The hate in this thread doesn't make sense. This chip is supposedly half the size of Qualcomm's current chips. It's not supposed to be a high end chip. And Nvidia has a reference design with a 1080p 5" screen that should sell for no more than $300 unsubsidized. That's pretty darn awesome for "midrange."
I'll take a mid-range powered Tegra 4i phone in a heartbeat if I can get a full day's heavy use out of my phone.
The problem with Tegra is they are not bad chips but they take forever to deliver and by the time they are out they are no longer competitive/or they are outdated in 1 to 2 months.
A 2.3 ghz A9 Quad Core should be similar to a 1.7 ghz Krait Quad Core, assuming the cores are properly fed with the memory bandwidth. Problem is we still do not know what the real clock speeds are for 2.3 ghz is
the maximum turbo when only using 1 single core. Furthermore the smaller die size may be cheaper for Nvidia but it also means we are
stuck with single channel memory, Krait Quad Cores have dual channel memory.
You can buy that Krait Quad Core today physically in stores since Nov 2012.
According to Anandtech Tegra4i will be shipping to OEMS in the H2 of 2013 and not in physical devices in stores until Q1 2014. Very few people release phones in january most wait to mobile world conference which is in February.
Being 12 to 15 months later than the competition to me is not that impressive. Yes Tegra4i will bring cheaper phones.
Tegra4i will bring roughly nexus 4 performance with these additional benefits
- LTE, the Nexus 4 really doesn't have real lte
- 1080p Screen
- Manufactures actually making money instead of selling the device at cost.
I am not sure these benefits are worth it for me for the wait of 12 to 15 months which is an eternity in technology and the ever changing face of mobile.