Over in Vegas at CES, Intel announced that its new processor, designed for mobile devices, will be used by Motorola and Lenovo in upcoming Android-based smartphones.

And on the show floor, Pocket-lint got up close and personal with the Lenovo model - the Android Ice Cream Sandwich K800.

Like the Intel reference model, which is also being demoed at the expo, the smartphone packs the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU. There is 512KB of L2 cache and 512MB of RAM. It boasts a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU clocked at around 400MHz, dual-channel LPDDR2 memory and a 1,900mAH battery. In short, this is a PC in smartphone clothing.

We ran a benchmark test on Browser Mark and it scored a tasty 106,034. 

It has a 4.5-inch display that runs at 1280 x 720 (720p HD) and has Lenovo's LePhone OS skinned on top of Google's baby. On the back is an 8-megapixel camera which is capable of shooting 15 shots in one burst in under a second and 1080p video; a clear indicator of the power the Atom chip can bring.

AT&T is due to get the K800, which will be compatible with its HSPA+ networks later in the year. Those out in China will also get to play with the Lenovo K800 smartphone in the second half of 2012. There are no plans as of yet for a UK release.

It is going to be a bumper year for next-gen chips and it will be interesting to see how Intel shapes up against the likes of Nvidia and Qualcomm. Watch this space...