Motorola announces the Razr i, powered by a 2Ghz Intel Atom processor

Motorola has announced the Razr i, a version of the Droid Razr M that's powered by a 2Ghz Intel Atom processor.

Motorola has continued its busy September with the announcement of another new device, the Motorola Razr i, which is powered by an Intel Atom processor. Revealed at a somewhat brief London press event, the Razr i is the first device to come from Motorola’s partnership with Intel, which was announced nearly a year ago.

The Razr i will be familiar to those who watched Motorola and Verizon’s press event in New York, as it’s a reworked Motorola Droid Razr M. The big change is obviously the processor, which is rated at an amazing 2Ghz, making it the world’s first smartphone to achieve such a clock speed.

It’s a single-core chip though, but thanks to Intel’s 32nm manufacturing process and its Hyperthreading technology, it’s claimed that it’ll outperform dual-core equivalents in web-browsing and gaming.

The 8-megapixel camera also benefits from the Atom chip’s speed, as Motorola says it takes a second to startup and the same time to shoot 10 pictures in burst mode too. It also made the bold claim that this is “faster than most digital SLRs.”

Razr M + Intel Atom = Razr i

Like the Droid Razr M, the Razr i has a 4.3-inch, edge-to-edge Super AMOLED display and although the resolution hasn’t been confirmed, we’d imaging it’s the same as the M’s 960 x 540 pixels. Kevlar, aluminum and Gorilla Glass have all been used in the construction of the Razr i’s body, which measures a sleek 8.3mm thick and weighs 126 grams, plus it’s water resistant too.

The battery also appears to be the same 2000mAh cell, which should fulfill Motorola’s promise of a full day’s use between charges, plus NFC is built-in for use with Android Beam.

On the subject of Android, the Razr i will launch with version 4.0.4 already installed, with the caveat that it’s upgradeable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, however no date has been provided for this. Motorola has garnished the Android OS with a few tweaks, including the Circles Widget, where updates on messages, chats and the weather can be swiped through.

An unlockable bootloader was also mentioned, but Motorola did stipulate it would only be able to offer this in certain markets, and when networks allowed, so don’t hold your breath.

Motorola also chatted about its network partners, which will include Orange and T-Mobile in the UK. This, along with the small multi-band LTE radio hiding inside the Razr i, could mean we have another candidate for EE’s forthcoming 4G LTE network.

The Razr i will be released in the UK, France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico from October, and other markets should follow soon. Both a black and a white version will be available, but pricing hasn’t been confirmed.