Cell phones forum: Quad-Core Phones: The String Attached.

You seem to have not understood what I meant. I know more RAM and a faster or multi-core processor is better. The downside though is if the operating system running on top of it can't take advantage of it. As far as I see it, I don't think we will be seeing a patch or update in Android and Windows for awhile until it becomes recognized and such. Like the microSD example, what if the system can only recognize two cores? Otherwise, what would be the point except to future proof for about 6 months?

I'm not trying to create anxiety. I am just stating that there is room for this to happen. Also, by the time an OS update comes along for it, it will probably be 3-6 months down the road. Look, all I am saying is that this could happen where better specifications might not have the potential unlocked until after the release.

No, it is called advertising. It is like when AT&T first flipped the switch for LTE. Even though they had the towers running for those with the appropriate tablets or hotspot devices, some were under the assumption that they had it too.

I can advertise a device saying it can do this, this, and this. Trust me, if some little gimmick can drive the sales of a device, companies would take advantage of it. I am not saying quad-core processors for phones is a gimmick, but the concept of the component being able to be driven to it's max potential might not be there yet. It is like saying I can sell you a car with a V8 engine but you can only use six cylinders until we can figure out how to make use of the other two.

There simply isn't enough demand yet for quad core in a phone. Hence, we won't see it be particularly common in most handsets, especially prior to dual cores saturating the market, which hasn't happened yet.

Like I said before, we are going in circles

Clearly, the OP was a little confused.

...a newer handset only supports 8GB of the SDHC standard instead of the full 32GB. As we know, plenty of them can only handle 2GB, at least that buzzkill I became used to

Truth be told, I've yet to actual encounter a real-world example of the particular class of a SD card making a difference outside of a HD camcorder or DSLR that might actual benefit from a faster spec memory card. I've also not yet seen a reference in the specifications of a wireless handset that refers to anything other than the SD or SDHC monikers along with sizes in GB as being limits. Maybe you've seen something different(?)

If you walk into any Target or BB, you are going to find newer products because that what's in demand and what brings in more of their revenues. With all of your devices that support only SD and not SDHC, you look online. Been there, done that. Now sometimes a rogue brand has issues, but it's not that common. Smaller capacity cards are generally much easier to accommodate fully with legacy devices than larger card sizes are with newer ones IME. Keep in mind it's really carrier software limitation sometimes vs an OS limitation when you encounter an upper limit to what capacity SDHC will be supported.

You are also missing the boat partially when it comes to performance in some cases of a quad-core rig single or dual core. If you push out a device that has a stellar AMOLED screen and can play back 1080p video, you might see the benefits of having a handset with ample RAM and a quad core CPU that never, ever stutters. This might be as simple as one app being updated and written to support the particular handset with a quad core under the hood.

My impression was there may have been other reasons why the Tegra 3 quad didn't test well initially vs the dual core snapdragon ATT was running in their HTC when they were compared. It certainly isn't anything nefarious such as 'the Android OS simply won't properly support a quad core processor'. That seems to be the jump you have mistakenly made in this thread. Issues such as what functionality is bundled together with a particular chipset vs what another manufacturer does on theirs comes into play when comparing speeds & performance at testing time.

I honestly wonder though- how many mobiles running W8 will have to have quad core chipsets(?)