AMD's ATI Radeon Runs into Trouble

It's just been a few days of lau It's just been a few days of launch and AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4830 GPU has run into problems. Apparently, some units of the graphics card sent out by their partner, HIS was adjusted to run with a pre-production version of BIOS. Older BIOS meant that the streaming processors were disabled to 560 instead of specified 640 which restricted the full potential of the card.

However, the good news is that AMD has identified the issue and claims that around 400 units of HIS boards are affected by this problem which can be easily resolved by a BIOS update.

Through consultations with AMD board partners, it has been determined with a high degree of certainty that fewer than 400 ATI Radeon HD 4830 boards from one AMD board partner, HIS, have reached the market with the pre-production BIOS incorrectly provided by AMD. As only a small number of HIS-branded ATI Radeon HD 4830 cards are impacted, we ask any customers that purchased an HIS-branded ATI Radeon HD 4830 to test the board using the GPU-Z utility (available at Techpowerup.com ). If the GPU-Z utility reports fewer than 640 shaders, please visit the HIS website for information on how to update the card BIOS via a downloadable install utility."

Nokia XpressMusic 5320

The XpressMusic Series of phones from Nokia got hotter with the release of the Tube now christened the XpressMusic 5800. However, we still don't have it with us as it's yet to hit the Indian market sometime in this month. Today we look at one of the smartest XpressMusic phones I've come across after a really long time - XpressMuic 5320.

I was not too impressed with the looks of the XpressMusic 5320, but I'll leave that for the end-user to decide.

The phone though does have an appeal by the kind of convergence it offers, which is exactly what helps this phone grow onto anyone who uses it. Being one in the intermediate range of handsets, it will create quite a stir in the sales of Nokia phones.

Bundle

Nokia XpressMusic 5320

Stereo Headset (3.5mm jack)

512 MB microSD card

USB Data Cable

Software & Manual

Specifications

XpressMusic

The 5320 XpressMusic phone has some added features as compared to the other phones in the XpressMusic series. Apart from the whole application bundle, there are two other factors that give the 5320 the edge in the series, even though it just an intermediate phone - Say & Play and N-Gage. So a quick word on its specialties.

Say & Play

The Say and Play XpressMusic feature is quite unique, one that I haven't seen in any other phone before. Say and Play works with you telling the phone which song to play and it plays it, much like a voice command. A recording begins once you keep the Own key pressed. You then have to mention the artist name and song, and you will be provided with a list of songs under his/her name.

You can further narrow it right down to just one song or album by adding the name of the album or song after the artist name. Just the name of the song or the artist won't do. Soon hopefully it will even recognize song names and take just that for a 'Say and Play' command.

N-Gage

The 5320 XpressMusic phone also supports the N-Gage platform. With an 8-way navigational D-Pad and gaming keys the phone is all ready to game. However, with the kind of games that are being designed for phones, it requires more than just the keys and the support.

It needs the power and very frankly the 5320 is very capable of it. I tried a couple of games and they ran smooth just like the phone houses a 3D Hardware accelerator. Though no mention of it has been made and I won't be surprised if it did.

It's not a very expensive device, at around €220 (£180 / $360) before tax and subsidy. And to a certain extent you can tell that there have been a few trade-offs when it comes to design. The QVGA resolution display is 2" in size, the camera has a flash but no autofocus and talktime is just 2.5 hours on 3G. Video capture is 320 x 240 pixels at 15 fps. It's certainly not as good as an N-Series device.. but then it is a lot cheaper.

The Nokia 5320 XpressMusic phone sells for around Rs.10,000 with a 1-year warranty. The phone may not be one of the most appealing to the eye but it sure has quite a good number of tricks under its sleeve.
You have to use the handset to know what it is capable of. The 5320 XpressMusic is mainly a music centric device, though it's capable of more.

The only competition I see from the Walkman is the W580i and given an option I would go in for the XpressMuisc 5320 for its features. But if its music quality, nothing beats the in-earplugs offered default in the package of the W580i. Maybe a 1GB card in the 5320's package could turn the tables on the W580i.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

The XPERIA runs on the Windows Mobile OS - v6.1 and it runs smooth and being a Windows Mobile OS it's not something tough to get used to. If you remember I did mention in the HTC Touch Diamond review that the phone has opened this whole new avenue for Windows Mobile Devices. Well that's what it is exactly with the XPERIA.

However, there were few things that I didn't quite like. I had earlier mentioned the call hang button held down locking the phone. I prefer to have the list of options like in the HTC Touch Diamond. So I can choose to Lock the Phone or go to Communication Manager or Enter Flight Mode etc. I hope to see it implemented in the final release.

As enjoyable it was typing on the XPERIA's QWERTY keypad I would have wanted a touch pad because the phone is pretty responsive and it does have a screen that can fit on it easily and would eliminate the need to use a stylus.

The XPERIA's 3.2 MP camera is an autofocus module assisted with flash. The camera is just a 3.2MP, which is the disappointing bit, but has enough options to keep you fiddling around. Its options are much like the G900. The camera quality is not one that I can give an opinion on because it's a prototype, but the images were pretty good.
The music player of the phone is another thing that was disappointing.

It was so basic that other than the look of it I couldn't believe it was a Sony Ericsson. So much so that it's not possible to believe that the makers of the Walkman could come up with something so bland. I hope there are more options in the Media player. The screen resolution (800 x 480 pixels) of the phone is such that it makes it good for watching widescreen movies. However, there is no support for DivX or XviD and I don't see it happening for even the final version. Hope the X2 supports all formats.

The highly-anticipated Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 smartphone has been approved by the FCC and helpfully posted on their website so I can spend my Saturday mornings combing through confusingly bureaucratic PDF files looking for announcements like this. The specific model vetted by the fatcats in Washington probably isn't the one we'll be seeing here in North America: it's referred to as the X1i, which in Sony terms means Europe, and it's not yet equipped with 3G. Still, this is a good indication that we will be getting the X1 before 2009, though it'll still be after those shifty Europeans.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is not yet available in the Indian market and will be here only in early November. The expected price tag for the phone is anywhere between 35K - 40K, which is quite steep. I feel it's better to look at it as any other premium Sony Ericsson phone, which when launched is highly priced and later on sees a price drop.

The HTC Touch Diamond is slow and sells for a much lesser price. We will also see the Touch Pro, which should be faster and has perfect competition with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. Also, the X2 is expected to feature early next year, which may demand the price of the X1 to drop. But until then it's a long wait.