At last year’s Consumer Electronics Motorola introduced their first dual-core smartphone before updating it ten months later. The Atrix 2 brought with it a bigger display with a better camera, but the device went pretty much unnoticed as only one month later the company revealed the RAZR. The Atrix 2 and RAZR were basically the same except the RAZR has a nicer and slimmer form factor.

Now it seems the Atrix 3 has been leaked and according to Intomobile it is thought to come packing the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. Other claimed features include a 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 HD resolution, 2GB of RAM, ten megapixel camera, and a 3,300 mAh battery. The device looks similar to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from the leaked images that can be seen via the link.

It is thought to feature Android Ice Cream Sandwich but it’s not known when the device will be available or how much it will cost. More will hopefully be known later this month at the Mobile World Congress event.

The rumored device will face some stiff competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the HTC One X that are all believed to be using the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. The Apple iPhone 5 may also be on the horizon by then to crowd the market even more. Then later in the year Microsoft will be releasing its next operating system, Windows Phone 8.

Smartphone fans are certainly going to have a great choice when choosing a new handset this year, which can only be a good thing. Do you like the sound of the Atrix 3?

Many were already expecting to see some quad core Android devices making an appearance at the show, and now this has almost been confirmed as The Verge are reporting that the company has sent out some press invites. The invites promised some “quad-core firsts” during the event, and the image from the invite includes a smartphone.

This hints that we see some quad core Android smartphones being shown off with the supercharged processor only available in tablet PCs currently. Previously it seems the likes of LG and HTC have Tegra 3 smartphones in the pipeline, but it can’t be guaranteed these will be the ones shown off at the end of the month.

There have been rumors that the next iPhone may include a dual core chip as it looks to take over from the current dual core devices. Consumers will be hoping that the extra two cores don’t come at the expense of battery life though.

Meanwhile it seems that HTC are beginning to favor the Tegra 3 processor more, as it looks like the company is seemingly reluctant to commit to only Qualcomm chips. SlashGear are reporting that sources are claiming HTC has an “increasing cooperation with NVIDIA”.

The first handset from the company with the technology is thought to be the HTC Edge, which is believed to be part of the company’s new ‘Hero Device’ plan. The company is looking to offer quality over quantity in the future, and has also set up the new HTC Studio that is set to focus on polished tablets and smartphones.

We recently told you about a new LG handset that had the codename X3 that will also be using the Tegra 3 chip. This has a lovely looking 4.7-inch display running at 1280 x 720 resolutions and is believed to be less than 9mm thick. Are you looking forward to quad core smartphones?

The device has been officially revealed by the company as it joins the rest of the Iconia Tab range, and it is an upgraded version of the original A500. It’s not just a minor upgrade though as it will benefit from the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, which according to a report on the Android Community has four cores running at 1.3GHz each.

Other notable changes are the operating system that will be Android ICS straight from the box, but other than that it’s the same 10-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution. Acer has said that the device will be available in Europe during April and priced at 499 Euros.

There is also a 4G version of the device called the Iconia Tab A511, but Acer didn’t go into details about the availability of it or the price. Both models will be available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB flavors with a possible 100 Euro price difference between each of them.

Currently there are no details about a launch for the US region, but it is expected to arrive at some point. There is also the Iconia Tab A700 on its way with an impressive 1920 x 1200 screen. Would you consider a tablet from Acer?

Nvidia’s new chip has already found itself in the likes of the Transformer Prime from Asus, and according to a report on Pocket Now it will be powering the LG X3 in the coming months. This stylish looking handset will join the likes of the HTC Edge and possibly the Samsung Galaxy S3 by using the processor.

Besides the processor the LG X3 will come with an impressive 4.7-inch display at 1280 x 720 resolutions. The device is thought to still only measure below 9mm in thickness despite all that power inside. Camera wise it is thought to feature an eight megapixel unit on the back, with a 1.3 megapixel shooter around the front.

Storage wise the X3 is believed to have 16GB that can be expanded further via a microSD card. The smartphone should come running the Android 4.0 operating system, and use physical capacitive buttons over touchscreen ones. It is believed to have HSPA+ connectivity that could see LTE added in certain regions. It will also have the latest Bluetooth technology with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and NFC capability.

For a slim device the 2000mAh battery doesn’t sound too bad either, and could make its debut at next month’s Mobile World Congress with a release around late spring or early summer. Do you like the look of the LG X3?

The Japanese company is not known for their smartphones, as most of you may even own a Fujitsu-Siemens branded computer since this is their main area of business. Like a growing number of other companies though, the temptation to enter the blooming smartphone market is as high as ever and the company has used CES as their stage to deliver the world’s first quad-core smartphone to a mainstream public audience.

Unfortunately, the device is still a prototype and was kept behind a glass unit so nobody could get their hands on it yet. There is also no name attached with the device so far, but the good news is that Fujitsu has already confirmed an initial list of hardware specs for the device, as well as confirming that the device will be ready for a proper showing at the MWC event in February.

So let’s move on to that quad-core chip, as according to Fujitsu their device will feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor which features on the likes of the ASUS Transformer Prime tablet and is clocked in at four cores running at 1.2Ghz each. Other specs include a mouth-watering 13 megapixel camera, LTE support, and a 4.6-inch display which Fujitsu are calling a ‘liquid crystal’ screen.

Another interesting aspect of this device is that it will feature a fifth processor which is hidden away and will be primarily used to conserve battery life when the phone is used for demanding tasks. For a phone that nobody has seen yet, this is full of promise and we can’t wait to see more at MWC. Check out an image of the device below courtesy of Droid-Life and let us know your thoughts on it. Bring on MWC 2012.

Are you ready to drop your current smartphone for a quad-core powerhouse?

Apparently an analyst called Richard Shim has stated that Apple’s next tablet, presumably called the iPad 3, will feature a 10-inch QXGA display. For those of you who don’t already know QXGA stands for Quad eXtended Graphics Array and it boasts 2048 x 1536 pixels at a 4:3 aspect ratio. To put this into perspective the iPad and iPad 2 featured an XGA display (1024 x 768, 4:3 aspect ratio), therefore if the analyst is correct it means that the iPad 3 will have a display with twice the pixel density of its predecessors.

If you check out the official NVIDIA Tegra 3 specs you will see that these support up to a resolution of 2048 x 1536, meaning that Richard Shim believes that in terms of display resolution the iPad 3 should be on par with Tegra 3-touting tablets.

Rumors suggest that these impressive displays will be sourced from LGD, Samsung and Sharp, however as always Apple and its suppliers won’t let any official information slip. Shim also goes on to suggest that devices could be produced by December, meaning that Apple could release the tablet in Q1 2012. If you take a look at previous release dates this certainly looks likely, the original iPad arrived in April 2010 and the iPad 2 arrive in March 2011, however the iPhone 4S taught us that Apple will release a product whenever they please and do not necessarily stick to certain release patterns.

In our opinion if the iPad 3′s internal hardware does in fact turn out to be on par with Tegra 3 in terms of display resolution it is important that the iPad 3 arrives early in 2012, if not we could start hearing about more advanced technologies which could trump Apple’s next tablet before it arrives – we have already heard that NVIDIA have octo-core plans in 2012!

Do you think Apple’s next tablet will feature an QXGA display?

Any of you who have been keeping a close eye onTransformer Prime news and rumors will know that it pairs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with NVIDIA’s new Tegra 3 processor, with four performance cores and one companion core this tablet will pack a punch and deliver great battery life. Today we will look at some features which we got a glimpse of in the hands on video.

The video embedded at the bottom of this post clearly shows a new transition effect which appears when swiping between apps and widgets, obviously this is not highly important but a nice touch which may leave some iPad owners with a sour taste in their mouth. We also get to see that ICS brings folder functionality to the tablet’s home screen, simply drag one icon onto another and they are put into a folder – the implementation of this feature looks pretty solid.

As you would expect the Tegra 3 processor gives the Transformer Prime great graphical capabilities, in the the video we get to see 1080p high profile HD video playback and it looks flawlessly smooth, also we get to see a game being played called Riptide GP, this game uses all four cores of the Tegra 3 processor and it is hard to ignore just how good the visuals look.

You can see the video which we spoke about in this post below, if you are interested you can see scans of the official instruction manual here, we had a quick flick through but couldn’t see anything too exciting.

Is ICS looking better on tablets than you ever expected?

If you missed that news, you can read it back again here. To sum up, the HTC Edge is a handset rumored for 2012 which aside from the new Tegra 3 chip, it could come with 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, Beats Audio, Sense 4.0 UI and possibly 4G LTE support as well.

Now then, a fresh article published over at Digitimes claims that HTC will now be joined by the likes of Samsung, Motorola and LG in the inevitable ‘quad-core war’, contradicting initial claims that HTC would have some sort of timed-exclusive for NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 chip. This means of course that follow-up handsets from Samsung, Motorola and LG could all feature the new technology.

Don’t forget that LG were the world’s first to release a dual-core phone with the Tegra 2 chip featured in their Optimus 2X, so it is no surprise once again to see the company towards the front of the queue for first dibs for Tegra 3.

Then of course we have another handset that will evitably drop at some point in the future – the Samsung Galaxy S III. Details on this handset are obviously unknown at this point, but there were some interesting rumors back in September suggesting that the handset would include a quad-core processor. Could this be identified as the Tegra 3? – We would take a guess and say yes on this occasion.

Motorola has their hands busy with the Droid RAZR at the moment, but we wouldn’t be surprised if their next Droid handset features a quad-core chip. The company are becoming known for producing top of the line smartphones in today’s market now, so we expect them to be competing as well with HTC.

As for the consumer, this is obviously great news all all concerned as it means that you’ll have an option of choosing which manufacturer to go with, rather than just HTC. If you had the choice of picking up a Tegra 3 smartphone from LG, Samsung, HTC or Motorola – which would you choose and why?

The shiny new processor will certainly find its way into many new portable devices in the coming months, and Asus started off earlier today with the announcement of the new Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. TechRadar are reporting that the processor was formerly known as Kal-El, and is five times more powerful than its predecessor the Tegra 2.

Matt Wuebbling, Nvidia’s Senior Product Manager said “Our next-generation Tegra processor is widely known as the world’s first quad-core mobile chip”. The Tegra 3 is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore microarchitecture, which consists of four cores that can run at speeds up to 1.3GHz. It also has a stealth fifth core, which can be used for the more basic tasks when the device doesn’t need to power the other four.

Nvidia’s new Tegra 3 improves over the Tegra 2 in all features such as better audio, graphics, bandwidth, memory, processing, and video support. It also has a new 12-core GPU that delivers up to three times more graphics performance, and will also support 2560 x 1600 resolution as well as 3D stereo.

The company also says there are more than 15 Tegra 3 capable games being developed, with over 40 promised on the Android Tegra Zone app by the end of the year.