the same frequencies, but the A9r4 is expected to hit much higher frequencies (e.g. 2.3GHz for Cortex A9 r4p1 in NVIDIA's Tegra 4i). 
ARM included a number of power efficiency improvements and is targeting 130mW single-core power consumption at 28nm HPM (running SPECint 2000). I'd expect slightly higher power consumption at 28nm LP but we're still talking about an extremely low power design.
I'm really excited to see what ARM's Cortex A53 can do. It's a potent little architecture, one that I wish we'd see taken to higher clock speeds and maybe even used in higher end devices at the same time. The most obvious fit for these cores however is something like the Moto G, which presently uses the 32-bit Cortex A7. Given Qualcomm's schedule, I wouldn't be surprised to see something like a Moto G update late next year with a Snapdragon 410 inside. Adding LTE and four Cortex A53s would really make that the value smartphone to beat.

More...