Better to wait?

[nemesiz]

Well.. the release date looks like March 1 for this phone.. I am not interested in the docks.. Also, considering that the Tegra 2 might be the worst of the dual core lot in terms of efficiency and battery life.. Is it better to wait for HTC or Samsung to come out with their dual core devices? How long a wait will that be? (for say Samsung Galaxy S2)
Also, is it true that the phone uses just 512MB RAM and uses the entire 1GB only if connected to a dock? (heard this in some other forum)

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Its going to be AT&T's best android phone. Its hard to say when any other devices will come out. You could be waiting for a while if things get pushed back. It depends how long youre willing to wait. Can't comment on the battery life but it shouldn't be that big of a problem. As for the Ram, yes that's true.

 

[RUSH]

If the date holds up.. I would say It's worth the wait.

 

[nemesiz]

Its going to be AT&T's best android phone. Its hard to say when any other devices will come out. You could be waiting for a while if things get pushed back. It depends how long youre willing to wait. Can't comment on the battery life but it shouldn't be that big of a problem. As for the Ram, yes that's true.

hehe.. i have absolutely no patience thou... i am prepared to wait till april at the most... just that when I commit to a 2 yr contract i want to go with the most future-proof device... is anything else expected before May?

 

[nemesiz]

If the date holds up.. I would say It's worth the wait.

Date for which device?

 

[Auzo]

Well.. the release date looks like March 1 for this phone.. I am not interested in the docks.. Also, considering that the Tegra 2 might be the worst of the dual core lot in terms of efficiency and battery life.. Is it better to wait for HTC or Samsung to come out with their dual core devices? How long a wait will that be? (for say Samsung Galaxy S2)
Also, is it true that the phone uses just 512MB RAM and uses the entire 1GB only if connected to a dock? (heard this in some other forum)

Where did you hear that the Tegra 2 would be the worst dual core of the lot? If anything I would speculate the other way. The nearest to be released dual cores from competitors will all be using the 45nm process while the Tegra 2 uses 40nm. There is a direct relation between power use and process size. Sure there is more involved than just process size but that is definitely a big chunk.

As for RAM I have seen a lot of speculation about that but still no proof that only 512 MB would be used by android.

Cyber Warrior, care to share the link to the proof that you apparently found. I don't see how you could make such a definitive statement otherwise.

 

[nemesiz]

Where did you hear that the Tegra 2 would be the worst dual core of the lot? If anything I would speculate the other way. The nearest to be released dual cores from competitors will all be using the 45nm process while the Tegra 2 uses 40nm. There is a direct relation between power use and process size. Sure there is more involved than just process size but that is definitely a big chunk.

This is the source..
NVIDIA Tegra 2, Samsung Orion, and Qualcomm Snapdragon the 3rd: the dual-core chipsets and beyond - Phone Arena

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Where did you hear that the Tegra 2 would be the worst dual core of the lot? If anything I would speculate the other way. The nearest to be released dual cores from competitors will all be using the 45nm process while the Tegra 2 uses 40nm. There is a direct relation between power use and process size. Sure there is more involved than just process size but that is definitely a big chunk.

As for RAM I have seen a lot of speculation about that but still no proof that only 512 MB would be used by android.

Cyber Warrior, care to share the link to the proof that you apparently found. I don't see how you could make such a definitive statement otherwise.

Its half phone half laptop. The 1GB wasn't put into it just for the phones use. Its going to need something to power as a laptop. There's a lot of speculation and its all leaning towards that notion. The phone by itself would most likely have been released with at least 512mb. Doubling as a laptop its going to need the extra Ram.

 

[Auzo]

This is the source..
NVIDIA Tegra 2, Samsung Orion, and Qualcomm Snapdragon the 3rd: the dual-core chipsets and beyond - Phone Arena

Thanks, I hadn't seen that yet. It was a good read.

I however still don't think that either of the two near term dual core competitors (Qualcomm MSM 8X60 and TI OMAP4) or the semi near term Samsung Orion (monster gpu is going to be power hungry) will be much better power wise. The only chip I could see being a big step forward in power use is the Qualcomm MSM8960 which I don't expect to see in action until Q4 this year at the earliest.

All the benefits of the other chips brought up in that article were speculative at best.

 

[textiaac]

Is there anything better?

 

[btgrave]

Its half phone half laptop. The 1GB wasn't put into it just for the phones use. Its going to need something to power as a laptop. There's a lot of speculation and its all leaning towards that notion. The phone by itself would most likely have been released with at least 512mb. Doubling as a laptop its going to need the extra Ram.

I'm going to echo the other person's comment and would prefer to see actual proof vs. speculation. Sorry.

 

[Auzo]

Its half phone half laptop. The 1GB wasn't put into it just for the phones use. Its going to need something to power as a laptop. There's a lot of speculation and its all leaning towards that notion. The phone by itself would most likely have been released with at least 512mb. Doubling as a laptop its going to need the extra Ram.

Here's the bottom line imo: If the dock mode is run within the Android VM and not directly in the underlying Linux environment, which is the implementation I would guess they'd used, then the full 1GB of RAM will have to be accessible by Android. That doesn't mean it will always be available, but it will be accessible.

Until we get one to play with its all speculation, but I would never as matter of fact-ly state one way or the other as you did because people who aren't as big of nerds as myself who don't enjoy looking up every shred of detail about the next crop of android phones will take it as fact and will go around spreading that "truth". There is enough mis-information out there as it is so I try not to add to it.

Edit: The more I think about it the less sure I am about the implementation they'd use for the dock, but the point stands.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Care to make a friendly wager? j/k

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Here's the bottom line imo: If the dock mode is run within the Android VM and not directly in the underlying Linux environment, which is the implementation I would guess they'd used, then the full 1GB of RAM will have to be accessible by Android. That doesn't mean it will always be available, but it will be accessible.

Until we get one to play with its all speculation, but I would never as matter of fact-ly state one way or the other as you did because people who aren't as big of nerds as myself who don't enjoy looking up every shred of detail about the next crop of android phones will take it as fact and will go around spreading that "truth". There is enough mis-information out there as it is so I try not to add to it.

I didn't state it as a fact. The thing isn't even out yet. The op said he read that and asked if it was true. I said yes, (I read the same thing in a dozen different articles). I'm agreeing that I read the same thing. Maybe I should have detailed my answer more. I assumed by his post that he knows its all speculation right now. I never said Hey I have the inside scoop and it really only uses 512mb. My educated guess and hundreds of other peoples would be that its going to be true.

 

[nemesiz]

I'm going to echo the other person's comment and would prefer to see actual proof vs. speculation. Sorry.

Most of the fun (atleast for now) lies in speculation

 

[scrounger]

If it only uses 512mb unless docked, why are all the specs showing 1gb? It may need the extra ram for laptop usage, but the docks are optional accessories. Don't forget the 16gb internal storage with up to 32gb SD card.

 

[foxpacific]

HTC more so than Samsung. Given Samsung's record for distributing updates (Froyo???).

 

[arwaldon4]

Its going to be AT&T's best android phone. Its hard to say when any other devices will come out. You could be waiting for a while if things get pushed back. It depends how long youre willing to wait. Can't comment on the battery life but it shouldn't be that big of a problem. As for the Ram, yes that's true.

isnt it supposed to have a 1930 mah battery? it should def be pretty god battery life with that. they need the bigger battery for use with the netbook attachment, so if you dont use that as much your golden

 

[FlyingMontreal]

isnt it supposed to have a 1930 mah battery? it should def be pretty god battery life with that. they need the bigger battery for use with the netbook attachment, so if you dont use that as much your golden

The laptop has its own battery, which even charges the phone.