Guide To Smartphone Hardware

Guide to smartphone hardware (1/7):
Processors
By Tim Schiesser Feb 12, 2012 HOT! 24
@scorpusv
With such a huge range of smartphone hardware on the market today from vendors such as
Samsung, HTC, Apple, Motorola, LG and more, it can be very confusing to keep up with
what exactly is inside each of these devices. There are at least 10 different CPUs inside
smartphones, many different GPUs, a seemingly endless combination of display hardware and
a huge variety of other bits and bobs.
This multi-part guide is intended to help you understand each and every one of the critical
components in your smartphone and how they compare to other hardware on the market. Each
section is intended to give you all the necessary information about the hardware, and even
more for the tech enthusiasts out there, so expect them all to be lengthy and filled with details.
Over the next several days and weeks well be posting up another part of the guide. In todays
guide Ill be looking at smartphone processors: the different brands, types, how they perform
and the critical differences between them.
Part 1: Processors (this article)

Part 2: Graphics
Part 3: Memory & Storage
Part 4: Displays
Part 5: Connectivity & Sensors (coming soon)
Part 6: Batteries (coming soon)
Part 7: Cameras (coming soon)
System-on-a-Chip
This is a term youve probably come across before, and for good reason. When reviewers are
talking about the processors inside a smartphone they are usually actually referring to the
system-on-a-chip: a combination chipset that features things such as the actual processor
cores, the graphics chipset, the RAM and possibly ROM as well, interface controllers for
things such as USB and wireless tech, voltage regulators and more.
The idea behind a system-on-a-chip, or SoC, is that all the critical components of a device are
located in a relatively small area on the device. This reduces the size of the component board
needed inside and also can help make the device itself faster and more battery efficient. They
also help reduce costs for assembling the product and can also be cheaper than an equivalent
multi-chip set-up.
Im more specifically looking at the processing cores inside the SoC as well as available SoC
packages today, but you can look out for the other parts of this article for more detailed
information on the graphics chip, memory and more.
What does ARM have to do with it?

References to ARM when it comes to SoCs can unfortunately be confusing. ARM is
essentially three things: a company, a microprocessor architecture and processor core; all of
which you may have guessed are related. ARM Holdings plc is the British-based company
that, since 1983, has developed the ARM microprocessor instruction architecture which is
used inside their ARM processor cores.
Where other companies like NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Samsung come in is in the
production of the SoCs. They take (through licensing) the ARM developed and produced
processor core and put it inside their chipsets in combination with whatever GPUs, memory
and other things they desire. Qualcomm is a slightly different story, but well get to that later.
This is why two SoCs from different companies can both appear to contain the same
processor, such as how both the TI OMAP3630 and Samsung Exynos 3310 use a single-core
1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 solution. They are different though in their use of other components,
such as how the OMAP uses a PowerVR SGX530 GPU but the Exynos features the SGX540.
The ARM1 building in Cambridge, where integral parts of smartphones are developed
The ARM architecture is something that you dont really have to worry about when looking at
a new smartphone as almost all new ARM processors feature their ARMv7 architecture. The
older ARMv6 architecture was used on old ARM11 processors, which in turn were used in
old SoCs on devices such as the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone) and
iPhone 3G.
Currently there are two ARM processor types that are widely in use: the ARM Cortex-A8 and
ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore; both use the ARMv7 architecture. Without getting extremely
technical, the Cortex-A8 is usually found in single-core implementations and the Cortex-A9
in devices with up to 4 cores. The A9 is the newer implementation and as well as being
(usually) multi-core, it is slightly faster per MHz than the A8 processors (2.0 DMIPS/MHz vs.
2.5 DMIPS/MHz).
Youll find the ARM Cortex-A8 processor inside SoCs such as the TI OMAP3 series and
Samsungs SP5C series (Hummingbird/Exynos 3xxx). The Cortex-A9 is found in the TI
OMAP4 series, Samsung Exynos 4xxx series, NVIDIAs Tegra 2/3 and the Apple A5.
ARM also makes the Mali range of graphics processors, which Ill be looking at in the
graphics part of this series.
In the future well be seeing SoCs that feature ARMs Cortex-A15 MPCore, which is
allegedly 40% faster than the Cortex-A9. We should see these in the TI OMAP5 series,
Samsung Exynos 5xxx series and the Tegra "Wayne" series in late 2012/early 2013. In the
distant future we can also expect ARM cores that use their ARMv8 architecture.
Qualcomm processors and Snapdragon

SoCs
Qualcomm is slightly different to the other SoC manufacturers in that they dont actually use
the reference ARM processor core designs. Instead they take cues from the ARM Cortex-A8
and make improvements that they package into their very own Scorpion and Krait CPUs. This
obviously requires more research and development than say the TI OMAP series, but is
apparently slightly better for media-related operations and power efficiency compared to the
standard Cortex-A8.
These processors make their way into Qualcomms Snapdragon range of SoCs, which are
split up into different series. Each series is numbered from S1 to S4 (currently), and the higher
the series the more powerful and (usually) the more recent the SoCs are. As of writing there
are no products on the market that make use of Qualcomms S4 chipsets, but they are on their
way shortly.
Snapdragon SoCs are usually named using a three-letter designation followed by four
numbers. QSD was used on the older S1 processors, followed later by MSM for devices
with wireless connectivity and APQ for those without. When it comes to the numbers, the
first (eg. 8xxx) indicates the class with 7 usually meaning low range and 8 meaning mid/high
end. The second number (eg. x2xx) indicates whether the device is GSM or CDMA, with 2
indicating GSM and 6 indicating CDMA. The final two numbers usually designate the
performance grade of the CPU: eg. the MSM8255 is a 1 GHz S2 single-core, then up to the
MSM8260 1.2 GHz S3 dual-core, and then to the future MSM8270 Krait-powered S4
Snapdragon.
Both S1 and S2 Snapdragon SoCs are single-core only, ranging up to 1.5 GHz via their
Scorpion processors inside. S1 was the primary and only processor type allowed in the first
batch of Windows Phones, using the 1 GHz QSD8x50, and was also used in some Android
devices such as the HTC Desire, HTC Droid Incredible, Nexus One and HTC EVO 4G.
The S2 Snapdragons are used in a much wider range of products. S2 differs from S1 in that
there is a more powerful graphics processor inside along with a decrease in process from
65nm to 45nm, which helps conserve power and heat output allowing for larger CPU clocks.
Youll see the 1 GHz MSM8x55 in a huge range of Android products such as the HTC Desire
HD, HTC Desire S, HTC Thunderbolt and pretty much all of Sony Ericssons first-batch of
Xperia devices (including the Xperia Play).
There is also a faster S2 SoC which is the MSM8x55T which is clocked between 1.4 and 1.5
GHz. This is seen in a lot of the second generation Windows Phones such as the Nokia Lumia
series, HTC Titan and Samsung Focus S. It is also used in a few Android devices such as the
HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy W.
The S3 Snapdragons see a jump from single-core to dual-core SoCs, as well as a graphics
boost. These devices are manufactured using the 45nm process and the Scorpion cores used
are still Cortex-A8-based, as opposed to other dual-core SoCs that use newer Cortex-A9
technology. Youll find the 1.2-1.5 GHz S3 MSM8x60 in products like the HTC Sensation,
HTC EVO 3D, HTC Rezound and some Samsung Galaxy S II models.
Apart from the obvious differences in each series processor and graphics chips, along with
progressively smaller manufacturing processes, each series improves on other capabilities
such as camera resolution, screen resolution and media tasks. Below is a quick rundown of
each series in these respects.
Snapdragon S1: Supports up to 720p displays, 720p playback and 720p video recording.
Supports up to 12 megapixel cameras. Supports up to HSPA radios
Snapdragon S2: Improves on S2 by adding support for HSPA+. Better graphics hardware
Snapdragon S3: Supports WSXGA (1440x900) displays, 1080p playback and 1080p
recording. Supports full stereoscopic 3D capabilities including dual-cameras, recording and
playback. Supports up to 16 MP cameras. Adds Dolby 5.1 surround sound support and
echo/noise cancellation
Of course devices that choose to use a certain Snapdragon SoC may not choose to fully utilize
the maximum capabilities of the chipset, and in fact most dont.
A chip block diagram for the Snapdragon S4 SoCs using Krait CPUs
The next step for the Snapdragon line is the S4 series, which ditches the Scorpion CPU in
favour for Qualcomms new Krait CPU. Krait allows for up to four cores in the SoC at up to
2.5 GHz per core, and is made on their new 28nm process. S4 also improves greatly on the
GPU inside and memory capabilities, includes LTE support in the SoC, 1080p display and
HDMI support, up to three 20 MP cameras, up to four microphones for recording/noise
cancellation, Dolby 7.1 surround sound support, dual-band WiFi support and Bluetooh 4.0
capabilities. Qualcomm also claims that the CPU is less power hungry, which Im guessing is
mostly down to the decrease in manufacturing process size.
We should be seeing new devices with the Snapdragon S4 chipsets inside sometime this year,
first announced in the Lenovo IdeaTab S2 10-inch tablet. The IdeaTab S2 should have a 1.5
GHz dual-core S4 Snapdragon 8x60A inside.
Until then, a good idea of how Qualcomms top-end Snapdragon S3 SoC performs can be
seen in our HTC Sensation review, and from personal experience with the device it performs
very well. I eagerly await testing a device with Krait inside though to see how it matches up
not only to the older Snapdragons but to other SoC offerings.
Graphics
By Tim Schiesser Feb 21, 2012 HOT! 20
@scorpusv
Editors Note: This article was originally published earlier today but we were experiencing
issues with it displaying correctly. This is a complete re-post, which has solved these issues.
guide Ill be looking at the second part of the smartphone SoC: the all-important and very
powerful graphics processing unit (GPU).
Part 1: Processors
Part 2: Graphics (this article)
Part 4: Displays
Where is the graphics processor

located?
If you read the previous article detailing smartphone processors you would have discovered
that the actual processing cores are just one part of the overall system-on-a-chip that forms the
basis of all modern phones. Along with said processing cores and other subsystems in the SoC
you find the graphics processing unit, or GPU, in very close proximity to the processor.
The system-on-a-chip is quite a small chip that is used on the mainboard of a smartphone, and
as the GPU is actually inside this chipset, to physically find the GPU while looking at the
insides of a phone is near impossible. That said, if you manage to locate the SoC you are
pretty much right as you would find it in there somewhere if you deconstructed the chip.
The GPU is the "2D/3D Graphics Processor" part of the Tegra 2 SoC above
This is completely different to a desktop or laptop computer, which usually uses a dual-chip
solution. For example in the desktop computer Im using to write this article you would find
the CPU attached to the motherboard, and the graphics processor (GPU) is attached to a
separate mainboard which is then attached to the motherboard. The two critical components
of my desktop are actually physically quite far apart.
There is of course a reason as to why the two chips in a smartphone are so close. First off
youll discover that smartphones and tablets dont have a huge amount of internal space to
work with, and so having critical components packaged together allows the devices
mainboard to be small and the battery to be large. Secondly, packaging the two units as one
reduces the heat output of the device as its more localized and can save power through tightly
integrating the two. Finally, it saves manufacturing costs to produce one chip instead of two.
What does the GPU do?

The use of the GPU depends on several factors: the structure of the system-on-a-chip and also
the operating system used on the device. For the former, if the SoC doesnt happen to have a
dedicated media decoding chip then the GPU might be used to handle high-resolution videos.
There is also the possibility that compatible tasks are offloaded to the GPU so the more power
intensive CPU cores can clock themselves down.
When it comes to the operating system things are a lot more complex. First and foremost the
GPU is used entirely for all 3D rendering in games and applications. The Cortex processing
cores are simply not designed to handle these sorts of tasks and in all operating systems the
GPU will take over from the CPU to handle the rendering more efficiently. The CPU will help
out for certain calculations while rendering 3D models on screen (especially for games), but
the main grunt will be done by the graphics chip.
Most graphics cores also support 2D rendering in certain areas: things such as interface
animations and image zooming are two good examples. The processor can also usually handle
these tasks so whether the GPU is used is usually up to the operating system used on the
device.
Playing Asphalt 6: Adrenaline on this Galaxy Note would be very difficult without a GPU
Windows Phone is very animation heavy and with the relatively low-power SoCs used in WP
devices it would be impossible to get smooth action from simply using the CPU. As such, the
GPU plays a big part in rendering the main interface and other animation-heavy UIs, leaving
the user with a very smooth experience.
Android is a whole other story. As the original and low-end devices that were available
running Android did not have powerful GPUs in them at all it was impossible to offload all
2D rendering tasks to the GPU. Google decided for compatibility reasons that it was better to
simply have all rendering done by the CPU (which for early devices wasnt very good either)
and so the signature Android lag was born.
This was corrected finally in Android 4.0 because modern SoCs actually have very capable
GPUs, and with old devices almost certainly not getting the update it was time for Google to
allow good devices to render the interface elements using their GPU. It is still possible to get
a smooth interface from just CPU rendering (as you will see in Android 2.3 devices like the
Galaxy S II and Motorola Droid Razr), but the GPU is more efficient so youll likely see it
getting used for these tasks from here on out.
As you might have guessed, iOS on the iPhone and iPod Touch is very smooth because it
renders most interface elements using the GPU. Apple only has to work with a very small
selection of hardware and so they can tightly integrate the OS to what is actually available
hardware-wise, and so there were minimal problems getting GPU acceleration to work.
Qualcomm Adreno GPUs

The Adreno graphics processing unit is the proprietary graphics chipset used in Qualcomm
SoCs. Adreno GPUs used to be called Imageon and they were manufactured by ATI until
Qualcomm bought the division from AMD and renamed the products to Adreno. The old
Adreno 1xx series were used in old Qualcomm 7xxx SoCs, with the newer Adreno 2xx series
being used inside the Snapdragon series.
In the current range of Snapdragon SoCs you see three Adreno 2xx series GPUs used: the
Adreno 200 (for S1), 205 (for S2) and 220 (for S3). You might have guessed that a larger
number and inclusion in a newer series indicates a more powerful GPU, and you would be
correct: Qualcomm states that each successive GPU is twice as fast as the last, meaning the
Adreno 220 is around 4x faster than the 200.
Adreno GPUs are used exclusively in Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs
Adreno GPUs used up to S3 Snapdragons support both OpenGL ES 2.0 and 1.1 along with
Direct3D 9.3; Adrenos after and including the Adreno 205 support hardware accelerated SVG
and Adobe Flash. These are really all the APIs needed to ensure that modern mobile games
work on the smartphone that adopts an Adreno GPU, as no modern games really use the
newer OpenGL ES 3.0 API or Direct3D 11 (yet).
In usual Qualcomm fashion there is virtually no information relating to core layout of the
Adreno-series GPUs, fillrate statistics or estimated GFLOPS capabilities of these chipsets.
This makes it very hard to compare the chips without resorting to a benchmark.
Heading to the future and Qualcomm actually has decided to release information on their
chips such as the Adreno 225 which will first appear in their S4 SoCs that use their new Krait
core architecture. Unlike the future Adreno 3xx series they do not improve on the API support
but do improve on performance: Qualcomm claims they will be 50% faster than the Adreno
220 and roughly on par with the PowerVR SGX543MP2 (found in the Apple A5), capable of
19.2 GFLOPS at 300 MHz.
Imagination Tech PowerVR GPUs

The second major producer of smartphone graphics chipsets is Imagination Technologies,
which makes the PowerVR line of mobile GPUs. There have been many series of PowerVR
GPUs, though current devices use products from either the PowerVR SGX 5 or 5XT series.
PowerVR GPUs are licensed to other SoC manufactures and so they find their way into a
variety of devices. TI OMAP chipsets exclusively use PowerVR GPUs, and youll also find
them inside some older Samsung Exynos chipsets and also the Apple A4 and A5. They are
also sometimes used alongside Intel x86 processors in low-end notebook computers.
The PowerVR SGX 5 series comprises of several GPUs, only a few of which are regularly
used. The PowerVR SGX530 is used in the TI OMAP 3 series and so finds its way into a
huge array of single-core devices from the Motorola Droid (original) to the Nokia N9. When
clocked at 200 MHz, the SGX530 is capable of 1.6 GFLOPS. The SGX535 (used in the
iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4) is a die shrinkage of the SGX530 and contains DirectX 9.0c
support where the 530 does not, but retains the same performance.
This is a look in to the architecture of the PowerVR SGX 5XT series

The most popular of the 5 series is the PowerVR SGX540 that is used in both the original
Samsung Exynos chipset (the Hummingbird) for the Galaxy S along with the TI OMAP 4
series. It has support for DirectX 10 and is capable of 3.6 GFLOPS at 200 MHz, twice that of
the SGX530. Unlike the SGX530, the SGX540 can be clocked up to 400 MHz and so
theoretically the GPU can achieve 7.2 GFLOPS.
Some people may look at the implementations of the SGX540 and wonder why it appears in
the relatively old single-core Hummingbird SoC in the original Galaxy S but also appears in
the TI OMAP 4460 dual-core SoC used in the Galaxy Nexus. It turns out the clockspeeds are
actually different for both SoCs: the Hummingbird sees the 540 at 200 MHz (delivering 3.2
GFLOPS), the TI OMAP 4430 used in the Droid Razr has it at 304 MHz (~4.8 GFLOPS) and
the TI OMAP 4460 at 384 MHz (~6.1 GFLOPS).
The newer 5XT series hasnt really found its way into many devices yet, with the only notable
inclusions being the Apple A5 chip used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S and the PlayStation Vita.
Where the 5 series only has a single GPU core, the 5XT series supports up to 16 cores, each
of which is twice as fast as the SGX540. GPUs in the 5XT are affixed with MPx, where the x
denotes the number of cores: for example the SGX543MP2 used in the Apple A5 has two
cores.
Currently the SGX543 is the only chip that has found its way into SoCs, with the similar
SGX544 scheduled to go into the TI OMAP 5 series. The SGX543 delivers 6.4 GFLOPS per
core at 200 MHz, meaning that at the low 200 MHz the SGX543MP2 in the Apple A5
achieves 12.8 GFLOPS which is a considerable improvement over the highest-clocked
SGX540. As Apple hasnt specified what clock speed the GPU in the A5 runs at, my best
estimate is around 250-300 MHz based on benchmarks, which means were looking at
between a whopping 16 and 19 GFLOPS.
I wouldnt think that too many manufacturers would exceed two cores in the SGX543 as each
core added uses more power, but Sony decided that a quad-core SGX543MP4+ is the way to
go in the PlayStation Vita. Even if this is clocked at just 200 MHz, the PSVitas GPU is
capable of 25.6 GFLOPS; up that to 300 MHz and you get 38.4 GFLOPS. Like Apple, Sony
actually hasnt specified a GPU clock speed so we can only guess as to how much power the
Vitas GPU actually has.
For interests sake, a PowerVR SGX543MP16 (16-core variant) clocked at the maximum 400
MHz would be capable of 204.8 GFLOPS. Thats enormous and certainly would use a lot of
power, but as far as I can tell no such GPU has found its way, or ever will find its way into a
production device.
ARM Mali GPUs

The section on Mali GPUs is going to be relatively short because the Mali GPU is currently
only used in one SoC: the Samsung Exynos 4210 found in the Samsung Galaxy S II, Galaxy
Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7. The Mali range is ARMs own, so it should be an ideal partner for
the Cortex processing cores used in the Exynos chipset.
Even though on paper there are several Mali GPUs, the only one that has really been used is
the quad-core Mali-400 MP4 in the Exynos 4210. When ARM says that the Mali-400 MP4 is
quad-core it is not truly four processing cores like the PowerVR SGX543MP4, its simply
four pixel shader processors put together. This is why the Mali-400 MP4 does not have the
same graphical capabilities as PowerVRs true quad-core GPU.
This is what's inside a Mali-400 MP4
To quantify the performance the Mali-400 MP4 is capable of 7.2 GFLOPS at 200 MHz,
meaning that it is faster than a single-core PowerVR SGX543. The targeted clock speed for
use in the Exynos 4210 is 275 MHz, meaning the GPU is capable of 9.9 GFLOPS and making
it the fastest GPU available in an Android smartphone at the time of writing.
Roughly speaking the Mali-400 MP4 in the Galaxy S II is twice as fast as the SGX540 in the
Droid Razr and ~75% faster than the same GPU in the Galaxy Nexus. In turn, the iPhone 4S
SGX543MP2 is around twice as fast as the Mali-400 and the Playstation Vita is even faster
than that.
Samsung will continue to use the Mali GPUs in their future Exynos 5xxx SoCs, although they
will be more powerful units than the Mali-400 MP4. Currently Samsung claims the next
Exynos chips GPU will be 4x faster than the implementation in the 4210, but Id take that
with a grain of salt until we find out exactly what is in there.
NVIDIA ULP GeForce GPUs

I mentioned briefly in the processor section of this series that for desktop graphics card
manufacturing giant NVIDIA, the GPUs in their smartphone SoCs arent particularly
impressive. In fact, NVIDIAs ULP GeForce that is in their Tegra SoCs is the slowest GPU
from the first-generation of dual-core processors, and Ill explain why.
The ULP GeForce is used in two main Tegra 2 chipsets: Tegra 250 AP20H and Tegra 250
T20; the former for smartphones and the latter for tablets. The ULP GeForce used here is
clocked at 300 MHz (AP20H) or 333 MHz (T20), and is only capable of 3.2 GFLOPS at 200
MHz. This means that the AP20H at 300 MHz sees 4.8 GFLOPS and the T20 at 333 MHz
sees 5.33 GFLOPS.
Now at first glance you would notice that the smartphone GFLOPS capability of the Tegra 2
is the same as the PowerVR SGX540 clocked at 300 MHz, and that is true. However,
the maximum clock speed of the SGX540 seen in an actual device is 384 MHz in the Galaxy
Nexus, which is capable of 6.1 GFLOPS. This is faster than even the tablet iteration of Tegra
2 at 333 MHz, making the Tegra 2 the least capable GPU.
A Tegra 3 die image, with the GPU hidden inside somewhere

Of course were just talking specifics here, and many other factors actually affect the
performance of a GPU such as CPU clock speed and display size, but if youre talking about
the most capable GPU the Tegra 2 is definitely not number one.
As we move into the second generation of multi-core processors, NVIDIA was first to strike
the market with their quad-core Tegra 3 as I mentioned in my processor article. You would
expect that the Tegra 3 ULP GeForce GPU would see a boost, and while it has it might not be
as large as you would like.
The Kal-El GeForce is capable of 4.8 GFLOPS at 200 MHz, which you can immediately see
is less than the 200 MHz performance of the Mali-400 MP4 and PowerVR SGX543MP2.
NVIDIA hasnt exactly specified what clock speed the GPU is running at in the Tegra 3 chip
in devices such as the ASUS Transformer Prime, save for that the clock speed is greater than
Tegra 2. If we estimate that it runs at 400 MHz, its still only capable of 9.6 GFLOPS which
is close to, but just short of the Mali-400 MP4.
Comparison of smartphone GPUs

So now that you know about the different ranges of mobile GPUs available its time to see
which is the fastest. To do so Ive made this handy chart that lists them from the most
powerful to least in terms of GFLOPS.
Please note that this simply indicates the potential performance of each GPU and
does not reflect real-world performance. GPUs are placed in a wide range of systems where
external factors such as increased processor clock speeds, RAM types and speeds, display
resolutions and more can affect the actual graphical performance of a smartphone.
GPU SoC Example Device Example GFLOPS at 200 MHz GFLOPS
PowerVR SGX543MP4+ PSVita PlayStation Vita 25.6 25.6+
16
PowerVR SGX543MP2 Apple A5 Apple iPhone 4S 12.8 at 250 M
9.9
Mali-400 MP4 Exynos 4210 Samsung Galaxy S II 7.2 at 275 M
9.6
"Kal-El" GeForce Tegra 3 ASUS Transformer Prime 4.8 at 400 M
6.1
PowerVR SGX540 OMAP4460 Galaxy Nexus 3.2 at 384 M
Adreno 220 MSM8260 HTC Sensation N/A N/A
5.3
ULP GeForce Tegra 2 Motorola Xoom 3.2 at 333 M
4.8
PowerVR SGX540 OMAP4430 Motorola Droid Razr 3.2 at 304 M
4.8
ULP GeForce Tegra 2 LG Optimus 2X 3.2 at 300 M
3.2
PowerVR SGX540 Hummingbird Samsung Galaxy S 3.2 at 200 M
Adreno 205 MSM8255 HTC Titan N/A N/A
1.6
PowerVR SGX535 Apple A4 iPhone 4 1.6 at 200 M
1.6
PowerVR SGX530 OMAP3630 Motorola Droid X 1.6 at 200 M
Adreno 200 QSD8250 HTC HD7 N/A N/A

*these GFLOPS figures are based on estimated (rather than known) SoC clock speeds
Note: Qualcomm Adreno GPUs are included as placeholders in this chart, but as their
positions are determined by benchmarks rather than GFLOPS performance there is no way to
fully know where they rank

Again, I hope that you learnt a little bit more with the second part of my series on smartphone
hardware. In the next article Ill be moving through the critical components of a device and
landing at memory (as in RAM) and storage types, seeing which is fastest to use and how you
can improve your speeds.
If you have any questions about what I have gone over in this guide please feel free to
comment below or ask in our forums. Ill try my best to answer questions but Im not a
hardware manufacturer so I might not have all the answers.
Images courtesy of NVIDIA, Qualcomm, ARM and TI
Memory and Storage
By Tim Schiesser Mar 12, 2012 HOT! 14
@scorpusv
guide Ill be looking at more important parts that are located on the mainboard inside the
smartphone, specifically the memory (or RAM) and the on-board and external storage
(ROM).
Part 1: Processors
Part 2: Graphics
Part 3: Memory & Storage (this article)
Part 4: Displays
About Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM, which is short for random access memory, is one of the critical components of the
smartphone along with the processing cores and dedicated graphics. Without RAM in any sort
of computing system like this your smartphone would fail to perform basic tasks because
accessing files would be ridiculously slow.
This type of memory is a middle man between the file-system, which is stored on the ROM,
and the processing cores, serving any sort of information as quickly as possible. Critical files
that are needed by the processor are stored in the RAM, waiting to be accessed. These files
could be things such as operating system components, application data and game graphics; or
generally anything that needs to be accessed at speeds faster than other storage can provide.
RAM that is used in smartphones is technically DRAM, with the D standing for dynamic. The
structure of DRAM is such that each capacitor on the RAM board stores a bit, and the
capacitors leak charge and require constant refreshing; thus the dynamic nature of the
RAM. It also means that the contents of the DRAM module can be changed quickly and
easily to store different files.
The advantage of the RAM not being static is that the storage can change to cope with
whatever tasks the system is trying to perform. If an entire operating system was, say, 2 GB
on disk, it wouldnt make sense or be efficient for the RAM to archive the entire thing,
especially when smartphones with low amounts of RAM (like 512 MB) cant afford to do
that.
RAM is different to the flash-style ROM storage on the device in that whenever power is
disconnected from the RAM module, the contents are lost. This is known as volatile storage,
and it partially helps the access times to the RAM to be so fast. It also explains loading
screens: information from the slower ROM must be passed to the faster RAM, and the
limiting factor in most cases is the read speed of the ROM. When the system is powered off,
the contents of the RAM is lost and so at the next boot, the RAM needs to be filled once more
from the contents on the slower storage.
A diagram that shows a package-on-package set-up. The lower die would be the SoC and the
upper the RAM
If you are wondering where the RAM usually can be found, youll find it in most cases
directly on top of the SoC in what is known as a package-on-package (PoP) set-up. This
allows the SoC direct access to the RAM and the close proximity means less heat output and
power consumption. If there is not enough space on top of the SoC, often you can find the
remaining RAM in neighbouring chips.
Size and speed are everything

First and foremost when it comes to looking at a smartphones RAM is the size. Its fairly
straightforward here to see that more is better, as the larger the capacity the more information
can be stored and accessed quickly by other subsystems. Generally you shouldnt be
concerned about more storage using more power, because while it does, this is only a small
fraction of the system power and is easily surpassed by the display and processors needs.
Combined with a clever operating system, copious amounts of RAM arent necessary.
Smartphone applications generally use a small amount of RAM (around 50 MB), and so lots
of these applications can run simultaneously. The OS might decide while multitasking to
suspend the applications that are not being used at the time, saving RAM and freeing it up for
use for other applications. This is why Windows Phones appear to be so smooth and
responsive when the devices it runs on may only have 512 MB of RAM.
However thats not to say that large amounts of RAM arent useful. Games, and those that are
3D in particular, can consume huge amounts of RAM storing game graphics, textures, 3D
models and sound. While having 512 MB may seem smooth for running basic applications
and the operating system, it may not be enough to store game information without resorting to
annoying and frequent loading screens in high-end games.
Rendering a game such as Dungeon Defenders requires a lot of RAM

In my experiences playing and monitoring game usage on my Android smartphone (which has
1 GB of RAM) I have rarely seen games using more than 300 MB of RAM. However when
you couple this with important operating system components, like messaging, dialer and the
homescreen application that always run in the background, youll see that more than half of
the 1 GB of RAM available is being used. On a system with just 512 MB of RAM playing the
same game, performance could be worse.
RAM speed is something that is often overlooked by people when measuring the performance
of a smartphone, and makes up the other critical part of how well the memory performs. Sure,
having large amounts of RAM is nice, but its only nice when it can be accessed quickly and
this is where the speed comes in.
Like with your desktop computer there are three major areas of the memory that affect its
speed: the clock speed, type of RAM and the amount of channels. How exactly these three
things affect the performance is complicated and confusing to explain, but basically you are
looking for a higher clock speed on multiple channels.
The clock speed directly affects the input/output (I/O) speeds of the RAM modules, with a
higher clock speed indicating that the module is capable of adding more information to the
memory chips per second. To save power mobile RAM does not reach huge clock speeds
(generally 300-500 MHz), but for smartphone applications this should be more than adequate.
The type of RAM affects several things to do with performance, such as how effective each
clock cycle is at adding information to the module and how much power per MHz the chip
consumes. Like with computers, memory comes in the form of double data rate synchronous
dynamic random access memory, which is a huge mouthful and usually abbreviated to DDR
SDRAM.
The iPhone 4S has 512 MB of LPDDR2 embedded inside the A5 SoC. The markings
surrounded in yellow indicate this
While current generation PCs use the third version of DDR SDRAM (DDR3), smartphone
SoCs mostly use LPDDR2, where the LP stands for low-power. LPDDR2 is mostly similar
to standard DDR2 except that it uses less power (hence the name) which does degrade
performance. DDR3 interfacing capabilities will be introduced in upcoming smartphone
SoCs.
Memory channels do little in real-world performance to improve the speed of a RAM set-up,
but basically the more channels you have the less likely there will be for a bottleneck in the
memory controller. Dual-channel RAM is comparable to dual-core processors, where two
RAM modules can communicate in parallel to the CPU bus.
Most smartphones have single-channel memory with a few SoCs here and there, like the
Snapdragon S2s (but not S3s), adopting dual-channel. As there is rarely a bottleneck caused
by the RAM the channels can be ignored in most circumstances, with the clock speed being
far more important in terms of speed.
The last thing that must be mentioned about smartphone RAM is that there is no dedicated
video RAM for the graphics chipset, meaning any RAM the smartphone has is shared
between the processing cores and GPU. Due to the system-on-a-chip design that incorporates
the CPU and GPU on the one die, this shouldnt be an issue in terms of performance.
Internal storage and ROM

Like RAM, internal storage is critical to a smartphones operation; without any place to store
the operating system and critical files there would be nothing for the phone to do. Even if a
phone has no storage accessible to the user, there will also be some form of internal storage
that stores the operating system.
Depending on the operating system loaded on the device, and the device itself, there are
multiple storage chips inside the device. These chips may then be partitioned into several
areas for different purposes, such as application storage, cache and system files. Normally the
chip that stores the system files is called the ROM for read-only memory; however this is a bit
of a misnomer as the memory here can actually be modified through system updates, just not
by the end user.
Some devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S, have a multi-ROM set-up. One memory chip is
smaller around 512 MB, but faster, and stores the main system files, cache and application
data in separate partitions. The second chip is larger, and is usually a 1-2 GB partition of the
user storage that is slower but allows for storage of applications.
In these systems having a full 2 GB of fast access memory may be too expensive to include,
so lowering the size to just accommodate the operating system and using the cheaper user
storage for the remaining non-user-accessible data is a better option. It creates a good balance
between performance and cost for the manufacturer.
The internals of the Motorola Droid Razr; 16 GB storage highlighted in red (and 1 GB RAM
in orange)
Other devices such as the Apple iPhone 4S and Motorola Droid Razr prefer to include just
one storage chip that sits, in terms of performance, between the two chips used in a multi-chip
set-up. The phone may be stated to include 16 GB of internal storage, but after a 1-2 GB
system partition and (in the case of the Razr) a 4 GB application partition the user accessible
storage may end up as low as 8 GB.
Performance of internal storage chips are, generally speaking, better than you would achieve
with external microSD cards. As the chips are directly soldered to the smartphones
mainboard and can be made to specially interface with the SoC used, the read/write speeds
attained are usually quite good: in my testing I usually achieve above 6 MB/s write.
Sometimes companies cheat and dont solder user-accessible internal storage to the
mainboard, instead putting a microSD card in a hidden slot that cant be normally accessed by
the user. This was particularly prevalent on early generation Windows Phones such as the
HTC Trophy and HTC HD7 and has few benefits.
User removable storage

Sometimes user removable storage is called external storage due to the fact that it can be
removed, but this is somewhat silly as the card inserted into the device is more internal than it
is external. Nowadays all smartphones that have user removable storage use microSD cards,
with a few tablets offering full-sized SD card slots.
Out of the three major smartphone operating systems (iOS, Android and WP7), Android is the
only one that really supports removable storage. With iOS devices such as the iPhone, Apple
does not include any method for expanding storage, instead giving users generous internal
storage they can use for applications, videos, music and so on.
Windows Phone is unusual in that there is one device with a user accessible microSD card
slot: the Samsung Focus. However, any cards that are put in the device have heavy security
features activated that mean the card cannot be read in other devices or in your computer,
leaving management software as still the only way to change what is on your device. Proper
user removable storage support is said to be coming in a future Windows Phone update.
When it comes to Android there are two implementations of user removable storage: its
either the only user accessible storage or it complements the internal user accessible storage.
If it complements what is already available, there will be a separate system partition for the
external card such as /sd-ext or /mmc that some applications, such as music and video players,
can access. Often applications that download data to the SD card will actually download to
the internal storage in situations where there are both available (unless there is an option).
MicroSD (and standard SD) cards are available in three different size classes. The original SD
specification allowed cards up to 2 GB in size, and then SDHC (SD High Capacity) increased
the size limit to 32 GB. Recently SDXC (SD Extended Capacity) increases the limit all the
way up to 2 TB, but SDXC cards are not supported in most new smartphones, meaning the
maximum expansion of storage rests at 32 GB.
Apart from size, the other important thing to consider when purchasing a microSD card for
your smartphone is the speed, which is stated as a Class on the packaging. Luckily the class
number is very easy to understand as it directly corresponds to the minimum write speed of
the card in MB/s. A card that is rated as Class 4 will be able to be written to at a minimum of
4 MB/s, and Class 10 at 10 MB/s.
Classes can go as high as the manufacturer wishes within the specifications of the card, and
generally a higher class means the card will be more expensive but a better performer. For
microSD cards the best you can get is a 32 GB Class 10, which usually cost around US$40;
these cards will often outperform the internal storage of your device assuming it can handle
10 MB/s write speeds to the removable storage.
With the right combination of a device with 64 GB of internal storage with a microSD card
slot, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, you could potentially have 96 GB of user
accessible storage if you added in a 32 GB microSD card.
Part 4: Displays
Again, I hope that you learnt a little bit more about what is inside your smartphone with this
article on storage and memory. Next time Ill be taking a look at the all-important display on
smartphones; which technology is best, the differences in resolution and subpixel layout and
so-forth. Check back soon for that article
hardware manufacturer so I might not have all the answers.

Displays
By Tim Schiesser May 26, 2012 HOT! 20
@scorpusv
guide Ill be looking at displays, and the different technologies that are used to make viewing
and using your smartphone pleasurable.
Part 1: Processors
Part 2: Graphics
Part 4: Displays (this article)
Display type #1: LCD

When it comes to smartphone displays, there are two main types that are utilized; the first of
which is LCD. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display, and while I'm not going to go into the
complex designs of LCD panel circuits and exactly how they work, I'll explain the different
parts of an LCD display and exactly what the crystals do.
There are four main layers to an LCD panel: there's the outer protective layer, the polarizing
layer (or layers), the liquid crystal layer and the backlight. The outer protective layer is
basically there to protect the other components from getting damaged, and it's usually made of
clear plastic or glass. The polarizing layers help the crystal layer deliver the correct light, or
no light when off or black, to your eyes.
The most important part is the liquid crystal layer, which is what controls the colors passed
through and ultimately the picture displayed. When an electrical current is passed through the
crystalline layer, liquid crystal cells coupled with filters of red, blue and green, corresponding
to the subpixels in the display, "twist" to let backlight through at different intensities. The
crystals filter the neutral back light into certain color intensities, and combined with
neighboring crystals of different colors, the full range of millions of colors is created.
A basic diagram of a TFT LCD panel | Image: TEAC

The backlighting layer is almost always LED backlight, and while there are different types of
LED backlighting the one used almost always is white LED backlighting. This is where thin
and solid white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are placed behind the liquid crystal layer to
provide a base light for the crystals to modify. RGB LED backlighting also exists which
allows for better color reproduction, but this is more expensive and seldom used in
smartphones (as far as I know).
Again this is a simplified explanation of how LCD panels work, for more info I recommend
checking here.
LCDs that are used in smartphones are all active matrix, which refers to the way the pixels are
addressed, and they are all also used TFT technology. TFT basically means thin-film
transistor and its these components that help with more accurate color reproduction, contrast
and responsiveness. Underneath the TFT banner there are a two different types you can get.
Twisted Nematic (TN) LCD
Twisted Nematic is a term that is rarely used by smartphone manufacturers, instead preferring
to call their displays simply "TFT LCD". It refers to the method in which crystal cells are
twisted in the display to reproduce the colors, and is most commonly used in cheaper
smartphone displays due to their ease of production.
Compared to the other type of LCD, In-Plane Switching (IPS), TN LCD panels have more
limited viewing angles, contrast and color reproduction, hence why they are generally used in
cheaper devices. That said, your computer monitor or (older) LCD TV is most likely going to
be using a TN panel, so they are not always bad, just there is better technology out there.
The Sony Xperia S features a standard TN TFT LCD, but it's one of the better ones
The best type of TN LCD panel available is the Sony/Samsung-made Super LCD, or S-LCD,
which has considerably better contrast levels and color reproduction compared to standard TN
panels. These types of displays started appearing in the HTC Desire as a replacement for
AMOLEDs when supply was short, and has since been superseded by Super LCD 2 displays.
In-Plane Switching (IPS) LCD
IPS LCD panels use a more organized method of crystal cell twisting, which allows for a
better quality picture and so it's the preferred type of display for higher end smartphones. The
main advantages over TN panels is significantly better viewing angles and truer color
reproduction because the way the panel works reduces off-angle color shift. Modern
generation IPS panels also feature much better contrast ratios than TN panels, which makes
them (in some instances) comparable with AMOLED technology.
The Super LCD 2 display on the HTC One X is an IPS-type TFT LCD, and it looks amazing
Most IPS panels used in smartphones are technically either Super IPS (S-IPS) or Advanced
Super IPS (AS-IPS), and in some cases proprietary technology that improves on different
aspects of IPS panels. Occasionally smartphone manufacturers will designate their panels as
"IPS LCD" or "TFT IPS LCD", but in other cases they will use a brand name such as those
listed below.
Retina - The term used for Apple's LG-manufactured IPS LCD panels with high pixel
densities (more on that later), used since the iPhone 4 and 3rd-gen iPad.
NOVA - LG's marketing term for their IPS LCD panels that produce a brightness of 700 nits,
which is brighter than many other displays
Super LCD 2 - The second-generation of S-LCD panels made by Sony that switch from using
TN to IPS technology. They have phenomenal color reproduction, great contrast, brightness
and viewing angles due to reducing the size and spacing of the component layers, and are
arguably the best displays available.
Pros and cons to LCD panels
As one of the major two display types, it's good to know what the good and bad things about
this type of panel.
Good:
Cheap to produce
IPS panels have accurate color reproduction
Low chance of color tinting or color shift
Can be bright and clearly readable outside
Bad:
Due to the need for a backlight, huge contrast ratios and solid black levels are hard to achieve
TN panels have bad viewing angles
In some cases they are power consuming and physically thick
Display type #2: AMOLED

Where LCD panels are made from a variety of different layers that all work in harmony to
produce a picture, with AMOLED displays it's much simpler. AMOLED stands for Active-
Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, as the name hints, the display actually emits colors
directly from organic diodes rather than needing polarizing filters, crystals or backlights. As
such, there are a number of benefits over LCD technology.
The way an AMOLED display works is very simple: there is a lower transistor layer that
controls the power going to the organic upper layer; when power is applied to the organic
diodes they emit light, the color of which corresponds to the molecular structure of the diode.
The intensity of the light can be varied by the power sent by the transistors, which in turn
allows millions of colors just like the twisting of liquid crystals in LCDs.
A diagram of an AMOLED panel | Image: Wikimedia Commons

As the diodes themselves emit light, they don't require any sort of backlight for the filtering of
colors. This helps not only save power, but it also slims down the display considerably, which
is a bonus for phones that are pushing to be the slimmest on the market. Furthermore, the lack
of a persistent backlight allows high contrast ratios, because to display black the organic
diodes simply switch off and show nothing.
Of course there are some downsides to AMOLED displays. As the usual red, green and blue
subpixels are used to create the full gamut of colors, different organic compounds must be
used to provide each of the three colors. The properties for each of these compounds varies
significantly, and so it's very hard to get each diode emitting the same intensity of light at full
power with the correct wavelength.
This leads to a number of problems. If one color of diode is too intense it can tint the display
slightly; usually the blue diodes are the culprit which is why white webpages can often look
somewhat blue. Also, while AMOLEDs are very vibrant due to the diode intensity, color
reproduction is not as accurate as IPS LCDs, again due to the problems getting all colors on
an even playing field.
The HD Super AMOLED on the Samsung Galaxy Note can look very vibrant
The final problem is the lifespan of the different diode types: as each color is a
different organiccompound, they will only "live" (or emit light) for so long, and this length
varies for different colors. In early AMOLED displays it was known that the blue diodes died
around twice as fast as the green diodes, however in recent display types the technology has
evolved to make this less of an issue. Hopefully the color accuracy issues will also be
improved as the technology evolves.
As with LCD panels there are a number of brand names associated with implementation of
technology by specific companies:
Super AMOLED - The first-generation Samsung-made panel that integrates the touchscreen
digitizer into the display while providing better outdoor readability
Super AMOLED Plus - The newer generation of Samsung AMOLEDs that swaps out the old
PenTile matrix to an RGB matrix (see more below) for improved color reproduction
HD Super AMOLED - Again the "Super" denotes a Samsung panel with an integrated
digitizer, and the lack of "Plus" means it has a PenTile matrix. The HD simply means it has a
HD resolution with good pixel density
ClearBlack AMOLED - Used by Nokia, this is an AMOLED panel that uses a "ClearBlack"
coated with an anti-glare polarizer that helps outdoor readability.
Pros and cons to AMOLED panels
As the other of the major two display types, it's good to know what the good and bad things
about this type of panel.
Good:
Very thin, and (sometimes) flexible
Vibrant colors and high contrast due to organic diodes
Excellent viewing angles
Low power consumption in some situations
Bad:
Inaccurate color reproduction and mild color tinting is sometimes present
Shorter lifespan than LCDs
Often PenTile subpixel matrices are used
The subpixel matrix confusion

Since the inclusion of the notorious "PenTile" subpixel matrix in smartphone displays there
has been a lot of media talk over how this particular matrix is worse than the traditional "RGB
stripe". Sure, it's great to say the PenTile matrix is bad, but I've seen few sites actually go on
to explain why this particular matrix delivers an inferior experience. That's what this section is
about.
As many tech-savvy readers would know, to produce a picture a display uses a composite of
pixels; each pixel ideally being able to produce every color. However as far as we know, there
is no single material that allows for the production of every single color, so we cheat and use a
combination of smaller fixed-color subpixels (that are too small to see) at different intensity
levels to deliver color.
This is an RGB stripe subpixel layout. Notice that each green, blue and red subpixel forms a
square, and also note the small black specs which are the transistors. | Image: Wikimedia
Commons
Almost all computer displays use red, green and blue colored subpixels, which are added
together using the RGB color model to deliver a huge amount of composite colors. Each
subpixel should be capable of 256 color intensity levels, where 0 has the subpixel "off", ~128
is the color half-on and 255 is full intensity. As there are three colored subpixels all capable of
256 levels, this multiplies together to give 16,777,216 possible colors per pixel.
As to produce these 16.78 million colors you need one of each of the three RGB subpixels,
the preferred method is to have all three of these arranged in a square, and this square
becomes a pixel. This is known as the "RGB stripe" method, and it's pretty much universally
used across LCD monitors as it provides the most accurate color reproduction and the highest
level of clarity.
With AMOLED displays as I mentioned above there are some issues with the technology that
must be overcome such as the inconsistencies between the different subpixel intensities and
lifespans. There is also another issue: it's currently much harder to produce a high-density
AMOLED display at a reasonable price because the technology to create extremely small
subpixels isn't there yet, whereas with LCDs, producing tiny subpixels is much cheaper and
easier.
And so comes in Samsung's trademark PenTile subpixel matrix. Instead of putting all three
RGB subpixels into the one pixel, the PenTile RGBG matrix pairs a green subpixel with
alternating blue and red subpixels; this means that there are technically only two subpixels per
pixel in a PenTile RGBG matrix compared to three in a RGB stripe layout.
This is a PenTile subpixel matrix; note that a single, square pixel has a green subpixel but
alternating red/blue subpixels. | Image: Matthew Rollings
Due to the optics of the human eye and its different sensitivities to different wavelengths of
light, a PenTile matrix display is still capable of delivering effectively the same colors as the
traditional RGB stripe using special subpixel rendering. As it uses fewer subpixels per pixel,
this also allows the display to be more dense than if it were created using the RGB stripe
method, and in some situations it uses less power. Finally, due to there being fewer blue
subpixels, the display should last longer than a traditional layout AMOLED using the same
organic blue-light-emitting diode.
Of course people who complain about PenTile matrices do have a point. The fact that there is
only two subpixels per pixel technically reduces the subpixel resolution of the display: for
example a 1280x720 display using the RGB stripe layout has 2.76 million subpixels whereas
a 720p PenTile display has just 1.84 million subpixels; 0.92 million fewer. Most of the time
subpixel rendering compensates for this, but in certain situations the difference is noticeable.
On hard edges, such as crisp text or the edge of an interface element, the PenTile matrix
sometimes has to "borrow" subpixels from other pixels to form a picture that is the correct
color. This is most noticeable when looking at the left edge of a white icon or text, where
there appears to be small red dots along the edge, or along high-contrast lines, where the line
either appears not crisp or - in the case of blue/red lines compared to green lines - dotty.
Generally speaking you have to get reasonably close to the display to notice these
imperfections, but then again comparing a PenTile display to an RGB stripe display, the text
rendering on the latter is noticeably clearer at a comfortable reading distance. The good news
though is that PenTile displays are often nowadays only used on devices with a PPI density
(more on that later) of 250 or above, and as you approach 300 PPI it becomes increasingly
hard to notice the problems.
On devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy Nexus, which use PenTile HD Super
AMOLED displays but have high pixel densities, the PenTile problem is virtually a non-issue.
It would obviously be nicer to have a high-density RGB stripe AMOLED, and even Samsung
acknowledges their Super AMOLED Plus displays are better, so in the future we'll probably
see technology and components improve so they can kill off the dreaded PenTile matrix.
The importance of pixel density

It all started with Apple's "Retina" display: a 3.5-inch IPS LCD panel touting a 640 x 960
resolution. At this size and resolution, the display had a pixel-per-inch (ppi) count of 326, a
number seldom seen in other displays at the time and well over the magical 300 ppi rating. So,
what is pixels-per-inch, and what does the magical 300 ppi mean?
Pixels-per-inch is a count of how many pixels in one dimension fit along a one inch line; that
is, if you put a ruler on the screen it's how many pixels could you count along the edge of the
ruler before it reaches one inch. Due to the fact that pixels are square, it doesn't matter
whether you count vertically or horizontally to get this number, and thanks to the handy
formula on the Wikipedia page for pixel density, you can work out the pixels-per-inch for any
display without having to do this counting for yourself.
For a display to be good, ideally you should not be able to make out individual pixels at a
reasonable distance from your eyes, leaving images and text to be presented at the highest
quality and crispness. As with the print rating of 300 dpi (dots-per-inch), 300 ppi is an ideal
level to achieve because at 30cm (12in) away from your eyes, the average person will not be
able to see individual pixels.
A 4.3-inch 720p display has a density of 342 ppi. Even magnified, individual pixels are hard
to determine.
At standard resolutions such as 1280 x 720 (720p HD), 960 x 540 (qHD) and 800 x 480
(WVGA), there is a limit on the diagonal size of the display that keeps the pixel density at or
above 300 ppi. For 720p, displays can go up to 4.9" while still managing 300 ppi, giving a
huge amount of flexibility and pretty much exceeding the comfort limits of display sizes. qHD
maxes out at 3.65", and WVGA at 3.1", which are good limits for the smaller end of the
spectrum.
When it comes to tablets achieving 300 ppi, it is less of an issue because you will be holding
the device (in most cases) further away from your eyes, and so manufacturers should be
looking for densities of 250 ppi or above. This does mean that 10.1 inch tablets will need to
exceed 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) as that only gives 224 ppi; however 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA)
would deliver a nice 299 ppi at 10.1 inches and remains above 250 ppi right up to 12 inches.
For tablets up to 8.9 inches, WUXGA will suffice.
As display technologies improve, especially in the AMOLED front, it should be possible to

deliver high pixel densities in all situations. Most upcoming high-end smartphones are
utilizing a high-density display, as with some mid-range devices, but it's still definitely
something to look out for in new tablets.
Adding touch to the mix
The final part of the whole display module in a smartphone is the all important touchscreen,
otherwise and more correctly known as the touch digitizer layer. Luckily pretty much all
smartphones these days (except for the really cheap and terrible ones) use capacitive touch
sensors as opposed to the resistive touch sensors used in older devices; as such I'm not going
to bother explaining resistive touchscreens.
The capacitive sensing digitizer layer most often uses projected capacitive touch (PCT)
technology, which sees the materials used in the detection etched into the layer as a grid. This
grid projects an electrostatic field when a voltage is applied, and when a human finger (which
is electrically conductive) touches the area covered by this grid, the electrostatic field is
altered. A controller then determines the position of the finger based on sensors and other
components.
As only conductive materials can alter the electrostatic field, this is why things such as human
skin work on capacitive touchscreens but cloth and plastic do not. However, depending on the
strength of the field and sensors, and the fact that the field is slightly three-dimensional, it is
possible to sometimes activate the touchscreen without actually touching the glass, or through
thin cloth such as gloves.
A diagram showing roughly how a capacitive touchscreen works | Image: Telecom Circle
The main component that delivers the electrostatic field (usually indium tin oxide) is
transparent, which is why in most touchscreens it is not possible to see the capacitive
electrode grid in the digitizer layer. Although, occasionally you will be able to see small dots
across the face of the display when placed at a specific angle under direct light: these are
small capacitors that are at the intersections of the grid which allow for mutual capacitance,
which in turn provides multi-touch.
With LCD displays the touch digitizer layer is placed above the liquid crystal layer but below
the final glass protecting layer, which allows you to infrequently see some of the components
as mentioned above. With some AMOLED displays, specifically Super AMOLEDs by
Samsung, the digitizer is actually integrated into the same layer as the organic light-emitting
diodes, making it essentially invisible while consuming less space - one of the advantages of
AMOLED technology.
Often the protective glass (such as Gorilla Glass), digitizer and display itself are all attached
tightly together in the one panel to reduce the chance of glare and reflections while saving
space. Due to this, it is near impossible to replace just one of the components if, say, the glass
was broken or the digitizer stopped working. Instead, you would need to shell out more cash
to replace the entire glass-digitizer-display unit, and often they are not cheap.
Part 5: Connectivity & Sensors

Sorry about the huge delay between this article and the last, but I still hope that you learnt a
little bit more about what is inside your smartphone. Next time Ill be taking a look at the
connectivity chips and sensors in a smartphone, going over technologies such as Bluetooth
and A-GPS along with accelerometers and gyroscopes. Check back soon for that article.
hardware manufacturer

Guide To Smartphone Hardware

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Guide to smartphone hardware (1/7):

Part 1: Processors (this article)

What does ARM have to do with it?

Qualcomm processors and Snapdragon

Where is the graphics processor

What does the GPU do?

Qualcomm Adreno GPUs

Imagination Tech PowerVR GPUs

This is a look in to the architecture of the PowerVR SGX 5XT series

ARM Mali GPUs

NVIDIA ULP GeForce GPUs

A Tegra 3 die image, with the GPU hidden inside somewhere

Comparison of smartphone GPUs

GPU SoC Example Device Example GFLOPS at 200 MHz GFLOPS

PowerVR SGX543MP4+ PSVita PlayStation Vita 25.6 25.6+

Adreno 220 MSM8260 HTC Sensation N/A N/A

Adreno 205 MSM8255 HTC Titan N/A N/A

Adreno 200 QSD8250 HTC HD7 N/A N/A

Part 3: Memory & Storage

About Random Access Memory (RAM)

Size and speed are everything

Rendering a game such as Dungeon Defenders requires a lot of RAM

Internal storage and ROM

User removable storage

Guide to smartphone hardware (4/7):

Display type #1: LCD

A basic diagram of a TFT LCD panel | Image: TEAC

Display type #2: AMOLED

A diagram of an AMOLED panel | Image: Wikimedia Commons

The subpixel matrix confusion

The importance of pixel density

As display technologies improve, especially in the AMOLED front, it should be possible to

Part 5: Connectivity & Sensors

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