Haha, I'm sure he does. Most consumers in the United States buy things with debt instead of cash. $50K SUV for a family with a household income of $60K? Sure! You can finance it.
Less than half do http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/anandtech.com In any case it's kinda hilarious that you confirm the stereotype that Americans are clueless about anything outside their own country. You seem to insist on not knowing, how dare they inform you.
Speak for yourself. I reckon around half of ATs readership is based out of the United States. A significant number of readers have access to most of the phones being reviewed/previewed here. The world does not revolve around NA you know, as much as you'd like to think it does.
"MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755) 4 x 1.8GHz Cortex A53 (Performance) 4 x 1.0GHz Cortex A53 (Efficiency)"
Madness. Why does a phone need that many cores? Yes, sure, battery vs performance but surely 2 cores or actual quad that can clock down would be better?! Then again... Android. Say no more.
Having 8 cores is useful for improving performance on Android and the die area taken up by the CPU cores is very small for these low performance cores.
Of course all of those cores can lower their clock & voltage. The point of using different cores in BIG.little configurations is that many power optimizations in the physical implementation of a core reduce the maximum achievable clock speed. That's why the small cores will need less power at 1 GHz (and below) than the bigger ones at similar frequencies, despite all of them being A53.
Because they're not Intel and can't power gate off unused cores effectively, so they have to put large cores in standby until the smaller cores can't meet the demand of a workload, at which point in flight data is finished and the next set of instructions go to the larger core pipelines, and the smaller cores are out in standby.
It works fine, but it is s waste of die space for what should really just be 4 powerful cores that are power gated. Interestingly this phone uses two A53 quad core clusters at 1.0 and 1.8ghz. If they are identical A53 implementations (same cache, etc) then I don't get why the clock generator isn't adaptive instead of the load balancer. Surely the 1.8ghz could just ramp down to 400mhz in standby.
Or since they are all A53's and identical, can all 8 be enabled simultaneously? If that's true, are android apps even multithreaded enough to use more than 4 cores? It seems most mobile apps aren't really optimized beyond two cores.
"If they are identical A53 implementations (same cache, etc) then I don't get why the clock generator isn't adaptive instead of the load balancer"
To keep the time spent on higher frequency to a minimum on relatively easy to design silicon. There isn't an implementation that works best for each and every device configuration, and these companies don't make a single chip that runs on a single phone. They need proven, easy implementations that sell and do the job relatively well.
Power gating alone isn't necessarily optimal at or well below 5W...
Yeah, Today the challenge is in front of the developer community on how they can find new ways to efficiently multi thread their applications to take advantages of ever increasing cores. We already hit a wall as the Moore's law is not holding good any more making the manufactures to use more cores in place of one single large core.
They aren't identical. THat's the point. Sure they are A53's but the actual physical implementation in silicon is different. One cluster is optimised for speed, over power, and the other power, over speed.
I have the M2 Note and it's has a tremendous value for the specs. At 125$ this is a steal. I suspect this price is for the phone shipping with Chenese firmware, Meizu prices phones with international firmware a little bit higher.
Good luck about getting Marshmallow for MediaTek-based phones. I've only seen buggy beta builds of CM13/Marshmallow for older MT6592 8-core devices and even then, those builds use a modded KitKat kernel.
This is because MediaTek and most Chinese manufacturers, even big ones like Huawei and Xiaomi, can't be arsed to release kernel sources. They would rather you buy a new phone every year than keep a perfectly functional device updated through software.
As for needing so many cores, I've compared the 8-core MT6592 to a 4-core Snapdragon 400 and the 8-core phones are more responsive. Power consumption goes nuts if all 8 cores go to full speed though. I've downclocked my MT6592 and it still runs fine, with a decent increase in battery life.
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42 Comments
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Samus - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Wow, $125?T1beriu - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Not coming in the US.nathanddrews - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
The United States has the money to pay retail prices instead of wholesale.nathanddrews - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Well, not actually... we have the debt ceiling to do it. LOLJoeyJoJo123 - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
I don't believe you understand what the debt ceiling is.anandreader106 - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
I think he does.sorten - Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - link
Haha, I'm sure he does. Most consumers in the United States buy things with debt instead of cash. $50K SUV for a family with a household income of $60K? Sure! You can finance it.sorten - Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - link
I mean to say "most consumers and the government"tuxRoller - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
Sooooooooooooooo IcanexpecttheUStobuymyphone?#feelTheBurn
shabby - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Is there a point in covering/posting these meizu/xiaomi releases when they're not coming to where anandtech's readers live?Death666Angel - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
I live in Germany, I read AnandTech and I can import all of those smartphones. So there you have it.geekman1024 - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
I live in Malaysia, I read AnandTech and this is available in smartphone shops, no import needed.Sushisamurai - Saturday, April 9, 2016 - link
Anandtech's readers include people outside of the USA... ... ...Sushisamurai - Saturday, April 9, 2016 - link
-1 for AmericansChaser - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
Most it's readers live in the USA. +2Alexey291 - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
Well then don't read it if you can't import it?Shoo shoo now.
jjj - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
Less than half do http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/anandtech.comIn any case it's kinda hilarious that you confirm the stereotype that Americans are clueless about anything outside their own country. You seem to insist on not knowing, how dare they inform you.
Le Québécois - Monday, April 11, 2016 - link
How can you say that?English is spoken by about 800 millions people globally, be it as a first, second, or other language.
There's 320M Americans, so much less than half of those who can speak English.
Anandtech is read around the world and while the country with most readers is most likely to be the USA, the majority aren't American.
LiverpoolFC5903 - Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - link
Speak for yourself. I reckon around half of ATs readership is based out of the United States. A significant number of readers have access to most of the phones being reviewed/previewed here. The world does not revolve around NA you know, as much as you'd like to think it does.jjj - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
The SoC is the MT6755m not the MT6755, just a SKU with lower clocks. The GPU is downclocked too, likely at 550MHz instead of 700MHz.jjj - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
One interesting bit about this phone is that operating temps are rated at -15C to 55C. Vast majority of phones are rated at 0 to 35C.damianrobertjones - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
"MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755)4 x 1.8GHz Cortex A53 (Performance)
4 x 1.0GHz Cortex A53 (Efficiency)"
Madness. Why does a phone need that many cores? Yes, sure, battery vs performance but surely 2 cores or actual quad that can clock down would be better?! Then again... Android. Say no more.
Zink - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Having 8 cores is useful for improving performance on Android and the die area taken up by the CPU cores is very small for these low performance cores.http://www.anandtech.com/show/9518/the-mobile-cpu-...
MrSpadge - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Of course all of those cores can lower their clock & voltage. The point of using different cores in BIG.little configurations is that many power optimizations in the physical implementation of a core reduce the maximum achievable clock speed. That's why the small cores will need less power at 1 GHz (and below) than the bigger ones at similar frequencies, despite all of them being A53.Samus - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Because they're not Intel and can't power gate off unused cores effectively, so they have to put large cores in standby until the smaller cores can't meet the demand of a workload, at which point in flight data is finished and the next set of instructions go to the larger core pipelines, and the smaller cores are out in standby.It works fine, but it is s waste of die space for what should really just be 4 powerful cores that are power gated. Interestingly this phone uses two A53 quad core clusters at 1.0 and 1.8ghz. If they are identical A53 implementations (same cache, etc) then I don't get why the clock generator isn't adaptive instead of the load balancer. Surely the 1.8ghz could just ramp down to 400mhz in standby.
Or since they are all A53's and identical, can all 8 be enabled simultaneously? If that's true, are android apps even multithreaded enough to use more than 4 cores? It seems most mobile apps aren't really optimized beyond two cores.
lilmoe - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
"If they are identical A53 implementations (same cache, etc) then I don't get why the clock generator isn't adaptive instead of the load balancer"To keep the time spent on higher frequency to a minimum on relatively easy to design silicon. There isn't an implementation that works best for each and every device configuration, and these companies don't make a single chip that runs on a single phone. They need proven, easy implementations that sell and do the job relatively well.
Power gating alone isn't necessarily optimal at or well below 5W...
ambivert - Saturday, April 9, 2016 - link
Yeah, Today the challenge is in front of the developer community on how they can find new ways to efficiently multi thread their applications to take advantages of ever increasing cores. We already hit a wall as the Moore's law is not holding good any more making the manufactures to use more cores in place of one single large core.Death666Angel - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
Moore's Law isn't about core count or IPC. It is only about transistor density.extide - Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - link
They aren't identical. THat's the point. Sure they are A53's but the actual physical implementation in silicon is different. One cluster is optimised for speed, over power, and the other power, over speed.lilmoe - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Not that question again......................benedict - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
I have the M2 Note and it's has a tremendous value for the specs. At 125$ this is a steal. I suspect this price is for the phone shipping with Chenese firmware, Meizu prices phones with international firmware a little bit higher.hyno111 - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
They also plan to announce PRO 6 this week on another press conference.Death666Angel - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
No Band 20, no dice for me. :(Arnulf - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Still not running Android Marshmallow in April 2016?BrokenCrayons - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
It's too big.bigboxes - Monday, April 11, 2016 - link
Are you an actual AT forum member or do you just randomly comment on AT articles?BrokenCrayons - Monday, April 11, 2016 - link
There's nothing random about my comment.bigboxes - Monday, April 11, 2016 - link
That really doesn't answer my question. Are you active on the AT forums or do you just comment on the articles?fanofanand - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link
Are those memory specs accurate? That's the slowest RAM I have seen in a long time.iwod - Saturday, April 9, 2016 - link
It is the Meizu Pro 6 that is going to break some new grounds!serendip - Saturday, April 9, 2016 - link
Good luck about getting Marshmallow for MediaTek-based phones. I've only seen buggy beta builds of CM13/Marshmallow for older MT6592 8-core devices and even then, those builds use a modded KitKat kernel.This is because MediaTek and most Chinese manufacturers, even big ones like Huawei and Xiaomi, can't be arsed to release kernel sources. They would rather you buy a new phone every year than keep a perfectly functional device updated through software.
As for needing so many cores, I've compared the 8-core MT6592 to a 4-core Snapdragon 400 and the 8-core phones are more responsive. Power consumption goes nuts if all 8 cores go to full speed though. I've downclocked my MT6592 and it still runs fine, with a decent increase in battery life.
sorten - Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - link
Another budget Android phone. Yay.