First Intel Smartphone Will Be Lenovo K800 for China, Motorola Devices Coming

LAS VEGAS — Those Intel smartphones we caught a peek at in Intel's booth aren't just "reference" anymore. Intel announced today at CES 2012 that its chips are coming to real phones that real customers will be really using. One catch: those customers will be in China only for now.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini proudly announced today that Intel chips will finally be in phones outside of trade shows. Shortly after making the declaration, Liu Jun, senior vice president of Lenovo joined him on stage to reveal the device, the Lenovo K800. The first carrier will be China Unicom, and it's scheduled to be available in the spring.

The phone will use Intel's 32-nanometer mobile chip technology, known as Medfield, part of Intel's Atom line. It has a 4.5-inch screen and is less than 0.4 inch thick. As you'd expect, it can perform tasks that are processor-intensive, like playing 1080p video through an HDMI port to a external HDTV. It's also equipped with near-field communication (NFC) for mobile payments — as well as other tricks (more on that in a bit).

Although Intel only revealed one phone in China, that appears to be just the beginning. Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha paid Intel's event a visit as well. Although he didn't have any details on products, they're definitely in the works — Jha said the two companies have entered a multi-year, multi-device partnership. Look for the first Intel-powered Motorola products later this year.

Besides phones, Intel had a few more things to say about Ultrabooks (hard to believe, I know). First Dell revealed its first-ever Ultrabook, a design with a 13-inch screen that weighs less than 3 pounds. It'll cost $999 and be available in February. (For more on the XPS 13, check out Mashable's hands on.)

On top of that, Intel went a step further with what it has planned for NFC tech now that its phone has gone public. Now when making an online transaction, instead of just tapping your credit card to the screen to input payment information (which the company demonstrated yesterday), a user can just tap his NFC-equipped phone to the Ultrabook to fill out a payment form. The site in question needs to support the tap tech, though.

We also finally learned why Intel roped in will.i.am to be its celebrity spokesperson. The musician is tasked with the "Ultrabook Project": traveling the world to create new music, selecting independent artists in every city he visits, creating one song per city — all done on an Intel Ultrabook. will.i.am appeared on stage to awkwardly singe the praises of intel and Ultrabooks and reveal the first song made for the project. Check out Intel's sizzle reel for the project below.

The most groundbreaking news for Intel, though, is its first real entry to the smartphone market. It's only just begun, but taking away any market share from ARM, whose technology is in virtually every mobile device today, would be a big deal.

Are you excited by Intel's big push for Ultrabooks, Intel-powered phones or will.i.am's project? Let us know in the comments.