You are currently viewing SemiWiki as a guest which gives you limited access to the site. To view blog comments and experience other SemiWiki features you must be a registered member. Registration is fast, simple, and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
Google announced a new phone (Pixel) and a VR headset, following close on the heels of announcements on a WiFi router and a voice-activated digital assistant. Fo course they want to be in the game, but unclear what they bring that makes them special and exciting versus existing alternatives. One theory is they want to match the Apple end-to-end experience but at least one VC and one analyst are struggling to find anything compelling in the lineup.
Considering Apple has just pretty much put a new generation SoC inside the same iPhone design over the last 3 years, I would say that Google did definitely better. The only problem I see there is the Pixel phone price. Too much of competition in the +600$ reign from Apple and Samsung to really have good penetration chances. A pity though, since the hardware is indeed premium and the software support top class. But to attract more customers they had to price it at least 100$ lower. Even between the former Nexus followers, many will not digest the premium price and could abandon the Google ship. VR readiness and ecosystem might help a bit there.
While the phone disappointed with the price points, the other announcements are very important. A VR headset at that price point will be a big seller. The voice driven AI assistant and home speaker are important gateways into the smart home and the seamless integration with Chromecasts will be a big selling point for people. And the new Wifi router with ability to mesh with each other is a great product for larger home. I have really struggle to get decent wifi across my house despite expensive routers and using powerline networking. I find it surprising that Apple seems so far behind in innovation. they really dropped the ball in a number of areas that they were initial leaders in such as Apple TV, voice based AI. Even their obsession with thin phones puzzles me. In the iPhone7 they could have put a much bigger battery in and blown away the competition, instead they are now in a situation where many reviews are finding its battery life well behind that of Android flagships.
Battery life is a thing that puzzles me as well, but not just for Apple for the general ecosystem. I think that the performance requirements in smartphones do not move as quickly as the phone hardware evolves. There are so many people around me (me included) that have two year old phones of the mid rather than high-end range, that generally find the performance they get more than acceptable. On the contrary, most of these people do not find the battery life acceptable. I have seen very few efforts to try to take the process advantages only at the merit of power consumption. I do not see any new SoC designs that try to keep more or less the performance bar at the same level but significantly reduce power consumption and efficiency. I now own a Nexus 5X and the power efficiency of its SoC is terrible in my opinion. I would buy the same phone with the same performance but with significantly better power consumption without a second thought. Buying a higher performance phone for the same battery life is of no interest to me at all.
I couldn't agree more. What use is a PC level processor in a iPhone to 90% of customers. Instead offer a downclocked model, with 50% better battery life!
I couldn't agree more. What use is a PC level processor in a iPhone to 90% of customers. Instead offer a downclocked model, with 50% better battery life!
Unfortunately it doesn't really work that way. Screen, Radio, WiFi and GPS, drain way more battery than the CPU/GPU. Even making zero the CPU/GPU frequency, would provide at best a 30% more battery to the average user. No wonder iPhone has one of the worst screen resolution out there, to keep the battery capacity even smaller.
Unfortunately it doesn't really work that way. Screen, Radio, WiFi and GPS, drain way more battery than the CPU/GPU. Even making zero the CPU/GPU frequency, would provide at best a 30% more battery to the average user. No wonder iPhone has one of the worst screen resolution out there, to keep the battery capacity even smaller.
Agree. However I am pretty sure that the average user would have a harder time to realize a 10% increase in performance than a 10% increase in battery life.
The Nexus5 suffers a power efficiency bug in the software, if i'm not mistakes. But it doesn't requires a new SOC to get great power efficiency. for example see the xiaomi redmi 3 which basically solved the power issue by optimizing software and selecting the correct hardware(720p display at 5") combines with 30% more powerful battery.
Why didn't it happen at the big companies ? my guess is that battery life is the only driver for many people to buy new phone, and no one in the industry is interested in seeing that solved.
