Mobile World Congress 2012: Nokia, Asus, Intel, Samsung, And LG

Features
By Andrew Ku
published

Tom's Hardware spent its first day in Barcelona, Spain at this year's Mobile World Congress. After a long day of press conferences and private meetings, we wanted to share our experiences before hitting the show floor tomorrow.

Intel's Medfield Briefing

Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini, gave an interesting presentation to a small group during which he noted a few shortcomings in the way we currently think about mobile computing. After a long campaign to get all of us PC enthusiasts thinking that there's more to performance than clock rate, we're now all about the number of cores in given design. When it comes to the highly embedded/mobile market, though, concerns about power mean the total performance picture is more important than high clocks or very parallelized architectures.

So far, early reference hardware seems to demonstrate Intel's alacrity in webpage rendering performance, JavaScript, and impressive power consumption. Based on our own experiences with Orange's Medfield-based smartphone, the hardware seems plenty responsive. Acceptance is a gradual process, though. As of now, there are only four vendors leveraging Intel's platform.

Intel isn't the incumbent in this segment, but the company knows that already. Otellini said that he's taking the long view to mobility, getting all of the company's proverbial ducks in a row before touting solutions. Without question, the company's advantage here is manufacturing and the ability to execute on effective processor architectures, points we made in Mobile: Intel Will Overtake Qualcomm In Three Years.

Down the road, Intel plans to segment its smartphone SoCs into performance-oriented and low-cost tiers. Although the company isn't going to make its mark on the mobile landscape overnight, it has all of the puzzle pieces to make a significant difference over the next two years.

Andrew Ku
5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Bloob
    "Interestingly, Nokia isn't completely dropping its Symbian-based products. Instead, it's launching the Asha 203, 202, and 302."

    S40 has nothing to do with Symbian.
    Reply
  • acku
    9527864 said:
    "Interestingly, Nokia isn't completely dropping its Symbian-based products. Instead, it's launching the Asha 203, 202, and 302."

    S40 has nothing to do with Symbian.

    You're right its not strictly Symbian but it comes from that heritage line. I'll make that clarification. Thanks for the heads up!

    Cheers,
    Andrew Ku
    TomsHardware.com
    Reply
  • JPForums
    I guess I'm going to have to see the "TrueHD" IPS screen in person, because these pictures certainly don't help their case. It's true AMOLED is at a disadvantage in resolution, but rather than over-saturated, these pictures make the "TrueHD" screen look slightly washed out.

    Comparing the purple shoes:
    The white trim is clearly defined against an off-white material on the AMOLED screen.
    The white trim tends to fade into the off-white material leaving a less clear outline on the TrueHD screen.
    I'd need to see the original image to pass judgement, but most similar shoes I've seen have a clear contrast between trim and the material it is set on.

    Comparing the faces:
    On the AMOLED screen, the whites in the shirt and eyes are white with perhaps a tinge of blue. The background is a very light gray. There is a clear contrast between the hair and the background. Freckles on the face are clearly defined. The eye color looks correct. There is a slightly red hue to the skin and lips.
    On the TrueHD screen, the shirt strap is white, the white in the eyes has a little yellow in it. The background is white. The boarder between the hair and the background is fuzzy. The freckles and areas of the hair look as if there was a smoothing filter applied. The eyes appear to have an slight yellow undertone. The lips are less red.
    Again, I'd have to see the source photo to pass final judgement. I'm admittedly biased on this one as I know someone who looks very similar and her skin tone is only slightly less red than the AMOLED image. The TrueHD image seems a little yellowed and very slightly smoothed and/or washed out.
    Reply
  • Bloob
    Now it reads:
    "Interestingly, Nokia isn't completely dropping its S40-based products. Instead, it's launching the Asha 203, 202, and 302. These phones are aimed at users who don't really need premium features, but still want basic online connectivity."

    Which isn't that interesting after realizing that the S40 and S30 phones are the best selling phones in the world. I'm coming off as an ass here, but it is what it is.

    S40 and S30 are based on Nokia OS, and although they might share some past with Symbian ( not sure if they do ), they are a totally different branch.
    Reply
  • X-GAMER
    Nokia is the best of the best in my openion correct me if i am wrong
    Reply