Intel would be the first to admit that it’s fallen far behind int he mobile game. The company desperately wants in on the post-PC land grab, but so far hasn’t been able to put out a chip that’s not a battery-draining false start. Medfield is the processor that’s supposed to change all that. And based on our brief hands on, it honestly just might.
The Medfield reference design phone we played with on the CES show floor was running Gingerbread, and felt like a really solid build of Android. The UI was fast and with no discernible lag, and apps loaded really quickly. It was on HSPA+, and even in the CES connectivity doodie show, it pulled content pretty quickly.
We didn’t tax the processor too hard, but running with a bright screen and pulling web content, it didn’t run hot at all. It’s running a single core 1.6Ghz, the 32nm Intel chip.
The specs it supports are pretty impressive — up to a 24MP camera, 1080p video output — and if the Android build is as stable as it seemed, and it holds true across end-user phones, Intel might have a chance to win its game of catchup.