17:31
With this being the third Intel-based handset from Xolo, we have to but hope that it has got it just right this time. Xolo's last flagship model loaded with the Intel Chip, the X900, didn't fare too well in the battery department; I'm hoping that's been fixed. So here's a quick first look of the new Xolo X1000 Intel-based smartphone.
Design
Like a cross between an HTC and the Galaxy Nexus, Xolo's X1000 smartphone is quite a looker. It's lightweight at 140 g and with a depth of just 9.1 mm, it's easy to grip or slip into and out of your pocket. There's a certain feel good factor about it.
The 4.7-inch TFT LCD has a 2.5 D Edge-to-Edge curved glass panel that is crisp and viewing angles looked real good. The 720 x 1280 pixel resolution also helps keep things clear and vibrant. The Xolo X1000 has a unibody design where the thin chromed bottom sliver (where the micro USB port is located) can be pushed out to reveal the SIM (standard size) and microSD card slots. There seemed to be a little bit of play with this panel when it was reinserted; hopefully, this will not be the case on the retail pieces.
The little silver strip beneath the 8MP camera at the rear adds a little flare to the otherwise simple panel. A small speaker grille is placed just above the clasp that enables you to slip out the bottom panel. A front facing 1.3MP camera is located just above the display on the left of the earpiece.So on the whole, the X1000 is a well-crafted device that's both stylish and rather professional in looks.
Features
Keeping in mind that there seems to be some issue where Intel, the X86 Architecture and the Android OS can't seem to function optimally with each other, the X1000 will launch with ICS initially and an update will follow a while later. This is perhaps the only real aspect one would find off putting about the device. With a 2GHz Intel processor powering this handset coupled with 1GB RAM, the handset proved to be quite fluid in terms of operation.
As of now, there's no mention of specific apps that would be available with the device. The demo units featured no more than a stock ICS UI with no extras.The X1000 has an 8 megapixel camera along with a handy lot of settings, including burst mode @15 fps (up to 10 pictures). It’s also capable of recording videos in full HD, i.e. 1080p @30fps. A secondary video calling/chat camera is up front as I mentioned and at 1.3 megapixels, should be good enough to have rather clear video streaming.
Xolo has fashioned a 1900 mAH battery for the X1000 and has claimed that the handset will provide up to 5 hours of browsing time on 3G and dish out about 9.5 hours of talktime on 3G as well as 2G. The estimated standby time was said to be 13-14 days. That’s quite impressive, but again, an aspect that will need to be tested in the labs.
17:25
The Xolo B700 which seems to be an upgraded version of the Xolo A700 is available for Rs. 8,999. The specs are almost the same as compared with A700 with some minor and some major difference. The key attraction is the massive battery of 3450 mAh capacity.If battery life is your major concern then the Xolo B700 is what you should be looking for. You not only can experience the power of a dual core android based smartphone but also expect a longer, a much longer battery life.
The Xolo B700 is powered by MediaTek dual core processor clocked at 1GHz with PowerVR SGX 531 GPU. The IPS touchscreen is of a smaller size at 4.3 inches with 960×540 pixel resolution (16M colours).Lava International's sub-brand Xolo has been launching a variety of budget and mid-range smartphones in India. Basically, the company has been concentrating on affordable range of Android smartphones in the dual-core and quad-core line-up.
This is a dual SIM handset running ICS OS with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. There is 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, micro USB and 3.5mm jack. The camera is the same as on A700, i.e. 5MP AF on the rear with LED flash and a 0.3MP on the front. The handset can record videos in 720p resolution.
Definitely Xolo B700 is a stylishly designed affordable Android ICS smartphone launched by the tech firm. It is a consecutively third launch in the Xolo series by Lava in a two weeks' time period. Hence, if you are getting some interest in the Lava range of handsets, here Gizbot has come up with the comparison of Xolo B700 and its predecessor Xolo A700 to analyse the difference between the duo smartphones.
The battery as mentioned is an amazing 3450 mAh with standby time of over 300 hours and talktime is up to 20 to 23 hours depending on the network. The handset is priced right at under Rs. 9,000.
Xolo B700 Key features and specifications
Dual SIM with Dual Standby.
Dual Core 1GHz + PowerVR SGX 531 GPU.
4.3 inch qHD IPS screen with 16M colours.
512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage and micro SD up to 32GB support.
Android 4.0 (ICS).
5MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash and 0.3MP front camera. HD video recording mode supported.
3G, 2G, WI-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5 mm jack and micro USB.
Sensors : Accelerometer, proximity, light and magnetometer (needs confirmation).
3450 mAh battery with over 20 hours talktime.
17:19
One of the latest entrants into the pocket-friendly quad-core phones segment is the Xolo Q700. NDTVGadgets has now spotted the quad-core smartphone discreetly listed on e-commerce websites with no price and a ‘coming soon’ badge.
According to the specifications listed, the Dual-SIM Q700 seems to be sporting a 4.5-inch qHD (540×960 pixels) display and powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Other features on the phone are a 5-megapixel rear camera, VGA camera at the front, 4GB of internal memory and a 2,400mAH battery. The listing also reveals that the Q700 will run on Android 4.2 out of the box and will be available in brown and blue color variants.Though there is no official word on the price, the report says that the Xolo Q700 is likely to be priced around Rs 9,999, which will pit it against other recently launched quad-core phones like the Intex Aqua Wonder Quadcore, and Karbonn’s S1 Titanium and S5 Titanium among others.
It is only getting better and better for consumers as the quad-core battle enters the sub-Rs 10K category. Lava International has announced the launch of its Xolo Q700 smartphone that carries a Rs 9,999 price tag.The Xolo Q700 is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2. The phone has a 4.5-inch qHD (540x960 pixels) IPS display and packs in a 2400 mAh battery.
At the rear is a 5 megapixel camera that can record 720p video while the front camera is VGA. The Q700 has 4GB of internal memory and 1GB RAM. In its price bracket the Xolo Q700 will compete with the Karbonn S1 Titanium, that has similar specifications but a lower-rated battery.Moreover, Xolo Q700 is also the first smartphone from Xolo to offer Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) out of the box. Internally the Xolo Q700 will pack in 1.2GHz quad-core processor with PowerVR SGX544 GPU. The smartphone also offers 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB.
Xolo Q700 comes with a 4.5-inch qHD IPS display. Much like the other smartphones in the Q series, Q700 also deploys the One Glass Solution (OGS) technology. It comes with 2400 mAh battery, which as per company claims gives 17 hours of talk time and 380 hours of standby time on 2G and 16 hours of talk time and 350 hours of standby time on 3G.
For camera, there is a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It is a dual-SIM smartphone that also supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity options. This smartphone will not come in traditional colours such as Black, White or Silver but will be available only in Brown and Blue colour.This smartphone is already listed on Flipkart.com but the price isn't shown. We are not sure when this smartphone will be officially launched, but it should be available in this week itself.
Xolo is already offering its Q800 smartphone, which comes with 4.5-inch qHD IPS display. Priced at Rs. 12,499, this smartphone is powered by 1.2GHz quad-core processor along with PowerVR SGX544 GPU. Internally, the device packs in 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB via microSD card. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). There is an 8-megapixel autofocus rear snapper with LED flash, a 1.2-megapixel front camera.
Xolo Q800 is one the star products for the company and with Q700 the company is trying to make quad-core smartphones more affordable. Recently Intex too had launched Intex Aqua Wonder Quadcore for Rs. 9,990. In addition to Intex, Karbonn too is offering Karbonn S1 Titanium and Karbonn S5 Titanium smartphones at a similar price point.
17:12
The Xolo Q800 was launched by Lava mobiles as its flagship quad core mobile. There were great expectations from the Xolo Q800, and it has performed up to its expectations. Micromax Canvas HD still remains unavailable and out of stock, and Xolo Q800 is its competitor and will take advantage of no stock of the Micromax Canvas HD. During our testing we found that the Xolo Q800 performs well and is at par with the Micromax Canvas HD. Our Xolo Q800 review covers up everything that is there in the mobile.
The Xolo comes with normal accessories including 2100 mAh battery, handset, earphones, manual, user guide, micro USB and adapter. Other than these accessories the Xolo Q800 box also includes screen protector that fits perfectly on the screen.
Design
The design of the Xolo Q800 is very good, and in look and feel its truly great. The Xolo Q800 feels like a very expensive mobile. The Xolo Q800 has 3 soft buttons on the front side. It also has volume buttons on the sides, as well as a sleep button.On the rear side of the Xolo Q800 there is the logo and 8 Mega pixels camera. The front side also includes a small 1 Mega pixels front camera.
Memory and Storage
The Xolo Q800 has 1GB RAM, in which we found around 700MB free for user. Other than the RAM, it also has 4GB internal storage in which 1.7GB is user accessible. Micro SD card was also supported in the mobile.
Processor and performance
The Xolo Q800 is powered by Quad Core MT6589 Processor along with PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. The performance of the Xolo Q800 was very good and there were no lags whats so ever. The Xolo Q800 was capable of playing Modern Combat 4. As it can play Modern Combat 4, we also expect that it will also play other high end games.
Benchmarking
AnTuTu - 12560
Quadrant - 4051
Nenamark2 - 58fps
Multi touch - 5 point
Cameras
The Xolo Q800 has 8MP back camera along with 1MP front camera. We found that the back camera was capable of capturing videos in 1080p too. The front camera also performs well. The Xolo Q800 also was able to capture images in low light.
Entertainment
The Xolo Q800 easily played 1080p videos, so in movie watching it performs well. We tried YouTube streaming and found that it performed well, and was capable of streaming 720p videos too. In gaming the Xolo Q800 is capable of playing high end games like the Modern Combat 4 and Need For Speed Most Wanted smoothly.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of the Xolo Q800 was at par with other handsets similar to it. The headphones provided with it are also very good, and you can hear the sounds very clearly. The speakers of the Xolo Q800 are also loud enough for normal usage.
Battery Life
The Xolo Q800 has 2100 mAh battery, which lasts easily for 1 and half days. The battery lasts easily for 1 and half day in normal usage. But heavy gaming consumes too much battery and during heavy gaming we found that the battery lasted for just about 4 hours.
17:07
The Apple iPhone 6 may yet be some time away but there is plenty of interest in this smartphone as you might expect. We’ve been bringing you news, leaks and rumors as we hear it and have already heard some details of expected specs and features. Now we have heard that the iPhone 6 could well be powered by Intel processors rather than Samsung’s. Also we take a look at a designer’s imagination of three iPhone 6 models.
We’ll start with the news of reports saying that Intel processors may be used for the iPhone 6 and also a next-generation iPad. We’ve spoken recently about Apple attempting to reduce its dependence on Samsung components for its devices and an existing contract between Apple and Samsung for processors is set to expire next year. Apple is said to be considering Intel as an alternative processor supplier as Intel tries to make headway into the mobile market.
A partnership between Apple and Intel would be hugely beneficial to both parties, giving Intel a major inroad into the mobile market and offering Apple the reassurance that Intel could manage the vast production that would be necessary as it has extensive manufacturing capacity. According to Business Insider a source from either Apple or Intel says that this possibility has been discussed but that nothing has been finalized yet. As you might expect, Apple declined to comment.
Further to this news we have heard that some industry experts are expecting three iPhone 6 models for 2014 although as far as we are concerned it’s way too early to know anything about this as we still haven’t got to the expected iPhone 5S release this summer. However this hasn’t stopped one independent designer coming up with some imaginings for three different iPhone 6 models.
Peter Zigich predicts three models of the iPhone 6 for 2014, the regular iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 mini and the iPhone 6 XL. His concept designs move the home button from the front of the standard iPhone 6 and instead has a home button on either side giving more space for a bigger display. Zigich also forecasts the iPhone 6 mini, which would be a mid-range model, while the iPhone 6 XL would be a larger-screened premium model.
To give us an even clearer idea Zigich has come up with some pricing of around $650 for the regular iPhone 6, $350 to $450 for the iPad mini with the iPhone 6XL coming in at a between $750 to $900. We’ve shown an image above of all three versions of Zigich’s iPhone 6 and you can see more at iPack3d.
Of course we should remind you that these are one designer’s ideas of future iPhone 6 handsets but we have no way of knowing what Apple will eventually come up with. We’d like to hear your thoughts on the iPhone 6. Can you envisage Intel processors in the iPhone 6.
17:04
The Android platform is becoming awash with numerous different handsets being released from an ever increasing selection of manufacturers, and recently there seems to be more handsets that feature dual SIM compatibility and one such phone we have for you today is the Lava Xolo X500 Intel smartphone that does look rather boring though.
The company is now launching its second smartphone in India that features an Intel Atom processor and will be priced at Rs. 8,999. The handset will come powered by the Intel Atom Lexington Z2420 that was recently shown off at CES 2013, and is expected to hit the shelves shortly.
It features only a 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 320 with the processor clocked at 1.2GHz that uses Intel Hyper Threading Technology. There is 512MB of RAM coupled with 4GB of on board storage that can be expanded further via microSD card by up to 32GB.
There is a five megapixel rear facing camera and the handset uses a 1,500 mAh battery unit, and the Lava Xolo X500 will come running the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. At CES Intel revealed the Lexington Z2420 with its technology that has one core and two threads, and is capable of supporting 1080p HD hardware, accelerated encoding/decoding, and also supports up to two cameras that can deliver advance imaging.
This includes a burst mode that can capture seven pictures in under a second in five megapixel quality. The company’s first Intel based phone released in April last year was the Xolo 900 that used the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system running on the Intel Saltwell 1.6GHz single core processor.
Powered by Intel, X500 runs on the most powerful processor available in its segment, its Intel® Hyper Threading technology offers great speed and enables virtually effortless multitasking.
HTML 5 browser optimized for Intel Atom processor to provide a fast internet browsing experience. Now, browse in a blink with X500 at a breakneck speed of up to 21 Mbps.Get the benefit of excellent image rendering and highly realistic graphics for a superb gaming experience.
XOLO X500 lets you play full HD 1080P videos, now enjoy a great movie watching experience right on your smartphone.This is the first smartphone with Dual SIM on Intel Platform. Enjoy the benefits of two numbers in one handset.
17:00
We’ve been trying to keep readers informed about the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update and when it will come to various devices and today we have heard that Android Jelly Bean has now been ported to Intel Medfield chips. These Intel chips are currently used in some devices running Android 2.3 and Android 4.0 so those with the relevant devices may be a step closer to receiving the 4.1 Jelly Bean update.
Medfield is the title of Intel’s low-power Atom chips and one person who seems pretty excited that Jelly Bean has now been ported to these chips is Intel’s vice president and general manager Mike Bell. At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco he was keen for everyone to know and said, “I’m running it.” He’s not the only one either as Bell went on to add that other Intel employees with Medfield chip devices are also running Jelly Bean.
However he also stressed that although Intel has managed to port Jelly Bean, it isn’t up to the company as to when customers with the relevant devices will begin receiving the 4.1 update. Bell pointed out that this is down carriers and device makers saying, “We can’t put it on the phones. We have to give it to the carriers to put on the phones and they go through acceptance testing,” according to PCWorld.
Although Intel’s entry into the smartphone market is relatively new, with the first devices using an Intel Chip released in April, the company seems pleased enough with its progress so far and there are plans for a dual-core Medfield chip later this year. Smartphones using the new dual-core Medfield chip should then be available from the early part of next year.so far the company has concentrated on tablets using Windows 8 and smartphones using the Android OS, Intel is also considering moves to use the Tizen OS for further devices. It’s all looking very positive at the moment then for Intel’s endeavors within the mobile market.
It’s finally here: an Android-powered smartphone running on an Intel chip. That’s big news, right. Sure it is, but the devil is in the details. The phone in question is the RAZR i – the ”i”, if you couldn’t guess, is for “Intel”, and it’s running one of Intel’s Medfield-based Atom processors.
semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue1, but they’ve been somewhat slow getting into the mobile market (and by that I mean smartphones and tablets). The primary reason for that is due to their architecture. When most people think “Intel” they think x86 and x64 processors. Androids run on ARM chips. What’s the difference? Quite a bit.
To begin with, we can compare the Medfield processor to the ARM Cortex A-9 which runs many of today’s Androids. They’re both 32nm chips, depending on the implementation of the ARM. Generally speaking, smaller chips draw less power, run cooler, and are less expensive to make (because they require less raw materials to make). Some of the ARM processors in today’s smartphones and tablets are built at 45nm or larger, but the new ones like the Samsung Galaxy S III are 32nm.
Processors run code, but in this case they use different instruction sets. The Medfield, like other ATOM chips, is an x86 processor. This means it runs 32bit, CISC-style instructions. ARM processors run 32bit, RISC-style instructions. Normally this would be a problem when it comes to running apps, but Android addresses that very well. Every app that you’ll find in the Play Store runs in a virtual machine (we’ll talk more about that in our next episode of Android Power User), so all another chip vendor has to do is translate the operating system to run on its architecture, and all the existing apps run just fine.
Looking at comments on other news articles covering this topic, that’s a major point of confusion, so let me be perfectly clear: app developers will NOT have to re-write or even re-compile their apps to work on Intel chips. Current apps will “just work”. I can’t make it any more simple than that.
Medfield is spec’d to max out at 2GHz. Like most other processors, it doesn’t run with the throttle full-open, instead it adjusts to the demands of the system. This uses less power and puts off less heat, but also means there is a momentary “hesitation” while the chip ramps up — just like in your car when you hit the gas and it takes a few seconds to get up to speed.
The press release for the RAZR i is a bit ambiguous, saying it’s ”the first smartphone that can achieve speeds of 2.0 GHz”. “Can achieve” and “does achieve” aren’t necessarily the same thing, so I’m a little curious about why Motorola worded their press release using the less clear terminology. Nonetheless, if the phone truly runs at 2GHz, it’ll be a first, and significantly “faster” than other Androids, right.
The ARM Cortex-A9 is capable of up to four cores and 2GHz, though we haven’t seen any devices take full advantage of this yet.The Medfield, unlike the ARM we’re comparing it against, is a single-core processor, but it does employ Intel’s “hyper-threading” technology to give the impression of two cores. Though this isn’t as speedy, it does have advantages over single-core chips. How does it fare with dual- and quad-core ARMs clocked “significantly slower” than 2GHz? Not that great according to early benchmarks.
16:54
This week certainly looks to be a good one for great new smartphones being launched as not only can we expect to see the Galaxy S4, on the same day over in India XOLO are due to launch a superfast Intel based smartphone.The company has sent out invites to an event to see what it is calling “the Fastest Smartphone Ever”, with the handset being announced on March 14th in Goa.
The invitations also give a glimpse of the handset and it is believed to be using the Intel Clover Trail+ processor, which made its debut at MWC 2013 last month, and the news comes after the company released the Q800 in the country.On the invite a picture of the handset can be seen that shows a power or lock button on the top of the handset along with a 3.5mm headphone port, and there is a blue glow alongside this that may be an LED notification light.
The two companies have worked together for a while now, and the Clover Trail+ adds a second CPU core to the processor, which helps to enhance the performance and graphics. The processor will be available in three different versions that are clocked at 1.2GHz, 1.6GHz, and 2.0GHz with each option using two PowerVR SGX 544MP” GPUs.
All of the processors offer support for Full HD resolutions and also have HSPA+ 42Mbps modems, but there is no 4G LTE connectivity offered with them. Cameras up to 16-megapixels are supported for the main unit, with 2-megapixels front facers also supported, which according to Intel can allow the main camera to support up to 15fps in burst mode.
Lava is launching a new Xolo smartphone, that it claims will be the world’s fastest, on the same day that Samsung is launching the Galaxy S IV. Lava is launching the smartphone on 14 March in Goa. The company has begun teasing the event for its smartphone on as “Mission X” on its website and Facebook page along with a countdown, and claims that this is the fastest smartphone ever.
The Clover Trail+ processors include the Z2520, Z2560 and Z2580 which are clocked at 1.2GHz, 1.6GHz and 2GHz respectively.Other details about Lava’s ‘super fast’ smartphone remain sketchy for now.Lava recently released the Xolo Q 800, a quad-core device for Rs 12,499. It runs of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and has a 4.5 inch IPS panel display with 540 x 960 pixel screen resolution, an eight megapixel rear camera, 1.2-megapixel front camera, with 4GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSD card.
Expanding its line-up of Intel-powered smartphones, XOLO has launched the Superfast 4.7 inch screen X1000 smartphone.The XOLO X1000 runs on an Intel Atom processor Z2480 with Intel Hyper-Threading technology and can achieve speeds of 2.0 GHz. This makes it very fast, compared to many other processors clocked at 1 to 1.5 GHz. This also provides consumers with a fast multi-tasking experience. The phone also is also equipped with a 400 MHz graphics processor to enable full 1080p HD video encoding and playback. It also renders realistic 3D image reproduction for immersive gaming and video experience.
The 4.7-inch SHARP HD 2.5 D edge curved glass display phone uses a single glass that integrates seamlessly with the unibody design nullifying any possible refraction. The 1280 by 720 HD display resolution offers a 312 PPI (pixel per inch) pixel density.The phone has an 8 megapixel primary auto-focus rear camera with LED flash and multiple shooting modes including a burst mode which operates at 15 frames per second (FPS). The phone also has am 1.3 megapixel front camera.
While launching the phone Vishal Sehgal, Co-founder and Director, Lava International said, “with XOLO X1000 and its 2Ghz Intel HT processor, the customers will get to experience an entirely new definition of speed and performance. That, added to the stunning looks of this smartphone, is sure to take the breath away of our ever-growing tribe of XOLO lovers”.
16:47
It seems that many manufactures want to jump on the smartphone bandwagon especially when it comes to the rapidly expanding Android platform, and today we have news of the UK exclusive Orange Santa Clara Intel Android smartphone.
The handset was first revealed back in February at the Mobile World Congress, and the device will join the number of other Intel Medfield powered devices that includes the Lenovo K800 we reported about recently. According to Android Central the handset that has been given the codename of Santa Clara will be showcased this coming Thursday, May 31st, by Orange UK.
It will become the first Intel powered Android device to land in the UK market, and it seems that the Santa Clara name will change at the devices launch in the country. The device will be Orange branded and will likely follow other handsets from the carrier that are generally low end, low cost handsets usually picked up by customers opting for pay-as-you-go price plans.
Currently there is no information regarding pricing or release dates, but this should become clearer at the showcase for the device on Thursday. The handset is listed on the Orange website and the specifications point to a mid-range at best smartphone with its 1.6Ghz Intel Atom Z2460 processor. The Santa Clara has a 4-inch WVGA screen, HSPA+, 16GB of internal memory, and an eight megapixel rear camera.
Orange list the handset as running the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, but hopefully it will soon get treated to the Android Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, as looking at the specs of the device should be more than capable of running the software, but as recent news is anything to go by this won’t be guaranteed.
Intel has been talking up its Atom Z2460 Medfield processor at MWC 2012, and the Orange “Santa Clara” is the latest carrier win and a confirmed attack on the European market. Running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the 1.6 GHz x86 processor, with a 4-inch WVGA display and 8-megapixel camera, the Santa Clara tries to convince us that ARM isn’t the only company with skills in the cellphone market.
Intel and Orange are talking about both battery power and photo capabilities with the Santa Clara, though both are still unproven. The promise is “leading performance and energy efficiency” though there are no actual predictions on battery life; as for the photographic abilities, that’s a common trope here at the show, and firing off ten shots in under a second might not be enough to differentiate from capable Android alternatives and others.
There’s not a huge amount of difference between the Santa Clara and the Lenovo smartphone we played with at CES, and frankly they’re not the most inspiring of Android devices around. Still, Intel is pushing strong for Medfield in phones, and it needs to set up a solid baseline if it wants to catch up with the more esoteric models running the near-ubiquitous ARM chips.
16:43
Lenovo has a new Android smartphone on their hands called the Lenovo K800, a smartphone that is apparently the first Intel powered smartphone with the handset sporting an Intel Medfield processor, and we have a nice little Lenovo K800 hands-on video for your viewing consideration below so you can check out what the device offers.
The Lenovo K800 hands-on footage comes our way courtesy of the guys over at Engadget who managed to get a little hands-on playtime with the new Android smartphone at the ShowStoppers event at CES 2012 and delivers an almost three minute look at the device along with a quick side-by-side size comparison with the Samsung Galaxy Note.
Spec wise the Lenovo K800 is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone with a 4.5-inch 720p touch screen, an 8 megapixel camera with a max sensitivity of ISO 3200, front facing camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and that 1.6GHz Intel Medfield processor of course and a 1900mAh battery, no word on whether the K800 will see an update to Android 4.0 yet though.
Apparently the Lenovo K800 shown was running on the AT&T 3G network and is compatible with WCDMA and HSPA+, but there’s no word on whether there will be an LTE enabled model, and that the Lenovo K800 will launch first in China.Obviously no word on just how much the K800 will hit the pocket for or just when it will be released. So with all that said and done all you need do now is head on down to mash that play button to check out the first Intel powered smartphon to enjoy.If you have enjoyed this Phones Review article feel free to add me to your circles on Google+ and I will of course add you back.
Lenovo has announced their new K800 Android powered smartphone and while doing so, has officially become the first company to get Intel’s Medfield SoC chip on their K800. The smartphone runs on Intel’s Atom Z2460 chip and comes with Android 4.0 with Lenovo’s LeOS customized skin. As reported by AndroidOS, the K800 comes with a 4.5-inch screen with a 720p resolution and runs on a single core 1.6GHz processor.
The Lenovo K800 comes with an 8mp shooter at the back with dual LED flash and a front camera. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and WiDi (Wireless Display). Pricing or availability of the smartphone hasn’t been disclosed yet, and the only information that is currently available is that the phone will be released in China in Q2, 2012.
16:39
Orange has announced a new smartphone that launches exclusively to its customers in the UK and France. The Orange Santa Clara is a high-performance Android phone and joins Orange’s portfolio of own-branded devices. It’s also the first Orange smartphone to feature Intel technology.
This smartphone is currently dubbed the Santa Clara and will launch in the summer where it will be given a different commercial name. The Santa Clara will run on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS but there are plans to upgrade that to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich shortly after launch. It will include the Intel Atom Z2460 processor, and supports HSPA+ with Intel’s XMM 6260 platform. This will give fast browsing capability along with energy efficiency. The Santa Clara also features a 4.03-inch display with resolution of 600×1024, 16GB of memory and weighs in at 117g with dimensions of 123mm x 63mm x 9.99mm.
As well as this it also sports an 8-megapixel rear camera that can 10 pictures in under one second and also has 1080p HD video capture along with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Locally relevant Orange services will also feature on this phone including Orange TV, Orange Wednesdays, Your Orange, Orange Gestures, Daily Motion and for France only, Deezer.
Orange’s Senior Vice President of Mobile Multimedia and Devices Yves Maitre says, “For ten years, Orange has pioneered a successful own-branded approach to delivering to its customers high quality, affordable handsets in all price ranges, packed with locally relevant and unique services and features. We are delighted to be partnering with Intel to add such an exceptional device to our portfolio.” This article also tells how the Santa Clara will feature NFC support, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, GPS, HDMI-out and media player and will be compatible with global GSM and 3G networks.
After all the talk, Intel has finally done it... it has launched a mobile phone with Orange and Gigabyte, with an Intel chip inside, and Pocket-lint has already gone hands-on with the new device.Built by Gigabyte and to be sold by the network in the UK this summer, the Orange Santa Clara will come initially with Android 2.3 Gingerbread but quickly get the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich, we've been told.
If the handset looks familiar, that's because it's almost the same design as the Smartphone Reference Design that Intel was showing at CES 2012.
Priced in the UK around the £20 - £30 per month marker, rather than jaw dropping flagship £50 pm plan, Orange hopes the phone will sit alongside past successes such as the Orange San Francisco models launched in 2011.In terms of the actual tech specs, the Orange Santa Clara uses the Intel Atom 1.6GHz Z2460 processor. It features a 4-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, giving you a pixel density of 294.
For connectivity, you get mini HDMI and Micro-USB and on the wireless front it's well connected too. HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS, Wi-Fi b/g/n and NFC are all on board. Being an Orange handset, it also gives you HD Voice.Surprisingly for an own-brand handset, you get an 8-megapixel camera on the back with 1080p video capture and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front. It also features burst photo capture at 10fps for all those action moments.
There is plenty of internal storage at 16GB and one of Intel's claims for its smartphone chipset is that it will give you good battery performance - 14 days standby. Of course, how this turns into real-world usage we've yet to see. The phone measures 123 x 63 x 9.99mm and weighs 117g.
In the hand it is zippy, with Orange keen to show off features that it believes the Intel chip is good for. In the case of our demo that results in the test of a 360-degree video app that allows you to move around a panoramic video scene as it is playing. And the handset can also take 10 burst shots with the 8-megapixel camera in around one second.
While the HTC One X with its Tegra 3 quad-core processor from Nvidia and the HTC One S with its Qualcomm S4 processor can do both too, they are expected to be high-end and high-priced phones.The Orange Santa Clara is Intel's first foray into the world of smartphones, but judging by what we've seen so far, it looks like Nvidia, Qualcomm and others will have a challenger on their hands. Perhaps not today, but certainly in the future.
16:30
When Xolo had launched the Xolo A1000 (Review | Pictures), we had mentioned that the smartphone comes with stunning looks. With Xolo X1000, the company has raised the bar even higher.Xolo X1000 sports a uni-body design and the black and steel combo gives the smartphone a premium look. It comes with 4.7-inch TFT LCD has a 2.5 D edge-to-edge curved glass panel. There is a front camera and speaker grill located on the top of the display in the middle. There are no physical buttons on the front of the smartphone.
It also has well-rounded corners with a rubbery finish at the back, which makes the smartphone easy to grip. The top panel houses the power/ standby button and the 3.5mm audio jack. On the bottom panel is the USB/charging slot. The left panel houses the volume rocker button, while the right panel has been left blank.
On the back, there is 8-megapixel camera and an aesthetically placed thin steel strip just below the camera. As it is a uni-body smartphone, the consumers cannot access the battery. However, there is a small button at back that be pushed to expose the SIM slot and the microSD card slot. However, consumers who do not have long fingers might find inserting SIM and microSD in the tiny slots an ordeal.Another thing that adds to Xolo X1000's style quotient is that the device is just 9.1 mm thick. The device weighs 140 grams.On the overall, we find that Xolo has worked quite hard on design element of this smartphone and tried to give it a premium look.
Display
Xolo X1000 comes with 4.7-inch screen with 720x1280 pixel '2.5 D' edge-to-edge curved glass display and a pixel density of 312 ppi. We found the screen to be quite bright and sporting good colour reproduction. The viewing angles on the Xolo X1000 are good and sunlight legibility is respectable. Reading eBooks, watching Youtube clips and browsing pictures on this smartphone is a pleasurable affair.
We found that the display of this smartphone to be better than that of similarly priced Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos. As a matter of fact, the display Xolo X1000 had an edge over the recently launched Micromax Canvas HD too .Xolo X1000 has a reflective screen. The touch response of this smartphone is good.
Camera
Xolo X1000 packs in an 8-megapixel rear camera with a 15fps burst mode. We experienced no lags while clicking pictures. The images taken through the rear camera under daylight are very sharp. Pictures clicked indoors are respectable as well.
This smartphone also comes with front-facing 1.3-megapxiel camera. Clicking pictures and making video calls through this camera is a standard affair.
The back camera is also capable of shooting full-HD video at 30 frames per second. The quality of videos captured through Xolo X1000 is good as well.
Software/ Interface
The biggest downside for Xolo X1000 is that it runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box. However, the company has indicated that they are working on providing update to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) really soon and one can expect the same to land on this smartphone by the beginning of next quarter. The company has also indicated that the upgrade with be pushed out over-the-air (OTA) just like the way it had done for its Xolo X900.
Xolo X1000 runs on the stock version of Android 4.0. The smartphone comes with five customisable home screens to fill with widgets and icons. Xolo X1000 also comes pre-loaded with apps such as Dropbox, FM Radio, Memo, Movie Studio, PIM backup, Play Music, News and weather, Wireless display, Xolo Care and Weather forecast. The smartphone also has Chrome and stock Android browser pre-installed.With the help of FM Radio app, one can listen to their favourite radio stations on the go. The app also allows one to save six favourite FM radio stations for easy access.
PIM Backup app helps in backing up contacts and SMS. This app also helps users to restore contacts and SMS from any folder to their smartphone.It is also worth pointing out that since this is an Intel-based smartphone, not all apps available in Google Play will work on the Xolo X1000.
Performance/ Battery
Before the launch of this smartphone, it was expected that Xolo will be packing in Intel Clover Trail+ chipset in this smartphone. However, Xolo has used Intel Atom Z2480 processor in this smartphone. The processor is augmented with Intel's "Hyper Threading technology and can clock speed of 2GHz. Xolo X1000 also comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The smartphone is very responsive and we did not face any lags of any sort while playing around with it.
Video playback of this smartphone is good. However, one cannot play any .avi files on this smartphone but that can be easily fixed by downloading an app from the Google Play Store. The audio playback on this smartphone through speakers as well as headphones is quite loud and clear.Playing popular games such as Temple Run 2, Angry Birds and Subway Surfer is a breezy affair. However, not all high-end games are compatible with the phone due to its Intel chipset.
The browsing experience while using Chrome and Android browser is good. The smartphone is able to render webpages well. The Flash player plugin is also pre-installed in Xolo X1000.Xolo X1000 comes with a 1900mAH battery, which as per company estimates should provide up to 9.5 hours of talk time on 3G/ 2G while the standby time is said to be 13-14 days. In our usage, we find that one can comfortably get a day's usage from this smartphone.Unlike most smartphones being launched in the market, Xolo X1000 is a single SIM smartphone. The call quality of this smartphone is respectable.
16:25
After launching the Xolo A700, Xolo A800, Xolo A500 and Xolo X500, the company is all set to launch another smartphone in India - Xolo A1000. According to our sources, this smartphone will have 5-inch HD screen. It will run on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) out of the box.
Xolo A1000 deploys one glass solution (OGS) and is just 8.8 mm thick. The phone is powered by a dual-core Mediatek MT6577 processor that clocks at speeds of 1GHz. It is the same processor that powers the Xolo A700 and Xolo A800.It is noteworthy, that Xolo also sells smartphones with Intel chips under the 'X' series.
Other specs we've heard about the Xolo A1000 include 1GB of RAM and a 2100 mAh battery powering this phone. Like the other smartphones from the company, this one to is expected to be a dual-SIM device. For camera, there will be an 8-megapixel shooter with LED flash at the back and 1.2-megapixel camera one in the front.
We expect that this smartphone will be available in the market from February 18, 2013 and will be priced between Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 15,000. The smartphone will be available in two colour options black and white and the white version will be in the market.
Xolo A1000 will be the first 5-inch smartphone from the company. The earlier launched Xolo A700 comes with a 4-inch screen with qHD (960 x 540 pixels) display, while the Xolo A800 comes with a 4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) screen.Looks like Xolo is getting aggressive about its product portfolio and we might be able to see a few more interesting smartphones being offered by this brand by the time the financial year comes to an end.
The HD display uses One Glass Solution (OGS) Technology that makes the device sleeker and offers better color reproduction. There is a 1.2 MP front-facing camera with BSI sensor at the top. There are 3 capacitive touch buttons for multitasking, home and backbelow the display.
The Xolo A1000 has dual SIM support, similar to the previous Xolo phones. Both SIM slots placed besides each other, accompanying them is a micro SD card slot. It has an 8 MP auto focus camera with LED flash, BSI sensor and HDR capabilities. The connectivity features include, 3G (HSDPA: 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA: 5.7 Mbps), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.
16:20
The A500 weighs 122 grams with an 11.8mm thickness. It is bulkier in the center and slimmer towards the edges. There are 3 touch sensitive buttons on front side with in-call speaker, sensors and front camera.
The power button is on the right, volume rockers on the left side, 3.5mm jack on top and micro USB port at the bottom. The rear side is back color with matt finishing (depending on the colour you choose (Black or White)).
As mentioned the dual SIM handset is with 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, Dual Core processor (QRD MSM 8225) with Adreno 203 GPU that supports HD gaming. The QRD stands for Qualcomm Reference Design – low cost core to compete with low cost MediaTek processors.
The handset comes with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. The storage space for apps is excellent; however the free RAM is low. The handset runs on the Android 4.0.4 (ICS) OS.
Of the 512MB RAM about 143 MB is free.
Of the 4GB internal storage: 1.8GB is allocated for apps storage and 0.96 GB as internal storage.
You can select preferred install location for example the external SD card and apps do install on the external SD card.
When you tap the app option in settings you get two options.
The ROM seems a little different and tweaked. There are few options on the top screen menu and for example when you enable the Wi-Fi, you will see a box with the list of access point and the one you are connecting to. The ROM has been modified it’s not like the ones you see on other handsets.
Display
The TFT LCD screen is 4 inches supporting resolution of 800×480 pixels. Touch is really smooth and responsive. The viewing angle is okay. You can view the display in direct sunlight with full brightness or with auto brightness option.
Performance
The benchmark scores are as follows:
Quadrant Benchmark: 2490.
Antutu Benchmark: 6022.
Nenamark2: 27.0fps.
Linpack: Single 42, Multi 72.
Multi Touch: 2 points.
Connectivity
The handset supports 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS without AGPS support and Bluetooth. With 3G you can enjoy high speed net at max 7.2Mbps (HSDPA). There is built in GPS without A-GPS support, even then I got a lock within 10 seconds.
Gaming
You can check the gaming video at the end of the article. The Adreno 203 is capable of playing many HD games but I feel the mediatek’s PowerVR 531 SGX is slightly better than this. Moreover the low RAM spoils the fun. But for the price you shouldn’t complain.
I could install many games but some games like the Dead trigger crashed the Google play app (see the gaming video).
Camera
The rear camera is a 5MP fixed focus with led flash. The still picture quality is good, however like with every smartphone the LED flash is not sufficient enough to get better quality images in low light conditions.There is front camera but native video calling is not supported. The camera interface is slightly modified with several new options. You can record videos in 720p resolution but the quality is not that good. 720p videos are recorded in 3gp mode with 16 fps.
Entertainment
The handset cannot pay 720p videos smoothly. Sound output is loud, a little higher than as on A110.
Battery
The battery is of 1500 mAh capacity. If you use 3G, Wi-Fi or play games the battery will discharge much faster. I did the gaming video and also played a game for few minutes. In all I used the device for approx 15 minutes and the battery percent dropped 11%. The handset heats up a little but it’s acceptable.
A low cost dual core smartphone for under Rs. 7,000 ( You can get it for around Rs. 6,500 ). A powerful phone with ICS OS but with limited free memory. Even then the handset performs well but it could lag once you start adding too many apps. The internal storage space is really good that can fit in a lot more apps.
The A500 can play many games but do not expect every game to work. The 5MP fixed focus camera is good for still outdoor photography but the 720p video quality is not at all good. The 720p videos that played well on Xolo A700 and Xolo 800 did not play smoothly. A good buy for 6,500 but do not expect much from the camera. The A500 is also beats all the single core handsets that are priced at around the same for example the Micromax A68 that comes for Rs. 6,500.
16:15
Lava International has quietly rolled out another smartphone as part of its Xolo A-series. Dubbed as the Xolo A500, it comes with 4-inch TFT Capacitive Touchscreen and has a resolution of 480X800 Pixels. It is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait processor along with 512MB RAM. Xolo A500 comes with 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded to up to 32GB via microSD card, 5-megapixel rear camera and VGA front camera.
It is a dual-SIM smartphone (GSM+GSM) and supports 3G on the primary SIM. It runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and comes with a 1,500 mAh, which the company claims to give 9 hours of talk time on 2G and a standby time of 310 hours. Xolo A500 is available in the market for Rs. 6,999.
The company is currently offering four smartphones under the Xolo brand and the price range varies between Rs. 6,999 to Rs. 17,500. The first device in this series was the Intel-powered Xolo X900, which was launched in April 2012 and is now retailing for Rs. 17,500.The company also recently launched the Xolo A700 and Xolo A800. Xolo A700 is a dual-SIM smartphone, which is powered by a 1GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor, runs on Android 4.0 and comes with a 1,700mAh battery.
Xolo A800 on the other hand, features a 4.5-inch screen, a dual-core 1GHz processor and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). This smartphone is available for Rs. 11,999.Lava International is also planning to launch its second Intel-powered smartphone in India, Xolo X500 for Rs. 8,999.
The Xolo A500 comes powered by a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8225 processor with 512MB RAM, 4 inch LCD screen and 5MP fixed focus camera. The handset is priced at Rs. 6,999 but you can get it for as low as Rs. 6,500 from local market.I believe the hardware and most of the specs are almost similar to the Videocon A30 that is also priced at around the same. This is a low cost dual core handset by Xolo sold by Lava International.
Xolo A500 is a dual-SIM Android ICS based touchscreen handset, coming to users with 1GHz dual core Qualcomm Krait processor, which is seconded by a 512MB RAM. The 4 inch WVGA screen of the handset is quite capable playing HD videos. In the camera section, there is a 5MP camera on the rear side of the body, supported by an LED flash, and a 0.3MP camera on the front. For Internet, there is GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, and Wi-Fi; for data transfer, the handset has USB and Bluetooth connectivity. The 1500 mAh battery of the device lets the users stay connected for long. Other features include, GPS, 4GB internal & 32GB expandable memory, and Adreno 203 GPU.
16:08
Lava entered the smartphone segment with the X900 in the Xolo series way back in May 2012. This was the first smartphone in the world to come with an 'Intel Inside' tag. So, the Indian handset maker has taken a U-turn and returned to familiar territory of budget smartphones with the latest members of the Xolo series - Lava Xolo A800 and Lava Xolo A700. Both these smartphones run on Mediatek's dual-core MT6577 chipset.Priced at Rs. 11,999 the Xolo A800 comes with a 4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) screen, 512 MB RAM and an 8-megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash. Let's find out if this device from Lava's Xolo series is a worthy contender in the smartphone market.
Design/ Hardware
The White coloured Lava Xolo A800 looks very similar to Samsung Galaxy S III. However, it comes with a matte finish, which makes this smartphone look less plasticky than the Galaxy S III.The Xolo A800 has round corners with an aesthetically done silver border. The front of the device is mostly taken up by the 4.5-inch screen. There are three Android buttons - Menu, Home and Back - embossed at the bottom of the screen and a VGA camera on the top. The left panel houses the volume keys and Micro-USB/charging port.
The back panel has an 8-megapixel camera and the loudspeaker. The 3.5mm jack and power/wake button find room on the top panel.In terms of hardware, the device is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor with 512MB RAM, has 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB with microSD.The Xolo A800 is a dual-SIM smartphone and supports GSM SIM card in both the slots. On opening the back panel one notices a big black rectangular patch attached perhaps to maintain space between the battery and the back panel. This looks extremely out of place and we would have appreciated if Lava would have paid a bit more attention to detailing.
Display
The Lava Xolo A800 comes with a 4.5-inch 16M colour capacitive touch screen IPS display with 245 ppi. The display and the viewing angles look good. The under-sun visibility on the Lava Xolo A800 was decent. The screen used in this smartphone is reflective.
Camera
The pictures captured through the 8-megapixel auto focus camera on board are quite crisp and clear. The Lava Xolo A800 comes with a BSI Sensor, which made sure that even the low-light pictures look decent. The quality of videos captures through the back camera is good too.There is a VGA front camera, which takes average pictures, pretty much like any other front camera. All in all, the camera experience on the smartphone is good; wish it had a dedicated camera button to help click a quick one.
Software/ Interface
The Lava Xolo A800 runs on Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). There are five customisable home screens to fill with apps and widgets. The software runs quite smoothly pretty much like any other stock Android smartphone.There aren't too many pre-loaded applications on Lava Xolo A800 except NoteBook and Xolo care but one can always download them from Google Play Store.With the help of the Noteook app one can take quick notes. These notes can be under various categories such as work, personal, family affair or uncategorized. Saved notes can be easily accessed through this app.
Performance/ Battery
As mentioned earlier, the Lava Xolo A800 comes with Mediatek's dual-core MT6577 chipset rather than Intel's chipset that was seen on the earlier Xolo A900. However, we found this smartphone to be quite smooth and responsive. There were no real lags that we faced while using the device.Powered by a 1,600mAh battery, the Xolo A800 is easily able to last a day on single charge.The audio quality is good both on the headphones and the loudspeaker.
For about 12K, the Lava Xolo A800 is an interesting smartphone. It has a good display and delivers a decent performance. However, consumers looking for a large screen smartphone might be tempted to bend towards, Micromax Canvas 2 A110, which has a 5-inch screen and a bigger battery (2000mAh). Micromax Canvas 2 A110 is powered by the same processor and runs on Android 4.0. Also, Micromax's device is available at a best buy price of Rs. 10,000. Lava Xolo A800 scores better than its Micromax only on the display front.
16:03
The Design made by Lava is very good and personally I am very impressed with its design, it is very convenient to handle the device instead of the big display. The side s of the device has been made curved and the rough velvet back panel gives perfect grip to handle the device.
Now, we come across the Build quality of A700, which is impressive. Below the screen are three capacitive buttons which offer feedback on pressing. The buttons correspond to the multitasking, menu and back keys. The touch keys are very sensitive and look very nice. The slim design make it more elegant which is just 9.1 mm and the back panel is also nice with the Rear camera and LED at top of the device and the XOLO printed in the middle portion.
On the right, the design has been kept plain. A power / standby sticks out towards the top and is in correct position so that it will be comfortable for users to easily unlock the device even when using it single handed. The Left side device supports, a volume rocker can be found towards the top and a located camera key is below it. We’re quite surprised to see the camera key in what is admittedly a very unusual and uncomfortable location. The over-all body is made up of Plastics and its quality is very good.
XOLO A700 gives the front of 4.5″ with the maximum resolution of 960×540. The display is good enough to handle all the day today usages and renders decent output while video streaming also. Since it is the budget device then also Lava has put forward the good display with the IPS LCD touch screen which is capacitive. The color combination of the screen is impressive, it display good with the different angles and the gamma as per brightness is also good.
The color density is 16 M which is good and made the color combination awesome. In the sunlight the screen is very clear and the ambient light sensor which has been installed in the device is very useful. The brightness of the device is much better than Galaxy Y or any other device tagged for the same price range. There is no corning Gorilla Glass protection so you need to be careful about the screen of the device.
The Mediatek M6577 processor clocked at 1GHz gives a very smooth experience on the A700, while it is Dual-Core Processor the performance of the Processor is good while Playing Videos upto 720p or playing Casual games. But you can face problem while having many games installed or running multiple apps means more than 5 apps at a time. There is barely any lag which using the browser, opening and closing tabs and running apps.
A700 comes with a 512MB ram which is good enough to handle all the apps and the casual games. But it if it could be upto 786MB, then it was god to have many multiple apps. The phone becomes slightly sluggish when you are running a few applications at a time.
The connectivity of the device is quite good as the phone is equipped with Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi b/g/n radios allowing for local internet connectivity. Since it is dual SIM, it supports for a 3G+2G mode, means you can connect and work on 3G through only the First SIM, the second one will work only in the 2G. There’s a GPS radio built in to make use of mapping services and applications. Voice calls on the device has to be held close to the ears means the SAR mentioned is 0.67 max. The quality of the Voice calls is good in the device, you can talk hours with utmost no problem.
15:58
The Xolo A700 is powered by a MTK6577 dual core processor with 512MB RAM and 4.5 inch qHD display. The handset comes with a 5MP rear camera, a front camera and supports dual SIM. Inside the box there is the A700 model in pure black colour with silver sides, USB to Micro USB cable, power adapter, earphone, warranty booklet and user manual.
Design
The handset definitely looks much better and slimmer than the Micromax A110. The handset is 9.1mm thick. The front side has got 3 touch sensitive buttons, in call speaker, sensors and front camera. The rear side is black colour with matt finishing and comfortable to hold.
The power button is on the right and volume rockers on the left. There is one more button (the camera button) on the left side just below the volume rockers. You need to press and hold the camera button for few seconds to launch the camera app, you can also use it for clicking photos.
Inside the hood
I will make this quick – it’s the same hardware MTK6577 + PowerVR SGX 531 GPU as seen on many other handsets like Xolo A800, Micromax A110, Lava Iris 501 and many more. The Xolo A700 supports dual SIM, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm jack and micro USB port. The handset sails on the Android 4.0 (ICS) OS.
The display screen is 4.5 inches with 960×540 pixels resolution (16M colours). There is a 5MP rear camera capable of shooting videos in 720p resolution and a front 0.3MP camera for video calling. The handset weighs about 115 grams.
The Lava A700 comes with accelerometer, proximity and light sensors. There is no magnetic sensor. A 1700 mAh battery powers the handset with 3 hours talkime over 3G network and 288 hours standby time on 3G network. If you are using only the 2G network then you get 6 hours talktime and 425 hours standby time.
RAM is 512MB of which 223MB is free.
There is 4GB internal storage of which 503 MB is allocated for apps (467MB free) and 2GB as internal storage, similar to as seen on A110 and A800.
There is micro SD slot for adding additional storage of up to 32GB.
Performance
I did not find any issues with the handset. The touch is smooth and responsive. The apps load faster, no lags and text rendering is pretty smooth. The image quality is really good thanks to smaller screen and higher resolution. Viewing angle is good. The sound is loud and clear. In call sound is also good enough.
Benchmark Scores
Quadrant Benchmark: 2747.
Anutu Benchmark: 6333.
Nenamark2: 23.6 fps.
Linpack : Single 36 , Multi 55.
Multi Touch : 5 Point.
Camera
The auto focus 5MP camera captures decent shots. The indoor shots are not that good – it is the case with many handsets. You can record videos in 720p resolution. But I found that the auto focus was not working in 720p video mode and had to tap the screen to focus the subject. You can check the sample video at the end of the article.
Entertainment
The sound quality is good. You can play 720p videos – 1080p videos not supported. The sound output is better via earphones of a good quality better than what you get with MMX A110.
Battery
The handset comes with 1700 mAh battery. I did not get enough time to check the battery. But the battery drop was decent while I was doing the review / benchmarks. It should last for over a day with moderate usage. The handset does get heated up a bit when used continuously for some time.
15:52
It’s interesting that Intel, Qualcomm, and others identified and went with WSVGA (1024x600) for their reference designs in roughly the same 4" size. It’s a display form factor that corresponds almost exactly to 300 PPI, and looks great, but more on that later. The rest of the X900 is basically what you’d expect for a smartphone of this generation, and on par with the Android competition that Intel was targeting, perhaps minus microSD expansion.
The design language of the X900 (and Intel FFRD) is a pretty obvious nod to the iPhone 4/4S design, complete with chrome ring, similar button placement, and a few other things. Likewise, the X900 uses a microSIM whose tray is located on the right side and makes use of an ejector port and tool. Below that is the X900’s two-stage camera button, and then speaker port. There’s a matching speaker port on the other side in the same area
MicroUSB is located at the very bottom slightly off center, and microHDMI is on the left side. Up at the top is power/standby and the standard headphone jack. There’s no real surprises here, and despite being entirely plastic-clad, the X900 feels pretty decent in the hand.
The backside is a soft touch material which we’ve seen and felt on countless other smartphones before. The only downside to the X900 design is lack of a user replaceable battery - the backside is permanently attached. At the top is the 8 MP camera port, adjacent LED flash, and secondary microphone for noise suppression.
The front of the X900 is likewise pretty standard fare - up top are the 1.3 MP front facing camera, speaker grille, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor. At the bottom are the four Android capacitive buttons whose design mirrors the FFRD we’ve seen before.Intel® Atom 1.6 GHz processor with Hyper-Threading Technology and 1GB RAM makes the XOLO X900 the benchmark in its class. Fast web browsing, responsive apps and effortless multi-tasking makes you enjoy the things you love to do, all in the blink-of-an-eye.
Use the advanced 8MP HD camera with photo-burst mode that lets you capture images quickly - 10 photos in less than a second in one click. So you never miss the best shot, ever. The high speed 400 MHz graphics engine provides rich and immersive 3D gaming with super-responsive graphics. Combined with the high resolution 1024X600 pixels display, XOLO gives you a full HD video output on the go. Ensures you never have a dull moment.
15:45
For Intel, the road to their first real competitive smartphone SoC has been a long one. Shortly after joining AnandTech and beginning this journey writing about both smartphones and the SoC space, I remember hopping on a call with Anand and some Intel folks to talk about Moorestown. While we never did see Moorestown in a smartphone, we did see it in a few tablets, and even looked at performance in an OpenPeak Tablet at IDF 2011. Back then performance was more than competitive against the single core Cortex A8s in a number of other devices, but power profile, lack of ISP, video encode, decode, or PoP LPDDR2 support, and the number of discrete packages required to implement Moorestown, made it impossible to build a smartphone around.
While Moorestown was never the success that Intel was hoping for, it paved the way for something that finally brings x86 both down to a place on the power-performance curve that until now has been dominated by ARM-powered SoCs, and includes all the things hanging off the edges that you need (ISP, encode, decode, integrated memory controller, etc), and it’s called Medfield. With Medfield, Intel finally has a real, bona fide SoC that is already in a number of devices shipping before the end of 2012.
In both an attempt to prove that its Medfield platform is competitive enough to ship in actual smartphones, and speed up the process of getting the platform to market, Intel created its own smartphone Form Factor Reference Design (FFRD). While the act of making a reference device is wholly unsurprising since it’s analogous to Qualcomm’s MSM MDPs or even TI’s OMAP Blaze MDP, what is surprising is its polish and aim. We’ve seen and talked about the FFRD a number of times before, including our first glimpse at IDF 2011 and numerous times since then.
Led by Mike Bell (of Apple and Palm, formerly), a team at Intel with the mandate of making a smartphone around Medfield created a highly polished device as both a demonstration platform for OEM customers and for sale directly to the customer through participating carriers. This FFRD has served as the basis for the first Medfield smartphones that will (and already are) shipping this year, including the Orange Santa Clara, Lenovo K800, and the device we’re looking at today, the Lava Xolo X900. Future Medfield-based devices will deviate from the FFRD design (like the upcoming Motorola device), but will still be based loosely on the whole Medfield platform. For now, in the form of the X900 we’re basically looking at the FFRD with almost no adulteration from carriers or other OEMs.The purpose and scope of this review is ambitious and really covers two things - both an overview of Intel’s Medfield platform built around the Atom Z2460 Penwell SoC, and a review of the Xolo X900 smartphone FFRD derivative itself.
Beginning April 23rd, Intel, through Lava International, began selling the Xolo X900 smartphone in India for INR 22000 (~$420 USD). As we’ve stated before, the design and construction of the Xolo X900 almost identically mirrors the Intel FFRD we’ve seen before, from the specifications and Medfield platform itself, to industrial design and exterior buttons.
It’s a testament to the polish of the reference design that Mike Bell’s team put together that Intel is confident enough to basically sell exactly that device through carrier partners. I’ll admit I was skeptical upon hearing that Intel would basically be selling their MDP to customers, but the device’s fit and polish exceeded my expectations and are clearly those of something ready for customer abuse. First up are the X900 specifications in our regular table (below), Xolo also has its own nicely presented specifications page for the X900 online.
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Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Intel is the world's largest and highest valued semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel Corporation, founded on July 18, 1968, is a portmanteau of Integrated Electronics (the fact that "intel" is the term for intelligence information was also quite suitable). Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors and other devices related to communications and computing.
Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Though Intel was originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, its "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.
Intel was an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips, and this represented the majority of its business until 1981. Although Intel created the world's first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was not until the success of the personal computer (PC) that this became its primary business. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs fostering the rapid growth of the computer industry. During this period Intel became the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive and sometimes illegal tactics in defense of its market position, particularly against Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry.The 2011 rankings of the world's 100 most valuable brands published by Millward Brown Optimor showed the company's brand value at number 58 and in 2012 at number 49.
Intel has also begun research in electrical transmission and generation.Intel has recently introduced a 3-D transistor that improves performance and energy efficiency. Intel has begun mass-producing this 3-D transistor, named the Tri-Gate transistor, with their 22 nm process, which is currently used in their 3rd generation core processors initially released on April 29, 2012.In 2011, SpectraWatt Inc., a solar cell spinoff of Intel, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.The Open Source Technology Center at Intel hosts PowerTOP and LatencyTOP, and supports other open-source projects such as Wayland, Intel Array Building Blocks, Intel Threading Building Blocks, and Xen.
Mobile processor
In June 2011, Intel introduced the first Pentium mobile processor based on the Sandy Bridge core. The B940, clocked at 2 GHz, is faster than existing or upcoming mobile Celerons, although it is almost identical to dual-core Celeron CPUs in all other aspects.According to IHS iSuppli's report on September 28, 2011, Sandy Bridge chips have helped Intel increase its market share in global processor market to 81.8%, while AMD's market share dropped to 10.4%.
Intel planned to introduce Medfield – a processor for tablets and smartphones to the market in 2012, as an effort to compete with ARM.As a 32-nanometer processor, Medfield is designed to be energy-efficient, which is one of the core features in ARM’s chips.At the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) 2011 in San Francisco, Intel's partnership with Google was announced. By January 2012, Google's Android 2.3 will use Intel's Atom microprocessor.
