X

Intel claims 'superiority' over ARM in phone video

An Intel video claims its phone chip is now superior to ARM. We'll have to see about that.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
Lenovo's K900 will be sold in Asia initially. It boasts Intel's first dual-core phone chip, Clover Trail+, which drives a 5.5-inch 1.920x1,080 display.
Lenovo's K900 will be sold in Asia initially. It boasts Intel's first dual-core phone chip, Clover Trail+, which drives a 5.5-inch 1.920x1,080 display. Lenovo

Intel is turning up the bravado in a new video that boasts "superiority" over ARM in phones.

Intel may be engaging in a bit of ad copy puffery with this caption penned by Francois Piednoel: "A little demo of x86 superiority over ARM."

Intel's first dual-core phone chip, Clover Trail+, isn't shipping in products yet, so it's by no means clear if it can out-benchmark and outlast phones based on the newest ARM chips from Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Samsung.

That said, the phone that the Clover Trail+ processor will debut in is worth checking out. The Android-based Lenovo K900 has 5.5-inch 1,920x1,080 IPS display (that yields about 400 pixels per inch), a 13MP camera with Sony's new Exmor RS BSI sensor, and a 6.9mm profile.

The K900 will initially only be available in Asia, however.

The Intel video goes on to say, "They told you we could not do it...they were wrong" -- another reference to the ARM-vanquishing Clover Trail+.

In fact, Intel may be getting a little ahead of itself. The silicon that probably has the best chance to challenge ARM is the upcoming "Merrifield" system-on-a-chip, which will be based on an entirely new microarchitecture and be the first phone chip to tap Intel's 22-nanometer 3D chip technology. That's due later this year.