You have no one to be pissed at but yourself if you thought this was gonna be any different.

[anon5664829]

Look at Samsung. People say some of their stuff is gimmicky, but Samsung is innovating. Look at HTC, they're innovating. What is innovative about the X? Android flagships should be about innovating. For this being the second half of 2013, what is innovative about this phone? They made iphone-esque "improvements" over what is already existing but brought absolutely nothing new that is even a slight game changer.

Apple doesn't make small upgrades to the iPhones. Just because the outer shell isnt new and pretty it's not a major upgrade? Oh dear god save me from this stupidity.

 

[Raptor007]

How can Moto & Google even consider this a "Flagship" phone when the specs are old, 2011 old. No thanks and NOTHING to see here.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

How can Moto & Google even consider this a "Flagship" phone when the specs are old, 2011 old. No thanks and NOTHING to see here.

If you can name me a phone that had three separate processors in 2011, I'll buy you a Moto X.
If you can't, you promise to read a little about Motorola's history in the electronics industry.
Deal?

 

[tdizzel]

They've created an entirely new processor "micro-architecture" and programmed the OS and kernel to dedicate tasks in certain addresses and across dedicated buses.

Any EE or electronics tech can tell you that we would have none of the gadgets we have today without the Motorola of the 80's and 90's. This is the kind of innovation we need in the industry.

You don't have to tell me about Moto's contributions. I've always been a moto guy. I've only had one cellphone in my life that wasn't moto. I started out back in the day with their bag phones. The first car stereo I ever installed myself was a moto. I've always used their products and was excited about the X. But this phone seems very "meh" to me and it feels like they're out to use marketing to make it out to be something special instead of just making the phone special. Maybe the X8 architecture will prove to be an innovation that takes Androids or cellphones in general to another level, but right now it just seems like another marketing move. I hope I'm wrong and if I end up being wrong I'll be happy to admit it(even though this is the internet and you're never supposed to admit to being wrong) but right now this is a big disappointment to me.

 

[tech_head]

If you can name me a phone that had three separate processors in 2011, I'll buy you a Moto X.
If you can't, you promise to read a little about Motorola's history in the electronics industry.
Deal?

Droid Bionic
Droid Bionic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Motorola Droid Bionic Teardown - Page 2 - iFixit
Hardware:
Processor: OMAP4 Dual-Core
Processor speed: 1000 MHz
Memory: 1024 MB RAM / 2048 MB ROM
3D Graphics hardware accelerator: PowerVR SGX540 - Imagination Technology
There was also a separate LTE Chip -> Motorola T6VP0XBG-0001, believed to be the (LCM 2.0) LTE baseband processor.

The baseband processor in cellphones is typically a DSP and is used for processing the GSM,CDMA and/or LTE signals.
It will do all kinds of fun stuff you just can't do with an ARM processor.

I count two cores for CPU, one for GPU, and one in the LTE chip from Motorola.
You can add the baseband processor for GSM/CDMA if you like.

So please specify what you mean by separate processors.

 

[tech_head]

They've created an entirely new processor "micro-architecture" and programmed the OS and kernel to dedicate tasks in certain addresses and across dedicated buses.

Any EE or electronics tech can tell you that we would have none of the gadgets we have today without the Motorola of the 80's and 90's. This is the kind of innovation we need in the industry.

Nothing new.
It's a asymetric muti-processor core.
They have a dedicated task running on the co-processors that do voice and sleep notification, etc.
The two ARM cores are dedicated to running the OS and applications.
This isn't new or revolutionary. I've worked on chips that had more cores than this doing more things than this.

Before you ask - BSEE and MSEE in Computer and Processor Architecture; so yes, I do know chips.

But I do agree that Motorola changed the mobile phone industry and they have mad revolutionary strides.
Google bought them to get the patent portfolio of thousands of individual patents.
This x8, just isn't revolutionary.
It's also not clear if this is one piece of silicon under that metal cap or a MCM module on a substrate.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Nothing new.
It's a asymetric muti-processor core.
They have a dedicated task running on the co-processors that do voice and sleep notification, etc.
The two ARM cores are dedicated to running the OS and applications.
This isn't new or revolutionary. I've worked on chips that had more cores than this doing more things than this.

Before you ask - BSEE and MSEE in Computer and Processor Architecture; so yes, I do know chips.

But I do agree that Motorola changed the mobile phone industry and they have mad revolutionary strides.
Google bought them to get the patent portfolio of thousands of individual patents.
This x8, just isn't revolutionary.
It's also not clear if this is one piece of silicon under that metal cap or a MCM module on a substrate.

I'm under the impression that these are not processor cores, but separate microprocessors on their own bus.

Edit to clarify: Motorola has stated that there is a separate PMIC, on it's own bus with it's own microcontroller. If this is not the case, I'm slightly less excited about the system.

 

[tech_head]

I'm under the impression that these are not processor cores, but separate microprocessors on their own bus.

Their own bus?
Exactly what does that mean, peripheral, memory? It's an ambiguous statement.
They *MUST* share a bus of some type to get data back to the main CPU that runs the OS, so that the desired operation is done on those two ARM cores.
So even if they have a share peripheral or memory bus, it still doesn't make it something new and different.
All I'm trying to say is that the x8, is not some great or groundbreaking new technology.

The nVidia Tegra3 has five cores. Four for regular processing and a fifth low power, lower performance core to handle the non intensive monitoring tasks while the other cores sleep.
The Tegra 4 is variable SMP architecture where each core is activated independently based on workload. This thing has a GPU with 72 cores.

Processor technology has come a long way.The x8 is nice, but just isn't at the forefront of that technology.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Their own bus?
Exactly what does that mean, peripheral, memory? It's an ambiguous statement.
They *MUST* share a bus of some type to get data back to the main CPU that runs the OS, so that the desired operation is done on those two ARM cores.
So even if they have a share peripheral or memory bus, it still doesn't make it something new and different.
All I'm trying to say is that the x8, is not some great or groundbreaking new technology.

The nVidia Tegra3 has five cores. Four for regular processing and a fifth low power, lower performance core to handle the non intensive monitoring tasks while the other cores sleep.
The Tegra 4 is variable SMP architecture where each core is activated independently based on workload. This thing has a GPU with 72 cores.

Processor technology has come a long way.The x8 is nice, but just isn't at the forefront of that technology.

That means that more than one processor, not a processor core, with it's own dedicated bus, controls the OS. Power management is split off to a separate subsystem, which communicates with the kernel on it's own time through some manner of I/O controller.

This is exactly how real-time automated parts sorters work, with dedicated subsystems running in parallel to control cameras and load cells. There are not enough clock cycles to run the shell, the routines to interact with the user, collect information from other sensors, and communicate with motor controllers unless you use separate systems in parallel. It's not a new concept by any means, but seeing it done in a product the size of a cell phone has piqued my interest. It would also be an excellent way to monitor battery use and needs in real-time, to make minute adjustments to the power management service which could add up to make a visible difference to the end user.

 

[robertopod1968]

That's exactly how my toaster works!

 

[Chiplg]

I was disappointed when I saw the specs on this and the Droids. I wanted 1080P and the latest quad core CPU, but price? I didn't even think there was a reason to price it less than $199 on contract. I'm probably going to get a Maxx, and that's $299 on contract. Not really happy about that, but I'll probably wait until there is a good deal somewhere. I noticed Newegg seems to have better deals than going directly through VZ. As far as the specs go, I can't say that the GS4 really impressed me all that much when I tried it out. I'm an IT professional, and I can tell you that cutting edge does not always translate into the best experience. I buy a device to perform functions and solve problems. I want it to do that as efficiently as possible. I don't care if it is slower on a benchmark. I do care if it is slower in actual use. Having said that, my biggest concern is the one that cannot be addressed by anything but speculation. How will this device perform in a year? What I am left with is making an educated guess on which will be better FOR ME in a year, the X8 architecture, or the quad core CPU in the One? That answer will not even be the same for everyone.

 

[bryantest]

Well I was expecting a quad core and 1080 p display....of course was kinda letdown

But I'd be lying if I said was ALSO expecting 8 cores in the CPU that work together under a unique architecture and TWENTY FOUR hours battery life.