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Underlying tech in the Evo 3D - qHD, 3D, dual-core SMP

Well I think the problem with verizon and LTE phones is they can't decide how they want to deal with them. I suspect the 'outage' last week (and delay in the charger release) is related to something or other they will be announcing soon.
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Btw any clue how the sensation screen will compare to the evo 3d (not so much dimension but fidelity; conversely does the hardware to support 3d make the screen nicer or less nice for 2d ?)

which goes to show one how old this "new tech" is... ;)
 
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Yes but there are pretty much no apps written to take advantage of dual core, so whats the point? Its like having a 4G capable phone in a 3G only area. It wont matter.

There may not be apps today that are specifically written for dual-core processors but that will change quickly; after all why would a developer write for something that isn't available? It's like the iPad2, it has only been out short while and there are already some apps that require the new dual-core chip.
 
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Jensen nailed it. In the Android environment, you can't do any process intensive tasks on the foreground thread which processes GUI, otherwise you will end up with super-unresponsive apps. By this nature, you are pretty much forced to go multi-thread. As long as the version of Android used in the phone is SMP enabled, both cores will work at these threads independently, hence experiencing performance gains.

It is true that most apps of today won't utilize both cores to 100% all the time since the workload isn't split symmetrically, but still, a benefit is a benefit. Apps like Smartbench 2011 (I am the author) does symmetrically split workload within the app - I currently split the workload equally into 4 threads hence Smartbench 2011 will utilize 100% up to 4 cores when they become available.
 
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There may not be apps today that are specifically written for dual-core processors but that will change quickly; after all why would a developer write for something that isn't available? It's like the iPad2, it has only been out short while and there are already some apps that require the new dual-core chip.

Android is not iOS. Few of a the major development houses are putting any resources into Android at this time, and there is no sign of that changing due to androids fragmented environment.

Infinity Blade is an example of where iOS is going in terms of development budgets and resources from software development houses

However, we can count on ten more versions of Angry Birds and more fart sounds, which I am pretty sure doesn't require dual cores.
 
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June 12th or the 19th most likely. Going to be a good day when it finally drops.

I'm really interested in seeing what content Sprint has planned for the Evo3D. Will they work with Netflix? Blockbuster? Youtube? What about Sprint TV?

I've seen quite a few 3D films in the last 12 months and will probably see many more this summer. A similar experience on a phone would be slick.
 
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Btw any clue how the sensation screen will compare to the evo 3d (not so much dimension but fidelity; conversely does the hardware to support 3d make the screen nicer or less nice for 2d ?)

Video is all about field and sub-field processing - basically, what it takes to display a full frame of vid in that 24 or 60 frames per second you hear about.

For the processor, performing 3D field calculations and screen updates is basically a kinda doubling of that load (I'm simplifying to say that two things are processed for 3D in place of every one for 2D).

Because there ain't no such thing as a free lunch (TANSTAAFL), when doing 3D, the hardware can manage 720p - but when doing 2D it can manage 1080p.

The stuff on the motherboard can manage it all, but it seems some trade-offs must exist to support 3D at this time, and the trade-offs are on the 3D side, not the 2D side.

So for final image fidelity, that will come down to the actual displays used in the Evo 3D and the Sensation - and for that, we'll have to trust our eyes to make the final decision on the answer to your question.

The vids here might be of interest to some - Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processing muscle shown on film [video] | BGR
 
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I don't think I asked the question correctly. I meant for things like web browsing and general usage. Does having hardware support for 3d impact how well the screen handles 2d (not just processing power but sharpness; tonal range an so forth).

Video is all about field and sub-field processing - basically, what it takes to display a full frame of vid in that 24 or 60 frames per second you hear about.

For the processor, performing 3D field calculations and screen updates is basically a kinda doubling of that load (I'm simplifying to say that two things are processed for 3D in place of every one for 2D).

Because there ain't no such thing as a free lunch (TANSTAAFL), when doing 3D, the hardware can manage 720p - but when doing 2D it can manage 1080p.

The stuff on the motherboard can manage it all, but it seems some trade-offs must exist to support 3D at this time, and the trade-offs are on the 3D side, not the 2D side.

So for final image fidelity, that will come down to the actual displays used in the Evo 3D and the Sensation - and for that, we'll have to trust our eyes to make the final decision on the answer to your question.

The vids here might be of interest to some - Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processing muscle shown on film [video] | BGR
 
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I don't think I asked the question correctly. I meant for things like web browsing and general usage. Does having hardware support for 3d impact how well the screen handles 2d (not just processing power but sharpness; tonal range an so forth).

I'd wager yes.

The beefier 3D capable hardware should have no issues with 2D tasks, and make for a speedy user experience.

How much of an appreciable difference it will make over say, an Epic, or Thunderbolt is still unknown, but I wouldn't expect a massive bump in 2D performance due to the limitations of android and current apps.

By the time the apps and android catch up to the hardware, we will be talking about 2012's Evo.
 
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I don't think I asked the question correctly. I meant for things like web browsing and general usage. Does having hardware support for 3d impact how well the screen handles 2d (not just processing power but sharpness; tonal range an so forth).

Don't know - that will come down to the display itself (and how it was modified for 3D and how it implements qHD) - it could be a mess and a total dog or could be crystal clear and totally fantastic.

There are various ways to achieve no-glasses 3D - and we have no idea which way they're employing here - so we can't draw any inferences yet for 2D (normal, web, text, etc) performance.
 
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Apps like Smartbench 2011 (I am the author) ...

Just the guy I'm looking to talk with! :)

I've charged that published benchmarks are not always valid because people quote them out of context - or what it is they do is not clear to end users and that it takes expert, objective help to interpret benchmark results properly (hence my crack that Smartbench doesn't walk on water earlier(*)).

Can you share - or provide links on your site to - info that might help us understand how to understand what your benchmarks mean and how to interpret the results?

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(*) I used to write benchmarks for vector performance and compiler optimizations, back in the day, that were adopted by Cray Research; some of that old code made its eventual way elsewhere - and from that viewpoint, I feel qualified to say no benchmark walks on water, without it being personal to you, the author in this case.
 
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Ok; I thought someone said hte display had to be physically different to support 3d; maybe I was mistaken.
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Btw bestbuy employee told me the price was $200 on contract and $600 or $800 off contract. I suspect they just made up a number but maybe it will prove to be accurate. (I asked them if they knew the release date and they did not).

I'd wager yes.

The beefier 3D capable hardware should have no issues with 2D tasks, and make for a speedy user experience.

How much of an appreciable difference it will make over say, an Epic, or Thunderbolt is still unknown, but I wouldn't expect a massive bump in 2D performance due to the limitations of android and current apps.

By the time the apps and android catch up to the hardware, we will be talking about 2012's Evo.
 
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Ok; I thought someone said hte display had to be physically different to support 3d; maybe I was mistaken.

It definitely has to be different - but there are many ways to achieve that difference.

One is to essentially have a kinda secondary lcd screen that overlays the primary, and the secondary does the chicken dance to achieve 3D, then goes fully transparent for 2D. Hypothetically, that could look great.

Other schemes could look great, too.

But others can be physically set or imprinted with surface lenses to achieve 3D and those might look bad when the content is 2D only.

They're not even throwing us buzzword bones on how they've achieved 3D here, so we can't even make a wild guess one way or the other intelligently.

I want to believe that they didn't do anything really stupid here - but the proof will come when users can see it and report results.
 
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Thanks for correcting me guys. The iPad is a good example. However, I have had both the first iPad and now the iPad 2 and I still have yet to see any real differences in speed. I understand the benefits of dual core but in most real world cases, the benefits are not easily detected by the user.

Ah - ok.

Android is based on Linux, so that uses what we call pre-emptive multitasking (just like Mac OS X, actually).

iOS as used on the iPhone/iPad uses what we call cooperative multitasking.

iOS apps ARE monolithic, unlike Android apps, and everything they do is basically self-contained - that's why an iOS app is typically bigger than its counterpart on Android.

In that iOS system, because the app does its own heavy lifting, each individual app may need to be re-done to really get the advantage of the iPad2 dual-core - the Apple stuff, including the app management, on the iPad2 is likely taking a lot of advantage of it right off, but you're not necessarily seeing it on many apps yet.

All of this increase on the Android side is predicated on the phone maker providing the system updates under the hood to make the Linux/GNU parts capable of using the dual-core stuff. From what I'm reading, some phone makers are doing a better job of that than others.

Because iOS apps are monolithic, a given app maker can actually optimize like crazy and develop absolute-performance, no-compromise dual-core apps - do not expect this in Android.

Because Android apps share common resources, all sharing rules are in effect.

Because there isn't sharing in iOS, perfectly ok for an iOS app to hog the heck out resources, it won't affect its sibling apps. (FWIW - it's this kind of app structuring that leads to Apple's products having different memory structuring, and requirements for more memory than Android for an overall capability equivalency.)

If this helps:

iOS multitasking is basically like that used in Win95.

Android multitasking is basically like that used in Win7.

The trade-offs are: Android, more even playing field for all apps to exploit dual core; iOS, more opportunity to have more advanced specialty apps than Android.

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The type of dual-core expansion that we call SMP (symmetric multi-processing) is really not terribly advanced or the most efficient way in the world to use multiple processors - but it is highly effective as a simple architecture. I wrote about half of an SMP operating system back in the day (in assembly!) that was used for defense avionics stuff, so I know. ;)
 
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OK - I did some searching, and came up with this Sense 3 demo.

Pop this out to full-screen 720p - and when the camera and the demo gal aren't moving around - screen looks very clear in 2D.

YouTube - HTC EVO 3D Sense User Interface Demonstration

From time to time, there's a sort of Fresnel-looking pattern on parts of the screen - I suspect that's just a video artifact from filming the display, it acts like an artifact - not part of the display itself.
 
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And is it just me - or in the closeups, does the text seem to NOT have any of the artifacts associated with a pentile layout?

The white lettering edges just looked way too sharp to be pentile, but maybe I'm wrong.

Opinions?

Actually I been looking at several different videos as well and the text does look very sharp.
 
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And is it just me - or in the closeups, does the text seem to NOT have any of the artifacts associated with a pentile layout?

The white lettering edges just looked way too sharp to be pentile, but maybe I'm wrong.

Opinions?

Do you think there would be a pentile on this? While it's possible, it seems pretty unlikely. I can't think of any other HTC phone ever using pentile.

Are you considering the possibility it could be pentile simply because the Atrix shares the same resolution and has a pentile?

Personally I would be shocked if HTC suddenly decided to stick a pentile on the EVO3D, it wouldn't really make sense.

In the case of the Atrix, I don't believe it was any sort of limitation, but rather Motorola just being cheap.

......I typed that word entirely too much.
 
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