EXCLUSIVE: HTC One X Won't Run Quad-Core Tegra 3 in the US
3/5/2012 by: Anshel Sag
After a long weekend post-MWC we came to confirm that the US version of the HTC flagship phone, the One X, will not feature NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor. The reasoning for this is because the Tegra 3 chipset does not have an integrated LTE baseband like the dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 does. And since this will be an 4G LTE device on AT&T's network, there is a need to have good battery performance on LTE. The global GSM version of the device will be the Tegra 3 version that everyone has seen shown at MWC.
Perhaps a not-so-mighty quad-core?
Taking a look on HTC's site, you'll notice that they tout the Tegra 3 as a quad-core powered device. NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core has been quite the focus of this year's MWC and many publications have been talking about how this year's MWC was NVIDIA's to be had. There is no doubt in our minds that NVIDIA did have a successful MWC, but there are also some pretty clear leaks in their PR bubble. With the HTC One X not having a Tegra 3 quad-core processor (4 PLUS 1 core if you like NVIDIA's marketing) in the US, NVIDIA's design win and likely sales numbers projections no longer seem as illustrious.
The real truth is that both NVIDIA and Qualcomm are battling it out quite heavily and NVIDIA is trying to promote their quad-core processor as their best feature while Qualcomm is pushing their integrated LTE. As we will likely see in 2012, there will be quite a bit of traded punches between the two companies. Remembering, up until this year HTC was almost exclusively Qualcomm chipsets, so for NVIDIA to have interrupted that relationship is also very important.
Although, the HTC One S will already be featuring the Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core processor, even though the phone will be released to T-Mobile, who doesn't currently have an LTE network.
Needless to say, we're not quite sure whether any users buying the HTC One X in the US will actually notice any difference, but as we always like to say, we'll see.
We also got comment from HTC on the issue and said, "The HTC One X by AT&T will feature a 1.5 Ghz Qualcomm™ Snapdragon S4 processor. At this time no other U.S. carriers have been announced for the HTC One X."
Tags:
HTC, OneX, One X, NVIDIA, NVDA, Tegra, Tegra 3, Quad-Core, QuadCore, Qualcomm, QCOM, MSM8960, Dual-Core, LTE, 4G, 28nm, 40nm, Baseband, 4G Baseband, LTE Baseband
© 2009 - 2011 Bright Side Of News*, All rights reserved.