HTC Announces Desire 510: First 64-bit Android Phone
by Joshua Ho on August 27, 2014 2:24 AM EST
While normally one might expect high end phones to get the latest and greatest features first, this time we see a bit of a surprising reversal. The Desire 510 is HTC's first 64-bit phone, and the first announced device with Snapdragon 410. For those that aren't familiar with Snapdragon 410, it has four Cortex A53 CPU cores running at 1.2 GHz, along with an Adreno 306 GPU which suggests that it is a mild modification of the current Adreno 305 GPU that we see in the Snapdragon 400. Overall, this should make for a quite fast SoC compared to Snapdragon 400, as Anand has covered in the Snapdragon 410 launch announcement.
While it may seem strange that ARMv8 on Android phones is first to appear on a budget smartphone, it's quite easy to understand how this happened. Looking at Qualcomm's roadmap, the Snapdragon 810/MSM8994 is the first high-end SoC that will ship with ARMv8, and is built on a 20nm process. As 20nm from both Samsung and TSMC have just begun appearing in shipping chips, the process yield and production capacity isn't nearly as mature as 28nm LP, which is old news by now.
At any rate, outside of the SoC the Desire 510 is a relatively standard budget phone. As this phone ships with Android 4.4 it's likely that it is running in AArch32 mode only, with AArch64 coming with Android L. The display is a 4.7" size, with FWVGA resolution (854x480) which makes for a rather low 208 DPI. This will be the cheapest LTE phone in HTC's product line, and also has support for a Dot View case. I've included the rest of the specs below, but for the most part the key point of interest is the SoC.
| HTC Desire 510 | |
| SoC | MSM8916 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 410 |
| RAM/NAND | 1 GB RAM, 8GB NAND + microSD |
| Display | 4.7” FWVGA (854x480) |
| Network | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x25 UE Category 4 LTE) |
| Dimensions | 139.9 x 69.8 x 9.99mm, 158 grams |
| Camera | 5MP rear camera, .3MP/VGA FFC |
| Battery | 2100 mAh (7.98 Whr) |
| OS | Android 4.4 with Sense 6 |
| Connectivity | 802.11b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA |
| SIM Size | MicroSIM |
The only additional comment I have to make is that there is no 5 GHz WiFi. This is probably a WCN3620 part like the Moto G. While there's no word on pricing, HTC will have to price this near the price of the Moto G for it to be reasonably competitive. The Desire 510 should find its way to Europe, Asia, and the United States.
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Iconoclysm - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
The iPhone is absolutely high end. You are confusing feature bloat with a quality build.darwinosx - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
ppi is not resolution and the pip is 326. The resolution is 1136 X 640 which on a four inch screen is more than enough and the display quality overall is still better than pretty much any Android phone as is the camera. On a year old device.Few Android phones have micro sd and even fewer will because nobody uses it and Google doesn't want it on phones. Ditto wireless charging.
AC is just now becoming a thing and it will be on the new phones announced in a week or so.
Build and materials quality also make the iPhone high end as well as cpu, motion coprocessor, other internals, and size.
The price is the same or even lower than most high end Android phones that have distinctly inferior build and materials quality and are not even close in service and support as well as app election and quality.
The iPhone 6 will blow any existing Android phones out of the water. It will be fun to watch.
flamingspartan3 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
A diplay with a PPI of 326 appears pixelated next to a display with a PPI of 440. Regardless of what Apple says, the iPhone does not have the best display of any phone. That honor goes to the Samsung Galaxy S5. The LG G3 takes better photos than the iPhone 5S and even the Nexus 5 can match it. Having "distinctly inferior build and materials quality" is subjective. Plastic has many advantages over the metal used in the iPhone 5S. Plastic is more flexible, less likely to scratch and usually results in better WiFi and radio performance. The HTC M8 more than rivals the iPhone 5S if if you want metal and other devices like the LG G3 also have metal. Android apps are often times much more flexible than what the iPhone can even hope to offer; an app like Tasker on Android can do things that the iPhone can't even hope to do. The HTC M8, LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy S5, all class-leading Android flagships, offer MicroSD card slots.GC2:CS - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
If you got galaxy S5 and iPhone side by side, you can't even say the iPhone looks pixelated next to it, thanks to the diamond Pen tile matrix samsung uses the actual sharpness difference is 17%, unnoticeable in other words (excluding artifacts).iPhone display is very bright, low in reflectivity, has great accurate colors, sufficiently high contrast, great wieving angles and so on. It's more than good enough (quality, not size) for any android user, it's not a dealbreaker. Only area where amoleds crushes LCD's is contrast, but that is apperent only in dark.
flamingspartan3 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
The Galaxy S5 gets dimmer, brighter, has better viewing angles, has more accurate colors and is also significantly sharper.flamingspartan3 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
This video shows the Nexus 5 in comparison with the iPhone 5S's camera.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp6clWG-b5c
higgsbosun1 - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
Not pretty much better! “Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements, the Galaxy S5 is the Best performing Smartphone display that we have ever tested. It has a long list of new records for best Smartphone display performance including: Highest Brightness, Lowest Reflectance, Highest Color Accuracy, Infinite Contrast Ratio, Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light, and smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle. The Galaxy S5 has raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch – an impressive achievement for OLED technology!” http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S5_ShootOut_1.ht...supgk - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
Haha let's see this handle Android L/ART runtime in AArch64 with 1GB RAM ...lilmoe - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
Even with the shortcomings in memory, it should handle things better than it currently will. That said, this IS a midrange devices after all... Anything above 2GB on upcoming 64bit flagships running Android L should see a good improvement in performance and efficiency.tipoo - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
Android L actually has features that negate the memory impact of 64 bit, moreso than iOS.