Project Emerald could be HTC Glacier -- with dual-core Snapdragon

By Jerry Hildenbrand  | Aug 03 2010 | 9:59 pm  | 40 Comments

HTC Glacier benchmark scores

File this under rumors for the moment, but it looks like the fabled Project Emerald from T-Mobile could very well be the HTC Glacier, and on paper it's fast as hell. The folks at AlienBabelTech have done some digging and found some rather interesting dirt:

  • On the GLBenchmark 1.1 online database, there are entries for a very fast (as in 3 times faster than the current HTC king, the Evo 4G!) mystery device named the HTC Glacier.  That's the picture above.
  • HTC is known for using Qualcomm Snapdragon chips in their phones.  Once you crunch the numbers on the benchmarks, you come up with a dual-core 1.2 to 1.5 GHz device
  • The fellow who uploaded these scores also uploaded a bunch of other HTC device scores, and they have all been T-Mobile devices.
  • That fellow's LinkdIn profile shows that he is a Senior Interaction Designer at T-Mobile USA

Is this proof positive that it's Project Emerald?  Nope.  But it stands to reason, unless T-Mobile has two huge surprises to spring on us later this year.  Be sure to check out the source link, there's a screenshot montage of all the clues, as well as a long geeky feature list of the supposed HTC Glacier's GPU details.  [AlienBabelTech]

Jerry Hildenbrand

Jerry Hildenbrand Cowboy

"Fascinated by things that go beep."

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There are 40 comments

Kedar says:

I think we reached a speed barrier?
All the Snapdragon phones just need some GPU love... that's it.

I remember them talking about it reaching like 80million triangles. Current snapdragon phones get like 22million triangles.
They need to increase the fill rate!

The only way, in my opinion, is just make a sexy phone with emphasis on the battery.

Oh, and to NEVER make a phone with the 30fps cap. Jeez... I rooted my phone and fixed it, and let me tell you.

NIGHT and DAY difference in performance.

kslm94 says:

Oh dang! I am DEFFINETELY dumping my MT3GS for this puppy! EVO 4G finally has a worthy opponent

frozencloud says:

Sigh....it exciting to see the new "bad boy" on the street...however it saddens me that I don't see more android love from AT&T (fyi, AT&T service is better than Verizon where I live imo).

Blueman101 says:

Hmmm, this might be the successor to my Nexus One, if this turns out to be true.

bllackkman says:

WTF am I going to do with a dual snapdragon??? the EVO is fine as is!! we will see, lol

Kiserai says:

"Fine" is never good enough. There's always "better" to be had somewhere. :)

crxssi says:

Really! Speed is good... we need to be able to drain the battery as fast as possible!!! :)

jbern8 says:

Read the article and the screenshots, and notice how it's tied with the Galaxy S for performance.

Mithent says:

Which, notably, is a single-core 1GHz Cortex A8 derivative, but has a much faster GPU than the Snapdragon. Looks more like a Snapdragon with a better GPU than a dual-core one, even though that test is labelled "CPU" (it is a graphics benchmark).

GuniGuGu says:

Yeah.. looking like I got an upgrade for the N1. I would dig this if it rocks a 4" super amoled screen, plain vanila android.

miniZ says:

and no physical keyboard. I don't know if it is enough to turn me off completely..but I feel it adds unnecessary bulkiness

darkjuan says:

G1=bulky

MT3GS=not bulky

Conclusion, I really hope it has a keyboard

mrcam216 says:

I really think i'm going to have to stop coming to this site. First I was happy with my iPhone 3g and then I come here and see all the new cool devices and what android can do. Then I read about the EVO and dump my iPhone for it the grabbed it on June 4th. Now this phone. I dont even know what it looks like but I think I want it. I should leave and not come back to this site until next year when i can upgrade.
lol. Just kidding. ;)

GQ50 says:

Yeah if/when this phone drops it's gonna be crazy powerful.

McParty says:

This is what I've been waiting to here!!

MolecularGraph says:

Why did they name it after a slow moving mass of ice? Doesn't make for a sweet name in my opinion

Blah says:

A glacier is also large and fairly unstoppable. It's a good name in my opinion.

addictedtoblackberry says:

yes! it sounds siiiiiiiiiiiick!!

jf79 says:

Yeah I don't get... they name this speedy device after something that moves very slow...

SiliconAddict says:

They should have called it the HTC Cock Knocker. (See Jay and Silent Bob strike back for ref) Think of the conversations.

Grandma: Johnny what is that phone you have.
Johnny: Its the HTC Cock Knocker Grandma.
Grandma: *blinks and starts hitting him with her cane* You watch your language young man!!
Johnny: But grandma that IS its name.
Grandma: Oh. *starts hitting him again* How dare you buy a phone with such a name!!

or

Friend1: Dude have you seen the new Cock Knocker. The thing is sick!
Friend2: I preordered the Cock Knocker last week, but got Cockblocked by my wife because of the price.
Friend1: That sucks.
Friend2: No a prob though. Sold my iPod. My Cock Knocker should be on my front doorstep in a week.

The only problem is on TV advertisements. Don't think Cock Knocker would pass the FCC's censors.

Blueman101 says:

800x480? Really?

addictedtoblackberry says:

i dont understand these results can someone explain please?

this is the phone for me. dual core processor. ill be happy for years.

screw rim and their base spec bs and their crappy "flagship" 9800. im ready for this device now! :) ill jump on board the android ship if this hits tmo.

Nephilim_80 says:

I love how this site calls the EVO the "KING", lmao, that is quite sad, it is running the EXACT same system and processor as the Incredible only it is flawed in the fact it is not on Verizon. Being on verizon alone makes the incredible superior regardless of the screensize. A service provider claiming to have 4G and then even going further into fallacy by calling their phones 4G is so sad I wanna cry, THERE IS NO TRUE 4G NETWORK YET! It is almost pathetic that the EVO is being compared but there is no mention of the Incredible (which is much much better) A front facing cam and a slightly larger screen do not make one phone better than another. On top of all that, the Droid Incredible is still a higher demand than the EVO currently. The EVO, just as the DROID X are merely new toys for people to checkout, I have read multiple forums and there is a higher volume of people calling these phones "overrated" or "not as good" than people who are fanboys.

P.S. duocore + android os = EPIC!

element4life3 says:

Lol, wow dude. Somebody has phone some phone envy or something. Who cares what phone gets the most attention? Your rant is just palin ridiculous and sad...

Btw, of course the Evo will get all the attention. It is first phone to have 4G, first Android phone to have a front facing camera and 4.3 inch camera. The Incredible is an awesome phone too, and of course there were more people who wanted it since it is on Verizon, the larger network. Why do you care that more people praise the Evo than the Incredible? Why can't you just be happy with the phone you have?

You sir need to step away form the computer, maybe go outside or something...

crxssi says:

This guy is a troll and clueless. Not only is Verizon not better in any way than Sprint (Verizon is is the same coverage, higher prices, similar phones, poorer upgrade policies, and has no better customer service), Sprint's 4G most certainly is 4G.

itch808 says:

If you call Sprint's Wimax 4G what would you call T-mobile's HSDPA considering it's posting faster speeds and many consider it as 3.5G??

LOL

Just wait until LTE hits and lets see if Sprint's 4G is still being proclaimed as "4G"

Nephilim_80 says:

Exactly, Sprint is NOT true 4G, if element4life3 and crxssi actually had any technological experience or knew people in the industry you would know that. I AM NOT A TROLL, The fact stands, sprint is a horrible service provider compared to Verizon, I had sprint and got rid of it for verizon, They may charge more but they provide a much much better service. It's sad when fanboys call me a troll just because I feel a phone with the EXACT same specs minus screensize and front facing camera, deserves the same attention. The EVO is in no way the KING.

crxssi says:

The facts do stand, don't they.

* Sprint's 4G is faster than HSDPA in most markets, RIGHT NOW. And it has the potential to get a whole lot faster. 4G is a 128Mb/s technology. Perhaps you should visit Wikipedia: "Technologies considered to be 4G include: [...] mobile version of WiMax". By the way, current LTE rollouts are a 1Mb/s technology. And HSDPA is described as 3G, and maxes out at 14Mb/s, with future releases of up to 84Mb/s (still a LOT slower than *current* WiMax maximums). Yes, there is more to a network than theoretical maximum speed, but you also can't just define it based on the current few new phones. WiMax will support voice and replace 3G in coming models.

* You have confirmed Sprint's pricing is better, yet the only reason you can think to justify it is "service".... see next point...

* Your "service" experience certainly doesn't match mine, nor anyone else I know that uses Sprint. So that is certainly not a "fact".

* I noticed you didn't try to refute the coverage FACT that Sprint and Verizon use each other's towers, so they have identical coverage.

Andromedo says:

Sprint's 4G coverage is not very widespread. They are turning up mostly backwaters at this time, and avoiding the coasts for some reason.

addictedtoblackberry says:

it is 4g, but its still crap.

Nephilim_80 says:

Incorrect, if it was a real 4G phone it would not be running on sprints CDMA radio, Sprint and Verizon both carry CDMA as of now. A 4G band would not work on CDMA, The EVO is a CDMA phone. Sprint may be trying to process 4G signals through their network but it is not happening, it is basically downgrading the signal to a little over 3G speeds (on occasion, depending on location). As soon as true 4G rolls out EVERYTHING will be on it, all phones hardware will have to be built for it so no phones out now will be capatible. There will be no GSM or CDMA, it will all be a unified 4G network merging Data and Digital together. Not bashing you above but the retards fanboying sprint a couple comments above you are quite out of the loop with what is actually 4G and what is an elaborate Gimmick to promote a failing Cellular Service Provider.

Kiserai says:

The more and more I think about it, I'm pretty sure this phone will be huge based on the name glacier. It just sounds large and formiddable to me. I'd love to see it with a 4.3 in Super AMOLED screen, but it will probably ship with a SLCD display.

Also, I'm thinking this will probably go over the 800x480 resolution that has been on most HTC flagship phones as of late. If it's dual core 1.2 and getting scores that are similar to the Vibrant it's probably pushing more pixels (not to put down the Vibrant or anything). 1280x720 anybody?

We have to take the resolution crown back from Apple at some point, right?

element4life3 says:

I think if you look at all the data from the source it mentions it will still have 800x480.

I agree though. I hope newer phones, Gingerbread to be specific, will have higher resolutions. It is the next logical step in the progression of these phones.

Kiserai says:

Yeah, actually I was reading the Engadget article about the Glacier and got a better look at the resolution it was running. That's crazy if it's barely above the Galaxy S. Qualcomm really needs to do something to their GPU if they want to stay competitive with OMAP and Hummingbird chipsets.

Raw processing power is nice, but without a good efficient way to paint the pixels it's mostly going to waste.

element4life3 says:

Ya, their GPU is definately lagging behind the competition. I am with Sprint still rocking a Hero, but am holding out for the Epic 4G so I can compare it to the Evo before making my final decision. I love the form factor of the Evo and the screen size, but am dissapointed in the 30 fps cap and the snapdragon processor. The Epic 4G looks awesome with its Hummingbird processor, but I am not a fan of keyboard phones or the look of the actual device.

I love HTC phones, and will most likely continue buying them, but I do hope they either drop Qualcom or release better GPUs in the future.

SeeK says:

Not that any 4.3 inch or smaller panel really -needs- a higher resolution than WVGA, but who am I to complain. :) Non-scaled 720p playback wouldn't be amiss, I guess. ;)

This is going to be a beast. I think my Desire's pretty darn fast, but this... wow. The multitasking capabilities, the 3D rendering performance... the lack of battery life. >_>

We need a revolutionizing energy storage technology, ASAP.

almighty_beaver says:

would this phone work in europe? I know that 2G and GPRS would work, but do the 3G bands match? Here we use 900/1800 i believe. Does Tmobile use these?

fstop says:

Curious to see how many apps are multithreaded. Certainly SMS, MMS, phone, etc need not be. The only apps worth a dual core would be 3D games, photoshop, video editing... whoa does that mean a native video editing app soon?

Blueman101 says:

Your not thinking big enough, i think it means 3D rendering apps coming soon.

itmustbejj says:

The thing that most people don't realize is that the Adreno (snapdragon's gpu) is not a bad gpu chip, it's just that Qualcomm has never released a decent driver to utilize it. Even the best hardware underperforms without a proper driver to utilize it.

For the life of me I can not figure out why they would shoot themselves in the foot like this. Maybe it's too much effort to make drivers tailored to devices because the snapdragon is in so many phones, but come on already....If you aren't going to do the work at least OS the userland driver, and not just your empty gesture of open-sourcing the kernel driver (which is worthless without the userland code), so that REAL devs who give a crap can make your GPU's do what they are designed for, and that's NOT SUCK.