Smartphones


Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones

Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones

The Lumia brand has a couple of new additions to compliment the already dizzying array of devices launched in the last year. Those waiting for a new flagship to replace the Lumia 930 will have to wait a bit longer though, as this time it is yet another two low cost devices. The feature set of which device has what is getting fairly complicated, and Microsoft does not seem to have a steady progression of features from lower numbered phones to the higher ones anymore, so we will go through these two new devices and see where they fit in the Lumia stack.

Lumia 435

The first device is the 4” Lumia 435. This is the first Lumia device with a dual-core processor since the Snapdragon S4 powered devices in 2012/2013. In this case, it is the Snapdragon 200 with dual Cortex A7 processors at 1.2 GHz. The goal of this new device seems to be to hit an even lower price point than the 5xx series of phones, so the even lower powered SoC is not a surprise. Graphics are likely the same as the 5xx series with Adreno 302 to drive the 800×480 display. The 435 does come with 1 GB of memory now, so it appears that at least for Lumia phones, 512 MB options will no longer be released which is a good thing. Storage is 8 GB of NAND, plus microSD expansion up to an additional 128 GB. The camera is especially poor on this phone though, with just a 2 MP fixed focus 1/5 inch sensor with f/2.7 aperture. It does come with a front facing camera, although it is a mere 0.3 MP VGA sensor. Although the battery is small at 1560 mAh, it does have 3.8 V chemistry and a claimed battery life of 9.4 hours of Wi-Fi browsing. The 435 comes in green, orange, white, or black with a MSRP of 69 euros. Availability will be in February in “select” countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

  Nokia Lumia 435
SoC MSM8210 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.1 x 64.7 x 11.7 (mm)
Weight 134.1 grams
Camera 2MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/5″ CMOS size, F/2.7 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

 

Lumia 532

The next variant is the Lumia 532, which also has a 4” display and the same resolution at 800×480. This is a spec bump over the original 530, with the same quad-core Snapdragon 200 (4xCortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz) but with 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of NAND with microSD expansion up to 128 GB. The original 530 came with just 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of NAND, both of which are fairly inadequate. The 532 comes with a 5.0 MP fixed focus 1/4 inch camera with f/2.4 aperture. The front facing camera is the same 0.3 MP unit as the 435 with VGA resolution video. The interesting thing on the 532 though is the inclusion of the Glance screen, which is easily my favorite feature on Lumia phones, and has been mostly absent from this year’s lineup with just the Lumia 830 sporting glance for any of the phones released in the last year. This makes it an easy win over the Lumia 530. Colors are once again, orange, green, white, and black, and prices start at 79 euros MSRP and similar availability to the 435.

  Nokia Lumia 532
SoC MSM8212 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD with Glance Screen
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.9 x 65.5 x 11.6 (mm)
Weight 136.3 grams
Camera 5MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/4″ CMOS size, F/2.4 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

While neither of these phones are especially exciting, Microsoft has clearly seen some traction at the low end of the market and they continue to create devices for each market price and segment they are competing in.

The biggest problem though is that they now have a huge number of devices offered, and unfortunately, a very strange feature list. It seems almost random at this point which phone will have which features, and there is no progression through the product range where lower models are a subset of features of their higher priced brethren. Take for example the Lumia 930, which is the current flagship, but has no Glance screen support, but the Lumia 830 and 532 do have Glance support. The Lumia 730/735 have a higher resolution front facing camera, as does the Lumia 535, but the Lumia 830 has a standard front facing camera. The Lumia 630 is missing things like 1 GB of RAM and an ambient light sensor that less expensive models do have.

While I appreciate that Microsoft is creating models for each market they are going after, they seem to be losing some sort of coherency to their naming standards and feature lists. To avoid customer confusion, this is something that is fairly important.

The Lumia brand is new to Microsoft, so we are not sure which of these models were in the Nokia pipeline and have been altered, so it may take a year or so to sort out the basic feature sets. But for now, it is getting a bit confusing.

For those waiting for a higher end Lumia to finally come out of Microsoft, perhaps we may have to wait for Mobile World Congress to get any ideas about that. Stay tuned!

Source: Windows Blog

Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones

Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones

The Lumia brand has a couple of new additions to compliment the already dizzying array of devices launched in the last year. Those waiting for a new flagship to replace the Lumia 930 will have to wait a bit longer though, as this time it is yet another two low cost devices. The feature set of which device has what is getting fairly complicated, and Microsoft does not seem to have a steady progression of features from lower numbered phones to the higher ones anymore, so we will go through these two new devices and see where they fit in the Lumia stack.

Lumia 435

The first device is the 4” Lumia 435. This is the first Lumia device with a dual-core processor since the Snapdragon S4 powered devices in 2012/2013. In this case, it is the Snapdragon 200 with dual Cortex A7 processors at 1.2 GHz. The goal of this new device seems to be to hit an even lower price point than the 5xx series of phones, so the even lower powered SoC is not a surprise. Graphics are likely the same as the 5xx series with Adreno 302 to drive the 800×480 display. The 435 does come with 1 GB of memory now, so it appears that at least for Lumia phones, 512 MB options will no longer be released which is a good thing. Storage is 8 GB of NAND, plus microSD expansion up to an additional 128 GB. The camera is especially poor on this phone though, with just a 2 MP fixed focus 1/5 inch sensor with f/2.7 aperture. It does come with a front facing camera, although it is a mere 0.3 MP VGA sensor. Although the battery is small at 1560 mAh, it does have 3.8 V chemistry and a claimed battery life of 9.4 hours of Wi-Fi browsing. The 435 comes in green, orange, white, or black with a MSRP of 69 euros. Availability will be in February in “select” countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

  Nokia Lumia 435
SoC MSM8210 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.1 x 64.7 x 11.7 (mm)
Weight 134.1 grams
Camera 2MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/5″ CMOS size, F/2.7 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

 

Lumia 532

The next variant is the Lumia 532, which also has a 4” display and the same resolution at 800×480. This is a spec bump over the original 530, with the same quad-core Snapdragon 200 (4xCortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz) but with 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of NAND with microSD expansion up to 128 GB. The original 530 came with just 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of NAND, both of which are fairly inadequate. The 532 comes with a 5.0 MP fixed focus 1/4 inch camera with f/2.4 aperture. The front facing camera is the same 0.3 MP unit as the 435 with VGA resolution video. The interesting thing on the 532 though is the inclusion of the Glance screen, which is easily my favorite feature on Lumia phones, and has been mostly absent from this year’s lineup with just the Lumia 830 sporting glance for any of the phones released in the last year. This makes it an easy win over the Lumia 530. Colors are once again, orange, green, white, and black, and prices start at 79 euros MSRP and similar availability to the 435.

  Nokia Lumia 532
SoC MSM8212 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD with Glance Screen
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.9 x 65.5 x 11.6 (mm)
Weight 136.3 grams
Camera 5MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/4″ CMOS size, F/2.4 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

While neither of these phones are especially exciting, Microsoft has clearly seen some traction at the low end of the market and they continue to create devices for each market price and segment they are competing in.

The biggest problem though is that they now have a huge number of devices offered, and unfortunately, a very strange feature list. It seems almost random at this point which phone will have which features, and there is no progression through the product range where lower models are a subset of features of their higher priced brethren. Take for example the Lumia 930, which is the current flagship, but has no Glance screen support, but the Lumia 830 and 532 do have Glance support. The Lumia 730/735 have a higher resolution front facing camera, as does the Lumia 535, but the Lumia 830 has a standard front facing camera. The Lumia 630 is missing things like 1 GB of RAM and an ambient light sensor that less expensive models do have.

While I appreciate that Microsoft is creating models for each market they are going after, they seem to be losing some sort of coherency to their naming standards and feature lists. To avoid customer confusion, this is something that is fairly important.

The Lumia brand is new to Microsoft, so we are not sure which of these models were in the Nokia pipeline and have been altered, so it may take a year or so to sort out the basic feature sets. But for now, it is getting a bit confusing.

For those waiting for a higher end Lumia to finally come out of Microsoft, perhaps we may have to wait for Mobile World Congress to get any ideas about that. Stay tuned!

Source: Windows Blog

Samsung Announces the Galaxy A7

Samsung Announces the Galaxy A7

The smartphone space is not as it was a few years ago. There’s increasing competition from vendors based in countries like China and India who can put out high quality products at a very low price. In a world where vendors are squeezing them on both the high end and the low end, Samsung has been put under significant pressure to improve their mid-range devices moving into the future. We saw the beginning of this with the Galaxt A3 and A5, which had aluminum unibody designs that seemed to defy their low price point. The latest device to continue this strategy is the Galaxy A7, which is the largest and fastest device of the Galaxy A line. I’ve laid out its specs in the table below.

Samsung Galaxy A7
SoC Exynos 5430 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 615
Memory and Storage 16GB NAND + MicroSDXC, 2GB LPDDR3
Display 5.5” HD SAMOLED
Cellular Connectivity 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Ericsson M7450 or MDM9x25)
Dimensions 151 x 76.2 x 6.3 mm, 141g
Camera 13 MP Rear Facing, 5MP Front Facing
Battery 2600 mAh (9.88 Whr)
Other Connectivity 802.11 a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC
SIM Size Nano SIM (Dual SIM SKU available)
Operating System Android 4.4 KitKat

As you can see, the Galaxy A7 is still a mid-range smartphone like the A3 and A5. However, we get some impressive specifications for a mid-range device. The Galaxy A7 comes with one of two similar processors depending on which SKU you buy. The single-SIM LTE model comes with Samsung’s Exynos 5430 which has a 1.8GHz 4 x Cortex-A15 cluster and a 1.3GHz 4 x Cortex-A7 cluster. This model uses Ericsson’s M7450 Cat4 LTE modem. The dual-SIM LTE/3G model uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 MSM9839 which has a 1.5GHz 4 x Cortex-A53 cluster and a 1.0GHz 4 x Cortex-A53 cluster. 

Beyond the SoC, we see what looks to be standard specs for a 2015 mid-range phone. The Galaxy A7 is actually very similar to the Desire 826. It has a 2600mAh (9.88Wh) battery, a 13MP rear-facing camera, 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 16GB of NAND, and a MicroSD slot. The Galaxy A7 bests the Desire 826 with its size though. It’s smaller, lighter, and much thinner. In fact, with a thickness of only 6.3mm, it’s thinner than Apple’s flagship iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The one listed specification that concerns me is the display. It is described as a 5.5″ HD SAMOLED panel, and based on Samsung distinguishing between HD and FHD in previous spec sheets, it’s like that the Galaxy A7 uses a 1280×720 display. At 5.5″, this would put it at 267ppi which will have visible aliasing and PenTile artifacting. However, if it turns out to be a 1920×1080 display then this will be less of an issue, and we will have to wait until further info is released or the device is in the hands of users before we can make a definite conclusion here.

On the software side, Samsung is advertising many of its camera features such as voice or gesture activated selfie capture, and multi-window app support. Something to note is that the Galaxy A7 will ship with Android 4.4 KitKat despite 5.0 Lollipop being available. This means that the Snapdragon 615 model will have to operate in 32bit mode, at least until Samsung provides an update to Lollipop. Like the Galaxy A3 and A5, the A7 will come in white, black, and gold colors at launch. There’s currently no word on price or when the device will ship to specific markets.

A Quick Look at Keyssa: Contactless USB 3.0

A Quick Look at Keyssa: Contactless USB 3.0

While we often don’t discuss startups, at CES we found a company called Keyssa that claims to have the technology to do away with wired connectors entirely. Normally, these claims are rather misleading, but in the case of Keyssa it seems that th…

A Quick Look at Keyssa: Contactless USB 3.0

A Quick Look at Keyssa: Contactless USB 3.0

While we often don’t discuss startups, at CES we found a company called Keyssa that claims to have the technology to do away with wired connectors entirely. Normally, these claims are rather misleading, but in the case of Keyssa it seems that th…