HTC Desire 200 goes official: 3.5 inches of low-end Android with Beats Audio and 5MP camera (updated)

HTC Desire 200 goes official 35 inches of lowend Android with Beats Audio and 5MP camera

After a dribble of leaks, including one that was entirely accurate, HTC has thrown the Desire 200 live on its website. We're still missing some key info on pricing and availability, but the specs have been laid out in full: a neat form factor housing a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 LCD display; an aging Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor running an unidentified version of Android (likely 4.0) and HTC's Sense skin; 4GB of expandable storage and 512MB RAM; a 3G modem for HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps; 5-megapixel camera; and, finally, a pair of "high quality" Beats Audio in-ears (although the webpage depicts a pair of Solos). If anything lifts it above other budget Androids, it'll be the decent-looking build quality and styling, coupled with the small size, which we hope will come for a very functional price tag.

Update: We have a price, courtesy of Engadget Chinese, but it only applies to Taiwan: NT$4990, which equates to around $165.

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Source: HTC

Acer says it’s ‘moving away from the lower end’ in Europe, leaving cheaper laptops to Packard Bell

This certainly doesn't come as a huge surprise given where Acer has been focusing its attention as of late, but it looks like the company is truly intent on shedding its image as a low-cost brand -- at least in Europe. Speaking with TechRadar, an Acer spokesperson said that "it can be a slightly conflicting message," referring to it also offering computers under its Packard Bell brand, and that "Acer is moving away from the lower end." In this case, Acer is defining low-end as under £400, or roughly $600, although it says there will be some crossover. The spokesperson further added that "Acer will become more premium," also noting that "we try to separate the two brands as far as possible, so the average consumer has no idea that the two brands are associated." What that means for Acer in North America (where the Packard Bell brand is long gone) remains to be seen, but we've reached out to the company for comment.

Acer says it's 'moving away from the lower end' in Europe, leaving cheaper laptops to Packard Bell originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 review roundup: a $99 card that fails to keep Kepler’s promise

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 review round-up: a $99 card that fails to match Kepler's promise

NVIDIA blew reviewers away with its flagship GTX 680, but building cards for the low-end is a whole different challenge. The GT 640 hits the $99 price point, where it sits right between the AMD Radeon HD 7750 at $109 and the last-gen Radeon 6670 at around $80. As it turns out, these rivals pull off something of a pincer movement, leaving NVIDIA's card little room to retaliate. The GT 640 contains a 28nm Kepler chip, but it's a cutdown version of the silicon with just 384 CUDA cores, a poor memory bandwidth of 28.5GB/s and no GPU Boost feature -- which means the card can't boost its 900MHz to make use of thermal headroom. These limitations have a significant impact on the benchmarks, as you'll see in our little review roundup after the break.

Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 review roundup: a $99 card that fails to keep Kepler's promise

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 review roundup: a $99 card that fails to keep Kepler's promise originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile officially adds Prism to its budget lineup on May 6th for $20

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No surprise here, but T-Mobile has been prepping a low-end Android phone called the Prism for quite some time now, and it's finally time for the little guy to make its official debut. With a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 3.2MP fixed-focus camera and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), it won't be the stuff dreams are made of. The CPU is also unspecified, which leads us to believe that T-Mo is leaving it out of the talking points for a reason -- yesterday's leak indicated that we can expect it to be 600MHz. That said, plenty of potential buyers wanting an inexpensive smartphone may be easily persuaded by its $20 price on contract (with a $50 mail-in rebate) or $150 without any sort of commitment. The Huawei-made Prism will make its first appearance at Best Buy on May 6th, followed by Walmart on the 9th and official retail channels on the 23rd. We have a press release awaiting you after the break, so take a peek if it interests you.

Continue reading T-Mobile officially adds Prism to its budget lineup on May 6th for $20

T-Mobile officially adds Prism to its budget lineup on May 6th for $20 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China Times: HTC wants to develop its own processors for low-end phones

China Times: HTC wants to develop its own processors for low-end phones

Encroaching into the semiconductor business might not seem the most obvious move for a phone manufacturer that's trying to unify its efforts. Nevertheless, China Times reports that HTC has signed a "memorandum of cooperation" with ST-Ericsson to co-develop a new dedicated chip for low-end handsets coming out next year. Since ST-Ericsson is a fabless chip designer, HTC won't risk getting silicon between its fingernails. Instead, if this agreement is what it seems, the Taiwanese manufacturer may simply want more direct control over its supply chains and to reduce its current reliance on ready-made designs from Qualcomm or NVIDIA. After all, it can't be easy for HTC's new CFO, looking on while others gobble up those margins.

China Times: HTC wants to develop its own processors for low-end phones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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