As Motorola prepares to release its RAZR i handset in Europe and Latin America, we couldn't help thinking we've seen it before. It's got the exact same display (960 x 540 super AMOLED), housing (minimal bezel, kevlar coating), battery (2,000 mAh) and operating system (Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) as the RAZR M.
The difference: this one runs on a 2GHz single-core Intel chip.
Intel's Medfield Z2460 processor has appeared in a few other phones, but the RAZR i is the first to come out of a larger partnership between Intel and Motorola, which should bring lots more Intel-based phones to market over the next few years.
So, clocked at 2GHz, will Intel's processors be a breakthrough for Android gaming performance?
Not really - at least not yet. The folks at Engadget ran benchmark tests on a pre-release RAZR i, and while it fully out-performed the ZTE Grand X IN (another phone running Intel's Medfield chipset), it only bested the RAZR M (1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon) in one performance category.
Are Intel processors a breakthrough for Android gaming?
On the surface that makes perfect sense: dual-core out-performs single-core. But Intel uses hyper-threading to offset that very performance issue. Whether a firmware update can solve the discrepancy remains to be seen.
It may not make a difference for US customers anyway, as the RAZR i will only be released in "select European and Latin American markets," at least for now.
Does Intel have what it takes to lead a breakthrough in smartphone processing? And do you even care about hardware performance for mobile gaming? Let us know in the comments.
Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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