Getting a Diamond?  Want to listen to your MP3 files via your stereo system?  Need to charge that spare battery? 

The underlying chipset in a handheld device or phone has probably the biggest impact on major properties of the device like battery life, the (in)ability to use 3G and overall performance, particularly when it comes to graphics. Even users that don’t know much of of the hardware of these devices know that, for example, at least in the Windows Mobile world (as opposed to Symbian devices), TI OMAP almost exclusively means very good battery life but reduced performance and lack of hardware acceleration of, for example, 3D or video decoding. In this installment of my MWC series, I explain and evaluate most of the remaining, announced new chipsets.

In Part I of my CPU/chipset-related MWC series, I’ve elaborated on the brand new and really-really cool MWC announcement of Samsung. I’ve also introduced the latest technology from Imagination Technologies and have also touched on Qualcomm. Let’s start with the latter.

Qualcomm

In the previous article, I’ve promised I would fill you in on their latest chipset, the QST1x0x (QST1000, QST1100 and QST1105). I’ve already linked to the official announcement in a later, generic article. Now, let me elaborate on the new chipsets a bit more thoroughly.

The new chipset, as you can check it online too, has three submodels: the cheapest and non-connected QST1000, which promises some additional niceties compared to the current MSM7200(A) chipset many Windows Mobile devices are currently based on; for example,

THIS article, along with the comments, is definitely worth checking out. It emphasizes the device will have WM 6.1 (unlike what Mobile-Review stated some days ago) and will be based on the Qualcomm MSM7200A chipset running at 528 MHz.

As you all may already know, so far at MWC, hardware-wise, the multimedia- and gaming-friendly, high-resolution Sony-Ericsson Xperia X1 has generated the biggest stir. A lot of folks all over Windows Mobile forums have started discussing the new device. Many even called it the HTC Kaiser / AT&T Tilt-killer.

I'm not really into writing hardware news (I don't have the time for something that other tech writers / bloggers also elaborate on - instead, I prefer spending my time on tutorials, software reviews, Bibles and unique, genuine hacks instead), but the latest hardware news (reported on by Geek.com) is indeed pretty interesting and certainly shows there will be some REALLY exciting Windows Mobile devices in the (unfortunately, not very near: late 2008 / early 2009) future.

As you may already have noticed, I've been promoting the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset-based handsets not only because of their, compared to the alternative chipsets / processors, more advanced features; for example, the pretty good, albeit a bit worse than now industry-standard SiRFstarIII GPS, HSPA support built-in; speed advantage over most other CPU's; being ARM11-based etc. But also because of their three-dimensional (3D) graphics and multimedia decoding acceleration support.

3D acceleration is a MUST for both running (yes, you've guessed) 3D games and some emulators (for example, Tala's SNES, PocketGBA or some arcade emulators - see my emulation-related articles). Multimedia decoding, in general, also means MPEG video decoding support, which, through the much lower CPU usage, may result in drastic battery life increase. A perfect example of this is decoding non-H.264 (unfortunately, decoding H.264 isn't supported by the 2700G) video on the Intel 2700G-based Dell Axim x50v and x51v. Enabling the explicit 2700G support inside TCPMP (or CorePlayer) results in the possibility of drastically underclocking the PDA. Typically, a full-res (PAL / NTSC) AVI file can be played back underclocked to 208 MHz, as opposed to 624 MHz, which the handheld would constantly run at when only using software-only decoding. This means a GREATLY enhanced battery life.

The developers of CorePlayer (the premiere video player for all(!!) mobile platforms (yes, even the iPhone will be supported!!) have announced they would look into the problem. BTW, they also promise support for the GoForce 5500 already available in the O2 XDA Flame, the Toshiba G900 and some forthcoming i-Mate PDA’s. Also, they promise support for the 3D accelerator in the Nokia E90 / N93(i) / N95, the S-E P990 / M600 / W950 / P1 / W960 and the Moto Z8.

I’ve been pretty busy lately: on Thursday, I attended a conference on embedded systems with particular emphasis on Microsoft’s WindowsCE. The following is a very short report on the conference; as soon as I receive the slides and information on whether they are confidential, I publish a lot more information.

The conference was (partly) sponsored by Arrow, a well-known player in the embedded business, with some co-sponsors (and lecturers) like Intel (thanks for one of their prizes I was able to win in the ending quiz, the Intel jug :) ) There were several lectures; from Microsoft, Intel, Freescale, Sharp and so on.

(the Microsoft WindowsCE 6.0 embedded lecture)

While some of the lecturers were definitely biased, particularly that of Intel, who stated the ARM architecture (that is, the PDA market) has absolutely no future because now that Intel will (in 2008) start producing x86-based CPU’s with the 45nm technology and everyone will go for UMPC’s instead of PDA’s or high(er)-end PPC Phone Edition devices. I just couldn’t get rid of the “sore grapes” feeling – after all, Intel has lost most of the (current) PPC Phone Edition market to Samsung and TI. It’s like Toshiba’s calling the entire PDA scene (including PDA smartphones) dead back in some three years ago – we all know the outcome.

Ever wanted to play id Software’s evergreen title, Doom, on your 3D accelerated (currently, two models are capable of this: the Dell Axim x50v and x51v; but, in the near future, the O2 Flame will also have 3D support) Pocket PC? Now you can!

I’ve often elaborated (see for example this) on the forthcoming Doom clone DoomGLES. Fortunately, the author works really quick and has just released a playable alpha version.

Compatibility

Currently, it’s only compatible with WM5-upgraded Dell Axim x50v and x51v. It will NOT run on WM2003SE-based x50v’s. I’ve tested the title on a freshly hard reset x51v with the A12 ROM.

No, I haven’t messed up the numbers: there were models in the h5600. It’s just that they have been cancelled by HP (see for example this article).

There, however, are still floating devices around (see for example this eBay auction); I’ve also been offered one, which, being a die-hard gadget freak & collector, I'm really interested in. However, it just doesn’t see either the Wi-Fi, the BT or the phone unit at all – in Wireless Control, not even the icons of the first two show up as can be seen in here and enabling the phone results in a “a wireless radio must be attached to use the phone” message as can be seen in here.

The ROM version in the device I’ve been offered is 0.81.13 ENG, dated 08/13/02 (that is, pretty early, taken into account that it was only later that the first rumors on the h5600 series surfaced) as can be seen in here; the device has the GSM module, which has the version WGM_1310something as can be seen in here.

Therefore, if anyone has a h561x or a h565x, please PLEASE let me know :) I’d be REALLY grateful for any kind of help or information on this device. You’ll get LOADS of greetings and thanks in any “retro review”-kind of article I may publish on this rarity.

I always receive questions like the following (see for example this thread):

“I’ve had very bad experiences with, say, HP’s, Fujitsu-Siemens’ or Dell’s (lower-end) notebooks. I have to take them to repair, it seems, every month. Does this also mean I end up having to have my PDA repaired every month if I go for a HP (Fujitsu-Siemens, Dell)?”

The answer is no.

Notebooks and PDA's are VERY different and just can't be compared to each other. Notebooks need to endure a LOT more wear and tear (heavy physical forces particularly on the hinges and back on the screen, CPU heat, excessive power consumption – typically, Amperes instead of some hundreds of milliamps in a PDA, which also means a notebook manufacturer must use top-quality for example capacitors and regulators so that the notebook has a long life without having to be repaired) than PDA's; therefore, you can't say "Dell's/HP’s/Fujitsu-Siemens' PDA's are worse than the other PDA's of other PDA manufacturers because so are their (lower-end) notebooks.”

http://www.4pockets.com/game_info.php?par=4Connect&pro=X&pid=59

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/13/averatec_ahi_umpc/

As with the Universal upgrade and the i-mate k-jam update, the excellent XDA-Developers folks were the first to announce the availability of the new, official, Qtek ROM upgrade for the Qtek 9100 (HTC Wizard).

I'd like to thank Gerard for pointing out my having forgotten to include EZDownload, a decent, free Web file downloader application, in two of my yesterday's blog posts:

How can you avoid the consequences of a new, file download-related bug I've just found in Pocket Internet Explorer?

and

Beware of downloading large files straight to memory cards, even over fast connections!

I've spent some two hours on posting some 20-30 quality answers, some with unique information, to readers' questions in here and other Pocket PC boards today (see for example this, this, this and this threads).

As I don't really want to flood the readers of this blog with dozens of posts a day, I haven't made a blog version of these answers. However, for further information, you may want to follow these links for a full collection of my forum posts:

http://www.smartphonemag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19129

http://smartphonemag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18446

http://smartphonemag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19059