 "XOLO to unveil Intel-powered ‘Fastest Smartphone Ever’ on March 14")
March 14 is sure to see a lot happening in the technology world. Not only is the Samsung Galaxy S4 all set to be unveiled in New York, we have just received word that XOLO is about to announce something it calls, “the Fastest Smartphone Ever”. The mystery device will be announced on March 14 in Goa.
XOLO has sent out invites to the media with that curious heading, along with some hints about the SoC. The mysterious device, of which we get a small glimpse in the invite, will be powered by an Intel processor. We’re guessing this is likely to be an Intel Clover Trail+ CPU, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.
The invite also gives us a peek at the top half of the smartphone. The power or lock/unlock button is on the top of the phone beside the 3.5mm headset jack. There is a blue glow next to the power button, which could indicate the presence of an LED notification light. The picture also shows a mangled version of the stock Android app drawer, with no status or notification bar on top.
XOLO’s invite for the announcement on March 14
XOLO and Intel have been bedfellows ever since the Medfield series of processors came out. The two companies collaborated to launch the moderately successful XOLO X900 and the X500. A direct successor to the 32nm Medfield line of processors, Clover Trail+ adds a second CPU core to the chip, improving graphics and performance along the way.
Clover Trail+ will be released in three versions: the 2.0GHz Z2580, the 1.6GHz Z2560, and the 1.2GHz Z2520. Each version includes two PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPUs, which should result in a large performance boost. The graphics engine uses a core that can scale up to 533MHz using boost mode to further augment graphics performance. All three versions support full HD resolutions up to 1900 x 1200 pixels, and have HSPA+ 42Mbps modems. Unfortunately, LTE is not supported by the Clover Trail+ series.
The new Atom platform supports two cameras; the primary camera support is capped off at 16M, while the secondary or front-facing camera can be a 2-megapixel unit at the most. Intel says the camera on a Clover Trail+ device can shoot up to 15 frames per second in burst mode. Shooting in HDR mode has also been improved with reduced blur and ghosting, thanks to the brand new firmware. The firmware also adds the ability to select headshots from multiple takes of the same photo, which is fast becoming a standard option in many cameras.
We have found XOLO phones to have decent build quality and they are generally sturdier than other low-cost smartphones. The choice of materials and the finish is also more premium. Let’s hope that the trend continues for this upcoming smartphone. We will be bringing you all the coverage from the XOLO launch next week.
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