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Chip maker Intel isn't content to just make computer parts these days. The veteran semiconductor manufacturer entered the mobile phone arena - dominated by the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA - with its Medfield chipset a while back, which made its UK debut in the likeable Orange San Diego. However, the latest Medfield variant - clocked at a fearsome 2GHz - could mark the beginning of a concerted push by Intel to capture more of what is an incredibly profitable business.Motorola has fused this new chipset into the chassis of the Razr M, and given it a suitable rebranding as the Razr I - no prizes for guessing what that letter stands for at the end. From a purely external viewpoint, the M and I are all but identical - the biggest aesthetic change being the addition of a dedicated camera button on the latter model. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display pops with colour and contrast, while the slim body - which boasts an unusual combination of metal and super-tough Kevlar - is far more appealing that it has any right to be.
However, what's contained within this updated edition makes it worthy of a second look, especially at the modest SIM-free price of around £340. While the Razr M uses a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, the Razr I is packing a 2GHz Atom Z2480 processor. It may only be a single-core offering, but it boasts Intel's fancy hyperthreading technology and offers up a surprisingly robust level of performance. Perhaps this is not surprising based on the fact that at an architectural level this is essentially an overclocked version of the same core that powered the Netbook craze from a couple of years back.
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