Intel has wanted to be a part of the smartphone market since 2005. Its Atom line of processors and systems-on-chip was developed for this market, and each iteration has got smaller and more tightly integrated. With Medfield, announced earlier this year, the company finally has the chip it needs to take on ARM head-to-head. Intel has partnered with Indian manufacturer Lava International to bring its chipset to market, and the result is a new Android phone: the Xolo X900.
The phone is not available in the US. It sells in India for about $420. The phone's specification is at the upper end of mid-range: 1024×600 4" screen, 8 MP rear camera with 1080p30 recording, 1.3 MP front camera, and 16 GB of storage. It runs Android 2.3.7, with an upgrade to version 4 due later this year. So far, so ordinary. The thing that sets it apart from its competition is its processor. It's called an Atom Z2460: a 1.6 GHz single core, hyperthreaded 64-bit x86 CPU, paired with a 400 MHz PowerVR SGX 540 GPU, and 1 GB RAM.