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Nvidia Readies Updated Tegra 3+ Processor For This Year – Sadly, Still No LTE

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Some potential HTC One X owners were a bit disappointed back when HTC had to forgo launching the device with the Tegra 3 processor here in the states, instead opting for Qualcomm’s S4 dual-core. The reason behind this was simple. Nvidia’s Tegra 3 didn’t play well with AT&T’s LTE bands — a problem we’ve seen many times before with chipset from last year.

Well, it looks like that little LTE problem might not be changing this year, with Nvidia’s plans for a newer, updated Tegra 3+ processor dubbed “Grey” to begin shipping a little later this year. Michael Rayfield, Nvidia’s general manager of mobile business revealed and confirmed a previous leak today that an updated Tegra 3+ would arrive sometime during late 2012 (as you can see from the slide) but LTE integration wont come with it until early 2013 (possibly sooner).

So, for those hoping to get a hold of a Tegra 3 device on your uber-fast 4G LTE network, it looks like you may have to wait until next year. In the meantime, competition will be heating up with Samsung possibly releasing their Galaxy S 3 with a quad-core Exynos (that could prove compatible with LTE) and Qualcomm’s dual-core S4 already finding itself the chipset of choice for manufacturers looking to release a device in the US that can take advantage of our LTE.

[TechnoBuffalo]

 

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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25 Comments

  1. Exynos, Snapdragon or Tegra???

    1. Exynos, Quad Core AND 4G LTE (presumably), best of both worlds.

      1. I’m incredibly excited to see what the S3 launches with.  I’m hoping, but not expecting, an exynos 52xx processor.

      2. Yeah Exynos was what I figured, followed by Snapdragon.

  2. “Some potential HTC One X owners were a bit disappointed back when HTC had to forgo launching the device with the Tegra 3 processor here in the states, instead opting for Qualcomm’s S4 dual-core.”
    And quite a lot of others are happy for the change.  I’m betting that the dual core will  be faster.  I know that’s not the core point of the article, but it’s annoying to see a lot of people fall into the “4 is a higher number, therefor better” trap.

    1. Chris Chavez knows that I’m sure, but a lot of people were wanting the Tegra 3 before we all found out how powerful the S4 is. Still, some might prefer the Tegra 3 for battery life.

      1. The tegra 3 is going to most likely have worse battery life.. O.o The s4 is built using a smaller 28nm process so it should be much more battery efficient, and its based on a much better architecture…

        1. True. Some people might want Tegra Zone though!

          1. Well if your in the states you don’t really have much of a choice xD

          2. That is the one real Tegra advantage.  Although, if you’re a modder, you can get around that with build.prop’s and chainfire.  Heck, a lot of Tegra 2 games ran on my SGS1.

      2. And the FUD spreading continues.  The One X seems to have more FUD surrounding it than any phone I’ve seen before.

        Have you testing both a One X and a One XL?  Probably not.  The One X has the companion core that will make single core tasks more power efficient.  The S4 has two core that aren’t as power efficient as the one, but MUCH more power efficient than the normal T3 cores.  Which one is more efficient?  Don’t know, and we probably won’t know till the One XL is out.  Even then, I bet the difference between the S4 and the T3 in terms of power usage is tiny compared to LTE usage.  Again however, the S4 uses a new much more efficient LTE chip, so it might not mean much either.

        So many things that we don’t know about between the One X and the One XL, but a lot of people are still so sure they know.  Mr. Chavez may well know the S4 is a great chip. Still doesn’t change the post that at the very least strongly implies it’s a worse chip than the T3, when we cannot compare in the same phone.

        1. Uhh, the s4 is more efficient for use, while the T3 is more efficient for sitting idle all day :P
          Edit: and even this is assuming the companion core is consumes much less power than one of the s4 cores when its at a low frequency and it will probably be able to go to a very low frequency while not in use due to the new architecture.

          1. I’m not even ready to say that.  The Companion core is a very efficient 40nm core.  The S4 is a more efficient 28nm, but it’s not optimized specifically for power efficiency.  It could be that the S4 is the power effiient phone.  Check out the stand-by staying power on the One S:

            http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Screenshot_2012-04-18-08-40-35.png 

            via android police: 
            http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/04/18/review-htc-one-s-for-t-mobile-the-future-is-now/

          2. Did you read my edit.. I went on to say that even that could be wrong..

          3. @Andrew, saw it before the edit.  In that case, I agree.  Hard to say anything till we can compare.  In that way, the One X is awesome.  Not often we get two very similar phones with different chips to see how they fare.

          4. My htc Inspire with a 8 month old 1230 mAh battery gets the same stand-by time…

          5. @redrooster13:disqus Congrats on a golden inspire.  I had one, along with three other family members.  None of them lost what looks like less than 3% in 7 hours.  I find that remarkable, if you did in fact have one as you describe.

          6. @ericl5112:disqus  Ok so it doesn’t only fall 3% over 7 hours, but It is equal at 73% after the same amount of screen on time and wifi as the one s.

    2. Yeah, while personally I prefer the S4 over Tegra 3, I’ve seen more than a few comments from our readers who would have liked to have had the Tegra 3 version. And while some have a valid argument to back up their claims (see below), some, as you mentioned, believe that “FOUR COREZ!!!!!!1” will always be better than 2 =p

      1. More like “FIVE COREZ!!!!!1” (secrety hidden core in there too) :p

        1. Shoot. Almost forgot about the “companion cube” — er, core. 

  3. S4+ anyone?
     

    1. Right here!

  4. … for me the community counts. to be part of the prime, one x, a510 crowd is just cooler

  5. Never like Tegra, never will. This brand is really over rated and over hyped just like that gimmicky Beat sound bullshit.

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