Help HTC EVO 3D: Full specs for TECHIES & DUMMIES!

[falconey]

In the case of the schematic, however, the FM_RX lines point to commonly used radio functions. FM_ADJACK, for example, connects directly with FM_RXP. The labeling of this line as WFM_ANT_1 in red points to the common method of connecting an antenna through the headset port/jack to receive FM signals to the phone.

This would indicate to me that, like the original Nexus and the EVO 4G, the radio has FM receive/transmit capability, but is not connected to transmit.

I think you're right. The 3vo page on sprint's site says, built in FM radio. I wish it could transmit though. Maybe a dev can figure it out. I would love to get rid of my cheesy tape adpater and the cord.

 

[jerofld]

If the transmitter is not connected to anything, like an antenna, the transmitter will not work. Not without tearing it apart and soldering in jumper wires.

 

[Jensen]

No one seems to have brought this up but from that Broadcom tech page that chip also appears to support 5ghz WiFi. This is big deal for me because my EVO is the last device on my home network that doesn't support the 5Ghz band. Now I will finally be able to shut that band down which will save power.

 

[EarlyMon]

Whomever can get to it next - let's verify which GPS chip we've got going on.

 

[Emmexx]

Whomever can get to it next - let's verify which GPS chip we've got going on.

I found a TriQuint chip TQP340003 on schematic page 38. I have included the link below, first link, with information on the chip. It states simultaneous GPS and voice capability as well as low power consumption and suitable for low profile handsets(cell phones). The typical applications portion states GPS L1 and uses 1575.42 MHz. That is the frequency used for civil GPS receivers according to the second link below. This sounds like our chip.

TriQuint ??? - TQP340003?GPS ?????? MMIC

GPS explained: Transmitted GPS Signals

 

[EarlyMon]

Interesting - so that replaces Qualcomm's RTR6500 CDMA2000 transceiver with GPS, used in the Evo 4G.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Has anyone confirmed it's a RGB-Stripe LCD instead of a PenTile? That's the only confirmation I still need to be sold finally. =) I'm trying to find the FCC documents to look for myself at the moment.

 

[Emmexx]

Has anyone confirmed it's a RGB-Stripe LCD instead of a PenTile? That's the only confirmation I still need to be sold finally. =) I'm trying to find the FCC documents to look for myself at the moment.

Schematic page 2 states LCD Controller (RGB)

 

[cobalt]

Has anyone confirmed it's a RGB-Stripe LCD instead of a PenTile? That's the only confirmation I still need to be sold finally. =) I'm trying to find the FCC documents to look for myself at the moment.

Yep! I'll quote Brian at AnandTech again (link for convenience: AnandTech - Hands on and Benchmarks of two MSM8x60 Phones - HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D):

I'm still a fan of the good 'ol RGB stripe present in LCDs, and unlike other qHD LCD displays (like in the Atrix and Droid X2), the Sensation and EVO 3D both are free of Pentile. I think they look brilliant, and even though I'm still skeptical about qHD until it's officially added to the Android supported resolution table, I was pleased with the increased resolution available when browsing web pages.

 

[Jackietreehorn]

It means the E3D will have power management support of NFC, but that doesn't mean it will be equipped with NFC. It opens the door to the possibility though. NFC through the SD card like what's been discussed around here. I wouldn't include this info in the OP. Just reporting that there was a brief mention of NFC in the schematics.

So, let me preface this with that I'm tired, and my comprehension is just not there, so I'll ask and hopefully, someone else had the same question. I assume since we have schematics and such that either it hasn't been found that NFC is there, or it's not (seems far more likely).

However, since it has power management support, would this allow for something much more akin to native NFC support than something like the stickers that there were a story about a week or two ago? I mean, would something like an SD card be essentially like having native NFC, or don't we know yet?

While I'm posting new information, it also appears the 3vo is the first Sprint phone to be able to use their 800mhz spectrum for CDMA:

HTC EVO 3D Approved with 800MHz ESMR Support (Phone Scoop)

Wouldn't this allow for much better building penetration if CDMA was deployed on the 800 MHz spectrum in places like densely populated urban areas?

 

[Auzo]

Wouldn't this allow for much better building penetration if CDMA was deployed on the 800 MHz spectrum in places like densely populated urban areas?

Yes it does. Propogation loss is proportional to the square of the frequency. This means that if the frequency used is lowered by 1/2 then the loss will be decreased by a factor of 4. In addition to that, a lower frequency means a longer wavelength, which in turn means that you are less likely to have as much loss through excitation of the atoms of surrounding objects.

Neither of those losses are the only elements that comes into play in the overall link budget and they are not likely the dominant terms (i.e. multipath effects) so this doesn't mean you will have a 4x improvement in signal strength, but I do expect a noticeable improvement.

 

[cletusowns]

Has the 1GB of ram been confirmed? Yes, I registered just to ask that.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Has the 1GB of ram been confirmed? Yes, I registered just to ask that.

Yes, the Evo3D has 1gb of LPDDR2 Ram.

It's listed in the OP on Page 1. However it's LPDDR2 status might need to be added.

 

[EarlyMon]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[cletusowns]

Yes, the Evo3D has 1gb of LPDDR2 Ram.

It's listed in the OP on Page 1. However it's LPDDR2 status might need to be added.

Yeah I see that but I suppose my question is has it been confirmed in the FCC documents and if the storage capacity was confirmed as well. I had heard the US spec storage and possibly ram could differ from the Euro spec.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Yeah I see that but I suppose my question is has it been confirmed in the FCC documents and if the storage capacity was confirmed as well. I had heard the US spec storage and possibly ram could differ from the Euro spec.

It has 4gb internal memory with a 1gb ROM. Also, it (should) come boxed with a 8gb SD card and supports up to 32gb SD cards.

Welcome to the forums btw. =)

 

[cletusowns]

It has 4gb internal memory with a 1gb ROM. Also, it (should) come boxed with a 8gb SD card and supports up to 32gb SD cards.

Welcome to the forums btw. =)

Awesome! Thanks.

 

[Vanquished]

Interesting - so that replaces Qualcomm's RTR6500 CDMA2000 transceiver with GPS, used in the Evo 4G.

Mind helping me update some of the specs section? From the "network" part should I replace the CDMA2000 with the TQP340003? Is anything else out of whack?

 

[EarlyMon]

Been a long day a work!

Will gladly help sort this all out. Some discussion (mine included) will get parceled to the right threads, some will stay.

For the moment: CDMA2000 is a spec - that other number is a chip number. I'm working on getting a data sheet for it so we get the accurate description, for example. So, we'll sort that out asap.

~~~~

PS to River - any expectation of 3G speed change when they change freqs?

 

[CrazyTechnoBoy]

Spoiler

Not trying to be perfect or anything, just wondering/"cleaning" things up.

Network

4G:
- Sequans SQN1210 WiMAX

So I was reading on HTC's site, and if I understood correctly, it says that the SQN1210 is part of the processor. I then did a little research, and found that "2.5 to 2.7 GHz WiMAX 802.16e" is used for the 4G network (I'm kind of confused about this part).

Dimensions

Form Factor: Candybar

I was on the Evo 3D's Wikipedia page, and according to that, it says the the form factor is slate (not sure about that one though).

Display

Type: Capacitive 3D Touch Screen (Guerrilla Glass)

Is it confirmed that the Evo 3D will use Gorilla Glass? And is that a typo or is that another way of saying Gorilla Glass?

Spoiler

I'm done for now, I'm SO tired

 

[PyroSporker]

Has the 1GB of RAM been confirmed?

Yes, the Evo3D has 1gb of LPDDR2 RAM.

Based upon what HTC and Sprint both list (plus all other subsequent websites).

Yeah I see that but I suppose my question is has it been confirmed in the FCC documents and if the storage capacity was confirmed as well. I had heard the US spec storage and possibly RAM could differ from the Euro spec.

It has 4gb internal memory with a 1gb ROM. Also, it (should) come boxed with a 8gb SD card and supports up to 32gb SD cards.

I'm not trying to cause any dissension or worry but...
On Page 6 of the schematic it shows 768MB LPDDR2-SDRAM and 4GB eMMC (ROM) (there happens to be a tiny asterisk under the diagram, but no point of reference). Maybe the Euro version is the 768MB flavor?

It has a 4GB eMultiMediaCard it shows labeled as ROM, but you suspect there is 1GB ROM AND 4GB eMMC used only as storage? Can an eMMC be used/considered as native ROM or is it just a storage area -- PC analogy: system ROM vs. Hard Disk Drive? (HDD does not = ROM)

My question is can the purported 1GB (native) ROM and the un-accounted for 256MB RAM be located on one of the other chips somewhere? I don't know a whole lot about mobile chips and construction. Do they package a small amount of RAM and ROM on the main system chip or others? How much faith do we place in the FCC schematic vs. what the manufacturer and distributor claim.

Is it confirmed that the Evo 3D will use Gorilla Glass? And is that a typo or is that another way of saying Gorilla Glass?

It might not be officially confirmed but I think it is relatively safe bet since the Evo 4G and Evo Shift 4G both officially had it and HTC seems to have a good partnership with Corning. People that have done hands on with The Evo 3D should be able to tell and have not refuted it.

CORNING

 

[Vanquished]

So I was reading on HTC's site, and if I understood correctly, it says that the SQN1210 is part of the processor. I then did a little research, and found that "2.5 to 2.7 GHz WiMAX 802.16e" is used for the 4G network (I'm kind of confused about this part).

I have the WiMAX 802.16e under "connectivity" but maybe I should move it and remove the SQN1210...I'm a little confused about some of the specs and where they actually fall under, this was one of them when I was putting it together (along with all of the new stuff from the FCC, not sure what I should add and what not to).

I was on the Evo 3D's Wikipedia page, and according to that, it says the the form factor is slate (not sure about that one though).

This candybar one is what I got from one of the other sites that has the specs...I'm not sure exactly what the difference between them are or how they classift the different form factors with each phone. Can someone clarify this and confrim what the E3D is sporting?

Is it confirmed that the Evo 3D will use Gorilla Glass? And is that a typo or is that another way of saying Gorilla Glass?

Fixed that typo. The engadget review at 4:10 on the first video of the Sensation says it is Gorilla Glass, so with that I'm assuming the E3D is as well. I'm still in the process of watching the CTIA hands-on again to see if it is mentioned there.

 

[PyroSporker]

This candybar one is what I got from one of the other sites that has the specs...I'm not sure exactly what the difference between them are or how they classift the different form factors with each phone. Can someone clarify this and confrim what the E3D is sporting?

Via wikipedia:
"A bar (slab, block, or, commonly in the U.S., candybar) phone is in the shape of a cuboid. It is named because of its resemblance to a candy bar in size and shape. This form factor is widely used by a variety of manufacturers, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Bar-type mobile phones normally have the screen and keypad all on one face.

"A slate phone is a subset of the bar form that, like a slate computer, has minimal buttons, instead relying upon a touchscreen and virtual QWERTY keyboard."

I know, not an esteemed or prominent source, but we are talking mere semantics here.

Some people candidly refer to tablets as "slates" as well. Probably referring to slate computer.
It is all rather disconcerting to me. People and their pet names. *rolls eyes*

 

[jerofld]

The thing about the schematics showing 756 megs instead of 1 gig of RAM could be the result of the Sensation having being built first. I'm sure they copied a lot of the schematics for the E3D and neglected to change that part in the schematics, but hopefully remembered to change the parts in the BOM.

If not, it'll be interesting to see how HTC will fix it.

 

[EarlyMon]

So I was reading on HTC's site, and if I understood correctly, it says that the SQN1210 is part of the processor. I then did a little research, and found that "2.5 to 2.7 GHz WiMAX 802.16e" is used for the 4G network (I'm kind of confused about this part).

The Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 SoC (System on (a) Chip) processor includes various controls for radios in the form a built-in modem (as shown in this download link for its data sheet (PDF)), but each radio is separate.

The Sequans SQN1210 SoC is a separate chip, and its picture and PDF data sheet are available in that link.

Notice that not just processors are SoCs - any system on (a) chip is an SoC.

I'm not trying to cause any dissension or worry but...
On Page 6 of the schematic it shows 768MB LPDDR2-SDRAM and 4GB eMMC (ROM) (there happens to be a tiny asterisk under the diagram, but no point of reference). Maybe the Euro version is the 768MB flavor?

One of us was going to mention it.

The asterisk is actually: *TBD -- meaning, to be determined.

I suspect that if we looked, we'd find some sort of variance allowing that to be changed in final production.

Or - they've kinda lied, and will play the specs-subject-to-change-without-notice game. I just can't see HTC doing that, it would be against their self-interests.

Or, there is some odd distribution and I'll get to that.

It has a 4GB eMultiMediaCard it shows labeled as ROM, but you suspect there is 1GB ROM AND 4GB eMMC used only as storage? Can an eMMC be used/considered as native ROM or is it just a storage area -- PC analogy: system ROM vs. Hard Disk Drive? (HDD does not = ROM)

My question is can the purported 1GB (native) ROM and the un-accounted for 256MB RAM be located on one of the other chips somewhere? I don't know a whole lot about mobile chips and construction. Do they package a small amount of RAM and ROM on the main system chip or others? How much faith do we place in the FCC schematic vs. what the manufacturer and distributor claim.

OK, let's get this all deconflicted, and I'm going to address the general audience in this write-up.

There is a single package for ALL motherboard user memory (*) in the 3vo and it's made by Samsung (and in that regard, it's exactly like the Evo, just using a new/different package).

Once upon a time, we had chips in packages. If you've seen inside a PC, the CPU and memory (for example) were each a single chip inside each package. The black thing you can see and touch, the house for the chip in other words, is called a package. In the old days, we used the words chip and package interchangeably because there was just one chip inside each package.

And we've heard about taking like a piece of a PC motherboard with several chips, and making it all on one HUGE chip, and we call that a System on (a) Chip - SoC. That's still one (huge) chip in a single package.

There's also another level of organization: the multi-chip package - MCP. An MCP is not an SoC. An MCP is where they take more than one chip and house them in a single package. They're not a system, this is just a way to have fewer packages to deal with, for convenience and economy. Hence, the MCP at top of the diagrams on page 6 of the schematic.

In the 3vo's case, the MCP is a Samsung KMMLL000QM-B503. (No detailed data sheet online that I've found.)

ROM vs RAM vs eMMC

In the old days, we had RAM - random access memory, meaning you get to any memory bit any way you liked. We still have that.

In the old days, we had a kind of chip called ROM - read-only memory (with random access) - and the thing with ROM is it remembers when the power is off (RAM forgets when the power is off). A ROM could never be written to once burned at the factory. Then we had various programmable ROMs, where you could write to them for some limited number of times, but you could read them to your heart's content - these, we used for PC BIOS for those of you familiar with that.

Years ago, they invented a new kind of memory that they called flash memory. Any of your USB sticks or SD cards of any kind - all flash memory. If you recall, advanced smartphones, MP3 players and USB sticks all started hitting the shelves at about the same time - because of flash memory.

The thing we call ROM in modern smartphones isn't ROM at all, it just acts like ROM because it remembers when the power is off - it's been flash memory all along.

An SD card is a type of multi-media card (MMC). Recently, someone bright said - hey, we have one type of interface to the SD card and another type of interface to this stuff we're telling people is ROM, but it's all just flash memory. How about we make the ROM thingy with the same interface to simplify things? Good idea, so they did it.

And that's the eMMC flash memory aka ROM in the 3vo.

So - in that one Samsung package, there's going to 1 GB LPDDR2 RAM and 4 GB eMMC - or you can call it 1GB RAM / 4GB ROM.

(Fun fact if you've read this far. Flash memory is factory-built with one of two types of logic - NOR (not or) or NAND (not and). The flash we use in our phones is the nand logic type. So when you hear rooters talking about the NAND bootloader or making a nandroid backup of their rom - it's all about using slang for the actual type of flash memory the phones have.)

And on that odd distribution of RAM - if there's 256 MB squirreled away inside the 8660, Qualcomm isn't talking, so I don't know. Or the actual MCP will have 1GB. Either way - it's going to have 1 GB RAM, imo.

btw - LPDDR2 RAM and LPDDR2 SDRAM are the same thing, call it either way you like, I chose the former because it's 2 fewer characters to type.

To Vanquished:

I'd keep the specs simple. Just replace CDMA2000 with CDMA and I'd spec 4G like this:

4G: WiMAX (same as on Evo 4G, even the same radio chip)


I'd spec memory like this:

1 GB RAM (LPDDR2 type)
4 GB ROM (eMMC type)

Up to 32 GB microSD user storage optional, 8 GB stock

And then link to any of the posts naming chips and discussing stuff if you'd like to do that.

We're getting all fancy up in here, but I think you started out perfectly and should stay that way - just the facts that anyone can understand or compare to other phones, with backup statements and links if anyone is interested in how you know the truth. That said, I'm a propeller-head, and you should freely arrange those specs as you see fit.

~~~~~~

Hope this helps and wasn't too painful to follow.

Edit and PS - If you missed the original Evo 4G teardown, here's a blown-up picture of the Evo motherboard, full of black packages. The Snapdragon and WiMAX SoCs are outlined in yellow and orange, and the Samsung memory package sit above the Snapdragon. This will give you an idea of the scale of things and what these packages look like. Note - not the 3vo, this is just informational.

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/gBPuLxjHbmBSFKqi.huge

From - http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/HTC-Evo-4G-Teardown/2979/2

(*) in addition to motherboard memory, you can add up to 32 GB of user storage on a microSD card.