anandtech

Apple got the iPhone 5's physical design right

With the iPhone 5, Apple did what it does best: come up with a good industrial design. But that's not always the case.

Until I got my hands on the iPhone 5 -- I picked one up on Friday -- I wasn't sure if Apple had nailed the design (hands-on videos and reviews go just so far).

Well, after 48 hours I'm pretty sure it did. It just looks and feels a lot better than the 4S (which I owned until Friday).

Thinness, in my book, is the foundation for coolness. But thinness isn't just an … Read more

Why go Retina? Apple dishes out lots of reasons

Wondering whether you should part with $2,199 for a MacBook Pro Retina? That is, after all, a lot for a laptop these days.

Apple is trying to make that decision easier by offering lots and lots reasons to buy a MacBook Pro Retina. While professionals may need little convincing, will the average user care?

Here is the list of core benefits Apple is claiming for the Retina MBP:

Raw specs: 15.4-inch, 2,800x1,800 pixel density, 220 pixels per inch (ppi). By comparison, the third-generation iPad is 2,048x1,536 and 264 ppi. Contrast, viewing angle: Higher contrast … Read more

That $399 budget iPad 2 has precious silicon inside

Think the new $399 iPad 2 is just a cheaper knockoff of the original? Think again. There's some premium silicon inside.

The $399 Wi-Fi iPad 2 -- the only new iPad 2 that Apple now sells -- uses a more advanced version of the dual-core Apple A5 series chip, according to chip review site Anandtech.

That more advanced A5 chip is built on a cutting-edge Samsung manufacturing process, Anandtech says. Hardly a trivial difference.

As a chip's geometries shrink -- going from 45-nanometer to 32-nanometer, for example -- a lot of things can happen. All of them good. … Read more

New iPad's performance gets iPhoto reality check

The new iPad's performance is less than stellar on iPhoto and lags the Asus Transformer Prime tablet in some tests because of Apple's aging central processing unit, according to a chip review site.

Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 chip -- used in the Asus Transformer Prime tablet -- is faster in some key tests than new iPad's A5X chip, according to tests conducted by Anandtech.

While Apple touts the A5X chip's quad-core graphics processing unit (GPU), it is silent about the CPU. The reason is pretty simple: the A5X sticks with an aging dual-core Cortex A9 … Read more

What makes the new iPad tick: A peek inside

The new iPad isn't waltzing into a competitive vacuum. That wow-worthy display notwithstanding, Apple still has to go head-to-head on performance.

Chip-review site Anandtech confirmed with Apple that sitting right next to the A5X's quad-core GPU (graphics processing unit) is a dual-core CPU (central processing unit).

Apple had nothing to say about the CPU (which typically garners the most attention) when it announced the new iPad, because the CPU really hasn't changed from the iPad 2.

The upshot is that Apple is pitting the A5X's quad-core GPU against a quad-core Nvidia CPU.

So, how does it … Read more

Intel smartphone chip No. 1 in some benchmarks, says report

Intel's new chip for smartphones handily beats some of the fastest phones on the market, according to chip review site Anandtech.

Intel's Atom Z2460 "Medfield" delivers "tablet-like scores" on the BrowserMark benchmark, wrote Anand Shimpi. "The Galaxy Nexus running ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) comes close, but once again Intel expects that on the same OS Medfield should be faster than any of the currently available SoCs (system-on-a-chip)," he said.

Intel announced the Medfield chip Tuesday at CES. The system-on-a-chip will be used in upcoming smartphones--and presumably other devices--from Lenovo and Motorola.

And … Read more

Anand sets the record straight on solid-state drives

Last December, I got to travel to Dell's facilities in Texas for the first time, where I joined a group of other tech journalists for a preview of Dell's CES lineup. Among the tech writers was Anand Lal Shimpi, founder of the tech-enthusiast site Anandtech.com. We were at Dell for only a day, and that night at dinner Anand and I got to talking about solid-state hard drives, particularly why we saw such a difference between Intel's X-25M and a competing drive from Patriot.

With the aid of a handful of multicolored sugar packets, Anand put … Read more