LG to unveil first Intel Medfield-powered Android smartphone at CES 2012; LG expects March release date

LG Electronics is poised to unveil the first Android smartphone with Intel’s Medfield SoC at the Consumer Electronics show next month.

“Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini will release Intel’s first Android smartphone using our own platform at the CES,’’ said Intel Korea chief Lee Hee-sung to The Korean Times on Friday.

However, when contacted today, spokespersons for both companies refused to publically confirm the report, according to AndroidOs.

CES is an annual technology exhibition that begins Jan. 9, 2012 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

LG Electronics actually introduced the first smartphone using Intel’s mobile platform at last year’s CES.

LG Electronics actually introduced the first smartphone using Intel’s mobile platform at last year’s CES. The alliance eventually failed, because the two companies abandoned the project and cited lack of marketability as the primary reason.

Intel’s chips have yet to enter the smartphone and tablet markets, because the mobile devices currently rely on silicon designs with Britain’s ARM Holdings technology. ARM-licensed chips by Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Texas Instruments are widely known for their CPU efficiency and performance versus power consumption.

The world’s largest chipmaker hopes to turn the tides with its Medfield platform. It is a 32-nanometer Atom processor for tablets and smartphones. Intel and Google announced a partnership at the Intel Developers Forum 2011 in San Francisco last September that promised to put Medfield chips in Android devices by January 2012.

Technology Review said Medfield-driven Ice Cream Sandwich devices should be able to play Blu-ray or HD video, stream to the television over a wireless network, and take nearly a dozen 8-megapixel images in burst mode.

An LG executive, asking not to be identified, told The Korean Times that March would be the earliest date for the Intel smartphone to hit shelves.