Completely agree ...
Too many devices have crap in them that are simply way overboard.
In some part...gerbick also hit on a part of the issue nowadays...
At least in the USA ...that is...
I read a report that desktop laptop and tablet sales the last few years were dropping away...
Yet smartphone sales were climbing...
With more and more people opting for handheld computing..camera.. and well ...pretty much everything...in a phone...
It makes for a more portable life ..in uncertain economic times I suppose.
TI stopped making CPU's quite some time ago didn't they?, I doubt such an old SoC is still being manufactured.
I'm not 100% certain on this but as far as I'm aware, TI are still making OMAP SoCs. It's true that they're no longer designing new chips but I believe they are still producing old ones.
OMAP3 (used in N900, N9, N950) was a chip made in 2009. After that TI made the OMAP4 (I think used by the BlackBerry Playbook maybe?) but then they quit this market and are not making these anymore.
Why would you even want a 2017 phone to use an old chip from the 2009 era?
The last SoC that TI put out was the OMAP5. It may not be the latest and greatest but it's several years newer than the OMAP3 from 2009 that you refer to and it is still a very capable chip. OMAP5 was chosen for the SoC to be used in the DragonBox Pyra.
I can think of a few reasons why OMAP is still relevant in 2017:
It has far better mainline Linux support than any other chip used in smart phones.
It does not bundle a modem on the SoC. Some may see this as a disadvantage for reasons such as cost or the physical board space taken up by separating modem but privacy advocates will tell you that it is better design to separate them. It's very easy to hide a backdoor on an SoC that bundles a modem that could give some external entity full control of the device.
Its availability for smaller projects. The Pyra team evaluated several SoCs but it turned that OMAP was the only one they were able to use.
And now, seriously, hands-up anyone who really needs those all-the-time-more high-resolution screens?
And please define why, since the pixels already are too small to see withlut a microscope??
Yeah I'm with you here. I'd rather have a more modest screen resolution and much better battery life.
Also, with a modest resolution you don't need such a good graphics card/driver to give smooth performance - it's one of the things i'm slightly worried about with the Youyota tablet since people have said they had problems on the Jolla tablet.
I'm in a plane. There's free Wifi. I'm too lazy to get up and fetch my laptop out of my carry-on bag. You can't imagine how much I'd like to have a keyboard on my Jolla right now. Please make it happen Chen, so that I can stay lazy and still enjoy the full internet experience forever.
[Edit] Regarding the last page, there is no optics/Mpix trade-off, except money wise. The reason optics can't be good on smartphones is not because of the Mpix race, that race is just a way to conceal the fact that a smartphone will never be better than decent. Yet, there are benefits for higher resolutions too, until a certain point. While the race has been ridiculous at times for cameras and other smartphones, we're not that far with Chen's device and the chosen resolution seems pretty reasonable by today's standard.
Same goes for the horsepower and the screen resolution. Pixels eat battery, and high resolution screens are not critical on small devices, but they are not useless and benefits are not unnoticeable. CPU power is useful when applications all require more of it than 5 years ago. Websites are heavier. Users' patience and expectations of responsiveness and smoothness have changed. CPU are also more power efficient than they used to be.
Maybe the only thing that is not a matter of opinions and differences among users, this phone needs to run the races it can or it won't sell, and won't exist. It's already skipping the cheese-slicing and mainstream races, there's not much room left for playing underground and be different if we want it to even happen. All these choices seem pretty reasonable, and again, how many of us like the Neo900 and look forward to it, but are still a bit concerned about whether the hardware will be enough when the phone ships (I can't wait to have mine and I understand the hardware choices, but I'd be lying if I'd say I wouldn't want more horsepower now that 4 years have passed)?
I'm in a plane. There's free Wifi. I'm too lazy to get up and fetch my laptop out of my carry-on bag. You can't imagine how much I'd like to have a keyboard on my Jolla right now. Please make it happen Chen, so that I can stay lazy and still enjoy the full internet experience forever.
Well. Airplane wifi is not a full internet experience as far as I have seen. It's usually pretty bad. What flight? The best thing with these flights are that no one tells you you can't watch video while departure or arrival
Chen, since you expect the device to be ready before new year, will the campaign start in sept or oct.
And now, seriously, hands-up anyone who really needs those all-the-time-more high-resolution screens?
And please define why, since the pixels already are too small to see withlut a microscope??
I hold that even halfHD resolution is almost too much for 5" device...
I guess it's the purpose of this whole thing - so that people can't see the pixels. Because people believe that it's beautiful not to see the pixels. Because that's what Apple made with their Retina display. And whatever Apple does is, by definition, as an axiom or a dogma - beautiful and wonderful, and whatever you want to sell, shall you do as Apple does.
And please define why, since the pixels already are too small to see withlut a microscope??
Again, when using a VR/Google daydream-headset, a high resolution screen is necessary, if you want to minimize/get rid of the visible pixels. For focusing there are lenses in front of the screen, which enlarge the pixels by a lot. To combat this, one just have to pump up the resolution.
A higher resolution logically means a higher load on the GPU, but there is a way to combat this. You don't have to run everything at the screens native resolution. One can browse the web just fine at 720p on their native 4K screen. Want to watch videos in its native resolution? Just change it yourself or let the OS change it automatically, based on what app you are running.
I think cyanogenmod is/was capable of that.
Samsung devices have that option too.
I hold that even halfHD resolution is almost too much for 5" device
I agree. For everyday usage, it's more than enough. For special uses, a higher resolution screen is "necessary"/more than welcome.
Higher res. screens don't even need to be more expensive than lower resolution screens. The product that is available the most is the cheapest and the one that isn't, is more expensive.
Supply and demand.
Chens slider device is a good example of that. Chen has to pick a easily obtainable 5.5" fhd screen, because smaller screens are more expensive.
See, there is nothing wrong with high resolution screens.
The only thing wrong (currently) with them, is their implementation.
If Chen was to use a 4K screen in his 2nd slider device, you should be able to run it at 360p and save battery, but probably have to scale the OS/apps accordingly, to not get massive icons, buttons etc..
If Chen was to use a 4K screen in his 2nd slider device, you should be able to run it at 360p and save battery
Yeah, that's not how it works. yes running the 4K screen on the XZ Premium at 1080p does save (a noticeable amount of) battery, but any lower and you're looking at a few percent better, at best, which you wouldn't notice compared to it being in 1080p mode.
