Telecom Orange has recently announced that it will be bringing the first Intel-powered phone to the UK and France in the next three months. The reference phone has been modified into designs by both Lenovo and Motorola, but won’t be seen in the West for some months, so the Santa Clara will be the first release of the Intel handset in Europe.
The phone includes a mighty 1.6GHz single core Atom Z2460 processor, 4” 1024 x 600 screen and 8 megapixel camera. The camera is capable of some stupendous feats not normally possible when powered by a single-core device (including 1080p video capture and a 10 shot per second burst mode) and should impress, although it may not live up to the recently announced HTC One X or silly-awesome Nokia 808 PureView. Sadly, the phone will launch with Gingerbread initially and be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich soon after launch. The phone does support HD Voice and NFC, as well as HSPA+ connectivity for speedy mobile browsing.
Given Orange’s track record, the new phone should come out at a great price point for its performance, following in the footsteps of the immensely popular Orange San Francisco and Orange Monte Carlo. I’m definitely looking forward to giving it a go.
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This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of Mophie accessories, Speck cases and the C2-00.