Ambient Display Explained

Ambient Display is a feature new to Android 5.0 that allows you to glance at your notifications without lighting up your entire screen. The Moto X (2013) introduced us to this feature which was called Active Display at the time. Instead of the traditional notification LED light that is on most smartphones to indicate a new notification, this feature was made so users could see what they were. The most interesting part of this feature is that it has a low impact on battery, which is why it is so popular.

How it Works

Ambient Display works by using a specialized chip inside the phone's SoC to monitor the phone's movement. This chip is specially designed to only read the sensor information in order to use the least amount of power as possible. Without it, your device would have to use the main processor or application processor as its more formally known as to monitor for motion. Since the application processor is much more advanced we would see a significant drain in battery and our phone would never reach deep sleep mode. 

The magic doesn't just happen within the chip either, for smartphones with AMOLED screens there is even more power savings. AMOLED pixels are unique in that they give off their own light instead of backlights doing it. When a pixel turns black your smartphone actually turns off the pixel completely giving you the blackest black possible. Since the pixel is off it no longer consumes any power and its like your screen is off. When Ambient Display shows notifications it only lights up the pixels it needs and shows everything in a grayscale color scheme. 

Motorola X8 and Snapdragon 800 Series

Snapdragon 805 SoC

Motorola X8 Computing System

The Motorola X8 Computing System was the first chip that utilized the always listening and motion sensing features. Google owned Motorola at the time and likely funded the research and development of this SoC. The reason being was Qualcomm had long been including those low power "contextual" cores for a little while, but for reasons I cannot understand (and even to this day) Qualcomm doesn't write their drivers well or doesn't open source them. What Google had to do was not only show their competitors what those cores we couldn't even use could do and that they could sell phones with it. So with a little bit of time Qualcomm got their act together and suddenly phones were able to take advantage of these cores. The second generation Moto X used a Snapdragon 805 which includes the low power cores for motion and language. Google strategically used Motorola to push innovation and improvement out of their competitors for the greater good of the Android platform. 

How to Enable it

If you have a smartphone running Android 5.0 Lollipop or higher you may be able to utilize Ambient Display. Phones using the Snapdragon 801, 805, 808, and 810 can all utilize this feature. Go into settings, then Display & Lights and look for Ambient Display.

Nexus 6 Review

I've had my Nexus 6 for about two months now and I love it. I was a bit skeptical because I only bought it for the unlocked bootloader and developer support. Which means I was also getting a phone codenamed "Shamu" that was facing numerous issues with encryption and memory leaks and weird screen problems. I was the most disappointed person in the room when Google announced the 6" monstrosity that is the Nexus 6. I put off by a lot of the news with the specs because it became apparent that Google might actually care about sales for once. Regardless, I am one of few customers who value their level of tinkering over everything else about the phone. To be honest if the Nexus 5 worked on Verizon I'd have bought it instead because I would have a smaller phone that I could still tinker with despite it being a year old. All of this considered I really like this phone, more than I

thought I would.

Specs

OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop

Display -

     Size: 6"

     Resolution: 1440x2560p QHD

     Tech: AMOLED

Camera - 

     13 megapixels

     4K video capable

     2 Megapixel front facing

Hardware - 

     SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805

     Processor: Quad Core Krait 450 - 2.7 Ghz

     Memory: 3GB

     GPU - Adreno 420

     Storage - 32GB or 64GB

Battery - 3220mAh

Wireless Qi Charging - Yes

Bluetooth - 4.1

WiFi - 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac

USB - 2.0 micro

Can be used on any carrier with any radio type.

Qualcomm Turbo Char
ging 2.0

Source: Phone Arena

Beyond the Specs

If I Were A Smartphone Manufacturer

Have you ever thought about your dream smartphone? What would it have inside? What would you sacrifice and why? Every time a flagship comes out reviewers always mention what could have been done better. As a business student tech enthusiast I find the whole line of smartphones that companies offer interesting and often ask myself why they make certain decisions. A year ago I wrote a huge paper about a fictional company I made up called Core Mobility and yes, there is a company with that name already but I liked it and it was just a school paper so it didn't matter. The fun part was getting to talk about a potential business model. I stole ideas from various manufacturers that I really liked and thought were really great selling points. Motorola, who at the time had just released the Moto X (2013), was a big inspiration because I really really liked that phone. Some day I'll write a review about it because it truly is one of the best phones ever made. It was also when the OnePlus One has first graced the market with its low price and high specs. Then of course manufacturers like Samsung who confuse the hell out of anybody who tries to figure out which device is meant for which people so I made it a goal to have distinguishable product lines marketing each one to different people. So without further ado I will give a rundown of what I would do if I were a smartphone manufacturer.

Company: Animax Mobility

Device Lines: