Mobile Handset Or A Supercomputer?

What is inside a handset? Originally there used to be a microphone and an earphone and a coiled wire... Then mobile phones arrived and started pushing the limits. Is a handset still a handset? or a multifunction computer-based personal device, we use for various forms of communications (calls, conferences, messaging, email, web browsing) and for pleasure (games, photos, music)? What is ahead of us, how will future handsets look like? Well... short term the question is not that difficult to answer. It is enough to look at the latest chipset (an intelligent form of silicon that sits inside a handset).

So let us examine the latest MSM7200, that has just started sampling. A chipset developed by Qualcomm, the company that invented CDMA, technology that powers all of the third-generation (3G) mobile networks around the world (UMTS included). Handsets based on the MSM7200 should be available within a year (that is the time it usually takes to design and build a handset around a new chipset).

Here are the features we may expect:

• Excellent voice quality (let us not forget a phone should be a phone first, and a multi-function gadget later)
• Excellent video quality, thanks to the high processing power (dual processors), high transmission speed - HSDPA and HSUPA standards (7,2Mb downlink and 5,6Mb uplink respectively). The specification says 30 fps at VGA resolution. That is better quality than present television standard. And there is dual display support (for RAZR-style fans) and TV-out connector, if the mobile screen is not enough...
• 6 megapixel camera support. May be finally a mobile phone will replace a separate camera we carry with us? 6 megapixels is more than enough, providing the optics will be OK.
• High quality gaming. The 7200 has ATI video accelerator inside, delivering up to 4 million triangles per second.
• Satellite navigation. Yes, there is a built-in GPS receiver.
• Digital music support - MP3s and other formats.
• Bluetooth and WiFi if superfast 3G is not enough :)

You should be getting the feeling... No coiled wire anymore... but supercomputing multimedia powerhouse. There is probably more inside this chipset than inside your PC, at work or at home. And all you gadget lovers, just think how many devices you will be able to get rid of! No need for a separate camera, playstation portable, iPod and GPS unit. Just you and your phone...