Who says Intel Atom is dead for mobile? Leagoo uses Spreadtrum, Intel chip

Spreadtrum and Intel made news earlier this year when they announced a new smartphone processor, essentially being an octacore version of the Intel Atom chips.

The SC9853i, as it’s known, packs eight x86 Airmont cores, as opposed to the four seen in Intel’s last Atom mobile processors. Otherwise, the chip is built on a 14nm process and features older dual-core Mali T820 graphics.

Now, the first phone to use the chipset has been announced, in the form of the Leagoo T5C. The Chinese smartphone brand isn’t the biggest (it doesn’t crack the top five in China), but it sponsors Tottenham Hotspur, for what it’s worth.

It’s also renowned for cloning popular designs, such as the Galaxy S8 and Mi Mix.

In any event, the Leagoo T5C also delivers a 13MP+2MP main camera combo (f/2.2 apertures), a 1080p screen, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a front-facing fingerprint scanner, 3000mAh battery and a design that brings to mind the Huawei P10.

Leagoo claims that the SC9853i is 39% more powerful than Mediatek’s MT6750 chip (a mid-range processor used in a ton of budget wares). But to be fair, this points to a chipset that’s still squarely budget, perhaps comparable to the Snapdragon 625.

In other words, don’t expect this Intel/Spreadtrum product to break benchmarks. And you probably shouldn’t pay flagship money for it. Still, we eagerly await to see what comes after this chipset, as Spreadtrum effectively relaunches Intel’s cancelled mobile lineup.