By LG’s beating everyone to the punch in announcing plans to bring the first smartphones based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core, 2GHz CPU platform by the end of this year (Q4, broadly put). No phones have been named – so it’s not even known whether or not their Android lineup will be included – but they did single out the “Optimus” brand which we know to be housing Android these days.
The chip will not only bring about a beefier CPU than we’ve ever seen before, but a GeForce low-power GPU that should be able to handle any mobile game with ease (and even has the ability to produce console-like graphics, era pending). Let’s not forget 1080p HD video playback and everything else that comes along with Tegra 2.
We’ve heard about other manufacturers pairing Android with Tegra 2, but never for a pocketable smartphone – only tabletss and netbooks, to date. The chipset war will only get more fierce from here as Qualcomm, Samsung, and other vendors come to market with their own offerings and as we start seeing manufacturers put them into their high-end devices. It could even make a 1GHz platform a standard for mid-ranged offerings if the devices yet-to-come explode in adoption. Read on for full press details.
LG DEVELOPS POWERFUL SMARTPHONES WITH NVIDIA TEGRA 2 PROCESSOR
LG First to Announce Smartphone with Dual-Core CPU based on NVIDIA Tegra, the World’s Most Advanced Mobile Processor
SEOUL, Sept. 7, 2010 ¬ – LG Electronics (LG) announced today that it will introduce a series of fast, powerful smartphones starting in the fourth quarter of 2010 utilizing the second generation NVIDIA? Tegra™ mobile processor, Tegra 2. Tegra 2 includes the world’s first dual-core CPU, which powers through complex tasks to achieve significant leaps in performance.
LG will integrate Tegra 2 into its smartphones, providing them with unprecedented power, speed and graphics capability. These smartphones will be part of LG’s Optimus Series, a new line of innovative mobile products.
LG selected NVIDIA Tegra because it enables a new mobile experience and content capabilities. Tegra 2 features a number of mobile “firsts”: the first mobile dual-core CPU, the only ultra low-power NVIDIA GeForce? GPU and the first 1080p HD mobile video processor. Taking full advantage of the two speedy 1 GHz processors sharing the workload in Tegra 2, consumers can experience up to 2x faster web browsing and up to 5x faster gaming performance over single core processors running at 1 GHz. NVIDIA’s leadership in graphics also delivers flawless 1080p HD video playback, console-quality gaming and amazing 3D capabilities.
“LG is committed to making its Optimus Series smart devices the de facto standard in speed and graphics performance,” said Chang Ma, Vice President of Marketing Strategy Team, LG Mobile Communications Company. “We selected NVIDIA because it is the visual computing leader and has a long history of creating amazing consumer experiences.”
“The ultimate smartphones will be powered by Tegra, the world’s most advanced mobile processor,” said Phil Carmack, senior vice president of NVIDIA’s mobile business. “LG is one of the most popular consumer brands, and their Optimus Series of devices with Tegra is further validation of the processor’s ability to deliver an unrivaled, turbocharged media experience.”
LG’s Optimus Series smartphones featuring the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor will debut starting in the fourth quarter of the year
If my Vibrant will be considered like a Cliq XT next year then I’m gonna be stuck on “Mid-ranged” phones for quite sometime. This phone is more than sufficient enough to handle everything I need to do at lightning speeds and I don’t really need an Xbox 360 in my pocket.
$299 – $399 super mid-ranged phones sounds GREAT TO ME!
by the end of the YEAR! damn Nvidia is pretty damn good too. but 2ghz. wondering if i should even get a g2 still
i doubt the tegra2 will be anything like the xbox360 graphically. the xbox360 comes packed with a triple core 3.2 GHz cpu, and an outrageous graphics card. however, i bet the tegra2 may be able to create graphics that compare to the xbox1, which is still far beyond anything handheld has ever done, including the ds and psp. these phones are becoming just like the pc, your device is outdated as soon as you buy it.
Hmm I think we’re starting too see how this psp phone thing can shape up now. I get the feeling though that games will be exclusive to the psp so as sony can continue to control that market.. Plus they will specialize the controls.
Also with that said the article states 2ghz chips, but the press release says 2 x 1ghz which is different.
Jumped right over 1.5 GHz! LG, please just wrap it up in something nice to look at an I’ll be happy.
LG…go fuck yourself. You bragged about releasing 10 phones this year and here it is September and youve only release that piece of shit Env3 for Verizon. And low and behold, you have WinMo 7 phones baking in the Oven for Q4. Get your priorites str8…
@ nemesys06 Xbox 360 was just an example.
Better performance with existing battery tech will be great. I get a new customer upgrade every year so it’s nice to see things moving this quickly.
@nemesys: I feel the opposite here. PCs have leveled off and I’ve been using the same one I built 3 years ago for $900 because it does everything I throw at it. Even plays pretty much any game maxed out at 1080p (or maybe 720p for crazy stuff like Crysis) on my HDTV. Mobiles still have a lot of room to grow before the hardware catches up, at which point they will start getting more into software polish, parallel processing, and power usage as battery tech keeps growing slower than everything else.
@ phones jugglin LG released the Ally and the Fathom this year just in the mid range smart phone area. google more dip.
@ iamsteven
Im sorry, what part of 10 phones didnt you understand. Have fun using your Midrange phones in the World of EVOs, Epics, and Droids.
@KC
why don’t you wait till 2ghz. and you’ll tell yourself why not wait till 2.5 ghz.. and you’ll say 3.0 and 3.5 …. 10ghz… and you’ll die without owning a single phone. sad really.
It’s all about the new Samsung Hummingbird. With the old one, they promised 3 times the GPU performance. And it was true. With this one, they promised 5 times the performance of current Hummingbird. WOW, this is going to be crazy.
This chip is probably about as fast as current Samsung Hummingbird CPUs. And probably uses more juice too. But, it could be a good replacement for those crappy Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs. Qualcomm will quickly be out of the Android CPU market.
I’m going to do my best to keep myself from getting starstruck by a cellphone with Tegra. Seriously, I am 110% certain that my Number One priority to an upgrade for my G1 is battery life and I’m not seeing a lot of contenders there. No point having all this power if I’m afraid to use it. Considering this is nVidia we are talking about, I doubt this chip will deliver. Their GPUs, while great, can take an otherwise crappy Atom netbook with 10+ hours of battery life and knock it down to 3 hours. I don’t even want to think about what Tegra will do to a ~1500mAh battery.
Yea…..Im not sold on battery life with Tegra 2 yet. This is one I will def take a wait n see approach. Whats funny is the Dual Core Snapdragon, along with the OMAP, and probably Hummingbird so far are supposed to have better battery life than the Tegra 2.
I meant Dual Core OMAP too and if the Hummingbird does Dual Core.
@Jcdo woah look at Jumpy to talk smack! you must have a collection of phones then. Must have jumped on the opportunities right? please do talk more smack over the net. The G2 aint commin out till Oct, whats 2-3 months to see if nvidea’s 2ghz chip in a phone is gonna top it. mybad that im not phone crazy like you to want every damn phone that comes out. not much difference in each phone, i can run roms fine for different android ui. so im in no hurry for the trendiest phone. G2 is nice although no fcc, but if LG announces this phone officially i’d wait.