The Lava Xolo X900 marks the entry of the chip-giant Intel into the phone world and promises to shake up the mobile-phone world.
On Thursday, Intel and Lava will launch the Xolo X900, the first phone Intel-based phone to enter India, possibly in tie-up with Aircel and Airtel.
However, since Lava has a strong distribution network, the phone is likely to be available in the retail shops as well.
The price of the Lava Xolo X900 remains under wraps, at least for now.
Lava Xolo was also widely expected to be the first Intel phone in the world, but the Lenovo K800, launched two days ago in China, beat it to the title narrowly.
Nevertheless, the Lava Xolo will be the first Intel phone to hit India, and possibly the only one for some time.
Xolo already has the credit for being the first to reach reviewers’ hands, as early as in February this year.
Unlike the Lenovo K800, the Lava Xolo X900 has a 4 inch display, half an inch smaller than the Chinese model, and has been designed by Lava Mobile and Intel.
It is one of the first half a dozen or so models that will hit the global markets as part of Intel’s entry into the mobile phone world.
Intel has traditionally been a PC chip maker, but has been trying to move into the tablet and mobile world as tablet and mobile chip makers move into the PC world as well.
Many mobile-phone chip makers, such as Qualcomm and Nvidia, are expected to enter the PC business later this year as Windows 8, which also runs on those chips, hits the market.
Intel’s initial attempts to target the mobile market — through a tablet-oriented chip — more or less came to nothing, partly because of the unsuitability of Windows 7 to the tablet form-factor.
Intel’s biggest challenge, when entering the mobile market, is battery life. However, according to early reviews, the company may have cracked the challenge, with the Lava Xolo tipped to last for 8 hours of talk time — as good as, if not better than most large-display smartphones.
Lava is one of the four international phone partners joining up with Intel for launching the Atom phones, with Lenovo, Orange, and ZTE comprising the rest.
The Xolo X900 has a snappy 1.6 GHz Atom Z2460 processor runs on Android 2.3. It also supports HDMI, NFC and HD video playback.
The display resolution is 1024*600 — not the highest in the market, but higher than those of nearly 95% of the smartphones out there.
It also has a 400-MHz graphics processor that helps it play full HD videos.