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Huawei Ascend Mate 2 Review: Incredible Battery Life & Value

The commoditization of the smartphone segment has been predicted for more than a while now. It’s almost obvious in a way though, especially when one looks at the progression of the PC industry. It was once effectively impossible to buy a good PC that cost less than a thousand dollars. Similarly, it was once effectively impossible to buy a good smartphone that cost less than 500 dollars. While Google, Motorola, and small Chinese OEMs have been bringing high-end specs to a price point around 350-450 dollars, the relative marketshare compared to OEMs like Samsung and Apple has been miniscule.

While there’s some level of choice for high-spec, high-value smartphones at the ~5″ display size segment, the same is far from true for phablets. The Galaxy Note line is generally considered to be the only phablet worth looking at, and there really isn’t such thing as a “midrange phablet”. The closest thing to a midrange phablet is the Galaxy Mega. The one experience I had with a Galaxy Mega 6.3 was anything but positive, especially when it was priced at around 400 dollars off contract or more. The value simply wasn’t there.

Huawei seems to have noticed this, and in response to this unfulfilled niche, they’ve introduced the Huawei Ascend Mate 2. In the US, this phone is renamed to the Ascend Mate2 4G to indicate the different SoC and LTE modem, but the experience is largely the same. Huawei hopes to use this launch as their way to break into the unlocked device market in the US, and also as a way to build brand recognition in the US. This is definitely a big problem for Huawei, especially because in the US they’ve effectively been relegated to ODM status. The only Huawei devices that I can name off the top of my head are the MyTouch phones sold by T-Mobile, and those aren’t advertised as Huawei phones at all.

So, the real question now is whether the Ascend Mate2 is any good. To find out, read on for the full review.

Computex 2014: JMicron Displays JMF670H SATA 6Gbps & JMF811 PCIe SSD Controllers
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Computex 2014: JMicron Displays JMF670H SATA 6Gbps & JMF811 PCIe SSD Controllers

Sorry for the photo quality — I had to run to another meeting so I just took some quick photos with my phone

RIght before Computex, we published a review of JMicron’s JMF667H reference design SSDs. I was positively surprised by the capability of the JMF667H platform and was eagerly looking forward to seeing what JMicron had planned for the future. A visit to their suite revealed plans for several new controllers including both SATA 6Gbps and PCIe solutions.

The JMF670H is the new high-end controller set to replace the JMF667H we reviewed earlier. The JMF670H solves one of the issues I had with the JMF667H by including support for capacities of up to 512GB. The JMF667H was limited to just 256GB, which in my opinion is a bit lacking nowadays, even though it still caters the majority of the market. While I would have liked to see support for 1TB or more, I see the reasoning to focus on the more popular smaller capacities. Adding support for more NAND is actually quite tricky because doubling the capacity means that the controller now needs to keep track of twice as many pages/blocks, which may not be efficient if the NAND mapping table and firmware design in general is not suited for that. 

The JMF670H is still a 4-channel design similar to the JMF667H but brings better NAND support. Micron’s 16nm NAND is supported as well as 3D NAND, though unfortunately there is no support for TLC NAND. Performance seems to be more optimized for the 128Gbit NAND now because as I mentioned in the JMF667H review, the version with 128Gbit 20nm Micron NAND was a bit slow. The numbers in the picture above are with Micron’s 128Gbit 16nm NAND (i.e. L95B), so it seems that the performance is almost on-par with the JMF667H with Toshiba NAND. Mass production will start next month and we should be able to get reference design samples for review around the same time as well.

Next up are the JMF810 and JMF811. These are JMicron’s first PCIe SSD controllers and are scheduled to ship Q4 this year. The difference between the two is that the JMF810 supports both SATA 6Gbps and PCIe 2.0 x2, whereas the JMF811 is purely PCIe 2.0 x4. The silicon is actually the same in both but the JMF811 is sold at a higher price due to its higher performance, which is similar to what SandForce is doing with the SF3700. Having just one silicon tends to be more cost efficient because the risks involved in silicon design and manufacturing outweigh the savings of a smaller die, especially for a fabless company like JMicron. 

Design wise the JMF810/811 moves to eight channels. I think that is a must for a PCIe SSD to take full advantage of the interface because with four channels the bandwidth between the NAND and controller may become a bottleneck. Maximum capacity is limited to 512GB similar to the JMF670 but NAND support includes TLC as well. Performance figures are quire comparable to other PCIe SSDs, although bear in mind that these are design targets at this point — JMicron didn’t have a live demo or anything to show the performance yet. 

I’m fairly excited about the new controllers. JMicron kind of missed the SATA 6Gbps train because their first controllers were just that bad, but with the JMF667H JMicron finally got it right. I’m looking forward to seeing how the JMF670H improves performance over the JMF667H and of course the JMF810/811 will be an interesting case too. I just hope that JMicron is able to deliver the JMF810/811 on time and do it right because it’s crucial to their brand. They have had too many failed releases in the past, so they need to get it right this time to build trust and confidence among the OEMs. With the future of SandForce being uncertain, the SSD controller market needs more competitive players and JMicron has a key role in that.

Computex 2014: Lian Li’s DK-02X Chassis That Is Also a Desk
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Computex 2014: Lian Li’s DK-02X Chassis That Is Also a Desk

A couple of weeks before Computex, Lian Li pushed forward a press release regarding their new DK-02X chassis that doubles up as a desk. The premise is simple – the desk is as thick as a normal PC, and the central element pulls out like a server would do on rails. The chassis part is made of aluminium, with the top of tempered glass (80kg max load) and the legs are made of iron. This would allow a user to show off their PC inside the desk and not waste space with a separate tower either on the desk or beside it, with enough space on the desk itself to attach three separate monitor mounts and many monitors as much as the budget allows. The desk also has a pull down section for mice and keyboards, along with front facing ODD, USB ports and other front panel amenities.

The DK-02X chassis is the large version, having enough space for two full systems, along with a side part for headsets. Two systems would help professionals who need a compute system, or users who own a low power system for regular work and a high powered gaming system. It also offers the opportunity for two users to work at the same desk on different systems, for example in the home where multiple children/adults need to work simultaneously. The mat seen on the pull out part of the desk above comes with the desk when purchased.

The best way to use this system is with a wireless keyboard and mouse, given the lack of desire to run cables everywhere. My main concern when it was first announced was if the chassis could tip over with a system fully installed. Lian Li confirmed that it can happen if monitors are not mounted to the rear.

There are three points on the rear to mount a monitor stand, perhaps opening up the possibilities for 6+ screen eyefinity with a one-up/one-down configuration from each of the rear ports. Users will have to run cables up the bottom of the chassis as shown here, either individually or to a plug extension. It does seem to make cable management fairly easy if you are able to route all the monitor cables through the rear of the chassis too.

There is copious space for mounting radiators for water cooled systems or many hard drives for something substantial for storage. The right hand side should support up to an E-ATX system while the left hand side will do a mini-ITX. There are a total of eight 120mm fans included in a purchase, and each system can support a CPU cooler up to 175mm in height. VGA and PSU lengths seem not to be much of an issue, but there is a total space for seventeen 3.5-inch disk drives. The total weight of the unladen desk is 45kg, with 1250x805x600mm dimensions.

One of the initial thoughts I had regarding the design was the legs. Lian Li is known for intricate designs, but the legs almost seem like an after-thought with their tubular shape and the feeling of a lack of rigidity. As they are iron rather than aluminium like the rest of the chassis, there is weight to them, and they do look thicker in person, but I have a sense that there was something else that could be done.

Lian Li will also offer a shorter version (in length) of this case for single system users, and the Japanese market will get a version more like a coffee table, only 500mm in height and 700x600mm of desk space.

The main competition for this desk will be from the Red Harbinger Cross Desk, which was probably part of the inspiration for the Lian Li versions. The Cross Desk is substantially more expensive (£1250 in the UK), but most people agree it looks nicer and has plenty of modding opportunities. The Lian Li desks are designed to tap in at a lower price point than the Cross Desk however, with the he full sized DK-02X retailing for $1189, and the shorter DX-01X for $989. Both models should be in the US market by the end of July.

Gallery: Lian Li DK-01X

Gallery: Lian Li DK-02X

 

 

3DMark Update Brings DX11 Sky Diver Benchmark
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3DMark Update Brings DX11 Sky Diver Benchmark

This afternoon Futuremark released an updated version of their 3DMark benchmark for PCs. The new release brings 3DMark to version 1.3.708 and includes a new benchmark for DX11 systems. All current owners of 3DMark will gain access to the new benchmark when they update, and it’s also available to free users as well – and thanks go to ASUS for sponsoring the new Sky Diver Demo. Futuremark also has a current promotion going on where you can buy the 3DMark Advanced Edition off of Steam for $10 (normally 24.99), which gives you the ability to test other resolutions and settings.

Just to quickly rehash the current iteration of 3DMark, it has three tests: Ice Storm is a DX9 test and is available for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) as well as PCs; Cloud Gate is a DX10 test for PCs, and Fire Strike is a very demanding DX11 test for PCs. The new Sky Diver benchmark fills the need for a less demanding DX11 test and is more suitable for testing gaming laptops and midrange PCs, as well as (potentially) iGPUs. Many of these devices can’t even reach double-digit frame rates in Fire Strike, and while the scores are presumably still valid, it does make viewing the benchmark rather painful. Basically, Fire Strike is equivalent to running a modern DX11 game on Ultra settings, where Sky Diver is more like running with Medium/Normal settings.

While both benchmarks can be run on any PC with the necessary DX11 enabled hardware, Futuremark’s advice is that systems that score below 2800 in Fire Strike should be tested with Sky Diver, while systems that score above 12000 in Sky Diver should be tested in Fire Strike. Also note that certain NVIDIA drivers appear to have a rendering issue with the Sky Diver benchmark; driver version 335.23 should be used if you experience problems.

Similar to the other benchmarks, Sky Diver has multiple components to its testing. Along with a Demo mode (which doesn’t affect the score), there are two Graphics tests to measure GPU performance, a Physics test that focuses on CPU performance, and a Combined test that taxes both the CPU and GPU. Graphics test 1 focuses on tessellation and uses a forward lighting method while the second Graphics test focuses on pixel processing and uses compute-shader based deferred tiled lighting. As for the Physics test, it repeats four times with increasingly taxing workloads and stops when the frame rate is below a certain threshold.

If you’d like to download the latest 3DMark update, you can do so via this direct link (or in Steam, as well as through a variety of mirrors). I ran it on a laptop with a GT 750M and scored 3340, with frame rates in the low double digits for most of the benchmark. It’s quite a bit more tolerable than the Fire Strike slideshow on the same laptop (score of 2020), which is normally in the high single digits, making this sort of system a good fit for the new benchmark. While scores aren’t directly comparable, it appears in general that Sky Diver will run 50% faster (give or take) than Fire Strike. The Demo mode is also good for at least a single viewing, with its daredevil female sky diver risking life and limb in the pursuit of speed.

Google Launches New 2014 Google I/O App
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Google Launches New 2014 Google I/O App

Today Google launched the official mobile app for Google I/O which runs between June 25th and 26th of this year. The app continues Google’s trend of introducing more colors and larger icons into their applications. Between the new visual styl…