[CES 2013] Samsung announces Octa-Core Exynos 5 Mobile Processor

Thought your Dual-Core phone was cutting edge? Maybe you are rocking a Quad-Core? Well, your phone's CPU ain't the coolest kid on the block anymore as Samsung unveiled their Octa-Core Exynos 5 Processor (8 Cores!). The Chipset is based on ARM's big.LITTLE technology which basically has two sets of processors, 4x Cortex-A7 low power processors for less demanding tasks and 4x Cortex-A15 for CPU intensive tasks. This isn't too different from the 4+1 core strategy used by Nvidia and in theory this could result in excellent battery life. But we'll reserve judgement till we have a phone powered by the chip in hand.

Nvidia's Project Shield won't be cheap

Nvidia dropped what is arguable the biggest bomb of CES 2013 and we are now getting more information about the well talked about device. Nvidia has gone on the record to say that they will not sell the device at a loss and continue to say that they will "make [their] money by selling the device to gamers". For those of you not familiar with how the gaming industry works, companies like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony sell consoles at below manufacturing costs (essentially a loss) to drive games sales and make profits from those sales.

In Nvidia's case, they have decided to buck the norm and sell the device at profit. While we understand the need for this strategy, given that Android and especially PC have strong game ecosystems, we aren't sure how well the strategy will pan out. In the case of non-smartphone Android devices, consumers have been extremely sensitive to pricing. Look no further than the failure of non-Nexus tablets and the relative success of an aggressively priced tablet like the Nexus 7.

We don't doubt in the technology behind Project Shield, but if history is any indication, we can't see the product being a big hit if it carries a hefty price tag.

[CES 2013] Sony officially unveils the Xperia ZL and is coming to Canada

Great news for Sony fans, the Xperia Z and ZL has just been unveiled at Sony's keynote at CES. As we mentioned earlier this week, the Z and ZL are pratically identical phones sporting 1.5GHz Quad Core Snapdragon S4 Pro Processors, 2GB of RAM, Adreno 320 GPUs, 13MP Exmor RS cameras, 5-inch 1080p displays and are running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The big difference is that the ZL is the more compact version while being slightly thicker.

What does however matter to Canadians is that Sony Canada has just announced via their Facebook page that the Xperia ZL will be the version coming to Canadian soil in Q1 of 2013 so within the next two months. While no details of pricing or carriers were disclosed we suspect the Xperia ZL will be headed to Rogers and possibly Bell for the standard flagship smartphone price between $120 and $200 on 3-year contract.

More news to come.

[CES 2013] Nvidia unveils their handheld console 'Project Shield'

After just announcing their next generation Cortex-A15 quad Core Tegra 4 processor, Nvidia also showed off its "Project Shield" handheld console. It's powered by the very Tegra 4 they had just announced and would sport specs like a 5inch 720p display, a 3400mah battery and standard micro-HDMI, micro-USB, MicroSD card slot and 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The device itself would be running an unaltered version of vanilla Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It, in addition to running android games, would be able to play games, like Steam on Big Picture, run on a user's Nvidia Kepler equipped host PCs.

According to Nvidia, it will be available to Canadians in Q2 2013. 

[CES 2013] Nvidia unveils the Tegra 4 next gen Quad-Core CPU

CES hasn't even technically started and Nvidia has already started off with a bang by announcing their next generation Tegra 4 Chipset. The new Quad-Core CPU is said to be based on the next generation Cortex-A15 ARM architecture making it one of the first Quad Core Cortex-A15 chips. Word is that it could also possibly be based on the 28nm manufacturing process which would increase battery efficiency on the 4+1 core setup that Nvidia has been touting devices running on their Tegra chipsets.

Unfortunately, according to The Verge, the Tegra 4 will not have an integrated LTE chip like on the Qualcomm Dual-Core MSM8960 found in the North American One X and Galaxy S III which has proven to be a very strong chipset in terms of reduced power consumption. This doesn't mean that Tegra 4 won't have LTE capabilities but rather would need a separate LTE modem, which as we know isn't as battery efficient.