Thread: Anandtech News

LG doesn't seem intent on waiting for large industry events to announce their wearable products. Last year the company announced their LG G3 Stylus and the LG Watch R shortly before the beginning of IFA, and today we're seeing a similar announcement only a few weeks before the start of Mobile World Congress. Today's announcement is the LG Watch Urbane, a smartwatch that is described as a more premium version of the G Watch R. While the LG Watch R targeted users who were interested in something to augment their fitness routines, the LG Watch Urbane targets people who want something with a design and construction more similar to a traditional watch.
The internal specifications of the LG Watch Urbane are the same as the LG Watch R. It's powered by Qualcomm's APQ8026 which is a quad core Cortex-A7 SoC running at 1.2GHz paired with an Adreno 305 and 512MB of RAM plus 4GB of NAND. It retains the IP67 rating for submersion in water up to 1 meter deep for 30 minutes which has become standard across all of LG's wearables. The display is also the same circular 1.3" 320x320 plastic OLED display. What differentiates the LG Watch Urbane from the LG Watch R is its premium build, with a stainless steel body, a thinner bezel around the display, and a stitched leather strap.
LG is yet to provide information about pricing or when it will be available for sale, but with MWC on the horizon we're likely to get more information about the LG Watch Urbane soon.

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Meizu has been one of the upcoming Chinese manufacturers that we haven't had the chance to really cover here at AnandTech. With the Meizu MX4Pro however, we have on our hands one of the more increasingly strong offerings that we see coming from the Chinese mainland. The 5.46" smartphone seems to deliver both on specs and user experience. To find out if it does, read on for the full review.

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While we've known about the existence of the Exynos 7420 for a while now, we didn't really know what to expect until recently. Today, it seems that Samsung is ready to start disclosing at least a few details about an upcoming Exynos 7 SoC, which is likely to be the Exynos 7420 which has four Cortex A57s clocked at 2.1 GHz in addition to four Cortex A53s along with an LPDDR4-capable memory interface. According to Samsung Tomorrow, we can expect a 20% increase to device performance, which is likely a reference to clock speed, and 35% lower power consumption. In addition, there is a reference to a 30% productivity gain, which is likely to be referencing performance per watt. Samsung claims that this these figures come from a comparison to their 20nm HKMG process, which we've examined before in the Note 4 Exynos review. While there is no direct statement of which version of 14nm is used for this upcoming Exynos 7 Octa, judging by how this is the first 14nm IC to come from Samsung it's likely that this SoC will use 14LPE, which seems to focus on reducing leakage and power consumption rather than switching speed.

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On the back of our USB 3.1 performance coverage, as well as seeing some motherboards in the flesh at CES, other manufacturers are now announcing their USB 3.1 implementations. ASRock distributed a press release today confirming that they will be launching a couple of interesting USB 3.1 devices. Up first are the USB 3.1 PCIe cards, capable of either two Type-A ports or a combination of Type-A and Type-C.

These cards look to be PCIe 2.0 x2 cards, giving the 10 Gbps needed to saturate a USB 3.1 port. It is worth noting then that the combined throughput of two ports on one card will be 10 Gbps, rather than 10 Gbps on each. Interestingly each card seems to have a power requirement – on the dual Type-A card there is a 4-pin molex whereas on the combo card there is a 4-pin custom/floppy sized connector. These power connectors on each card is also so each port can provide up to 3 amps at 5W, giving 15W charging a possibility. (Unfortunately dreams of 100W charging are still in the air at the moment, as it requires a power delivery design to cope with a 100W source, such as a 6-pin PCIe connector, but it may come soon.)

ASRock will be providing these cards as bundles in two models – the Z97 Extreme6/3.1 and the X99 Extreme6/3.1. The Z97 model will come with the combination A+C card whereas the X99 will come with two Type-A because the board will already come with a Type-C onboard.

This means that the X99 Extreme6/3.1, with the PCIe card installed, should be capable of three USB 3.1 devices being attached. All we have to wait for now is USB 3.1 devices to actually come to market. In that respect it might be worth considering that buying these now will require waiting for the rest of the industry to catch up.
ASRock did not distribute any pricing or launch window information as this was a global press release, but I would imagine within the next month to see something on the shelves. I have had a Skype message offering a board for review, so they must be near-final.
Gallery: ASRock to Introduce USB 3.1 Cards and Motherboards

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In our recent run of overclocking focused motherboards, we have had a couple of interesting contenders. Sub $300 is a difficult market to attack for X99 overclockers, and MSI brings the X99S MPower which is the focus of today's review.

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Lots of gaming bundles exist and come and go on a regular basis, and we’ve generally held back on trying to cover them all because… well, a lot of the bundles contain "old junk", and there's only so many times you can mention the latest indie game making the rounds. In general, while we talk about games plenty, gaming bundles aren't one of our primary areas of focus. However, now and then a bundle comes along that includes a bunch of high quality games that you might have missed, and the latest Humble Bundle from Square Enix is just such a gem. There’s a bit of overlap with the last Square Enix bundle, but most of the titles have not been seen on Humble before.
The base price of “pay what you want” ($1 or more for Steam codes) only gets you Hitman: Absolution and Supreme Commander 2, along with Hitman GO for Android platforms. All three of those games scored around 80% (give or take) in average rankings, so they’re certainly worth checking out if you’ve missed them, though Supreme Commander 2 at least is getting pretty old at almost five years of age now. Beat the average price (around $5.75 at present) and you’ll also unlock Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director’s Cut). The first two received pretty middling reviews (60% and 70%, respectively), but Deus Ex: Human Revolution was and is an excellent game, with an average score of around 90%. It’s normally $20 on Steam, so basically you get nearly 75% off that one game and it alone is worth the price of admission. Rounding out the bundle, if you pay $15 or more, you also get the 2013 version of Tomb Raider (86%) and Sleeping Dogs (81%).
It's worth noting is that nearly all of the current games (Hitman GO and Supreme Commander 2 being the only exceptions) are AMD Gaming Evolved titles (page currently down?), which means if you own any recent AMD GPU there's a good chance you've already picked up several of these games. Still, it's as good a time as any to "complete the set". Of course, the bundle just launched, and as this is a two week offering there will be some additions come next Tuesday, which will automatically unlock for all qualified backers. All told, the current eight games that are available would normally cost around $168, and if you don’t already own most of the games there are several worth checking out. You can also choose to “donate” to charity, Make-A-Wish or GamesAid, or you can give money to Humble Bundle or the developers – all customizable as you see fit.
Gallery: Humble Square Enix Bundle #2

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Today Samsung revealed what they claim are the first flash memory chips based on the eMMC 5.1 standard which was just approved by JEDEC, the group that oversees the development of many semiconductor industry standards. eMMC is an embedded version of the MultiMediaCard standard that was once popular among digital cameras and PDAs. It allows for the NAND and controller in a device to be put into a small package on the logic board, which is a necessity when working with small mobile devices. Essentially every smartphone and tablet on the market today uses the eMMC standard as its storage solution.
As mobile devices have become more complex. there has been a need for improved NAND performance. Streaming and recording higher resolution content requires faster speeds for reading and writing, and so the evolution of the eMMC standard has been accompanied by improvements in performance at each step. When Samsung introduced their first eMMC 5.0 flash memory in 2013, their 64GB chips were rated for maximum sequential reads and writes of 250MB/s and 90MB/s respectively. Samsung's eMMC 5.1 memory increases the maximum write performance to 125MB/s. Similarly, random read performance increases from 7,000 IOPS to 11,000 IOPS and random write performance increases from 7,000 IOPS to 13,000 IOPS.
eMMC 5.1 based memory also has new features that will enable further improved performance. The feature that Samsung is specifically making note of is command queuing. True to its name, command queuing provides an interface for queuing up commands to be executed. This has been a feature of storage solutions in the PC world for some time, but previous eMMC controller implementations would submit commands and wait for completion before sending the next command.

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When ASUS first launched their mini-ITX sized graphics cards, limited to 17cm for mini-ITX builds, my initial reaction was ‘why has no-one thought of this before?’. The idea has since been interpreted in a variety of ways, and this past week has seen the launch of the follow up to the 4GB GTX 970 DirectCU Mini with a 2GB GTX 960 Mini version, featuring a short cooler ideal for SFF builds. This is paired up with the Strix GTX 750 Ti 4GB with double fans at just a couple of centimetres longer than the Mini.

Gallery: ASUS GTX 960 DirectCU Mini 2GB

The GTX 960 Direct CU Mini (GTX960-MOC-2GD5) will come out of the box at 1190 MHz with an active boost up to 1253 MHz, featuring 1024 Maxwell CUDA cores and a 128-bit 2GB GDDR5 memory interface running at 7010 MHz (or 1752 MHz x 4). The card comes with three regular DisplayPort outputs, a HDMI 2.0 port and a DVI-I. Exact dimensions are listed as 170 x 122 x 40.6 mm (6.7 x 4.8 x 1.6-inch), and the card will come with GPU Tweak for overclocking as well as a 1 year XSplit Gamecaster licence.

Gallery: Strix GTX 750 Ti 4GB

The Strix GTX 750 Ti 4GB (STRIX-GTX750TI-DC2OC-4GD5) uses the Strix characteristic line of a DirectCU II mixed with zero-decibel fan technology which keeps the fans off under a given temperature. ASUS rates the cooler at 10ºC lower at load than the reference cooler while also claiming a 6-8% frame rate boost on games such as Watch Dogs and Battlefield 4. Exact specifications put the 640 CUDA core Maxwell card at an 1124 MHz base with 1202 MHz boost frequency, a 4GB 128-bit memory interface running at 5400 MHz (1350 MHz x 4), a regular DisplayPort, HDMI and a DVI-I. Dimensions are listed as 195.6 x 122 x 38.1 mm (7.7 x 4.8 x 1.5-inch), putting it 25.6 mm (about an inch) longer than the Mini range. Similarly the card will come with G-Sync support, GPU Tweak and this time with ASUS’ own streaming software.
As this is an announcement from over at ASUS ROG, pricing and release dates for markets are yet to be announced. Typically when the regional announcements are pushed through, dates and pricing will be mentioned. If we get this information we will update this news!
Source: ASUS ROG

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Another cubic Micro-ATX case has found its way into our labs. This time, the Node 804 from Fractal Design is hoping to combine thermal performance and versatility with a sleek and elegant appearance. Is it the ideal choice for gaming systems in a living room? We find out in this review.

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New low- and mid-range SoCs

Qualcomm today announces 4 new additions to its Snapdragon 400 and 600 lineup of SoCs along with a reshuffle and rebranding of their modem lineup. Let's begin with the new SoC offerings:
The Snapdragon 415 and 425 are additions to the low-end of Qualcomm's SoC offerings. The Snapdragon 415 is described a "quick transition piece" to the Snapdragon 410 which we suspect means it will be a pin-compatible SoC upgrade. It doubles up on the core-count from 4 A53 processors up to 8. The cores are still clocked in at the same 1.4GHz frequency. On the GPU side we see an upgrade from the Adreno 306 to a newer Adreno 405 and memory speeds have been slightly bumped from 533MHz to 667MHz LPDDR3, dropping LPDDR2 capability from the SKU.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Lineup
SoC	Snapdragon 410	Snapdragon 415	Snapdragon 425
CPU	4x Cortex A53@1.4GHz	4x Cortex A53@?GHz 4x Cortex A53@1.4GHz	4x Cortex A53@?GHz 4x Cortex A53@1.7GHz
Memory Controller	1x 32-bit @ 533MHz LPDDR2/3 4.2GB/s b/w	1x 32-bit @ 667MHz LPDDR3 5.3GB/s b/w	1x 32-bit @ 933MHz LPDDR3 7.5GB/s b/w
GPU	Adreno 306	Adreno 405	Adreno 405
Encode/ Decode	1080p H.264	1080p H.264 1080p30 HEVC decode	1080p H.264 1080p30 HEVC decode
Camera/ISP	13.5MP	13MP	Dual ISP 21MP
Integrated Modem	Cat. 4 150Mbps	"X5 LTE" Cat. 4 150Mbps DL 50Mbps UL	"X8 LTE" Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 100Mbps UL 2x20MHz C.A. (DL & UL)

The Snapdragon 425 is also a octa-core A53 unit with the same GPU implementation, but clocked at a slightly higher 1.7GHz on the one of the A53 clusters. It's on the integrated modem side where things change, as the S425 employs a new integrated "X8 LTE" Category 7 LTE modem versus the Category 4 one found in the S415. The new unit also brings down the dual-ISP feature from the higher-end SoCs to the entry-level, enabling dual cameras up to 21MP. This should be an interesting SoC in the entry range as the specifications in terms of performance seem to match the Snapdragon 615 of the mid-range series.

While the entry range gets some large performance and connectivity boosts, today's biggest news comes in form of the Snapdragon 618 and 620. These are the first announced Cortex A72 SoCs, ARM's new high-end CPU architecture which was publicly announced just two weeks ago.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Lineup
SoC	Snapdragon 610	Snapdragon 615	Snapdragon 618	Snapdragon 620
CPU	4x Cortex A53@1.7GHz	4x Cortex A53 @1.0GHz 4x Cortex A53 @1.7GHz	4x Cortex A53 @1.2GHz 2x Cortex A72 @1.8GHz	4x Cortex A53 @1.2GHz 4x Cortex A72 @1.8GHz
Memory Controller	1x 32-bit @ 800MHz LPDDR3 6.4GB/s b/w	1x 32-bit @ 800MHz LPDDR3 6.4GB/s b/w	2x 32-bit @ 933MHz LPDDR3 14.9GB/s b/w	2x 32-bit @ 933MHz LPDDR3 14.9GB/s b/w
GPU	Adreno 405	Adreno 405	"Next-gen" Adreno	"Next-gen" Adreno
Encode/ Decode	1080p H.264 1080p30 HEVC decode	1080p H.264 1080p30 HEVC decode	2160p30, 1080p120 H.264 & HEVC	2160p30, 1080p120 H.264 & HEVC
Camera/ISP	21MP	13MP	Dual ISP 21MP	Dual ISP 21MP
Integrated Modem	Cat. 4 150Mbps DL 50Mbps UL	"X5 LTE" Cat. 4 150Mbps DL 50Mbps UL	"X8 LTE" Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 100Mbps UL 2x20MHz C.A. (DL & UL)	"X8 LTE" Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 100Mbps UL 2x20MHz C.A. (DL & UL)

The Snapdragon 618 and 620 bring dual-channel memory back into the mid-range, employing LPDDR3 targeted at 933MHz, making them on par with today's Snapdragon 800 and 801 SoCs. The new offerings now employ full HEVC (H.265) hardware encoding and decoding, a feature first seen in the Snapdragon 810. Similarly to the 425, the usually high-end dual ISP functionality is brought down into the new SKUs and offer up to 21MP camera sensor functionality.
What Qualcomm doesn't specify though, is the GPU. We're being promised a new "next-generation" Adreno GPU, so we might be talking about a new 500-series, but we don't know for sure until Qualcomm actually announces the new architecture.
The Snapdragon 618 and 620 employ Qualcomm's new "X8" integrated modem solutions, capable of Category 7 LTE with up to 300Mbps downstream or 100Mbps upstream via 2x20MHz carrier aggregation on either upload or download channels.
Getting back to the CPU configuration: The Cortex A72 replaces the use of a higher-clocked A53 cluster as the "big" part of these new big.LITTLE SoCs. The A72 was announced as ARM's new flagship high-end core, so it's very interesting to see Qualcomm employ it in a mid-range SoC at only 1.8GHz. It would look like these new units are still manufactured under 28nm given the clock speeds. We still know know much about the A72 core, but ARM's Peter Greenhalgh clarified that we should be seeing a 10-50% IPC gain over the A57 while improving power on the same process node and libraries. To see Qualcomm use the A72 in a mid-range SoC begs the question of exactly how big these new cores are, as pricing is be an important competitive factor below the high-end.
Qualcomm expects the Snapdragon 415, 425, 618 and 620 to ship in consumer devices in the latter half of 2015. This is an interesting timeline as the 618 and 620 pose direct competition to the Snapdragon 808 which we still haven't seen announced in any consumer device. On the high-end, Qualcomm is still keeping very quiet as we still don't know what the successor to the Snapdragon 810 will look like or what the state of Qualcomm's new ARMv8 core is in.
Modem re-branding

Finally as part of today's announcement, is a re-branding of Qualcomm's modem line-up. The "Gobi" name is abandoned in favour of a "X# LTE" denomination. It's to be noted that the model numbers don't correspond to actual LTE category capability, as for example the X10 and X12 modems are capable of respectively Category 9 and 10 LTE. The aforementioned parts are re-brandings of the modem variants which we find in the standalone Gobi 9x45 and 9x40 and Snapdragon 808 and 810 SoCs.

Today Qualcomm raised the bar for low- and mid-range SoCs and we're looking forward to what kind devices Qualcomm's OEM partners will come up with towards the end of the year.
Source (Qualcomm)






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