Could this be the best-looking Windows Phone 7 device yet? That’s open to some personal interpretation, of course, but Sammy’s alleged i8700 is looking like quite the beast — and it should assuage any lingering fears that the Omnia HD-based prototypes floating around would be influencing final ID for the company’s numerous WP7 launches later this year. If we had to venture a guess, we’d say this is probably that unnamed model we saw not long ago, identified by its sharp, squared-off edges and the button layout below the display. The about screen reveals 8GB of internal storage and the backside shows a camera of unknown resolution paired to an LED flash, so if you’re not tied to the idea of a physical QWERTY keyboard, this might be the Windows Phone 7 handset you’ve been looking for. Question is, what carriers?

[Thanks, Pradeep]

Samsung i8700 for Windows Phone 7 leaks, puts developer prototype to shame originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Way to take the wind out of our sails, ARM — no sooner does your dual-core Cortex-A9 finally ship, do you reveal an even more powerful smartphone, smartbook and server-slaying beast. The Cortex-A15 MPCore picks up where the A9 left off, but with reportedly five times the power of existing CPUs, raising the bar for ARM-based single- and dual-core cell phone processors up to 1.5GHz… or as high as 2.5GHz in quad-core server-friendly rigs with hardware virtualization baked in and support for well over 4GB of memory. One terabyte, actually. Like we’d heard, the ARMv7-A “Eagle” chips are destined for Texas Instruments, but ST-Ericsson and Samsung as also named as “lead licensees,” so we fully expect to see some badass silicon powering a Galaxy when the 32nm and 28nm parts ship in 2013. Press release and video after the break, replete with ARM partner companies fawning over the new hotness. We can’t really blame them.

Continue reading ARM reveals Eagle core as Cortex-A15, capable of quad-core computing at up to 2.5GHz

ARM reveals Eagle core as Cortex-A15, capable of quad-core computing at up to 2.5GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We already knew about Samsung’s grand plans for expanding its display production in 2011, but now we also have a number to give us a sense of scale: 30 million. That’s how many screens the new Mobile Display fab (set to go live in July) will be able to churn out in a month, a vastly superior rate than the current 3 million maximum. Lee Woo-Jong, the display business’ marketing VP, tells us its estimates for AMOLED market demand have been revised upwards to 700 million units in 2015, with the new facility obviously being the key cog in making that growth happen. Intriguingly, he also notes that Super AMOLED — one of the big attractions of the Galaxy S line of Samsung phones — is not exclusive to Samsung’s electronics arm, everyone can apparently use it. That directly contradicts what we heard from Sammy’s mobile reps, but then this is hardly the first time that one part of Samsung doesn’t know what the other is doing. Still, it’s nice to at least dream of a S-AMOLED HTC HD7, no?

Samsung Mobile Display promises 10x increase in production next year, end to AMOLED shortages originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, that fateful day is upon us, the Samsung Fascinate has made its debut on Verizon’s online store pages, and it’s arrived with a quite unusual (for a top tier handset) sweetener. When buying one Fascinate, you’re given the option to obtain a second one for free. Well, the hardware would be free, you’d need two-year commitments on both phones with a minimum monthly data plan of $29.99 a piece, but it’s still the nicest thing Verizon’s done for us since it started throwing out free Pixi Pluses with purchases of Palm’s webOS handsets. You should also bear in mind your initial outlay here is a quite lofty $400, with two separate $100 mail-in rebates bringing the cost down. So it’s free in pecuniary terms, but probably not free of headaches.

[Thanks, Mike]

Verizon sweetens Samsung Fascinate deal with Buy One Get One Free offer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung vows to ship 10 million Galaxy Tabs, grab a third of the tablet market originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By now you’ve probably seen the reviews of the other Galaxy S phones — the Epic 4G, Captivate, or Vibrant — or at least gotten an idea of what Samsung’s push into the Android market is all about in 2010. After hitting every other major US carrier with like-minded devices, the company has finally seen fit to unleash the Fascinate on Verizon. Up until this point, the Android offerings on Big Red’s network have been varied, but not all particularly attractive beyond the Droid lineup. The Fascinate is arguably the first handset that gives something like the Droid X or the Incredible a proper run for its money. Of course, those are pretty high stakes in game that changes on an almost daily basis, and Samsung’s options are not without their… idiosyncrasies. That truth is nowhere more pronounced than on its latest handset. So is the company poised to hit the market where it hurts with this final puzzle piece, or is this an incomplete picture? Read on to find out in our full review of the Samsung Fascinate!

Continue reading Samsung Fascinate review

Samsung Fascinate review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google TV set to launch this year, Samsung considering Android for its TVs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Put away your leaked Verizon documents, good folks, the Fascinate finally has an official release date: September 9. Verizon’s Galaxy S variant snuck up on all of us with a commercial appearance last night, which was accompanied by that appropriately blown out text at the bottom, indicating it’ll be in stores within a couple of days. That doesn’t leave much time for you to build up fresh anticipation, so hopefully you were able to sustain yours while everyone else was unpacking their Captivate, Epic and Vibrant handsets. Hey, you might be late to the party, but at least you’ll be there. See the ad (minus the launch date note) after the break.

[Thanks, Kyle]

Update: And what do you know, the official press release has just dropped, confirming the above in-store date and giving us an even earlier one: September 8 for online orders. Pricing is set at your usual $199 on a two-year contract, provided you have the patience to deal with a $100 mail-in rebate.

Continue reading Official: Samsung Fascinate launching September 9 for $199 (update: September 8 online)

Official: Samsung Fascinate launching September 9 for $199 (update: September 8 online) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We still consider Samsung’s Hummingbird application processor to be among the very best for mobile computers, but this morning Sammy itself is stepping up the charge to make it look real old real fast. The freshly announced dual-core Orion promises to whip us all into a frenzy of geek lust with “5 times the 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung,” 1080p video encoding and decoding at 30fps, embedded GPS, a native triple display controller, and on-chip HDMI 1.3a interface. Those last two bits mean you can drive two displays on your mobile device while feeding a third, such as a HDTV, all thanks to the one all-powerful chip inside. Availability for “select customers” is coming late this year, with mass production set for the first half of 2011. To say we’re looking forward to it would be a massive understatement.

Continue reading Samsung’s Orion is the 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 we’ve all been waiting for

Samsung’s Orion is the 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 we’ve all been waiting for originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like we can take the guesswork out of today’s leaked render, after all. A generous (and, as usual, anonymous) reader just sent us a handful of pictures of what appears to be — quite convincingly, we might add — the Samsung NX100 we’ve been eying since a low-res snapshot came to light last month. According to our tipster, video on the camera is great and changing settings is easy, on par with DSLRs, but the of course size still doesn’t compare to point-and-shoots. And to repeat the earlier specs, now that they seem more likely: 4.74 x 2.8 x 1.36 inches, 9.95 ounces, an external GPS receptor, an external EVF with 201K resolution, and a (non-articulating) display that’s 921K AMOLED. A shame we can’t claim those fingers for our own just yet, but patience is a virtue. Or something like that — it’s not like we have a choice, might as well say something to feel better about it.

Exclusive: Samsung NX100 in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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