Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Benchmarking

At Qualcomm’s IQ India event here in New Delhi, we got a chance to get our hands on some of the latest development hardware that Qualcomm has. The latest quadcore mobile processor ie the Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ 8064) was shown off in the form of its tablet reference design. The chip uses 4 krait cores alongside the Adreno 320 GPU.

As part of the benchmarking workshop, we ran a range of tests on it to judge performance and the figures were some of the best we’ve seen so far. A quick test on the Quadrant benchmark resulted in a score of  7641 points which is the best we have seen for a device till now.

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Zen Mobiles launches UltraTab A900 with 9-inch display, Android 4.0 for Rs. 7999

Zen Mobiles has launched the UltraTab A900, successor of the UltraTab A100 that was launched in July. The UltraTab A900 has a 9-inch capacitive multi-touch display. It runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) similar to the UltraTab A100. It is sleek and has marble finish. It has 1.3 Megapixel front-facing camera for video calling and has support for Adobe Flash. It has Live Panel menu that lets users to customize the home screen content with images, bookmarks, social feeds and a application tray in the home screen with shortcuts to launch task manager, calendar, music player and more. Continue reading “Zen Mobiles launches UltraTab A900 with 9-inch display, Android 4.0 for Rs. 7999”

Nokia reports Q3 2012 financials, 2.9 million Lumias sold, $9.4 billion in sales

Nokia just published its quarterly financial report and predictably, the results aren’t good at all. The Finnish smartphone manufacturer reported losses of $754 million. The silver lining to this is that the company has definitely managed to slow down its losses which were reported at $1.01 billion in the previous quarter. The sales of Lumia devices dropped down to 2.9 billion compared to 4 million in the last quarter.
Continue reading “Nokia reports Q3 2012 financials, 2.9 million Lumias sold, $9.4 billion in sales”

Google to hold an Android event on October 29th

Google has started sending invites for an Android event on October 29th. Looks like the earlier rumors about the event were correct. Google’s  event coincides with the Microsoft’s Windows Phone event in San Francisco. There is nothing in the invite  other than the tag line The playground is open, but according to the earlier rumors, we can expect Nexus devices from LG and Sony. Continue reading “Google to hold an Android event on October 29th”

Asus PadFone 2 official, launching in Europe and Asia including India in December

Asus has officially announced the Padfone 2, successor of the PadFone that was launched in India last month. It comes with a 4.7-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD Super IPS+ display with 550 nits brightness and is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 APQ8064 processor with Adreno 320 GPU. It would have Qualcomm’s MDM9215 chip for the LTE support. It has a optional keyboard dock. The specs, images, and the video have already been leaked online. Continue reading “Asus PadFone 2 official, launching in Europe and Asia including India in December”

Video Interview with Raj Talluri SVP , Qualcomm about Snapdragon and the Competition at IQ India 2012

At IQ India 2012 , I got a chance to sit down with Raj Talluri , Senior Vice President , Application Processors  at Qualcomm Inc. Raj is leading the company’s Snapdragon lineup of products. I quizzed Raj about Snapdragon , Nvidia Tegra 3 , Samsung Exynos and even Apple’s custom chip approach.Watch the full video interview below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KTMWHZngcM

Continue reading “Video Interview with Raj Talluri SVP , Qualcomm about Snapdragon and the Competition at IQ India 2012”

Airtel launches 4G LTE services in Pune


Airtel has launched their 4G LTE services in Pune, followed by Kolkata and Bengaluru. Airtel has also reduced the price of the LTE CPE and dongles, the Indoor CPE with Wi-Fi and the 4G Multi Mode Dongle, that are now available for Rs. 4999 each. Airtel has also announced the availability and free trial offer of Airtel Broadband TV and Games On-Demand for their 4G LTE customers. They have introduced cash back offers for post-paid customers. Airtel 4G services would be available soon for prepaid customers in Pune . Continue reading “Airtel launches 4G LTE services in Pune”

Google Calendar app for Android released on the Google Play Store

Google has finally released the Google Calender app on the Google Play Store for the devices running on 4.0.3 or later. This app was previously available only on the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus devices. This would let you sync the Google calendar to the Android devices, create, edit and delete events and also respond to invitations. Continue reading “Google Calendar app for Android released on the Google Play Store”

HTC J Butterfly launched with 5 inch 1080p display on Japan’s KDDI network

The long rumored HTC phablet was today launched at an event in Japan in the form of the HTC J Butterfly. Launched in partnership with Japan’s KDDI network, the Android Jellybean based smartphone packs in a 5 inch Super LCD 3 screen with Full HD resolution.

Continue reading “HTC J Butterfly launched with 5 inch 1080p display on Japan’s KDDI network”

Karbonn launches AGNEE 3G tablet running Android 4.0

Karbonn Mobiles and Innominds has launched AGNEE tablet with 3G support running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) at the Innovation Qualcomm India 2012 event. It is based on QTI Reference Design (QRD) that is powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A processor. It has a 7-inch (800 x 480 pixels) multi-touch display and has a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calling. Innominds has designed and developed the tablet for Karbonn. It has preloaded educational applications, education-based content and services that provides a collaborative learning experience for students. It would also have support for voice calling. Continue reading “Karbonn launches AGNEE 3G tablet running Android 4.0”

Qualcomm Awards US$ 100,000 for the QPrize 2012 winner Deck App

Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture capital arm Qualcomm Ventures has awarded US$100,000 for Deck App Technologies, based in Bangalore , winners of the QPrize 2012 competition. The company was selected based on its product innovation and the strength of its management team, and the prize money would let them expand its business. Continue reading “Qualcomm Awards US$ 100,000 for the QPrize 2012 winner Deck App”

Microsoft Surface RT priced at $499 for 32GB version, Touch cover not included

Microsoft announced its entry into the tablet space in the form of the Surface RT and Surface Pro earlier this year. There has been a lot of speculation around the price point of the product. Finally Microsoft today unveiled the price point for the Surface RT via their online store.

Continue reading “Microsoft Surface RT priced at $499 for 32GB version, Touch cover not included”

Huawei Ascend P1 LTE launched in India on Airtel

Huawei has launched the Ascend P1 LTE, the first LTE smartphone in India, in partnership with Airtel at the Innovation Qualcomm India 2012 event. It would run on Airtel’s LTE-TDD network that was first launched in Kolkatta earlier this April. The Huawei Ascend P1 LTE has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD (960 x 540 pixels) display with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla glass protection and is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor with Adreno 225 GPU. It runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and has a 8 megapixel auto focus camera with dual LED flash and 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calling. Continue reading “Huawei Ascend P1 LTE launched in India on Airtel”

IQ India 2012 Live Blog


FoneArena is live from Qualcomm’s  annual mobile event IQ India 2012 . This event is coming to India after Sao Paulo, Brazil and Berlin, Germany.The event has an interesting line up of speakers including Qualcomm CEO Dr.Paul Jacobs . Watch the live blog below and the live stream on the dedicated site. Continue reading “IQ India 2012 Live Blog”

LG to roll out Android 4.1 update for select high-end Optimus devices starting from November

LG has announced the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update schedule for high-end devices including Optimus LTE 2, Optimus G, Optimus Vu and Vu 2 in Korea. The LG Optimus LTE 2 would be the first device to get the Jelly Bean update, which would start in November. LG’s latest quad-core Smartphone, Optimus G would get the update in December, while the Optimus Vu and its successor Vu 2 would get the update in Q1 2012. Sadly their first quad-core Smartphone, the Optimus 4X HD is not in the list. Continue reading “LG to roll out Android 4.1 update for select high-end Optimus devices starting from November”