A new problem has emerged for the new HTC 4G Velocity in that it sucks battery life at a fast rate of knots when you are talking, downloading video, watching video or simply accessing web pages. This could see the device have a very short life in Australia compared to new vendors, such as Apple, who are set to launch 4G smartphones with new Qualcomm V2 LTE technology.
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| HTC’s 4G Velocity |
According to Telstra sources the big issue for 4G phone vendors is that the carrier demands 16 weeks of testing prior to introducing a smartphone onto their network. This is one of the reasons why the HTC Velocity does not have Android 4.0, which several vendors claim delivers better battery management.
We have also been told that some vendors will launch their 4G offering with version 2 of Qualcomm’s LTE processor offering. Qualcomm executives claim that their new LTE offering will deliver better power management.
Among the smartphone community, Qualcomm has scored a number of design wins due to its huge portfolio of Snapdragon chips that includes both integrated as well as standalone processors. Low-cost and power-efficient integrated processors have long been the darling of the smartphone industry much to the angst of Intel who is now pushing low power Ultrabook processors and chipsets.
The recent surge of interest in multi-core processors and LTE capable smartphones has resulted in Qualcomm developing second generation LTE technology, which is tipped to appear for the first time in Apple’s 4G iPhone later this year.
Significant design wins for Qualcomm last year included the iPhone 4S’ standalone baseband chip, which replaced Infineon in all of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.
Analysts believe that this design win for Qualcomm will allow it to push its next-generation LTE chipsets for use in Apple’s next-generation mobile devices.
Late last year, Qualcomm announced that it will start shipping its 4G LTE Gobi 4000 platform to OEMs, such as HTC. This was too late for the HTC 4G Velocity as it was already being tested by Telstra for a January launch.
The new Qualcomm platform will most likely be used in Apple’s next generation iPhone and iPad according to Telstra sources.
Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPad 2 currently use the older Gobi 3G technology, which means it is possible that we’ll see Qualcomm’s Gobi 4000 platform used in a 4G iPhone 5 and iPad 3.
The strategic move by Apple to Qualcomm’s chipsets helps Apple stay competitive in the 4G market.
According to Analysts, what has stopped the company from launching one in the past are certain design issues that have plagued recently launched LTE phones, particularly due to poor battery life. When Tim Cook was asked why the iPhone 4 didn’t make use of LTE, he had cited this very reason: “the first gen LTE chipsets force design changes we wouldn’t make.”
The next generation of 4G phones in Australia could include Qualcomm’s next generation MDM9x00 chips which ensure better power-efficiency and smaller sizes, owed to its ongoing efforts of transitioning them to a 28nm process.
Qualcomm’s current roadmaps show the 28nm MDM9615 arriving in Q2 2012.
These chips will integrate 4G LTE support with a backward compatibility to 3G networks and provide Apple with the integrated capability it wants. Current Android-based LTE-phones use separate LTE and 3G baseband chipsets.
Motorola is one vendor that is also beefing up their battery technology to handle the demands of 4G.
Overnight they launched a new 4G Razr Maxx in the USA which comes with a significantly larger battery than the current model Razr.
The 3300mAh cell is almost double the size of the 1780mAh battery that is in the current model Razr.
What we do know is that the device retains the 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display which should have been built into the new HTC Velocity.
Also standard will be the 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 16GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel sensor that’s capable of shooting video at 1080p.
The Motorola 4G offering is tipped to be launched running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.
