Intel-Based Motorola Razr i Smartphone Launched In London

The Motorola Razr i – the first smartphone from Google-owned Motorola to use an Intel processor – has been launched in London, as predicted last month. The phone claims an impressive 20 hour battery life which Motorola says is 40 percent longer than the Apple iPhone 5.

The new Android smartphone is the same as the Razr M launched in the US last week, but with one very significant difference. Where the US model had a dual-core Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, the Motorola Razr i will have an Intel “Medfield” Atom chip. It will be available in the UK  in October, as well as France, Germany Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Motorola Razr i

Few mobile devices use Intel’s chips, despite the company pushing the low-energy abilities of its Atom range very hard indeed. The vast majority of today’s smartphones and tablets contain chips based around designs from the UK’s ARM Holdings, made by Qualcomm and others.

Orange announced plans for an Intel-based phone called “Santa Clara” at the Mobile World Congress in February. The smartphone is now available from the Orange site, under the name “San Diego”.

The Motorola Razr i got a higher profile launch, and strong praise from Motorola executives for its Intel processor. “This chipset gives us exactly what we want to launch in these markets,”  Andrew Morley, the general manager of Britain and Ireland,  told Reuters. “It gives us the ability to create a compact device, it gives us speed and it’s a mid to high tier, mass market device.”

The phone has a 4.3-inch display and, surprisingly, only runs Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – not the latest Jelly Bean version.

It boasts a 2GHz single-core Intel Medfield chip, and a 960×540 pixel display which goes virtually to the edge of the phone, as well as an 8 megapixel camera which offers up 10 shots a second, starts up in one second, and is  capable of 1080p HD video recording. The phone has a 2000 mAh battery, which Motorola says will give up to 20 hours of “mixed usage”.

Physically, the phone  is only 8.3mm thick, weighs 126g and has a Kevlar back panel and aluminium frame.

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