Get To Know Your Smartphone 9

Lesson: 9

Many people look at cell phones and want to see the number of cores in the processor, with the belief that multi-cores perform well and will not be slow. But when they buy eight-core phones and still feel they are slow, then they complain, “why is eight-core still slow?” Here is the answer broken down for you.

1. What processor is not slow?

In fact, a smoothly running system is not closely related to having multiple cores. Here smooth includes two parts. First is the system itself, actually the smoothness of the application starter. Second is the smoothness of operation of different applications.

What affects these two things is not how many cores you have, but rather the performance of individual cores and memory bandwidth.

In most cases, our starter and applications can only use one or two cores, can rarely use four, and to use eight is extremely rare.

So is the deciding factor in speed not having multiple cores, but individual core performance?

The market now offers A7, A9, A15, various editions of Snapdragon, as well as Intel processors, with large differences in performance.

If you are using A7, eight-core is not even as good as an A15 dual-core. When it comes to smoothness, the frequency and type of individual cores is more important, having a larger number of cores is useless.

2. Memory bandwidth is actually more crucial.

Smart phones and tablets are all SOC, meaning the graphics core is integrated, sharing memory bandwidth with the CPU, with no independent memory. And resolution is getting better for phones and tablets, this puts a great demand on memory bandwidth.

Programs need to run inside the internal memory. If the processor is quick, and the memory access speed can not keep up, the system will still be slow. And as resolution increases, so will the demand on memory bandwidth.

When memory bandwidth is not enough and resolution is too high, no matter how fast the processor is the system will still be slow.

In the early days of Android, WVGA resolution was only 800*600=480,000 pixels, not much pressure on memory bandwidth.

But with soaring Android resolution, bandwidth became a problem. So how much bandwidth is needed? Let’s refer to Apple.

The New iPad is a very interesting short-lived product. Its  processor and resolution can be used as a reference.  A5X is actually only a dual-core A9 processor, the host frequency is not high, on the level of MT6577.

Supporting the New iPad’s smooth operation is the powerful A5X graphics performance and memory bandwidth reaching 12.8GB/s.

The New iPad’s resolution is 2048*1536=3,140,000 pixels. That is to say, Apple believes that 4GB/s of bandwidth for every 1,000,000 pixels can guarantee basic smoothness.

At the same time as the A5X, the A9 quad-core bandwidth was only 4.2GB/s and 6.4GB/s. They used a resolution of 1280*720=920,000 pixels. Every 1,000,000 pixels uses 4GB/s of bandwidth, so fundamentally it can guarantee smoothness.

And now with resolution of 1920*1080=2,070,000 pixels, only the 8064 with 8.3GB/s bandwidth can manage to support it.

That is why the first generation 1080P smart phones all used APQ8064.

The latest Qualcomm 801 (8974AC) memory bandwidth reaches 14.9GB/s, supporting 2560*1440=3,680,000 pixels. That is just over the 4GB/s per 1,000,000 pixel bottom line, but is still fundamentally smooth. That is why several of the latest phones dare to support this fundamental resolution.

But, several other processors on the market are not so optimistic. The MT6592 bandwidth is about 5.3GB/s, to support 720P is not a problem; but to support 1080P, each 1,000,000 pixels only gets 2.56GB/s. No matter how optimized the starter is, it will be hard to be smooth, that is why eight-core is still slow.

Similarly, the Huawei Ascend K910 bandwidth is 6.4GB/s, like the MT6592, but strains to support 1080P.

All Credits To www.gizmochina.com

Get To Know Your Smartphone 3

Lesson 3 = Screen Density and Resolution

Screen resolution, size, and density matters alot as to whether you will enjoy a phone or not. The average screen resolution is 800x480 pixels as can be found on most 4 inch screen phones. On smaller devices with 3.5 inch screen resolution is usually 480x320 pixel and although the aforementioned offers a nice if not crispy display, these phones are usually useless under sunlight.

720P
The most widely used screen resolution for flagship phones is HD 1280x720p as can be found on Tecno Phantom A+, A3; Infinix Alpha Marvel and similar smartphones with densities ranging from 294ppi to 343ppi. The greater the pixel per inch (ppi), the better the crispiness, viewing angle and clarity of the device. Well if your ever held a Phantom A3 at 100% screen brightness before then you would appreciate how clear a 720p screen is. There are however other nice products employing this same screen, the Zopo ZP810 that has a quadcore processor and 1gb of RAM, the Faea F1 that uses Qualcomm's S4 with 1gb of RAM and Lenovo A30 that comes with 8mp camera and a quadcore MTK processor.

1080P
But, what of the Samsung Galaxy S4, Note 3 and HTC One? All come with (FHD) Full High Definition display that is 1920x1080p which translates 401ppi to 463ppi. The problem is that the above mentioned phones all cross the N70k mark. However at N45K you can get The Inew V3 with a 1080P display, Neo N003 1080P @ N45K to N55K, or even the Zopo ZP980+ that comes equipped with a 1080P display, an octacore processor and 14megapixel rear camera @ N55K.
Note: all phones mentioned in the 1080p section use OGS technology and have protective lamination like Corning Gorilla Glass or Asahi Dragontrail Glass.

1440P
Where you thinking 1080P was the latest in screen resolution? Well it was till Vivo launched the XPlay3S. This phone uses a 5.5 inch screen with 2520x1440p @ 530ppi. The other phones to use a 2k screen (2k is 2520x1440pixels) are the yet to be launched Samsung Galaxy S5, The yet to be launched HTC 2 and Oppo Find 7. The Vivo xplay3s is the world's 1st 2k phone and can be bought @ N135,000.

Price list

Zopo ZP810 (720p, 1gb, 4gb, 8mp, 5.0inch, 1.2x4ghz) @ N33k
Zopo ZP820 (680p, 1gb, 4gb, 8mp, 5.0inch, 1.3x4ghz) @ N30k
Neo N003 (1080p, 2gb, 32gb, 13mp, 5.0inch, 1.5x4ghz) @ N55k
Neo N003 (1080p, 1gb, 4gb, 13mp, 5.0inch, 1.5x4ghz) @ N45k
Zopo ZP980+ (1080p, 1gb, 4gb, 14mp, 5.0inch, 1.7x8ghz) @ N55k
ZTE V965 (454p, 512mb, 4gb, 5mp, 4.5inch, 1.2x4ghz) @ N23k
Doogee DG300 (560p, 512mb, 4gb, 5.0inch, 1.3x2ghz) @ N25k
Faea F1 (720p, 1gb, 4gb, 4.5inch, 1.2x4ghz) @ N32k
THL T1000 (1080p, 2gb, 32gb, 5.0inch, 1.7x8ghz) @ N64k
Call 08168432990

Neo N003 review

Neo N003 Advanced Full Review


Hardly has there been a smartphone that made so many persons bite their nails in expectation of its launch as did the Neo N003. Expectation spanned almost a year, I for my part 1st ordered a Neo N003 sometime in June 2013, but when the store later said it was on presale/preorder (actually, they didn’t state or indicate that in anyway earlier) I opted for a Zopo ZP810 which turned out to be one surprisingly good workhorse; but that’s a story for another day. The Neo N003 Youth later launched sometime in August/September but I wanted more, as i was later taught by my use of the ZP810 1gb ram wasn’t enough; and neither was 4gb rom nor
2000mah battery (it is absolutely necessary to let you know that the ZP810 did miraculously well with just 2000mah) and so I ordered the Advanced variant of the Neo N003 and about 6 weeks later the pack was in my arms.
It is now 3 weeks later and I’m here to give my viewpoint of the Neo N003 Advanced so far. I’ll keep this as just and unbiased as possible (prior to the Neo N003 I have owned and used a THL V11, Lenovo A800 and Zopo ZP810). Let’s get going.

Built
Would it be unfair to compare the Neo N003 to a Zopo ZP810? Whatever your responses are, I did and it turned out that the Neo N003 feels really solid; nicely made plastic back cover; metal rim around the Dragon Trail covered 1080p OGS screen and the beautifully designed speaker point at the back. Detail-wise the phone is well put together and I must confess, it looks good in the flesh. However there are some areas where the Neo N003 fails to impress, for example the led indicating light leaking from several areas doesn’t look so good and the very much visible space between the screen and the metal rim. Pay a blind eye to those and you have a perfectly built flagship device.
The N003 is about 10.5mm thick, its not as thick as the numbers suggests; probably because it’s a 5inch smartphone.
          
Hardware
Neo’s N003 Advanced isn’t lacking in this department as it boosts a MediaTek 6589T quadcore processor with ARM Cortex – A7 architecture clocked at 1.51GHz; a PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU renderer; it also has 2GB of ram and 32GB rom leaving you with roughly 20GB of user memory. A 13mp Sony camera behind backed up by led lights, a 3mp front camera and led indicating lights also in the front.
Regarding the performance of the camera, it didn’t give me the sort of wow experience I would expect from a 13mp shooter. The pictures taken using the default camera software was too dark and noisy, the LED light wasn’t even helping matters because it was also flawed, the LED light points instead of spreads; making night pictures impossible. In order to rectify the problem I had to install a Lenovo Super Camera app extracted from a Taiwan 101, it doesn’t change the LED backlight but it produces fractionally brighter pictures.
The Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS worked just fine.
There are however a few issues with this phone, first the phone keeps changing it’s ringtone to an annoying “gring gring” default ringtone and no matter how many times I changed it; it kept returning to that silly ringtone. Another noteworthy problem was the fact that during the first few days the phone wasn’t able to notice the memory card, pictures taken could not be found neither was music in the phone’s internal memory or the sdcard. It took quite a long time before the phone kinda rectified it’s fault. Another thing I noticed was the fact that the stock launcher on the phone showed little lags which wasn’t pretty for a flagship phone, that problem can be solved by installing a custom launcher.

Gaming
I installed Real Racing 3, Golf Star and ROC games on this device. Everything played well from launch except one; Real Racing 3 took a few soft resetting (literally had to remove the battery since the phone froze severally after launching the game). But once it picked up, everything ran smoothly. The battery despite being 3000mah runs down as any other normal battery would, thanks to a 1080p screen and of course a quadcore processor. A fully charged battery easily lasts a day plus, with 3G data services on all day, about 1:30 hours of accumulated phone calls, an hour of browsing and about 3 hours of gaming.
It is necessary to point out that this phone takes a lot of time to charge from 5% to 100% with only radio services on, say a little above 5 hours.



Conclusion
Being my first 5.0 inch 1080p 441ppi 2GB ram 32GB rom phone I must say I love it. It’s not as thin as a Galaxy S4, not as fast as an Xperia Z; nowhere close as good as the above mentioned in the photography or performance department; it is not even as good looking as the Gionee Elife series; but it does have an edge above them all, the bigger battery means longer gaming times (actually two edges; it is by far cheaper than the above mentioned; and it boasts hardwares that are way above standard).
If $280 can get me a looker, Asahi Dragon Trail glass covered screen, Android 4.2.1, 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM, 3000mah battery and a 1080p 441ppi 5 inch display all in a solid yet attractive pack; then it is a good .
Being my first 5.0 inch 1080p 441ppi 2GB ram 32GB rom phone I must say I love it. It’s not as thin as a Galaxy S4, not as fast as an Xperia Z; nowhere close as good as the above mentioned in the photography or performance department; it is not even as good looking as the Gionee Elife series; but it does have an edge above them all, the bigger battery means longer gaming times (actually two edges; it is by far cheaper than the above mentioned; and it boasts hardwares that are way above standard).
If $280 can get me a looker, Asahi Dragon Trail glass covered screen, Android 4.2.1, 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM, 3000mah battery and a 1080p 441ppi 5 inch display all in a solid yet attractive pack; then it is a good .