The San Diego is a solid Android device that’s worth a lot more than Orange is charging, as least on hardware alone. It’s difficult to find a comparative phone in this price range. The HTC One V comes with Android 4.0 — something that should come to the San Diego at some point — but has a small, low-resolution display and a single-core processor. A better comparison would be the HTC One S, which is by far a more complete package, but also happens to be twice the price in the UK. While If you can deal with the occasional incompatible game, and don’t mind waiting for Android 4.0, the San Diego is a bargain.
Intel has now proven that the Medfield platform can power a smartphone, run Android, and sip power effectively. There’s room for improvement in both performance and battery life, but it does well in most Android metrics that we care about. What it needs next is compelling hardware and a strategy to lure developers into ensuring all their apps are compatible with x86 processors.
Looking down the line, it seems like Intel has a decent shot at making a name for itself in mobile devices. It has an agreement with Google that will ensure future versions of Android are developed for ARM, a partnership with Google-owned Motorola to produce x86 devices over coming years, and a pace of development that few companies can match — just ask AMD. In 2013, Intel will shrink its manufacturing process from 32nm to 22nm and in the process create more powerful, less power-hungry chips. The year after that? 14nm.
While ARM-based chips will undoubtedly continue to advance at a similarly blistering pace, Intel has, with a single-core Atom CPU, almost matched the best ARM has to offer. My only hope is that Android developers don’t leave x86 out: there’s room in the Android world for more than one architecture, and if everyone can play nice, the increased competition will benefit all of us.