Top Z87 ATX Motherboards from Gigabyte

Gigabyte isn't going to pull any punches at Computex 2013. The trade show in early June, taking place in Taipei, Taiwan, will play host to quite a few motherboards, as well as other products.

 We've already seen one of the mainboards that Gigabyte will bring to the trade show: the very small but very thorough Z87N-WiFi, which happens to be the world's first mini-ITX Z87 platform ever. Not that it's saying all that much. After all, it's not like there are so many Z87 motherboards up for sale at this time, and small ones are rarer than the rest. But we digress. We are here to talk about the other two platforms that Gigabyte managed to leak through LegitReviews website. They are called Z87X-UD4H and Z87X-UD5H and have the full ATX form factor. If we're reading things right, they will be the top-tier models in the LGA 1150 series. Z87X-UD4H has three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (for graphics cards, electrical x16/x8/x4), a PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot, a legacy PCI slot, eight internal SATA 6 Gbps ports and two eSATA 6 Gbps ports.  Thus, the bases are all covered, and then some. The ten USB 3.0 ports (six back panels, four headers) and the multiple video ports only reinforce that impression.

Speaking of video ports, the list is made up of DisplayPort, DVI, D-Sub, HDMI. All of them will be rather superfluous when an add-in video board is installed, but it's the thought that counts. Other specifications include a 16-phase power supply, 8-channel HD audio, a hot-rod red+silver+black color-scheme, and Ultra Durable 5 components. As for the Z87X-UD5H, it is colored gold+silver+black, has two DVI ports instead of just one (lacks D-Sub though), uses Dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN, has ten internal SATA 6 Gbps ports, and gets FireWire. The prices will be of over $150 / €150, for both.

Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H
Image credits to LegitReviews

Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H
Image credits to LegitReviews

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Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi, First Mini-ITX Z87 Motherboard

One would think that the high-end chipset meant to support Intel's Haswell CPUs would only be found on ATX motherboards and larger, and maybe the occasional micro-ATX, but this is not the case.

Gigabyte hasn't released the press shots yet, but the folks over at LegitReviews have managed to snag a few photographs of one Z87N-WiFi motherboard when it was unveiled the other day. The main trait of the motherboard is that it is smaller than most other PC platforms, featuring the mini-ITX form factor. It is the first Z87-based mini-ITX mainboard, albeit probably not the last. Given the ease with which a PC can be made powerful even without large mainboards, we don't doubt that Gigabyte's competitors will unveil similar inventions. At any rate, the Z87N-WiFi gets its name from the Lynx Point chipset we've already named, and the 802.11ac WLAN technology. The Z87 chipset brings with it the LGA 1150 socket which, in turn, ensures compatibility with the Haswell central processing units bound for June release.

4-phase power supply delivers energy to the CPU socket, as well as the two DDR3 DIMM memory slots (dual-channel supported). A lone PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot is present, but that makes sure top-tier video boards are supported. Sure, in the end, the chassis will determine which video cards will fit, but that's not the Z87N-WiFi's fault. Moving on, the reason the WiFi is part of the name is that wireless support isn't integrated in the mainboard. Instead, it is delivered by an add-in card slotted into the mini PCI Express slot.

Other specs include four SATA 6 Gbps ports, a pair of HDMI connectors, dual-link DVI, six USB 3.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 8-channel HD audio. Everything gets energy from the PSU via a combination of 24-pin and 4-pin ATX connectors.

Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi Mini-ITX Motherboard
Images credits to LegitReviews

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XOLO Q1000 Spotted Online with 5-Inch HD Screen and Android 4.2

Mobile phone maker XOLO is gearing up for the launch of a new Android-based smartphone in India, namely the XOLO Q1000, which has already made an appearance online.

The handset was spotted over at Flipkart, and should become official in the near future with a 5-inch HD screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor inside, and Google’s Android 4.2 Jelly Bean platform loaded on top, as Fonearena notes. Furthermore, the new mobile phone sports an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with full HD video recording capabilities, along with a front camera for making video calls.

The handset’s specs list also includes 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card lot for expansion purposes, 3G capabilities, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS receiver, Dual SIM (GSM + GSM), and a 2100 mAh battery to power them all.

XOLO Q1000
Image credits to Flipkart

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Samsung Galaxy Note III GT-N7200 Spotted in AnTuTu with Android 4.3

Following the launch of Galaxy S 4 earlier this year, Samsung Electronics is expected to make official a new handset in its Galaxy Note lineup later this year, and rumor has it that this device has just emerged in the AnTuTu benchmark.

The device, supposedly called Galaxy Note III, should feature model number GT-N7200 when released, and has made it to the headlines quite a few times lately. According to a post on GSMInsider, the Galaxy Note III GT-N7200 scored over 27,000 points in said benchmarking application, yet it remains to be seen if the results are legit.

Expected to become official in September, the smartphone is said run Android 4.3 and to pack the same plastic casing as Galaxy S4 before it, though it will lack the flexible display that users have been long dreaming of. Stay tuned for more on this.

Samsung Galaxy Note III benchmarks
Image credits to mydrivers via GSMInsider

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AMD Drops to Fourth Place on Processor Market

Market analyst firm IC Insight has finished its study of the year 2012, and discovered a surprising thing about the top rankings in terms of total semiconductor sales throughout the 12-month period.

Long story short, AMD came up short compared to three other companies. While Intel came first, as expected, Advanced Micro Devices did not make second spot, or even third. Those positions went to Qualcomm and Samsung, respectively, as shown in the table above. Thus, AMD is on fourth place, after suffering a 21% drop in microprocessor sales.

Speaking of which, Intel also lost, 1% on-year, while Qualcomm's sales grew 28% and Samsung's shipments soared 78%. Samsung has definitely managed to sell lots of mobile chips. In 2013, things aren't looking up for AMD. Already, Q1 has showed the steepest decline ever in a single quarter.

AMD on fourth spot in terms of processor sales
Image credits to AMD

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HTC One (Japanese Version) Comes with MicroSD Slot

Good news for Android users in Japan, as major carrier KDDI has just released its own version of the HTC One.

Dubbed HTC J One, the smartphone comes with microSD slot for memory expansion, a feature that the international and US variants lack. According to Engadget, HTC J One supports microSD memory cards up to 64GB. Unfortunately, this HTC One variant is limited to Japan and will not be available in other countries anytime soon. Keep in mind that KDDI’s HTC J One supports 64GB microSD memory cards in addition to the 32GB storage that comes embedded in the phone.

The international HTC One comes with 32GB of internal memory and 25GB of free cloud storage via Dropbox. It does not feature microSD slot, but HTC has also launched a 64GB model, which is more expensive and harder to find.

「HTC J One HTL22」製品ページへ
http://www.au.kddi.com/mobile/product/smartphone/htl22/feature/
Video credits to aubyKDDIofficial

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Live Pictures

Rumors on the rugged Samsung Galaxy S 4 emerged a few weeks ago, but Samsung is still mum on the upcoming device.

However, the folks over at GSMArena have just got their hands on the first live pictures showing the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. It appears that the smartphone was recently showcased in Croatia, which points to an imminent announcement in the next few days. The Galaxy S4 Active is powered by a 1.9 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, which is complemented by an Adreno 320 graphics processing unit and 2GB of RAM. It boasts a 5-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports full HD (1080p) resolution. No word on the number of megapixels of the rear-facing camera, but there’s a high chance it will come with the same 13-megapixel photo snapper.

The pictures leaked confirm that the phone’s main camera features LED flash for night pictures, but we can expect that it will also come with autofocus and full HD (1080p) video recording. Although the hardware specs seem to be similar to the standard model, the rugged Galaxy S4 Active’s design is nothing like the original Galaxy S4 version. The phone’s chassis is made of metallic alloy with bolts on the back. In addition, the rugged Galaxy S4 features three hardware buttons, while the original model comes with one hardware button and two touch sensitive keys. Although it has yet to be confirmed, we suspect that Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active will be water and dust-proof and will have some other features specific to rugged devices.

According to a previous leak, Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active will ship with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, so there aren’t any differences in comparison with the standard model. There are no details on pricing options and availability yet, but we expect that Samsung will go official with the rugged Galaxy S4 Active in the next few days. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
Image credits to GSMArena

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LG Introducing 5-Inch Flexible OLED Display, Along with Other Screens

It's amazing how many flexible, foldable and rollable displays get launched every other month, but almost no flexible gadgets exist even now.

Anyway, LG has just launched the latest flexible OLED screen, a 5-inch sheet of plastic with organic light emitting diodes on it. It supposedly flexes more than others, all the while being more rugged. This is good in case of accidents, hits, drops, etc. No clue on the resolution though, sadly. Besides the 5-inch OLED screen, LG is making a 5-inch screen with 1mm bezel (borderless smartphones inbound) and a 7-inch version of it too, with embedded touch even.

Other things set to be shown off at the Society for Information Displays (SID) Display Week 2013 are a 23.8-inch UHD monitor, a 14-inch 2560 x 1440 resolution laptop panel , and a 7-inch Full HD screen, the first in the world. via Efytimes

LG OLED flexible display
Image credits to Shiny Plastic

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Tablet Benchmarked

Despite Samsung not having said anything about it, the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 tablet is very well known already, at least in certain circles.

That is because of leaks, like the ones perpetrated by GLBenchmark (1), (2). GLBenchmark has posted the slate on its servers. Or should I say slates. There are two after all, Wi-Fi-only (GT-P5200) and 3G (GT-P5210). According to the leak, the tablet is powered by the Atom Z2560 CPU (dual-core at 1.6 GHz, Hyper-Threading supported) and boasts the PowerVR SGX 544 MP2 graphics processor too (400 MHz).

The 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Needless to say, Google's Android operating system is installed on the device (Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean). All in all, it's not bad for a tablet, provided the price turns out to be reasonable.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 benchmarked
Image credits to GLBenchmark

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XOLO X910 with Intel Medfield CPU Goes on Sale in India

The X910 is the fourth XOLO smartphone powered by an Intel processor to go on sale in India. Android enthusiasts and fans of the XOLO brand will now be able to purchase the X910 via authorized third-party sellers.

For the time being, Snapdeal is one of the few Indian retailers that offer the XOLO X910, but other retailers may start selling the smartphone in the coming weeks. Currently, XOLO X910 is available for purchase for only Rs 9,999 outright, which is about $180 or €140. Check it out here. As Snapdeal points out, the smartphone is offered with 1-year warranty, but it might not be available in all parts of India. The good news is XOLO X910 comes with dual-SIM capability, which is one of the most requested features by Indian customers. Unfortunately, the fact that the device ships with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box might not appeal too many customers. There are lots of smartphones selling in India for under $200/€155, which come packed with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean platform onboard.

However, those who prefer Intel processors to older software will probably find the XOLO X910 well worth its price. The smartphone is equipped with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Z2460 processor, which is complemented by a 400 MHz PowerVR SGX 540 graphics processing unit and 1GB of RAM. On the inside, the X910 packs 4GB of storage which can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD memory card. There's also a 5-megapixel main camera on the back, which features LED flash, autofocus, and video recording, as well as a VGA front-facing camera for video calls.

Last but not least, XOLO X910 sports a decent 4.3-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen display that supports a 540 x 960 pixels resolution and 256 ppi pixel density.

XOLO X910
Image credits to Snapdeal

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