Intel showed off its Medfield platform at CES, sticking an Atom Z2460 CPU into a smartphone chassis, and the results weren’t half bad. Now they seem ready to unleash it on the world, in a curious partnership with Orange according to Anandtech.
It’s a strange move to say the least – rather than working with existing OEMs, Orange and Intel have partnered to release the handset directly to consumers. What’s on offer though definitely isn’t boring.
The Orange Santa Clara brings an Atom Z2460 single-core processor clocked at 1.6Ghz, 1GB of RAM, and a 4-inch screen with a 1024×600 resolution. Intel’s HSPA+ radio is good for speeds of up to 21Mbit/s, and there’s also HDMI out capable of 1080p, as well as hardware video decoding and encoding. Since this is an Orange phone, there’s also HD Voice on board. An 8 megapixel camera hosts camera duties, and there’s a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for those ever popular video calls.
Disappointing, the handset will be running Android 2.3 when it ships, although an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich has been promised with the infuriatingly vague promise of “soon”. No word on pricing, or even availability, although a summer launch is expected.
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