Motorola's First, Intel-Powered Android OS 4.0 Smartphone Revealed

Photos of Motorola's first smartphone built around an Intel processor have leaked out. The device that was pictured was also shown running Android OS 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

If the reports are true, this would be one of Motorola’s first handsets with Intel's new mobile Medfield platform. Motorola has been using Texas Instruments OMAP processors in its previous smartphones, but has been talking about releasing an Intel-based device for quite some time.

While nothing has been made official, details are still surfacing about this device, whose name remains unknown. It is rumored to be sporting a new version of the MotoBlur UI as well as featuring a high-performance camera that offers a 15 frames-per-second burst capture. As it runs the latest version of Google's Android operating system, it does not need physical buttons on its front.

It may be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow  later this month.

Intel's Processor Overview
Intel has been trying to break into the mobile processing market for years now, trying to compete with ARM in terms of design wins. Intel first offered a chip named "Moorsetown" that was never picked up by handset makers. Battery life on Intel products was too poor, and exporting it to a mobile device would only cause much annoyance and frustration. Their newest creation, Medfield, is a different story.

Medfield is an integrated 32nm systems-on-a-chip that requires just three chips, compared to the five chips that were required for Moorsetown. Motorola and Lenovo were both impressed enough by the improvement that they decided to start manufacturing Intel-based phones.

Read more about Intel-powered smartphones in an earlier article.

Source: PocketNow