Intel SmartPhone Chip To Hit Market In India, Feature 45 Hour Battery Life

The smartphone market is dominated by ARM processors in the same way that desktop computing is dominated by Intel, but now the maker of high performance desktop chips, wishing to make inroads into the mobile field, has premiered its first commercially available smartphone chip in its new Medfield line.

While traditional Intel chips are power hungry beasts, the new line should be able to compete on an even footing with the power-sipping ARM architecture in your current handheld device. Despite previous assertions that the new chips, which are based on the Atom processors used in most netbooks, are to premier in China, Intel has just announced that the first phone to use the processor, Lava International’s Xolo X900, will first show up in India running Google’s Android Gingerbread mobile OS.

The Xolo X900 is expected to retail, unsubsidized, for 22,000 INR, or $425.

According to Wired, “The Xolo X900?s specs aren’t mind-blowing, but are arguably competitive. It sports an 8-megapixel camera and a 4-inch “high-res” LCD touch screen, and will run on Android Gingerbread, with a scheduled upgrade to Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) shortly after its release.”

So why should we care?

Intel claims that the X900 will feature an incredible 45 hours of battery life, at least during music playback, with an average 8 hours of talk time on a charge.

While the Inquisitr has not had the opportunity to test the new handset, Wired further reported that:

“Medfield features advanced and speedy image processing technology, making it possible for smartphones to take photos in burst mode — at 10 photos per second. Intel also worked to optimize the Android platform with its chip, so browsing feels a lot faster.”

So what does this mean for you? ARM chips will likely begin aping the better features from Intel’s new chipset, leading to faster and longer lasting phones for all of us.

Phones using the new platform are set to appear in China in May and Europe this summer.

“What we’re hoping for is that our customers find that the [Medfield] platform enables them to truly differentiate and create unique offerings for the market,” Intel announced. “Which will mean that consumers will want to buy the smartphones, and if consumers buy them, then our customers will need to purchase more from us.”