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First Intel-powered smartphone due this week

Get ready for the first smartphone running on an Intel chip. That phone will likely be from Lava, according to a source.

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.
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Lava's Xolo smartphone uses Intel's Atom processor for smartphones.
Lava's Xolo smartphone uses Intel's Atom processor for smartphones. Lava

Intel CEO Paul Otellini couldn't have made it any clearer: The first smartphone to use an Intel processor is due "later this week."

"Expect to see another important milestone for our business later this week. The launch of the first Intel architecture-based smartphone," Otellini said during his opening remarks in today's first-quarter earnings conference call.

Xolo specifications.
Xolo specifications. Lava

That phone will likely be from Lava, according to a source familiar with the India-based smartphone maker's plans.

Specifications include an Intel Z2460 Atom chip, a 4.03-inch screen (1024x600), 8MP camera, HSPA+, and 16GB flash memory (see chart).

Smartphones running on Intel processors from Lenovo, Orange, Motorola, and ZTE are also due soon. While the launch of Lenovo's K800 is imminent -- and probably the next Intel-based phone to become available -- all of the others are slated for later this summer or in the second half of the year.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is trying to refocus its chip design and manufacturing efforts on smaller devices like smartphones and tablets, markets where it has been virtually absent.

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