Intel Eyes Smartphones As Qualcomm Eyes Notebooks

Posted 01/11/2012 at 11:57am | by Brad Chacos

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They say the grass is always greener on the other side, and a pair of announcements from CES seem to give that old cliché some credence. Qualcomm, a major player in the mobile chip market, wants to break into PCs by stocking thin-and-light Ultrabook-style notebooks with its Snapdragon processor, while Intel’s CEO spent part of his keynote address boasting than the company has inked deals with Lenovo and Motorola to power future generations of smartphones with Atom chips.

The Verge got a chance to play with the Lenovo K800, the first smartphone that actually runs on an Intel chip. It looks pretty decent, all things considered: the Medfield (Atom) chip is clocked at 1.6 GHz, the 4.5-inch display sports a true 720p resolution, and it can wirelessly sync with HDTVs monitors in up to 720p resolution thanks to the inclusion of Intel’s WiDi technology.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm is already in talks with manufacturers to bring Snapdragon S4 chips to the ultraportable market, CEO Paul Jacobs said during his keynote address Tuesday. Microsoft’s decision to support the ARM architecture in Windows 8 tempted the company over towards the PC side of things, IT World reports, and Jacobs wants to position Qualcomm’s chips as a way to bring the “always-on, always-connected promise” of smartphones to conventional computers. Just don’t call Snapdragon-powered laptops “Ultrabooks;” Intel owns the right to that name.

Image credit: frenchtoastsunday.com