Intel-powered Motorola RAZR i Gets Poked, Prodded

The launch of Motorola’s RAZR i a couple of weeks ago was made interesting for the fact that it’s powered by an Intel Atom (Medfield-based) processor. Since Intel phones are far and few between, I couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the phone that would finally give Intel the success it needs to begin rolling out many more models. The folks over at Engadget have been using a RAZR i for the past week or so, and while perhaps not the most impressive phone around, it does its job well.

One of the biggest perks of the RAZR i vs. the RAZR m is it’s ability to rapid-shoot photos. Also on the RAZR i, photos can simply be taken quicker, thanks to the snappier CPU. Quality-wise, Engadget mentions that the photos look pretty good overall, although there are some minor white-balance issues (which can generally be remedied in a photo editor later).

Performance-wise, the RAZR i falls a bit short in the benchmarks to the RAZR m, but the JavaScript-based SunSpider 0.9.1 test is an exception. There, Intel cut the rendering time almost in half. Benchmarks don’t tell the entire story, though. In general usage, the RAZR i felt quite snappy to the tester, with no apparent bottleneck becoming evident. If gaming is important to you, you are likely to see slightly better performance on the RAZR m.

Because Intel’s phone CPUs aren’t exactly mainstream by this point, there’s also some lacking support on Google Play. You may find yourself wanting apps or games that you can’t run, although Engadget has mentioned that the situation has improved quite a bit since the release of Orange’s San Diego phone earlier this year.

Overall, the RAZR i looks to be quite good. I still can’t help but wonder when any Intel phone will become available in the US, however.