How sure are you that it has wifi ac? They don't list it on their site but they did the same with the Note 3. The model number for the SoC for both is MT6755m , that's 1.8GHz, the vanilla MT6755 is at 1.95GHz.
Still no E8890/SD820 architecture/power deep dive? Andrei said it was in the works many months ago, it's been over half a year since the first Kryo architectural article and 5 months since the release of the GS7's. Is there any legitimate reason for this besides "busy schedule, lack of writers, and time zone differences"?
At first I thought "What... $1299 ?? that's crazy" and then I noticed that it's not $.... Second I thought well it's .... 1299 yen, but that's too low ....
The Redmi Note 3 with the SD650 is 899 yuan for 2GB/16GB or 1099 for 3GB/32GB. That's a heck of a bargain for a phone that can go against flagships costing 3x more. The modding scene is also a lot more active with Qualcomm-based devices because Mediatek are stingy when it comes to kernel sources.
How does it go against the flagships? DDR3, EMMC, A53, 1080 resolution, and a GPU that can't handle basic gaming. How exactly does this challenge flagships?
Because a lot of everyday browsing and use doesn't require much more than that. The 650 is a solid chip, the battery in the Redmi is huge and at only 1080 is more efficient than something with 1440, and some people don't game at all so why put in a GPU that sucks more power when people don't need it. Sure UFS is faster, but again, the EMMC inside isn't slow. And unless the only reason you have a device is to show it off to people with your read/write speeds, the speeds from the nand will be enough for some people. The point is, that the performance is not orders of magnitudes less than a device that costs hundreds more.
I've gotten 10 hours screen on time on an unmodded kernel, close to what Anandtech got with their testing. That's crazy for a phone this cheap. I'm now testing a bunch of CM13-based ROMs and they're even faster and with longer battery life.
If that's not a flagship killer, I don't know what is ;) I don't game so this is the perfect workday pocket computer for me.
A "flagship killer" has always been a phone with comparable specs and performance for a substantially lower price. You don't get to re-define things to suit your own thinking. This is a reasonable alternative for people who don't need the latest and greatest, and that market has become swollen in the last year or so. Don't misunderstand, I'm very pleased with the commoditization of the mobile market, but a "flagship killer" this is not.
Not if you're engineering to a budget. Besides, a lot of flagship phones have tech that doesn't amount to a better user experience, just a higher BOM. Sales of these good-enough cheap Android phones are cannibalizing the top end because for most people, they're good enough.
Especially the Snapdragon 650. That's a flagship-class chip lurking in bargain basement phones.
The A72 cores in the 650 are what makes it a reasonable alternative to the flagship chipsets. This particular devices uses very slow A53 cores that aren't particularly fast nor power efficient in comparison to newer devices. Yes, it's better than A7 or A9 but this is hardly a modern chipset.
Regarding the statement, "The Helio P10’s low-power GPU is also unsuitable for serious gaming, but is sufficient for playing casual titles," I'm not keeping up well with modern phone hardware so I'm curious about the sorts of games that are currently available for phones. Are they really starting to approach the point where they're suitable as a primary gaming platform? Are we talking about console-like graphics or something more competitive with modern PCs? If there's decent entertainment to be had on higher end phones, maybe it's finally time to exit PC gaming in favor of just using an Android for that kind of entertainment.
Mobile games are starting to use the unity engine etc. so the graphics are (IMO) similar to N64 or so. Maybe original Xbox/Playstation. With the latest tech you can stream to your TV and simply use the phone as a controller, and that streaming takes a good bit of GPU power. Solitaire is not going to stress this GPU, but the latest Asphalt etc. certainly will. Some of the newer engines remain playable on Snapdragon 800, but the framerates can be rough at times. Phones are getting to be a lot like tiny desktops, some game some don't. Your needs are dependent on your use case.
As for ditching PC for Android gaming, not until they ditch microtransactions. Microtransactions are the bane of mobile gaming. Whereas you used to be able to plop down $50-60 and everyone has the same opportunities, on mobile it's all about Free to Play, Pay to Win. It's a terrible, terrible business model for the consumer, and breathtakingly profitable for the developers. I foresee a revolt against Microtransactions, though not soon enough for my liking.
Thanks for the thoughts on Android gaming. I'm not too worried about microtransactions though. They're tolerable and for many games that I've played they only speed up the rate at which you advance in a given game rather than act as a recurring paywall. I suppose that might be different in multiplayer games and newer games, but the Gingerbread-era things I tinkered with weren't too bad about that. Now that local printer support has started coming together, it might be time to start looking at Androids again more seriously.
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jjj - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
How sure are you that it has wifi ac? They don't list it on their site but they did the same with the Note 3.The model number for the SoC for both is MT6755m , that's 1.8GHz, the vanilla MT6755 is at 1.95GHz.
CloudWiz - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
Still no E8890/SD820 architecture/power deep dive? Andrei said it was in the works many months ago, it's been over half a year since the first Kryo architectural article and 5 months since the release of the GS7's. Is there any legitimate reason for this besides "busy schedule, lack of writers, and time zone differences"?Psyside - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
Agree, i could care less for this phone when you got RN3P for the same price, its literally 2x better.Psyside - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
I can't wait for the deep dive article, so much time passed very disappointing.mr_tawan - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
At first I thought "What... $1299 ?? that's crazy" and then I noticed that it's not $.... Second I thought well it's .... 1299 yen, but that's too low ....Turns out to be Chinese Yuan.
kyuu - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
Yeah it's a bit confusing that Chinese Yuan and Japanese Yen use the same symbol.mr_tawan - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
It's probably better to use currency code instead of dollar signs.djayjp - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
Why would anyone buy this over the Redmi Note 3 Qualcomm with two A72 cores for the same price...?serendip - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
The Redmi Note 3 with the SD650 is 899 yuan for 2GB/16GB or 1099 for 3GB/32GB. That's a heck of a bargain for a phone that can go against flagships costing 3x more. The modding scene is also a lot more active with Qualcomm-based devices because Mediatek are stingy when it comes to kernel sources.fanofanand - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
How does it go against the flagships? DDR3, EMMC, A53, 1080 resolution, and a GPU that can't handle basic gaming. How exactly does this challenge flagships?mortimerr - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
Because a lot of everyday browsing and use doesn't require much more than that. The 650 is a solid chip, the battery in the Redmi is huge and at only 1080 is more efficient than something with 1440, and some people don't game at all so why put in a GPU that sucks more power when people don't need it.Sure UFS is faster, but again, the EMMC inside isn't slow. And unless the only reason you have a device is to show it off to people with your read/write speeds, the speeds from the nand will be enough for some people.
The point is, that the performance is not orders of magnitudes less than a device that costs hundreds more.
serendip - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
I've gotten 10 hours screen on time on an unmodded kernel, close to what Anandtech got with their testing. That's crazy for a phone this cheap. I'm now testing a bunch of CM13-based ROMs and they're even faster and with longer battery life.If that's not a flagship killer, I don't know what is ;) I don't game so this is the perfect workday pocket computer for me.
fanofanand - Friday, August 12, 2016 - link
A "flagship killer" has always been a phone with comparable specs and performance for a substantially lower price. You don't get to re-define things to suit your own thinking. This is a reasonable alternative for people who don't need the latest and greatest, and that market has become swollen in the last year or so. Don't misunderstand, I'm very pleased with the commoditization of the mobile market, but a "flagship killer" this is not.fanofanand - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
EMMC & A53, how 2012 of them.serendip - Friday, August 12, 2016 - link
Not if you're engineering to a budget. Besides, a lot of flagship phones have tech that doesn't amount to a better user experience, just a higher BOM. Sales of these good-enough cheap Android phones are cannibalizing the top end because for most people, they're good enough.Especially the Snapdragon 650. That's a flagship-class chip lurking in bargain basement phones.
fanofanand - Friday, August 12, 2016 - link
The A72 cores in the 650 are what makes it a reasonable alternative to the flagship chipsets. This particular devices uses very slow A53 cores that aren't particularly fast nor power efficient in comparison to newer devices. Yes, it's better than A7 or A9 but this is hardly a modern chipset.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
Regarding the statement, "The Helio P10’s low-power GPU is also unsuitable for serious gaming, but is sufficient for playing casual titles," I'm not keeping up well with modern phone hardware so I'm curious about the sorts of games that are currently available for phones. Are they really starting to approach the point where they're suitable as a primary gaming platform? Are we talking about console-like graphics or something more competitive with modern PCs? If there's decent entertainment to be had on higher end phones, maybe it's finally time to exit PC gaming in favor of just using an Android for that kind of entertainment.fanofanand - Friday, August 12, 2016 - link
Mobile games are starting to use the unity engine etc. so the graphics are (IMO) similar to N64 or so. Maybe original Xbox/Playstation. With the latest tech you can stream to your TV and simply use the phone as a controller, and that streaming takes a good bit of GPU power. Solitaire is not going to stress this GPU, but the latest Asphalt etc. certainly will. Some of the newer engines remain playable on Snapdragon 800, but the framerates can be rough at times. Phones are getting to be a lot like tiny desktops, some game some don't. Your needs are dependent on your use case.fanofanand - Friday, August 12, 2016 - link
As for ditching PC for Android gaming, not until they ditch microtransactions. Microtransactions are the bane of mobile gaming. Whereas you used to be able to plop down $50-60 and everyone has the same opportunities, on mobile it's all about Free to Play, Pay to Win. It's a terrible, terrible business model for the consumer, and breathtakingly profitable for the developers. I foresee a revolt against Microtransactions, though not soon enough for my liking.BrokenCrayons - Monday, August 15, 2016 - link
Thanks for the thoughts on Android gaming. I'm not too worried about microtransactions though. They're tolerable and for many games that I've played they only speed up the rate at which you advance in a given game rather than act as a recurring paywall. I suppose that might be different in multiplayer games and newer games, but the Gingerbread-era things I tinkered with weren't too bad about that. Now that local printer support has started coming together, it might be time to start looking at Androids again more seriously.