The smartphone market is heating up, and the $54 billion Santa Clara, California-based Intel has jumped into the fray with its own mobile phone called XOLO X900. India is the second fastest growing smartphone market after China. As per IDC, the smartphone opportunity in India for 2012 stands at 19.1 million units, which is a 78% growth year on year over 2011. No prizes for guessing as to why the chip maker chose India as its premier location to debut its introductory offering; this is the world?s first mobile phone with Intel architecture inside. Intel has partnered with Lava International to launch its phone here.
At first look, the stylish and sleek device is all about speed and performance. The XOLO X900 is housed in a sleek design with a 4.03-inch high-resolution LCD touchscreen for crisp text and vibrant images. The front is adorned in a glossy finish plastic with chromed out borders. Capacitive buttons are present at the bottom allowing for Android menu navigation. The bottom of the phone houses a lone microUSB connector for sync/charge purposes. The handset is also equipped with HDMI output to allow for full HD video output.
Cut to high-end hardware. The high-performance 1.6 GHz Atom processor with Hyper Threading Technology brings speed and multi-tasking performance to consumers? fingertips. Along with smooth multi-tasking, this processor ensures optimum battery usage. The leading-edge 400 MHz graphics clock and the full 1080p HD video encoding and playback plus dual speakers make this phone a perfect entertainment device, providing users with an immersive gaming and video experience. Based on my experience, everything from full high definition video to 3D games worked flawlessly. The screen resolution is also good at 1024 x 600 on a 4.03-inch screen.
The mobile phone also boasts of certain DSLR like features. It features an 8-megapixel camera delivering advanced imaging capabilities including burst mode that allows 10 pictures to be captured in under a second.
Talking about the operating system, the review unit sent to us runs on Android Gingerbread. But there are plans for over-the-air software upgrade to Android?s Ice Cream Sandwich platform soon. Intel?s technology enables a high-performance user experience, all while maintaining great battery life?up to 5 hours of 3G browsing, 45 hours of audio and 8 hours of talk time.
There is no doubt that Intel has brought in a potent mix of high-end hardware at a good price point of R22,000. Everything you have always wanted, and more, now comes to you, in the blink-of-an-eye, courtesy this smart device. The XOLO X900 definitely has a lot going for it.
SPECS
* Dimensions: 123 x 63 x 10.99 mm
* Display size & resolution: 4.03-inch, 1024 x 600
* Display technology: TFT LCD capacitive touch, Corning Gorilla Glass
* Processor: Intel Atom Processor Z2460, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom with Hyper ThreadingChipset
* Operating system: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
* Camera: 8 MP (rear); Front camera 1.3 MP
* Video recording & playback: Full HD 1080p@30fps
* Internal memory: 16 GB
Estimated street price:
R22,000