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Chinese phone makers could have 8-core and LTE before the end of the year!

AndiSeptember 22, 2013

Over the past week we met with a number of Chinesephone makers. Some were eager to share their ideas, others not so. What we learnt from all is exciting.

Well known Chinesephone makers are already gearing up for the next generation, and as long as Mediatek keep the supply of next generation processors coming we could see some great updates in the next few months!

8-core MT6592 Mediatek phones on the way!

When we learned about the 8-core Mediatek processor we were under the impression that we won’t get to see the new chip in phones before the very end of the year. Chinese companies we met with though seem more optimistic and suggested (not promised) 8-core phones may be launched in the next 2 months!

The first lot of these 8-core phones will include an update of a current model as well as a new phone, both from the same manufacturer.

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4G LTE

Of all the phone makers we met only 1 of them confirmed that they have a 4G LTE model in the pipeline. Actually they proved it by showing us a prototype of the phone and it is absolutely stunning! Think Xiaomi Mi3 rear with Sony Xperia front, made of a lightweight alloy!

Although only 1 Chinesephone maker confirmed they have a Mediatek 4G LTEphone on the way, we believe another phone maker (one better at keeping launch dates) has a similar device in works.

The next generation of Chinese smartphones are going to be some of the best we have seen to date, are they are going to have be if they plan to go international as many of them do!

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About the author
Andi

vijayshimla
September 22, 2013
Mobile phone manufacture like all other manufacture is going to be a numbers game..only the Big will survive the shake up in smart mobile market which is sure to hit within next 12 months..anybody with less than 1/2 mill. per month will be hard pressed. only way is to seek worldwide markets..a world populared by big sharks Apple. Samsung. LG et. al. with their huge resources..Time to go global is shorter than most Chinese companies probably realize.
- nosense
  September 22, 2013
  If the Nexus 5 from Google sticks to the 299-349$ price range…
  Chinese phonemakers can start scratching their minds because the Octacore appeal isn’t enough…when I can have a Snapdragon 800 for the price.
  Mediatek better create a cheaper Mtk8135 for smartphones integrating 4G or just suffer the consecuences…
  Who’s gonna buy their crap without warranty if you can buy a Sexy Nexie with the latest hardware and with 2 year warranty (EU territories) and a fully functioning GPS as well…
  Appart from release the matherfocking framework source to GPL!!!
  - roberto tomás
    September 22, 2013
    the thing is, current phones in this price range compare more comfortably to the S4 Pro level … when 8 core comes yeah, they will either have to drop down $99 just like the American market did, or add some other bells and whistles.
  - CPO
    September 22, 2013
    Looking at the specs, the 300/350 price range is unlikely for the new Nexus. $350/400 or $400/450 is more realistic. With a 2300mAh sealed battery and no sd card, the Chinese phones are still going to be competitive. Plus the Nexus will be in limited supply too most likely.

sandoz
September 22, 2013
- Mik
  September 22, 2013
  I really hope so. It’s a shame that Chinese manufacturers didn’t catch up on this issue yet. They are probably not even aware how important the GPS function to us Westerners is.
- roberto tomás
  September 22, 2013
  the problem is apparently specific to North America? I’ve read that this is a firmware issue, and that at the hardware they actually offer the best gps resolution in the market. MediaTek itself claims this in several of their product descriptions.
  anyway, there is a guide here to fix gps if you had one of the mediate phones that had problems, which requires using a lower resolution gps spec. There is also a guide on the net somewhere on how to ensure your firmware is up to date, hopefully avoiding the whole issue.
- devast
  September 22, 2013
  The bad gps is entirely the manufacturers fault. I have a jiayu g3, with useless gps. The gps “fix” actually just makes you get a lock faster, but the accuracy will be crap/useless once you start moving, in a car for example. My mt6589 based huawei g700 on the other hand has really good gps, better then my zte blade. On a side note, every antennae is miles better in the huawei (gps, 3g, wifi). So we an conclude, that smallish chinese manufacturers have no clue, how to make a good antenna. They probably just buy one from a cheap oem, and be done with it.

heatley
September 22, 2013
News in which names of companies are not revealed, and no sources are mentioned either, say nothing to me.
- Airyl
  September 22, 2013
  Gizchina IS the source. Remember that Andi went around visiting these companies in Shenzhen just a while ago.
chavv
September 22, 2013
We don’t need 8 or 10 or FF-core smartphones.
4 faster cores >> 8 slow ones
For gods sake, on desktop 4 cores are enough for games. What do we need 8core smartphones for? Running Oracle? Playing Angry birds?
- nosense
  September 22, 2013
  Mediatek and the sunesque way of life…
  With Cortex A12 on the pipeline they are just doing the easy thing until finishing their dev…
  Adding more inches to the “who has the larger dick” competition…
  That never fails.
- roberto tomás
  September 22, 2013
  they offer a pdf document talking about their move to 8 core. They show a reference to a study and a graph that compares the minimum number of “useful” cores to various applications. Most of them are in the 4-core range but there are quite a few at the tail end (at 8-core or even higher). One of them is the obvious killer app: HEVC (4k encoding) and H.265 decode.
  - anony
    September 22, 2013
    Pray do tell whythever the hell do you want to encode video (this in itself is already an oxymoron) latest using the latest greatest video encoding codec which could make even the fastest consumer grade desktop CPU to its knell on your effin’ phone?

Michael
September 22, 2013
@ Chavv, Do you think that gaming is the most tasking thing to do with computers? Try 3D Modeling & Animation, then you will understand what I mean. 3D animation programs will use every single processor core and thread your money can buy. I am talking about programs that can utilize as much as 24 processor cores and even more. Thats why they can use render farms (a number of computers networked together to deal with the same task) during rendering because it can become too tasking for one pc.
I am not saying that many cores on a phone will be beneficial. But I think that eight cores still does make a sense if you are the kinda person that like to keep a lot of apps open in your phone for easy access.
- anony
  September 22, 2013
  It does not make one single sense on a mobile phones. Where you’re lucky nowadays to even get a single day use without charging.
  - Airyl
    September 22, 2013
    Doesn’t matter, it’ll all be worth it when I tell my friends that my phone has 8 cores and see their priceless expressions.
    - anony
      September 22, 2013
roberto tomás
September 22, 2013
Besides Xiaomi and Juiyu, a lot of talk on the forums there suggest that Oppo might come with 4G LTE-A with their next Find.
- meyakanor
  September 23, 2013
  I don’t care much (yet) for 8 cores, but I think whether any Chinese phones would have LTE would depend on when the Chinese government starts releasing 4G licenses (or something like that) for Chinese cell phone providers.
  If it is true that some companies would release phones with LTE by the end of the year, then we may also see 4G in China before the end of the year!!! So exciting to see how their TD-LTE would fare against the more commonly accepted standard, FDD-LTE.