I'm looking forward to June, when the 2-year contract on my 3GS ends, and I can upgrade. However, my phone is considered complete crap hardware on these forums, and it can already do everything I need - the interface is fast and smooth, and it does a great job of reading emails, web browsing, playing games, good GPS, multitasking (yes - not full multitasking, but the implementation works well, along with unlimited wifi tethering (jailbroken) and great battery life. I'm for sure going to upgrade, but I really don't know what a CPU/GPU with 4 times the performance is going to do for me. I'd rather get 2 the performance, and twice the battery life.
I like the news and the reviews AnandTech has. This website is my favorite, but I'm tired of the reviews being drowned out by frequent news. I understand that there is a button to sort, but I want to see both at the same time. Why do I have to click a button? Can't I see both like every other news website? You even have DailyTech on the side. Why can't you do something similar for AnandTech news. Also, maybe it's just the news, but I much prefer the reviews that were an aggregation of multiple products instead of news or reviews for a flood of individual products. Is it just me or am I starting to care less about Android phone 29 and Tegra 2 phone 15?
i like this news. it's more important than the DailyTech on the right side (which I don't always follow) and it's important enough to be in the reviews section (considering that it has something related to Tegra2 Galaxy S II performance) as a mobile device.
I prefer the Exynos Galaxy S II even thou it's slightly slower than Tegra2. I'v had it with nvidia... i don't trust them anymore
I too like this news. It is the most technical and in depth coverage of the MWC, something I am interested in. I'd rather have it 'streamed' to me than a giant report in a couple of days, although a good detailed summary recapping it all would be nice too.
I agree with Jared. It's tough keeping up with things when you have to read a book as an article.
Also, these news articles could be especially important to consumers that might wish to purchase a new phone in the coming days. A sort of, "you might want to wait" message.
What's even tougher is when articles are all posted at the same time. When you go a week or two w/o any news/reviews and then one weekend there are 10 to read, it's a little difficult catching up with things. I suspect sometimes NDAs are at play, but i'd still prefer a steady schedule (something that's hard to keep in the tech industry).
Anand has insured me that the SSD reviews are coming very soon, though :)
First of all, their "news" articles tend to have more practical and technical analysis than other news sites that simply blog text from a press release with no real understanding of what it means.
Second, it lessens the need for me to have to read other "news" sites in the first place. I used to only be able to get new content on Anandtech a few times a week it seemed. Having more content from a quality site like this is good, IMO.
Honestly I am not bothered by the site being flooded with news, but it does feel like phones and tablets are taking the spotlight from PC news. I can't blame them though, seems to be the way trends are going these days. I might not care about smartphones, but apparently a lot of others do. At least, when there are PC reviews, they're just as in-depth and useful as before :)
It's mostly because the phone and tablet market is experiencing the same kind of explosive performance boom that PCs had in the late 90s to early 2000s.
PCs have plateaued. What changes, but more cores, faster cores, more power-efficient cores, and Intel changing their goddamned socket every time they put out a new CPU?
PC is a world of incremental improvements here in 2011, while smartphones and ARM tablets are still making quantum leaps and paradigm shifts.
Part of that problem is that, at least recently, the PC market has been smothered by the Sandy Bridge recall. We have some PC stuff in the wings, but until SB hardware starts getting out to us again it's going to be tight.
Also keep in mind that smartphone hardware is basically growing the way PCs were back in the 486/Pentium days, except maybe even faster. It's a very young market prone to rapid growth, and you know we have to be on the ground floor for that. :)
Early indications suggest Exynos gaming performance is very similar to Tegra 2, I'm sure Brian/Anand had limited time to fully test/confirm the results but they did an excellent job and as they pointed out this early SoC will have a few driver issues.
One area Tegra 2 has an advantage is the UPV GeForce's flash hardware acceleration, it's already been certified by Adobe for Android 2.2+ (one of the benifits of getting many products to the market early) Unfortunately I don't think Mali 400 has this feature? It's worth noting the powerVR SGX range does but probably hasn't implemented by Android/Adobe plugin support yet. (Adreno 220 too?)
There's also a strong possibility other markets could get a SLCD on the SGS2 like the Nexus S (unless the new OLED factories are ready?)
Let's just hope it has a higher resolution than 480x800. I'm a bit miffed that not many chose to up the ante against Apple on this. Most notably HTC's embarrassing new product line. Relaunches of old phones? WTF.
I seriously doubt that it will have a different resolution (I do hope we'll have a SAMOLED+ screen here in europe though).
Anyway, I think getting rid of the pentile matrix will already help improving the resolution compared to the previous galaxy S, and I'm not sure it's really important to go above 480*800 right now if it hinders the GPU performances.
"Let's just hope it has a higher resolution than 480x800"
Kudos! Agree with you. People by some damn reason do not understand that...
Alas, it's still same unacceptable jerky annoying old cr@ppy VGA resolution. Great screen size but only same 480 lines ! This does not allow you to read full web pages and if somehow barely does, the fonts look like total sh!t almost similar to the impressions from the first CGA monitors. Remember this old junk ?
Resolution has to be twice of that, or at least as a total minimum 800x1280 to be enjoyable for browsing or watching movies. You see each its fre@king subpixel when you watch a movie. And you can not browse at all without permanent zoom or using mobile version of websites.
I specially wear +1.5-2 glasses for browsing and movies. This brings the viewing distance to 6-8" with so called implied or perceived resolution dropped to ... let me calculate....115DPI and below.
So even 1200x1920 will not bring us "retina display" class implied DPIs with the optimal for such screen dimensions viewing distances! Wake up industry!
Good battery life + Working GPS + Shipping with Gingerbread (and GPU optimized or whatever it needs to fully accelerated GB UI) + Good internal memory (at least 8 GB) + Verizon = Purchase another Samsung phone
Seriously, if even ONE of those elements is missing, screw Samsung. They have the worst product support I've ever experienced. And I still like my Fascinate, but am fed up with the software/GPS.
They may put out decent tech but the PACKAGE isn't polished. They aren't a software company and don't know how to dedicate resources to keep software updated.
If the non-CPU specs of the GT-I9103 are the same as the GT-I9100, this should be one sweet phone (8MP camera, whopping 1650mAH battery, Android 2.3, AMOLED and large storage). http://www.samsunghub.com/2011/02/13/samsung-galax... Hopefully call quality is decent and it supports US 3G bands. I may have to buy this...
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Harry Lloyd - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Oh My Godkmmatney - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I'm looking forward to June, when the 2-year contract on my 3GS ends, and I can upgrade. However, my phone is considered complete crap hardware on these forums, and it can already do everything I need - the interface is fast and smooth, and it does a great job of reading emails, web browsing, playing games, good GPS, multitasking (yes - not full multitasking, but the implementation works well, along with unlimited wifi tethering (jailbroken) and great battery life. I'm for sure going to upgrade, but I really don't know what a CPU/GPU with 4 times the performance is going to do for me. I'd rather get 2 the performance, and twice the battery life.allingm - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I like the news and the reviews AnandTech has. This website is my favorite, but I'm tired of the reviews being drowned out by frequent news. I understand that there is a button to sort, but I want to see both at the same time. Why do I have to click a button? Can't I see both like every other news website? You even have DailyTech on the side. Why can't you do something similar for AnandTech news. Also, maybe it's just the news, but I much prefer the reviews that were an aggregation of multiple products instead of news or reviews for a flood of individual products. Is it just me or am I starting to care less about Android phone 29 and Tegra 2 phone 15?-A concerned reader.
7amood - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
i like this news.it's more important than the DailyTech on the right side (which I don't always follow)
and it's important enough to be in the reviews section (considering that it has something related to Tegra2 Galaxy S II performance) as a mobile device.
I prefer the Exynos Galaxy S II even thou it's slightly slower than Tegra2.
I'v had it with nvidia... i don't trust them anymore
jaredtrobinson - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I too like this news. It is the most technical and in depth coverage of the MWC, something I am interested in. I'd rather have it 'streamed' to me than a giant report in a couple of days, although a good detailed summary recapping it all would be nice too.vol7ron - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I agree with Jared. It's tough keeping up with things when you have to read a book as an article.Also, these news articles could be especially important to consumers that might wish to purchase a new phone in the coming days. A sort of, "you might want to wait" message.
What's even tougher is when articles are all posted at the same time. When you go a week or two w/o any news/reviews and then one weekend there are 10 to read, it's a little difficult catching up with things. I suspect sometimes NDAs are at play, but i'd still prefer a steady schedule (something that's hard to keep in the tech industry).
Anand has insured me that the SSD reviews are coming very soon, though :)
sarge78 - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Anand and chums provided the best coverage for those interested in real info with limited hype and speculation! Keep up the good work chaps!bplewis24 - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I actually like the direction Anandtech is going.First of all, their "news" articles tend to have more practical and technical analysis than other news sites that simply blog text from a press release with no real understanding of what it means.
Second, it lessens the need for me to have to read other "news" sites in the first place. I used to only be able to get new content on Anandtech a few times a week it seemed. Having more content from a quality site like this is good, IMO.
Brandon
SlyNine - Friday, February 18, 2011 - link
I'll jump on this bandwagon.In fact sometimes when I intend to go somewhere else, I typed in www.anandtech.com just out of habit.
Great job anandtech, Keep it up.
s44 - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Nvidia will give us drivers for full custom kernels. Samsung... don't hold your breath. SGS devs still don't have proper Hummingbird GPU code.wicko - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Honestly I am not bothered by the site being flooded with news, but it does feel like phones and tablets are taking the spotlight from PC news. I can't blame them though, seems to be the way trends are going these days. I might not care about smartphones, but apparently a lot of others do. At least, when there are PC reviews, they're just as in-depth and useful as before :)synaesthetic - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
It's mostly because the phone and tablet market is experiencing the same kind of explosive performance boom that PCs had in the late 90s to early 2000s.PCs have plateaued. What changes, but more cores, faster cores, more power-efficient cores, and Intel changing their goddamned socket every time they put out a new CPU?
PC is a world of incremental improvements here in 2011, while smartphones and ARM tablets are still making quantum leaps and paradigm shifts.
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Part of that problem is that, at least recently, the PC market has been smothered by the Sandy Bridge recall. We have some PC stuff in the wings, but until SB hardware starts getting out to us again it's going to be tight.Also keep in mind that smartphone hardware is basically growing the way PCs were back in the 486/Pentium days, except maybe even faster. It's a very young market prone to rapid growth, and you know we have to be on the ground floor for that. :)
Akv - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Yes it is all very good. But I stick to my phone-only cellphone, because I use IT for productivity and creation, not to click on Facebook buttons.In terms of performance boost i would be more interested in very low voltage laptops. The kind you can write with in an airport or the train.
I will certainly buy a superphone some day, but I am not in a hurry and, since new products come every month, I am waiting with a mild indifference.
samirsshah - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Tegra 2 for game intensive and Exynos for non game intensive regions.For example, Tegra 2 for the US, Exynos for India (also lower the price in India because of it).
vol7ron - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I like your icon samir :)sarge78 - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Early indications suggest Exynos gaming performance is very similar to Tegra 2, I'm sure Brian/Anand had limited time to fully test/confirm the results but they did an excellent job and as they pointed out this early SoC will have a few driver issues.One area Tegra 2 has an advantage is the UPV GeForce's flash hardware acceleration, it's already been certified by Adobe for Android 2.2+ (one of the benifits of getting many products to the market early) Unfortunately I don't think Mali 400 has this feature?
It's worth noting the powerVR SGX range does but probably hasn't implemented by Android/Adobe plugin support yet. (Adreno 220 too?)
There's also a strong possibility other markets could get a SLCD on the SGS2 like the Nexus S (unless the new OLED factories are ready?)
sonci - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Are they becoming some kind of new Microsoft?mongo lloyd - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Let's just hope it has a higher resolution than 480x800. I'm a bit miffed that not many chose to up the ante against Apple on this. Most notably HTC's embarrassing new product line. Relaunches of old phones? WTF.BlueScreenJunky - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
I seriously doubt that it will have a different resolution (I do hope we'll have a SAMOLED+ screen here in europe though).Anyway, I think getting rid of the pentile matrix will already help improving the resolution compared to the previous galaxy S, and I'm not sure it's really important to go above 480*800 right now if it hinders the GPU performances.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
480x800 is fine on a 4" screen, stop complaining...What's more important is to get laptop manufacturers to stop shipping 15" notebooks with 1366x768 LCDs!
SanX - Saturday, February 19, 2011 - link
"Let's just hope it has a higher resolution than 480x800"Kudos! Agree with you. People by some damn reason do not understand that...
Alas, it's still same unacceptable jerky annoying old cr@ppy VGA resolution. Great screen size but only same 480 lines ! This does not allow you to read full web pages and if somehow barely does, the fonts look like total sh!t almost similar to the impressions from the first CGA monitors. Remember this old junk ?
Resolution has to be twice of that, or at least as a total minimum 800x1280 to be enjoyable for browsing or watching movies. You see each its fre@king subpixel when you watch a movie. And you can not browse at all without permanent zoom or using mobile version of websites.
I specially wear +1.5-2 glasses for browsing and movies. This brings the viewing distance to 6-8" with so called implied or perceived resolution dropped to ... let me calculate....115DPI and below.
So even 1200x1920 will not bring us "retina display" class implied DPIs with the optimal for such screen dimensions viewing distances! Wake up industry!
PubicTheHare - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Good battery life + Working GPS + Shipping with Gingerbread (and GPU optimized or whatever it needs to fully accelerated GB UI) + Good internal memory (at least 8 GB) + Verizon = Purchase another Samsung phoneSeriously, if even ONE of those elements is missing, screw Samsung. They have the worst product support I've ever experienced. And I still like my Fascinate, but am fed up with the software/GPS.
They may put out decent tech but the PACKAGE isn't polished. They aren't a software company and don't know how to dedicate resources to keep software updated.
halcyon - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
You are complaining about Samsung product support, when you buy an operator branded version from your operator which handles the support?Righhtt....
We who bought the actual Galaxy S from Samsung have been enjoying software updates for long already.
Go complain to your operator.
JHBoricua - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
so I'm not interested in buying it. Within 6 months they'll release another device and stop supporting the previous ones.synaesthetic - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
Pretty much. Took the entire Vibrant modding/hacking community complaining for months and months on end before the Vibrant got official Froyo.B3an - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
@ Anand, will you have reviews and updated performance charts for all these new phones and SoC's once the phones are released and on final firmware?sleepeeg3 - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - link
If the non-CPU specs of the GT-I9103 are the same as the GT-I9100, this should be one sweet phone (8MP camera, whopping 1650mAH battery, Android 2.3, AMOLED and large storage).http://www.samsunghub.com/2011/02/13/samsung-galax...
Hopefully call quality is decent and it supports US 3G bands. I may have to buy this...
CyNics - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
who wrote that note?