We’ve known for a while now that Intel is diving head first into mobile. While the world focused on Apple’s A5, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 (and now Tegra 3), and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, Intel was adapting its Atom platform for mobile devices. Today at CES 2012 the curtain was officially unveiled, and we learned about the first devices that will be ushering in the era of Medfield.
Intel’s initial smartphone will be the K800, manufactured by Lenovo. It will have a 4.5-inch display with 1280×720 resolution — at 326 pixels per inch, its pixel density in the upper echelon of mobile displays. It has an 8MP camera, and will supposedly outperform rival latforms in browsing, Javascript, and graphics energy consumption. The handset is destined for China (no word of a US release), and will release there in the second quarter of 2012.
After the Asia-only (for now) K800 was announced, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha dropped by the event to announce his company’s multiyear agreement to produce Atom-based hardware. The first fruits of the collaboration will be smartphones; they are expected to head into carrier validation this summer.
Following a brief tease of a Windows 8 reference design tablet, Intel capped the evening off by unveiling a new Dell Ultrabook. The machine, the XPS 13, has an aluminum lid and carbon fiber base. The laptop will have a Gorilla Glass display (apparently not Gorilla Glass 2), and will come in Core i5 and i7 flavors. Dell is claiming that it will give you 9 hours of battery life (until it’s tested, take that one with several grains of salt). The XPS 13 will go up for order in February.
While an integrated chip won’t likely elicit the same excitement as a hot new smartphone, tablet, or gaming system, its ramifications could be just as great. Intel, the dominant manufacturer of PC processors, now has to play catch-up in the mobile arena. By all signs, it appears that the company is serious about this transition. We’ll start seeing the results later on this year.
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