Hey gang, Valkor here. Even though the temps were in the "chilling" degrees last week, that didn't stop yours truly from stepping out and hanging with the folks at Qualcomm, plus the many companies who hold their chipsets in their devices. Yep, some of the most popular smartphones/tablets on the market today, one you're probably using right now, more than likely have a Qualcomm chipset within. So in celebration, they've come to NYC, with a slew of companies such as HTC, LG, Motorola, and Nokia, along with a string of devices and an amazing photo booth setup showing off the power of Qualcomm.
How's about a brief intro into Qualcomm from the folks at Wikipedia: Qualcomm Incorporated is an American global semiconductor company that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services. Headquartered in San Diego, California, USA, the company has 157 worldwide locations. The parent company is Qualcomm Incorporated (Qualcomm), which includes the Qualcomm Technology Licensing Division (QTL). Qualcomm's wholly owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), operates substantially all of Qualcomm's R&D activities, as well as its product and services businesses, including its semiconductor business, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.
The event overall wasn't too bad, much of what was on display I've already checked out at past events (or I owned them) and a few choice items that I had not seen such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (images below). While Samsung didn't have a rep in the house (or maybe they did and I didn't see them), the other companies were all set and ready to show off their gear.
LG - This is the 3rd event where the LG G2 was on hand, and I think I covered the gist of it in my preview oh so many moons ago (back in August). However, the company did have the new tablet - the LG G Pad, running under Qualcomm 1.7GHZ Snapdragon 600, with features that can also be found on the G2 such as "Knock On", Slide Aside, Q Remote, etc,. Essentially, it's a much larger G2.
HTC - Alacran had the pleasure of reviewing the HTC One, which scored some pretty high marks. And though the HTC One was on hand for checking out, the gang also brought along the big boy - the HTC Max (using 1.7GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor) , and it's little brother - the HTC One Mini. The Max sports a 5.9" display and touts better sound quality and more features with the camera. The Mini is the same as the standard HTC One and HTC One Max - only smaller. Screen size is 4.3" and you get much of the features found in its bigger brother's package; it's only better if you wanna go single-handed.
Nokia - the night became the battle of the phablets - HTC had the Max, Valkor brought along the Samsung Mega and Nokia showed off the 1520 large size smartphone, which serves up a 6" display (using 2.2GHZ Snapdragon 800), running Windows phone 8. You get the live home screen, built in Microsoft Office, and 20MP rear-facing camera. While the Mega had the biggest screen on the floor, folks just couldn't get enough of the 1520; though I did get my shots, any time I wanted to get hands on, someone else was already on it.
The cap off the night, Qualcomm set up a display involving 140 HTC Ones daisy-chained together in a spiral and filming, creating a film that would replicate "Bullet Time" from "The Matrix". The set up was pretty impressive and the final films were just as good, re-creating what was done in the Wachowskis film (though not as smooth). In the end, it was a pretty solid showcase allowing guest and media the opportunity to play with an assortment of gadgets containing Qualcomm's chipsets. With CES 2014 only a couple of months away, it'll be an exciting time to see what Qualcomm has in store for our devices in the future.
