Android + Intel Atom = MegaFon Mint

Looking at the green android, with the Intel processor pressed to your chest with love, you realize that this feeling is serious and for a long time. The wide Russian public learned about this passion on August 22, when the MegaFon Mint communicator was introduced - the first officially sold Android in our country on the Intel Atom platform. The launch of the communicator was devoted to a special event held in Moscow last night. In this post we will briefly describe both the event and the device itself.
Important announcement! In the near future, we intend to share personal impressions of MegaFon Mint. We encourage all interested to take a virtual part in testing. Details - in the last paragraph.

Celebration ...

The launch of a new product (or, as it is now fashionable to express it, “launch”) passed under all the laws of the genre. We offer you a short photo report from the event.


Girls in dance - one of the few arts that are not yet available to the communicator on Android


Hidden under the bedspreads Mysterious Objects and the subsequent disruption of covers
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Speakers from Intel and MegaFon, describing how the world will change after the release of the new product. Right: Christopher McGuire, director of product development at Intel's Mobile and Communication Group


5-time Olympic champion Anastasia Davydova surrounded by officials and communicator MegaFon Mint

At the conclusion of the meeting, the first copies of MegaFon Mint were presented to famous athletes - champions and champions of this and previous Olympics. This was the end of the procedural part, and it is time for us to pay attention directly to the communicator.

... and his culprit

What is Mint? This is MegaFon + Intel. For several months now Intel has been selling this model in Europe in cooperation with the Orange operator - now our turn has come. Both the appearance and the hardware stuffing when changing from operator to operator changes a little less than nothing - they do with a nameplate on the back cover.


Characteristics of the device are as follows:

• Operating system: Android 2.3
• 2G standards: GSM / GPRS / EDGE 1800/1900/850/900 MHz
• 3G standards: UMTS 1900/2100/850/900 MHz, HSPA + 21.1 Mbit / s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit / s
• Display: 4.03-in. Capacitive TFT, 1024x600 pixels resolution
• Processor: Intel Atom Z2460 with support for Intel Hyper-Threading technology, 1600 MHz
• The amount of RAM: 1024 MB
• Built-in memory: 16 GB
• Main camera: 8 MP, 1920x1080 video, autofocus, LED flash, 4x digital zoom
• Front camera: 1.3 MP, in video 640x480
• FM radio with RDS
• Communications and interfaces: Wi-Fi (802.11b / g / n), Bluetooth, NFC
• Connectors: 3.5 mm audio, Micro-USB, microHDMI
• Sensors: Accelerometer / Illuminance / Approximation
• GPS satellite navigation
• Rechargeable battery: non-removable lithium-ion capacity of 1460 mAh
• Opening hours: 336 h. / 14 h.
• SIM card form factor: Micro-SIM
• Dimensions: 123x63x11 mm
• Weight: 124 grams

Speakers paid special attention to the multimedia capabilities of the communicator, showing a photo (by the way, using the Intel Pair & Share application, which we recently talked about ) and FullHD video shot using an 8-megapixel camera of the device.

Unlike the hardware, the software, at least in the Russian version, has been significantly customized. Note the highlights of this customization.

• Instead of the standard, a modified domestic SPB Shell 3D product is used (its appearance is clearly recognizable in the photo above).
• Operator and interactive services (navigation, access to multimedia content and social networks) are widely represented in the “carousel” tabs, MegaFon plans to increase their number in the future.
• Services running in the background constantly. Among the latter, an interesting feature was discovered that uses NFC technology — a Moscow metro ticket scanner that shows the number of spent and unspent trips and the validity period of the ticket.
• Separate operator applications, called manually - there are more than enough of them.
  It looks like MegaFon Mint from the side. As for personal impressions, I borrowed one of the communicators (of the ones under the covers) especially for their appearance and intends to study it from all sides in the near future: to hold the most interesting benchmarks and make the most interesting screenshots. I invite everyone to comment - ask any questions about the device. Suppose that there are already enough tests of the Intel communicator on the network - and we will create our own, collectively rational! I also propose to discuss there the question of the place and perspective of MegaFon Mint in the market - express your opinion.