Phandroid
Blackphone processor revealed to be quad-core 2GHz Tegra 4i
The Blackphone has high ambitions. It wants to be the most secure smartphone you’ve ever used, utilizing Silent circle for encrypted voice calls, video calls and messages with SilentCircle, VPN protection via Disconnect, encrypted cloud storage from SpiderOak and more. They call it PrivateOS, which is an operating system directly based on Android 4.4 KitKat.
It’s secure no doubt, but what sort of power can you expect under the hood? That’s all been cleared up this morning, with Blackphone officially revealing the chipset inside to be a 2GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4i.
Tegra 4i is based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 r4 with a fifth battery saving core for performing low-powered tasks in the background. It also has 60 GPU cores, and NVIDIA’s integrated i500 LTE modem.
Here’s how the entirety of the phone stacks up:
- 4.7-inch 720p HD IPS display
- NVIDIA Tegra 4i 2GHz quad-core chipset
- 1GB of RAM
- 16GB of internal storage w/ microSD slot
- 8 megapixel rear camera with focus and LED flash
- 5 megapixel front camera
- Bluetooth 4.0 LTE, WiFi N and GPS
- 2,000mAh battery
- LTE bands 3/7/20 (EU/RoW) or 4/7 (US/Canada) (Cat 4 150 Mbps)
We were able to get a pretty good look at this thing back when it was announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, so be sure to check that out to see what we’re in store for when the Blackphone finally makes its way to store shelves (which Blackphone says should be going down as early as June).
[via PR Newswire]
Samsung’s latest Instagram post teases Galaxy K’s camera zoom sensor
Need more proof that Samsung is looking to launch their next-generation point-and-shoot camera phone tomorrow? The Samsung Galaxy K — which could also be seen as a Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom — seems to have been teased by the South Korean company on Instagram.
They posted a simple video of a building of the Red Dot Design Museum building (where the event is being hosted) being zoomed in on, with each level of zoom showing more crisp details. It looks like they’ve stuffed a pretty capable camera sensor into this thing, which rumors suggest is a 20 megapixel 10x optical zoom element accompanied by a Xenon flash.
We’ve already seen shots of the thing leaked in the wild, which you can see in the photos above and below. Samsung went with a more phone-like form factor for this one, as opposed to the curved and contoured shape of the original.
Exact specs still have yet to be confirmed, but the latest rumors say the hardware comes out to be a pretty decent device:
- 4.8-inch Super AMOLED 720p display
- Samsung Exynos 5 5260 hexa-core processor
- 2GB of RAM
- 20-megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom and Xenon flash
- 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- Android 4.4.2 KitKat.
The Instagram post didn’t reveal much else about the device itself, though you never really expect to get more than just a sip or a taste from these things. All should be told by tomorrow, though, as Samsung’s Singapore event will kickoff at approximately 11am local time. We’ll be sure to deliver all the details once they arrive.
[Thanks, Joe!]
Samsung Galaxy S5 camera failed issue could be hardware related
Last week, Samsung confirmed that the Galaxy S5 is experiencing an unfortunate bug that causes the device’s camera to fail. The issue seems to predominately affect Verizon versions of the Galaxy S5, though users on other carriers and other regions have reported cases of this happening, as well.
Thankfully Samsung has identified the issue, but it doesn’t sound like it can be remedied from a simple software upgrade at this point in time. The Galaxy S5 reportedly runs into this issue whenever parts of the device’s ROM (that is, the portion of the internal memory that all the OS information is installed to) is corrupted.
There are a wide number of uncontrollable reasons why internal flash storage can become corrupted, though the fact that the rest of the device operates normally for people with these problems leads us to believe there’s some sort of software glitch that specifically affects the portions of the ROM that control the camera. To our knowledge, whatever trigger is causing it has yet to be found which would make it hard for them to get going on a solid fix.
So what to do if you run into this issue? Get your carrier to replace it. You have a warranty for hardware and software defects, so use it. Either head into your local store or give them a call in order to get that process underway.
Those whose carriers can’t help them (either because you have an unlocked device or they simply won’t help you for whatever reason) can call Samsung’s warranty center at 1-888-987-4357, and someone should help get you on the right track. (Extra optional step: pray that your new handset isn’t suffering from the same defect.)
We wish it were as simple as an OTA fix or a hardware reset, but that’s what we have to live with for now. Samsung says they’re not yet sure how many devices have been affected by the issue, so it’s tough to tell if it’s widespread or just a small subset of their customer base. We’ll be reaching out to learn more about that particular statistic or if Samsung is any closer to a fix, but for now this is the long road you’ll have to take if you want a fully functioning handset.
[via ETNews]
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