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Huawei Launches Ascend P7 Based on Custom HiSilicon SoC
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Huawei Launches Ascend P7 Based on Custom HiSilicon SoC

Today Huawei announced the Ascend P7, its new flagship smartphone. The P7 replaces last year’s Ascend P6 and brings significant improvements across the board. Huawei is positioning the device to compete better in the high-end market with improved specs across the board and an improved design which is reminiscent of Apple’s iPhone 4 with sheets of glass on both the front and back of the device and a metal band around the edge. The rest of the known specifications are laid out below.

Huawei Ascend P7 vs P6
  Ascend P7 Ascend P6
SoC HiSilicon KIRIN 910T 4 x 1.8GHz Cortex A9 + Mali-450 (28nm HPM) HiSilicon K3V2 1.5GHz Cortex A9 + Vivante GC4000
Memory 2GB LPDDR3 2GB LPDDR3
Storage 16GB NAND + MicroSDHC 8/16GB NAND + MicroSDHC (single SIM SKU)
Display 5.0” 1920×1080 IPS LCD 4.7” 1280×720 IPS LCD
Cellular Connectivity GPRS/EDGE/DC-HSPA+/Category 4 LTE 2G / 3G HSPA (EvDO China SKU)
Dimensions 139.8 x 68.8 x 6.5 mm, 124g 132.7 x 65.5 x 6.2 mm, 120g
Camera 13MP (4128 x 3096) Rear Facing Sony Sensor w/ F2.0 aperture, 8MP FFC 8MP (3264 x 2448) Rear Facing Sony Sensor w/ F2.0 aperture, 5MP FFC
Battery 9.5Wh 7.6Wh
OS Android 4.4.2 + Emotion UI 2.3 Android 4.2.2 + Emotion UI 1.6
Other Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC 802.11b/g/n + BT 3.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA
SIM Size Micro-SIM Micro-SIM

Huawei continues to include their own SoC in their flagship devices. The HiSilicon KIRIN 910T is a quad-core Cortex A9 design with Mali-450 GPU built on a 28nm HPM process. The Cortex A9s are clocked at up to 1.8GHz, which is quite high for a A9 design. I’m curious to see how the high clocked A9s stack up to Qualcomm’s Krait 400. I suspect it’s a better perf/watt choice to use higher clocked A9s than a high frequency A15, however the driving factor here is probably performance/area and then perf/watt.

The KIRIN 910T features HiSilicon’s own integrated LTE modem. For a device aimed at the high-end market this is definitely something needed to be competitive. The P7 will launch with support for LTE Bands 1, 3, 7, 8 and 20. With the exception of Canadians in 2600MHz (Band 7) markets, North American users are out of luck with the international launch SKU. In terms of connectivity Huawei has moved to Bluetooth 4.0 and included support for NFC. The device’s battery capacity increased from 7.6Wh to 9.5Wh. Poor battery life was one of the major complaints about the Ascend P6 and it looks like Huawei doesn’t want to have the same issue this time around (although software tuning can be just as important as hardware/battery selection).

Like other recently launched devices, Huawei is putting big stress on the camera. The Sony-sourced 13MP sensor on the back is fairly standard for today’s high-end Android smartphones but the front camera is much more unique. Huawei has used an 8MP sensor for the device’s front facing camera. This is the next step in what appears to be a very rapid shift in front camera resolution. It was only a year ago that 2MP was the de-facto standard for the front facing camera on flagship smartphones. With the new front camera Huawei is promoting some new software features like front facing panoramas to fit in larger groups of people. In addition, both the front and back cameras are capable of 1080p30 video recording.

In terms of software the device runs Android 4.4.2 with Huawei’s emotion UI on top. Like many recently launched flagship devices, Huawei is touting a feature they call “super power-saving mode” which can dim the display and turn off everything except the basic functions of the phone when the battery is at ten percent or lower. Huawei has indicated that the device will launch in black, white, and pink finishes with a recommended retail price of 449 euros in China, Australia, and Europe sometime around Q3 2014 with other markets to follow later.

More Chromebooks Announced: ASUS C200 and C300 from $250
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More Chromebooks Announced: ASUS C200 and C300 from $250

Today seems to be Chromebook announcement day. After Lenovo earlier, ASUS has jumped into the scene with two new models using Intel Bay Trail-M processors. The 11.6-inch C200 and 13.3-inch C300 use the Intel Celeron N2830 CPU, a 7.5W dual core Silv…

D-Link Enters Home Automation Market with Wi-Fi Smart Plug
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D-Link Enters Home Automation Market with Wi-Fi Smart Plug

In our coverage of CES 2014, we had pointed out leaks about D-Link’s entry into the home automation market with a ‘smart’ plug controlled via Wi-Fi. Today, D-Link is making the information official.

The D-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug (DSP-W215) will be the first entry in a series of home automation solutions from the company. Amongst the touted features are power scheduling, local and remote control, monitoring of energy usage and overheating protection (with a thermal sensor) through automatic shutoff. Control and monitoring is made possible through the free mydlink Smart Plug mobile app.

Thanks to the FCC filings, we already have data on the internal platform. Unlike Belkin’s WeMo Insight which seems to use a Ralink chipset, the DSP-W215 seems to go the Qualcomm-Atheros route with the Hornet WiSoC platform in the AR1311-AL1A, a member of the same family that is used in the Ubiquit mFi mPower units.

The WeMo Insight and the D-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug seem to share almost the same feature set, so it would be interesting to see what the differences are in practice – for both the general consumers and the developers / power users.

In particular, it remains to be seen if the APIs to monitor and control the unit are open and whether the unit can be controlled via a web browser and/or PC application. The unit is available today with an EDLP (every-day low price) of $50, which undercuts the MSRP of Belkin’s WeMo Insight Switch by $10.

Lenovo’s First Consumer Chromebook: N20 and N20p for $279 to $329
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Lenovo’s First Consumer Chromebook: N20 and N20p for $279 to $329

Chromebooks still sit at number two and three on Amazon’s best-selling laptop computer range, as well as 1-6 in the highest rated section, so it would make sense for a company as large as Lenovo to jump onto this market. Lenovo has released Chromebooks in the past, namely the ThinkPad 11e and Yoga 11e both for education, but the new N20 and N20p will be the first available to the general public.

I am awaiting a response from Lenovo for exact specifications and more images, however both models will feature a Celeron processor and a 1366×768 11.6-inch screen, with the N20p capable of 10-point multi-touch. Both models will come with 16GB internal NAND plus 100GB of cloud storage, as well as having what Lenovo call ‘a full-sized keyboard and oversized trackpad’ for ease-of-use. Lenovo mentions WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, however not the standard or the implementation. Maximum depth of the device is 17.9mm and it weighs in at 1.4 kg (3.1lbs).

The N20 is a regular laptop design, whereas the N20p will feature Lenovo’s multi-mode technology, allowing the screen to be rotated 300 degrees into a ‘stand’ mode for watching videos and interacting with others. Both workbooks will allow opening, editing and sharing Microsoft Word and Excel files, and the batteries are rated at 8 hours.

Prices will start at $279 for the N20 and $329 for the N20p, which will be available from the beginning of July and August respectively, and I expect we might see one at Computex. Actually other sources that have been up close with the device pre-launch have reported the $329 model having 4GB DRAM, and gives the WiFi as 802.11ac.

To put the price/specifications in perspective, a similar priced model on Amazon for $285 comes with the Haswell-based Celeron 2955U 1.4 GHz processor, 2GB DRAM and 32GB internal storage.

Sources: Lenovo, SlashGear

Update: We have the specifications from Lenovo, but they still leave out information such as the CPU model:

Also a few more images: