Willcom unveils Intel Atom phone

Permalink: Willcom unveils Intel Atom phone by Jan Harris

Japanese carrier, Willcom Inc, has revealed what it claims is the world’s first atom phone.

The carrier is offering a handset, manufactured by Sharp, with Intel Corp’s Centrino Atom chip, despite Intel saying that the Atom chip family would not be ready for mobile phones until 2009 at the earliest.

The Sharp D4 handset uses Intel’s Centrino Atom platform to run Windows Vista Home Premium SP1.

It features a 1.33GHz Atom Z520, 1GB of 533MHz DDR 2 memory and a 40GB 1.8in hard drive.

The device has a full Qwerty keyboard, 5in, 1024 x 600 display, and a two-megapixel camera on the back.

Connectivity is provided with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. The handset is compatible with the PHS network (Personal Handy-phone System).

The handset measures 188 x 84 x 25.9mm and weighs in at 470g.

It will go on sale in Japan, in June this year, for ¥128,600 (£647) on a minimum contract of two years which will cost ¥1600 a month.

Willcom hopes to gain 50,000 to 100,000 users a year with the new handset.