The Intel Reference Design Smartphone

Intel created the reference design, which has a 4-inch, high-resolution LCD touch-screen and 1,400mHa battery, for OEMs to quickly test out new handset variations at a low cost.

The handset, which is less than 10mm thick, had plenty of applications that Intel testers installed to evaluate, including Kayak and ESPN, among others.

We arrived just in time to see this game played on the Intel smartphone, ported to a big Sharp TV. The Medfield devices’ graphics, powered by the Intel Media Accelerator and Advanced Image Signal processing, was shown to good advantage here. The gadget plays and records high-definition video. The version Intel’s Mike Bell showed off featured a burst mode for the camera, capable of shooting 15 shots in a second.

Here are the specifications on the Medfield chips powering the reference phone, Lenovo K800 smartphone and the IdeaTab K210 tablet.

Here are more specifications for the Intel smartphone reference model.

Here’s the first look at the K800, which will be the first commercial Intel Atom and Android-based smartphone in the world. The handset has a 4.5-inch high-resolution (1,280-by-720 pixel) screen.

The device runs Lenovo’s custom LeOS user interface on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The K800 proved quite powerful, and we were able to flit from app to app without a hitch. The Intel rep told me the K800 will enable users to port their phone content to TVs using Intels wireless display technology (WiDi). There is no High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable from the phone to the set.

We then moved onto the IdeaTab 2010, upon which we saw Google’s Body Browser HTML5 app rotating round and round.

The IdeaTab runs Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS-which is interesting, given that few other tablets outside devices from MIPS and Velocity Micro have come to market with ICS on a slate. This device looked quite speedy despite the lack of any hardware optimization for the OS.

We begged the representative to surf around. While he was reluctant at first, given that it’s a beta build, he relented and tapped into the Android Market. Victory! Have a look. The device does have front- and rear-facing cameras, but the company isn’t disclosing megapixel details.

The IdeaTab thickness is similar to the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. But its display is 8.9 inches. That should do the trick for folks who don’t have patience. Its due to hit the market in the 2012 second half.