NVIDIA and ZTE continue their partnership with a line of Tegra 4-powered "super phones" that are set to arrive in China in the first half of 2013. The phones will allow LTE 4G data and voice support through an optional NVIDIA i500 chipset, which will enable "blazing-fast networking."
The Tegra 4 has been popular with tablet manufacturers but the first smartphones to feature this chip will come from ZTE, which says that the quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU with 72 Geforce cores will allow more realistic gaming, faster app load times and better battery life.
“This is a clear demonstration of ZTE’s ability to quickly develop, and bring to market, market-leading devices running the industry’s latest technologies,” He Shiyou, head of ZTE's terminal division, said in a press release. He also said that the phone would offer full HD entertainment and multimedia capabilities.
The two companies have a long-standing relationship that ZTE has moved quickly to capitalize on; since NVIDIA unveiled the Tegra 4 last month at CES in Las Vegas, only a few hardware vendors have stepped forward with products using the high-powered CPU.
"ZTE's newest super phones will show off Tegra 4's processing power, efficiency and unprecedented capabilities," Phil Carmack, senior vice president of mobile business at NVIDIA, said, “They’re a great example of what the market expects from one of the world's largest phone makers."
Other NVIDIA-ZTE products include the Grand X, the first smartphone to be powered by both an NVIDIA processor and the company's Icera modem, and the Grand Era, which features Tegra 3. The new "super phones" may not see a release in the U.S. for months yet, but for anyone dying to try out the powerful quad-core CPU, Vizio and HP are both reportedly working on Android tablets that will feature Tegra 4. Rumors of a Chromebook powered by the Tegra 4 have also circulated.
