Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: apple, iphone, 3g, 3gs | Themes: Smartphones
Yesterday T-Mobile Netherlands did a naughty deed by listing the hardware specs for the new iPhone 3G S.
Yesterday T-Mobile Netherlands did a naughty deed by listing the hardware specs for the new iPhone 3G S. The page gave a brief overview of what Apple wants to keep secret: 256 MB of RAM, up from the 128 MB used in the first-gen and 3G iPhone models, and a 600 MHz CPU, a significant increase over the 412 MHz CPU found earlier models. In addition to the upgraded memory and CPU, the 3GS also sports the new PowerVR SGX graphics chip that supports OpenGL ES 2.0., and should give the overall device a greater speed boost than the default CPU clock speed.
However, this morning, the T-Mobile Netherlands webpage featured no such specs, clearly indicating that the carrier previously overstepped its boundaries and removed the information upon Apple's request. AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi took the information and ran with it, describing the evolution of the original iPhone to its present day state. Under the hood, the new iPhone 3G S sports the 65nm ARM Cortex A8 processor, featuring an L1 cache size of 32 KB I-Cache and 32 KB D-Cache, and an L2 cache size of 256 KB.
Anand also compares the iPhone processors with Intel CPUs, claiming that, when comparing the two brands, the older ARM11 found in the iPhone and iPhone 3G would be comparable to a modern day 486 with a very high clock speed; the Cortex A8 used in the 3G S would be like a modern day Pentium. "The combination of higher clock speeds, more cache and a dual-issue front end results in a much faster processor. Apple claims the real world performance of the iPhone 3G S can be up to 2x faster than the iPhone 3G, and I believe that’s quite feasible," Anand said.
In addition to the Cortex A8, the 65nm PowerVR SGX graphics processor, now featured in the iPhone 3G S, clocks in at 200 MHz, renders 7 million triangles per second, and 250 million pixels per second. This means that the newer processor provides 7x the geometry throughput of the iPhone 3G and 2.5x the fill rate. Like the MBX-Lite (iPhone), the SGX uses a tile-based renderer: rather than draw the entire scene, it renders everything in view, removing objects that aren't seen by the "camera." The scene is actually broken down into blocks, or "tiles," and the processor works with each one separately. Smaller tiles can even be manipulated on-chip, thus keeping the memory free and clear for other processes.
There's speculation that the mobile industry is entering the same technological leap once seen in the early days of 3D graphics on PCs, when 3dfx was the apple in id's eye and Nvidia was gearing up to rule the world. With the release of OS 3.0 and the spiffy new iPhone 3G S, Apple may be gearing up with a battle plan of its own, setting its sights against Nintendo. Why? With two former AMD/ATI CTO's on board, why not? Game developers and publishers are already beginning to flood Apple's App store with high-quality games such as The Sims 3, Myst, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more. With the new iPhone 3G S, there's no telling where Apple will go next.
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What is the battery life like with all this upgraded hardware?
Tom's quoting Anand. That all I got.
That's not a bad upgrade, but again, the iphone 3g should have had this kind of hardware/software already.
What is the battery life like with all this upgraded hardware?
The battery is a little better... but marginal.
That's not a bad upgrade, but again, the iphone 3g should have had this kind of hardware/software already.
The 3g hardware is good man... Its the missing software that was an issue.
If people Jailborke thier 3g they would have had this software already.... I even have a video camera on my 3g (for about 6 months now)
Snapdragon.
Tom's quoting Anand. That all I got.
That's how low Tom's Hardware has come - instead of "making" the news like they used to do, they now plagiarize the competition.
That's how low Tom's Hardware has come - instead of "making" the news like they used to do, they now plagiarize the competition.
It's not plagiarism if they give reference to the source isn't it?
Talking crap about Tom's Hardware seems like the cool thing to do these days. Though I wish they are stricter in their editing, aren't you guys having too much nerd fun bashing them?
Tom's quoting Anand. That all I got.
Don't make me go to anand now...
I like the community here (why, I don't know).
Regardless, it's nice to know this.
That's how low Tom's Hardware has come - instead of "making" the news like they used to do, they now plagiarize the competition.
Isn't that what EVERY newspaper company does?
So which has better 3d capability, the iPhone 3gs or the PSP?
I much prefer the layout of the original psp though. The iPhone does not appeal to me visually. Plus my big hands make a touch screen useless.
All the apple haters I love it. 99% of them never used one or even know what there missing just like to hate. I have my first gen 8gb iphone still and no issues its been great the last 16 months. I will be upgrading on the 19th to a 3gs 32 gb and it will be like a whole new phone. Go Apple I say. Next year Im sure it will be 4G HD oled screen with 64 gb and thinner.
THG.
Please send a little time on other phones that should be every bit as good as the iPhone 32gig. The Nokia n97 for example.
I am an Apple hater (just because Apple forces me to use their products only 1 way). Those specs are still cool though!
All the apple haters I love it. 99% of them never used one or even know what there missing just like to hate. I have my first gen 8gb iphone still and no issues its been great the last 16 months. I will be upgrading on the 19th to a 3gs 32 gb and it will be like a whole new phone. Go Apple I say. Next year Im sure it will be 4G HD oled screen with 64 gb and thinner.
Most of us know full well that Apple makes quality products, and their price points are slowly becoming reasonable.
But even Mac lovers have nothing to counter the lack of expandability, software, and games on Macintosh.
Besides- who likes being a generic cookie cutter person with those crappy white earbuds? (You get my point)
PSP has better graphics, but has slow loading times and is clunky. The iPhone is so great because people carry their phones everywhere. Some people think twice about carrying a PSP/DS with them. Plus there has not been a good PSP game out in over a year, so Apple should really market the Ipod touch (not iphone) as a gaming platform with multimedia capabilities like the PSP is marketed.
I'm looking forward to the day that mobile phones will have the power of today's high end PC's.
Carmack said the 3G S OpenGL ES 2.0 is better than the PSP. He said though he will stick with the OpenGL ES 1.1 (Doom Resurection) until the 3G S has a bigger base. I really want the 3G S now that I know it has the PowerVR SGX. We should see some great games in the next year.
Those embed cpu's are NOT comparable! don't try to compare it like desktop cpu's. it's NOT the same thing.
In fact a 166mhz embed cpu can have MUCH better performance then this 600mhz one.
It's marketing by numbers, just like the megapixels in cell phone cameras.
if apple should be making gaming consoles, my advice is to try something with an ATI-AMD solution. I'm pretty sure they can make a good offer.