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posted by mrpg on Saturday October 27 2018, @12:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the two-to-which-power-gives-10? dept.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 packs up to 10GB of RAM and a stunning 93% screen-to-body ratio

Following a tease by the company's president back in August, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi has now officially announced its next all-screen monster handset, the Mi Mix 3.

Boasting a FHD+ AMOLED display with a stunning 93% screen-to-body ratio, the Mi Mix 3 also packs a powerful 2.8GHz Snapdragon 845 processor into its unique frame, along with the option of 6GB, 8GB or a whopping 10GB of RAM.

Those after the 10GB model will have to track down the 'Forbidden City' limited edition, which sports traditional Chinese styling, a 10W wireless Qi charger and a collectible statue.

All of the Mi Mix 3 phones will be exclusive to the Chinese market for now. The 10 GB version is priced at RMB 4,999 ($720).

Xiaomi also announced a gaming phone with up to 10 GB of RAM, the Black Shark Helo.

Also at Ars Technica and The Register.

Previously: Oppo Likely to Release the First Smartphone With 10 GB of RAM


Original Submission

Related Stories

Get Ready for Smartphones with 16 GB of RAM 25 comments

Micron shared details of its 3rd generation of "10 nm-class" DRAM fabrication:

Micron's 3rd Generation 10 nm-class (1Z nm) manufacturing process for DRAM will allow the company to increase the bit density, enhance the performance, and the lower power consumption of its DRAM chips as compared to its 2nd Generation 10 nm-class (1Y nm) technology. In particular, the company says that its 16 Gb DDR4 device consumes 40% less power than two 8 Gb DDR4 DRAMs (presumably at the same clocks). Meanwhile, Micron's 16 Gb LPDDR4X ICs will bring an up to 10% power saving. Because of the higher bit density that the new 1Z nm technology provides, it will be cheaper for Micron to produce high-capacity (e.g., 16 Gb) memory chips for lower-cost, high-capacity memory sub-systems.

[...] As for mobile memory, Micron's 16 Gb LPDDR4X chips are rated for transfer rates up to 4266 MT/s. Furthermore, along with offering LPDDR4X DRAM packages with up to 16 GB (8x16Gb) of LPDDR4X for high-end smartphones, Micron will offer UFS-based multichip packages (uMCP4) that integrate NAND for storage and DRAM. The company's uMCP4 family of products aimed at mainstream handsets will include offerings ranging from 64GB+3GB to 256GB+8GB (NAND+DRAM).

Finally, a reasonable amount of RAM for smartphones. But I think we may need at least 24 GB, if not 32 GB.

Related: Xiaomi Announces Smartphones with 10 GB of RAM
Samsung Mass Producing LPDDR5 DRAM (12 Gb x 8 for 12 GB Packages)


Original Submission

Oppo Likely to Release the First Smartphone With 10 GB of RAM 34 comments

OPPO Find X to get 10GB RAM version, spotted at TENAA

There have been rumors of a 10GB RAM smartphone in development for a while now. Vivo's yet unreleased Xplay7 was rumored to come with 10GB RAM and the ASUS ROG Phone was also supposed to come with 10GB of RAM. It appears OPPO will be the first to launch a 10GB RAM phone judging by an updated TENAA listing of the Find X.

The Find X originally comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage but Chinese leaker @UniverseIce shared a photo of an updated listing that shows the Find X will get a new 10GB RAM + 256GB ROM model.

We were able to confirm that the leak is genuine as the full TENAA specs listing for the Find X (PAFM00 model) now has a 10GB RAM variant. The update to the listing was made yesterday. The rest of the specs will remain the same as the other variant.

TENAA is China's phone regulatory body.

Also at The Verge, Engadget, Fossbytes, and BGR.

Related: Samsung Announces 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM, Could Enable Smartphones With 6 GB of RAM
Samsung Announces 8 GB DRAM Package for Mobile Devices


Original Submission

Lenovo Announces a Smartphone With Up to 12 GB of RAM 14 comments

Lenovo built a slider phone with 12GB of RAM

While Lenovo continues to push the Motorola brand in the West, it's also been busy doing its own thing back in China. Just last month, the company brought us the Z5 Pro all-screen slider phone which, to our surprise, packed mid-tier specs to woo the budget-conscious consumers. That's all well and good, but surely such a special form factor deserves the best specs available, right? This is where the new Z5 Pro GT comes in.

Announced at the Beijing event today, this new Android phone comes loaded with up to 12GB of RAM -- a new record for smartphones -- along with up to 512GB of storage. It's also the second smartphone confirmed to feature Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 855 chipset, though unlike OnePlus' yet-to-be-named flagship device, Lenovo's slider won't be packing 5G radio.

[...] Despite being the first 12GB RAM smartphone, the Z5 Pro GT won't be available for pre-order until January 15th next year, ahead of the official launch on the 24th. Prices range from 2,698 yuan or about $390 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage version, all the way to 4,398 yuan or about $640 for the 12GB RAM + 512GB storage top model.

You know what's next. 16 GB.

Also at BGR and Wccftech.

Previously: Oppo Likely to Release the First Smartphone With 10 GB of RAM
Xiaomi Announces Smartphones with 10 GB of RAM


Original Submission

Samsung Begins Mass Producing 12 GB DRAM Packages for Smartphones 9 comments

Samsung Begins Mass Production of 12 GB LPDDR4X for Smartphones

Samsung announced late on Wednesday that it had started volume production of 12 GB LPDDR4X-4266 memory for high-end smartphones. The chip is currently the highest-density DRAM for mobile applications. The first smartphone to use Samsung's 12 GB LPDDR4X DRAM package will be the company's own Galaxy S10+ handset formally announced last month.

Samsung's 12 GB LPDDR4X package integrates six 16 Gb memory devices featuring a 4266 MT/s data transfer rate at 1.1 Volts and produced using the company's second-generation '10nm-class' process technology (also known as 1y-nm). The 12 GB memory module is 1.1 mm tall, which is a bit higher than standard quad-die LPDDR4X packages (which are thinner than 1 mm), but Samsung has managed to incorporate the device into its latest premium smartphone.

Were the previously announced 12 GB DRAM smartphones using two packages instead of this one thick package?

Related: Samsung Announces 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM, Could Enable Smartphones With 6 GB of RAM
Samsung Announces 8 GB DRAM Package for Mobile Devices
SK Hynix Announces 8 GB LPDDR4x DRAM Package for Mobile Devices
Oppo Likely to Release the First Smartphone With 10 GB of RAM
Xiaomi Announces Smartphones with 10 GB of RAM
Lenovo Announces a Smartphone With Up to 12 GB of RAM


Original Submission

Nubia Adds an Internal Fan to a "Gaming Smartphone" 10 comments

This gaming phone has a built-in cooling fan and can record 8K video

We've already seen the likes of ASUS and Black Shark offering external cooling fans for their gaming smartphones, but the folks over at Nubia reckon it's about time to stuff a fan inside a phone (I mean, what else would you expect from a company that brought back the wearable phone?). Today, the Chinese brand unveiled the Red Magic 3 which not only packs a "liquid cooling" copper heat pipe, but also an internal cooling fan.

This small fan is said to run quietly but can spin up to 14,000 rpm, and it has an IP55 rating plus its own isolated chamber, so you won't have to worry about liquids and dust getting in. It's apparently good for over 30,000 hours of continuous use, though Nubia didn't specify the speed used for the test. Regardless, combining this fan with the heat pipe, the phone's heat transfer performance is apparently five times better than conventional passive cooling methods, thus ensuring a smooth gaming experience for a longer period.

Also at Android Authority.

Related: Mobile Gaming is Dominant in the Marketplace / Blame Loot Boxes
Nubia's Wearable Smartphone is a Preview of our Flexible OLED Future
Xiaomi Announces Smartphones with 10 GB of RAM
Nubia X Smartphone Ditches Front-Facing Camera, Adds Rear Display


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by lars on Saturday October 27 2018, @12:51PM (8 children)

    by lars (4376) on Saturday October 27 2018, @12:51PM (#754435)

    Instead of doing the easy thing and just making them faster, more ram, storage, etc., maybe add some features that are new, unique?

    How about a manual exposure setting for the camera? Nobody sells this, and there is demand for it if you go searching. You could do some nice, long exposure night photos without having to pack a separate camera.

    Some other stuff, I know they won't go for since apparently everyone wants phones that break easily, well I guess at least the manufacturers do:

    A big, built in battery, make the phone twice as thick, sure, but most phone's batteries are only about 1/3 the size of the phone, add one that takes up the whole back and you have 4x the battery life. Most people add cases that vastly increase the phone's thickness anyway, which gets me onto the next feature:

    Make the phone's frame out of decently thick stainless steel that actually protects the screen, not wimpy aluminium. No need for phone cases, no more bendy phones.

    User removable digitizer/screen. Make it nice and easy to swap out a new one, how hard would that be? Just 4 screws and an edge connector. While we are there, lets make it east to swap out the charge port too like LG does.

    A second USB/hdmi port would be nice too.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @01:05PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @01:05PM (#754436)

      You could do some nice, long exposure night photos without having to pack a separate camera.

      No, you can't. There is a good reason why you want larger aperture, not tiny lens.

      no more bendy phones

      That's not really a problem

      User removable digitizer/screen.

      Huh?

      A second USB/hdmi port

      Why not just get a laptop?

      • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Saturday October 27 2018, @08:01PM

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Saturday October 27 2018, @08:01PM (#754510)

        Why not just get a laptop?

        If I could comfortably run linux in a chroot environment on a phone, it would become my laptop-replacement when traveling.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @01:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @01:53PM (#754450)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @03:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @03:15PM (#754460)

      If it's like the Mi Mix 2, the body will be ceramic, not aluminum.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @03:52PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @03:52PM (#754465)

      How about a manual exposure setting for the camera?

      The Open Camera app supports this. FOSS and on both fdroid and play store. Many high end smartphone cameras are supported.

      A big, built in battery, make the phone twice as thick, sure, but most phone's batteries are only about 1/3 the size of the phone, add one that takes up the whole back and you have 4x the battery life.

      There heat dissipation issues preventing this. A case could be made for a detachable power bank like they used to do with laptops. But no one cares enough to make it. See the next answer.

      Make the phone's frame out of decently thick stainless steel that actually protects the screen, not wimpy aluminium. No need for phone cases, no more bendy phones.

      Plenty of rugged phones out there. Some models get stress tested for mil specs and water resistant/proofing. The alloy and construction (glued/screwed) choices has to do with the antenna, heat conductivity, weight, and battery expansion over time. Plastic clam shells, btw, are often the safest choice with regards to battery expansion since they can be made to pop out if pushed from within. It's trickier to achieve this when working with metals and/or screws. Apple and Samsung had a few models with full aluminum cases that showed these sort of issues.

      User removable digitizer/screen. Make it nice and easy to swap out a new one, how hard would that be? Just 4 screws and an edge connector.

      The screen and touch digitizer needs to be glued together to prevent shadows.

      While we are there, lets make it east to swap out the charge port too like LG does.

      It's model dependent even for LG: When the port is placed at the bottom it usually ends up on a daughter board running a flex cable that also has the microphone and maybe an indicator which can be replaced as a unit. But since a top position if preferable for usability, most models, regardless of manufacturer, will have it soldered into the same PCB as the SoC.

      A second USB/hdmi port would be nice too.

      There's powered usb hubs for that.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @04:46PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @04:46PM (#754476)

        A case could be made for a detachable power bank like they used to do with laptops. But no one cares enough to make it.

        And external USB batteries are super-cheap and serve almost the same purpose. With the bonus of not being specific to any phone past needing the right adapter cable (i.e. one of USB micro-B, USB C, old iPhone, new iPhone). I've had a couple old phones with batteries that lasted only 2-3 hours that I used just fine for longer periods by keeping my USB battery in my pocket or backpack with my phone plugged into it when I was going to be away from an outlet for longer than that.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 27 2018, @09:51PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday October 27 2018, @09:51PM (#754539)

      Make the phone's frame out of decently thick stainless steel that actually protects the screen, not wimpy aluminium. No need for phone cases, no more bendy phones.

      Wholly incompatible with planned obsolescence.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by corey on Saturday October 27 2018, @10:31PM

      by corey (2202) on Saturday October 27 2018, @10:31PM (#754545)

      Agree, but it's all marketing. Just like how people think more megapixels equals better camera. People compare phones based on specs like ram and the companies are responding to this. All New phones, at least the popular ones will smash like a terracotta pot if dropped, it would be awesome too seea stainless hardened unit. I guess they can't due to antenna location and RF attenuation. There's always plastics or built in silicone.

      I have an Asus ZenFone 5Z with 6gb ram and it never uses it all. Currently sitting at 2.6gb free and I have 50 tabs open in Firefox. 10gb is just silly but it'll still sell, especially given they used the old marketing trick of limiting the production of them to generate demand.

  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Saturday October 27 2018, @05:09PM (7 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Saturday October 27 2018, @05:09PM (#754480)

    That's not a damn "phone", its a workstation that you have to throw away after a year.

    How about giving me something that just makes/receives calls and putting this fancy shit in a desktop or laptop where it belongs and can do more.

    So you need 10GB of ram to post drivel to Twatter now?

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 27 2018, @05:43PM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday October 27 2018, @05:43PM (#754483) Journal

      Get a case, don't drop the thing too often, and I bet it could last 3-4 years.

      Aren't you being just a little too pessimistic?

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday October 28 2018, @12:55AM

        by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday October 28 2018, @12:55AM (#754570)

        Aren't you being just a little too pessimistic?

        It's what I do. :P

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 27 2018, @05:54PM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday October 27 2018, @05:54PM (#754487) Journal

      Ok, so it has a "non-removable" battery. So I'll revise that down to 2 years, unless you can find a way to tear it down and replace it. You would do surgery on a workstation if you could repair it, right?

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday October 28 2018, @01:09AM

        by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday October 28 2018, @01:09AM (#754572)

        You would do surgery on a workstation if you could repair it, right?

        Why wouldn't I? No batteries, but if my power supply blows up, I can run down the street to Microcenter and pick up a new ATX power supply of any brand without sending the entire machine back to Frikking China. Same story for most other components assuming I didn't make some consumertardastic mistake purchasing/assembling the system in the first place. Sometimes I even still get to solder something (which reminds me, I am going to make a repair to one of my keyboards).

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @08:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @08:50PM (#754518)

      The 10GB is for carrying your emergency supply of porn, moron.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 27 2018, @10:00PM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday October 27 2018, @10:00PM (#754543)

      How about making something that runs for 2 weeks on a charge, like the feature phones of 2005 used to?

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @10:11PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 27 2018, @10:11PM (#754544)

        Phones of 2005 did little more than phone calls and texts. If you want a phone that only does that, I'm pretty sure you can find one that will last 2 weeks.

  • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Sunday October 28 2018, @02:49AM (2 children)

    by rts008 (3001) on Sunday October 28 2018, @02:49AM (#754581)

    LOL, ROFLMAO, and ROFLcopters!

    To each, their own, I guess.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 28 2018, @03:59AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday October 28 2018, @03:59AM (#754588) Journal

      Let's critically examine the concept.

      Smartphone gaming is bigger than ever, particularly with new hyped titles like Fortnite [venturebeat.com] and TES: Blades [youtube.com]. You see Super Bowl commercials for mobile games these days. The market for smartphones is bigger than the market for gaming PCs or consoles, and you can use one just about anywhere.

      The smartphone hardware is obviously much better than what existed a decade ago. Today's flagship smartphones can rival supercomputers of a certain year, or gaming PCs of a certain year. Apple leads the pack in mobile performance with SoC processors that theoretically blow past older laptop and desktop systems. The Razer gaming phones [androidpolice.com] have 120 Hz displays, close to the 144 Hz desktop displays some people use and probably more than enough for most users. Phone resolutions are in the 1080p to 4K range.

      The Black Shark Helo's gamepad attachments and similar products could make the experience much more like a gaming handheld (DS/PSP/Switch) or console controller. You could also slap some emulators on the phone, configure them to work with the gamepads, and get a better experience than before.

      You may also have the option of inserting the phone into a Gear VR or similar headset, and then you have a VR gaming device. Obviously, this has limitations compared to a gaming PC + Rift/Vive/etc., but it is more convenient and untethered. It's likely that most people will end up using VR in a portable, untethered way. Standalone headsets are cheaper and use the same SoCs that smartphones use (except even weaker in most cases). But if you bought an overpriced 10 GB gaming phone and a headset to put it in, you would still be paying less than a gaming PC + Rift/Vive.

      There are going to be additional generations of hardware before the last blood is squeezed from Moore's law. "7nm", "5nm", and probably "3nm". Smartphones are starting to gain tensor/neural network processors, which are basically nowhere to be found on desktops or laptops. Obviously there are some relevant use cases for putting this kind of hardware in a phone, since you can easily point the camera at things. But it shows that in some ways, phones could become a more interesting platform than PCs. Maybe games can make use of this hardware. We could see 2-3x improvements in battery density eventually, which would allow high-end phones to run games for longer on a single charge. Although there are plenty of places where you may have a USB charger or outlet available, such as on an airplane.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: -1) by fakefuck39 on Sunday October 28 2018, @07:43AM

      by fakefuck39 (6620) on Sunday October 28 2018, @07:43AM (#754617)

      Well, I know what 'lol' is. The rest are words normal people don't use, so no need to explain them - I'll just assume they mean "Really ugly dork who feels stressed until he walks back into his house and closes the door."

      To each his own is exactly correct. People often say
      "why not thicker and bigger battery or removable battery" - tiny market. Both my pixel2xl, my nexus6 before that, and my galaxys1 (att captivate) before that have lasted several days on a charge. no games, rooted, unneeded services disabled, host file ad blocker. i read shit like this site while shitting, make calls and do email, text, and run a korean flash card program. 3 days minimum from 100 to 25%.

      "sd card" - first phone had it, stuck one in, never used it. my phone now has 128GB, who gives a fuck

      "no headphone port" - that did piss me off. and then I adapted and found it better. bluetooth is much more convenient, especially while sleeping on a plane which I do a lot. I've used the regular headphones once. usb-c gives me a single charger for phone and laptop. yeah, some people want the headphone port.

      most of the "famous" phones are there to hit the largest target market. and then you got all kinds of weird shit - tiny, large battery, etc, and they sell to their specific small target markets. Like this phone, probably for the few people that want to play hardcore games or run some web server, or whatever on it. So yeah, to each his own. Is a rolfcopter when you throw up into the blades of a spinning fan? Like shit hitting the fan, but from the uphole? Is this site getting some reddit spillover or something with all the dork kid highschool lingo? This is unfortunate. It's always been older people. Dumb older people, losers, but at least not annoying. sad.

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