The one area Microsoft hasn't touched while upgrading Windows Phone has been the SoC requirements. The platform launched with 65nm Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs featuring the quite-slow Adreno 200 GPU.  Despite the age of the hardware, Microsoft has done wonders to make Windows Phone feel very responsive but as Qualcomm gets ready for the ramp to 28nm it's going to be increasingly difficult to ship 65nm hardware on a high-end device. The next wave of Windows Phones (while we wait for the presumably Krait based major upgrade in 2012) makes the jump to 45nm with Qualcomm's Snapdragon S2. You get better power consumption characteristics, higher clocks and a much faster (nearly 2x) Adreno 205 GPU. 

Samsung will be among the first to ship this second wave of Windows Phone devices (running WP7.5, codename Mango) with its Focus S and Focus Flash. Both feature a 1.4GHz Snapdragon S2 SoC. The Focus S has a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display, while the Flash uses a 3.7" Super AMOLED (non-Plus) screen. The devices have 8MP and 5MP rear facing cameras, respectively. The Focus S is 8.55mm at its thinnest point, but no word on the rest of the dimensions.

We can expect to see both devices this fall, although I'm guessing it'll be worth waiting for Krait versions in about a year.

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  • french toast - Saturday, October 22, 2011 - link

    Yea i totally agree with what you have said, i actually wrote a long post on wmpoweruser.com describing some of those points.

    The hardware is much too same(y) at least htc tried something a bit different last year, but this year its all the same stuff.
    Also wp7handstes are getting low rent parts... Ram,storage, camara, untill the focus s screen technology, (range topping super amoled plus as apposed to normal amoled- focus)

    The chassis stipulates MINIMUM hardware requirements, so at LEAST 512 ram, there is nothing stopping samsung putting the same amount of ram/storage as the galaxy s2 for example.
    Im not sure about the processor, in theory the same should apply, although im not sure.
    Seems as wp7 are getting the bottom of the barrel parts from where i am.

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