Meizu Launches m2 note 5.5″ Budget Smartphone

Meizu today launches the successor to the m1 note, a cheap entry-level smartphone that still manages to pack enormous value for its price-range. The m2 note has a 5.5″ Sharp manufactured IGZO display coming in at 1920×1080 resolution.

The most interesting aspect of the m2 note as opposed to the original m1 is the inclusion of 13 frequency bands including FDD-LTE frequencies. This ensures that the m2 note can be used in a wide range of global regions. We’re still not sure exactly which frequencies are included, as for example we saw the MX4 Pro not provide the 800MHz band for FDD networks.

MediaTek announces Helio P10 Mainstream SoC

MediaTek started promoting its new Helio branding for SoCs back at MWC this year, and we had the please to cover the the new Helio X20 announcement just a few weeks ago. While the X-series is supposed to target the higher end (dubbed “eXtreme Performance”), the P-line is aimed at the budget mid-range (“Premium Performance” as MediaTek calls it). Today’s announcement of the Helio P10 marks the first SoC in the P-series to adopt the new branding.

The P10 is the direct successor to last year’s MT6752, which saw some quite widespread in adoption by Chinese vendors such as Meizu (M1 note), Gionee (Elife S7) or JiaYu (S3) and others. The P10 improves on its predecessor, the the MT6752, by taking a lot of improvements which were introduced with the X10 and X20.

On the processor side, the CPU configuration remains a dual-cluster with four A53 cores per cluster. The MT6752 clocked both clusters at the same clock, running from 1.7 up to 2.0GHz as its maximum frequency depending on the chip bin. The P10 keeps this 2.0GHz maximum clock for its performance cluster, but has a slower cluster at lower speeds which we weren’t yet able to confirm with MediaTek 1.1GHz.

Memory bandwidth was supposedly also increased, and I suspect, but again in need of confirmation, that we’re talking about finally switching over to a dual-channel memory controller, as the MT6752 was still sporting a single 32bit controller. The P10 is aimed at 1080p devices so it looks that MediaTek is keeping the graphics performances conservative and power efficient.

MediaTek also upgrades the GPU from a Mali T760 to a T860, but keeps the shader core count steady at 2. We again see some interesting power claims concerning the T8XX series as MediaTek claims the new GPU uses only 70% of the power of the previous T760 iteration while improving performance by 20%, but we might be not talking solely architectural improvements as the P10 comes on a brand-new silicon manufacturing node.

The P10 is the first SoC to be announced on TSMC’s 28HPC+ process. TSMC published the 28HPC process last autumn as a successor to 28HPM – with the advantages of a slight die shrink and improved power characteristics. 28HPC+ is yet another iteration that was publicly talked about last April, and promises a 15% gain in performance or a quite large 30 to 50% reduction in leakage at the same speed when compared to 28HPC.

We’ll continue to see the 28nm process to live on for a long time in the mid-range and cost-sensitive segments as it marks the sweet-spot in the transistors/$ scaling, and 28HPC(+) is one of the first enablers of this life-time extension.

The Helio P10 also takes over the modem sub-system that we’ve seen announced in the X20 – with LTE rel.11 Category 6 capability and 2x20MHz carrier aggregation on the download stream. This also includes crucial CDMA2000 support that MediaTek needs to be able to penetrate the North American and other limited markets.

The mainstream lineup is the Taiwanese company’s bread & butter and is the source of where MediaTek has seen most of its notorious successes. The P10, being part of this segment, will very likely see similar widespread adoption in low-cost devices as the Chinese smartphone boom continues to grow.

The Helio P10 is supposed to be sampling in early Q3 2015 and with phone mass-production happening towards the end of the year in the fourth quarter.

ASUS Announces the ZenFone Selfie at Computex

ASUS has been making waves in the industry lately with their powerful but low priced ZenFone 2. ASUS’s second generation of ZenFones is another chance for them to break into markets like North America and Western Europe. Part of their strategy appears to be a consolidation of the number of models they offer, and another aspect is rethinking the naming of their devices. The first generation of ZenFones were mostly named with a number on the end which signified how large the screen was. This type of naming doesn’t scale very well when you update phones every year, and it isn’t very good for naming models that target a specific niche. 

Today’s announcement is one of those devices. The ZenFone Selfie is a device for users who like to take selfies, and as such it has a large degree of focus on the device’s front camera and the software features that assist it. Of course, even when a device is focused on Selfies, making sure the other aspects hold up is still very important. To get an idea of how the ZenFone Selfie stacks up on paper I’ve listed its specifications below.

Unfortunately, ASUS’s press release is somewhat light when it comes to specifications. In terms of its design, it looks almost exactly the same as the ZenFone 2. What we do know is that the ZenFone Selfie sports the same 13MP Toshiba camera sensors on the front and back, with the rear sensor having a wider aperture and a longer focal length than the front sensor. Both sensors are stated to be 1/3.2″, although it’s likely that they’re advertised as 1/3.07″ sensors with 1.12 micron pixels. The rear camera also sports laser autofocus like the ZenFone Zoom and the LG G3 / G4.

Beyond the cameras we have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 CPU which has eight Cortex A53 cores split into two clusters. One cluster runs at 1.7GHz and is intended for more CPU intense workloads, while the 1.0GHz cluster is for lighter workloads. The display has the same specifications as the ZenFone 2, being a 5.5″ 1920×1080 IPS panel. Currently the amount of RAM and NAND included is unknown, as is the capacity of the battery, and the specifications for WiFi, GNSS, and other connectivity features. The dimensions of the phone are also unknown, but one can get a decent idea of the specs from the display size, photos, and ASUS’s advertisement that the bezels on the long edges of the display are 3.3mm wide. Once more information becomes available, I’ll update this article to reflect it.

On the software side, the ZenFone Selfie supports a number of features to appeal to users. ASUS is advertising the front camera’s 88 degree field of view, which can span up to 140 degrees when their selfie panorama mode is used in the camera. Features like “beautification” mode are also back, and that’s all I have to say about that.

At launch the ZenFone Selfie will be available with seven different color options for the back cover. The pastel-like finishes are available in white, pink, aqua blue. There will also be black, gold, grey, and red metallic back covers, much like those available now on the Zenfone 2.

Like the two ZenPads that ASUS also launched today, the price and availability of the ZenFone Selfie are not yet known. Based on its SoC, I would imagine it has to undercut the ZenFone 2 on price, even with the higher resolution front camera. Once I get word on the price and what countries the ZenFone 2 will be available in I’ll update that here as well.