Lenovo K800 powered by Intel expected next month
updated 08:30 am EDT, Wed April 11, 2012
Lenovo K800 inbound, first Atom-powered mobile
Lenovo's Intel-powered K800 (hands-on) is expected to arrive in North America by the end of May, according to Intel's China Chairman, Sean Maloney. The K800 is the first smartphone to run Intel's 1.6GHz Atom Medfield processor, although it may launch with an x86-compatible variant of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), instead of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Google has developed an x86-compatible version of ICS, although it is not known whether it will arrive in time on the K800 for its US launch.
In addition to its speedy processor, the K800 will have an eight-megapixel rear camera and will center on a 4.5-inch display with a very competitive 720p resolution. Maloney also mentioned in his Weibo posts on the matter that the K800 will ship with Intel's new Avatar technology on board. Based on the image in Maloney's post, it appears that a user will be able to take a picture of themselves and see it digitally rendered and use that image for their own contact entry.
After ceding the mobile space to Cambridge-based ARM Holdings and its widely licensed mobile processor designs, Intel can be expected to place a significant level of emphasis on the launch of the K800 in the US. Although Intel dominates the desktop and notebook chip segments, it has not made any impact in the mobile devices segment since the launch of the Apple iPhone in 2007, which along with the subsequent launch of the iPad, sparked the current mobile devices revolution. It had hoped to bring Atom-based chips to mobile devices in the past two to three years, but had been unsuccessful in offering a competitive chip until now. [via Engadget]
