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Nexus One coming to AT&T?

Nexus One coming to AT&T?

More evidence has recently emerged that AT&T may be joining Verizon and Vodafone on the list of carriers that will soon offer the HTC Nexus One in addition to T-Mobile.

Online retailer LetsTalk has posted a teaser page for the Nexus One which, in addition to a host of rave reviews, outlines the device’s full specifications. The spec list, however, conspicuously references a tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radio using the 850/1900/2100MHz bands, where 1900MHz corresponds to AT&T’s US 3G frequency. This stands in contrast to the T-Mobile version, which uses a tri-band 900/1700/2100MHz radio, with 1700MHz being T-Mobile’s 3G frequency.

LetsTalk’s entry also comes on the heels of older rumors which suggest that a Nexus One is being created for AT&T. It is not known when such a device would launch, or if indeed the rumors are legitimate at all, but LetsTalk’s page certainly serves to add some fuel to the fire.

Comments

  1. QCH
    QCH So... if the Nexus is a 1.0gHz CPU, what is in store for future Android phones?

    Also... how does the Nexus standup to the newest iPhone in terms of speed?
  2. Thrax
    Thrax Texas Instruments and Qualcomm are the two leading providers of CPUs for Android phones. Texas Instruments has the OMAP series of SoCs, while Qualcomm makes the Snapdragon platform. The OMAP is an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, and Qualcomm's chip is an ARM chip very similar to the Cortex-A8. Both platforms are extremely robust.

    In terms of speed, the 1GHz Snapdragon in the Nexus One is 400MHz faster than the Cortex-A8 in the iPhone. There are additional optimizations as well, which gives the Nexus One the ability to crunch 80 million polygons per second to the iPhone's 28 million. The Nexus One is quite a bit better, to say nothing of its <b><i>drastically</b></i> superior display (800x480 vs 480x320, and a world of difference in brightness/contrast).

    To address your first question, both TI and Qualcomm have faster/better versions of these ARM chips floating around. Some are dual core, some have better GPUs, some have higher frequencies and so on. The trick is to make them suitable for a smartphone without killing battery life.

    The future for Android phones is bright.
  3. QCH
    QCH I am excited at with the future of the smartphone industry. I just wish they could find a better way to provide their equipment at a more reasonable price... While I really like my Motorola Cliq (I loved it 6 weeks ago), I am already seeing how far from cutting edge it really was. Knowing I am stuck for 22 more months and knowing that at launch, my phone was several months behind other new android phones... hard to swallow.

    So... you mentioned battery life. Without holding back the CPU speed, what are their options for getting the Android platform to be more battery friendly? Bigger batteries seem to always be the first answer but is bigger really better? My Cliq barely gets a 15 hours without ever using GPS, WiFi, and not really doing much with it. I know Android v2.0 is better at battery life, is the answer all code based?
  4. Thrax
    Thrax At this point, a reasonable expectation of any smartphone is between 6-7 hours of straight usage. This battery life is typical of any make or model you look at today. Standby time is about 3-4 days, and an "average use" lifetime (a little talk, a little browsing) should give you an entire day without any issue.

    Efficient coding is part of it, but only a small part. Real battery life savings will come from more efficient displays (OLED) and smaller CPU process nodes, like shrinking from 45nm to 32nm, or reducing the flash memory's process node to 34 or 22nm. That will take time, but it'll happen.
  5. Kwitko
    Kwitko AT&T needs to do something to offset the loss of exclusivity on the iPhone.
  6. Snarkasm
    Snarkasm Like improve their godawful network.
  7. Kwitko
    Kwitko Yeah, that too.At least in New York we have no connection issues. Much.

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