Motorola's first Android 4.0 phone is a Medfield general

The first Motorola phone with Ice Cream Sandwich has made an appearance -- and it's taking the field with the new Intel Medfield chip.

Pocketnow reports the as-yet-unnamed Motoblower is powered by Android 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. That means it'll have brand spanking new features like Face Unlock, which fires up the phone when it spots your fizzog hoving into view. Inside is the new Intel Medfield chipset.

Medfield is shrouded in mystery, but early reports say it'll make smart phone cameras capable of seriously fast snapping. Good news for me, but it'll take a lot to convince me that phones will ever replace cameras.

There aren't any buttons on the face of the phone, just three touch-sensitive keys for the standard Ice Cream Sandwich controls: back, home and the multi-tasking app launcher. The front end is a new version of MotoBlur, Motorola's interface for Android.

Little else is known about the phone, although it does look pretty similar to the Motorola Razr.

The Medfield general is one of Motorola's first Intel-powered phones. Current models are powered by Texas Instruments OMAP chips. The Medfield chipset will also appear in other phones, including the Lenovo K800.

There's renewed interest in Motorola since Google stumped up £7.6bn to buy the company, a deal which was approved by regulators in the US and Europe this week. Google has vowed not to privilege Motorola over other hardware manufacturers using Android in their phones and tablets.

There'll be phones a-plenty at Mobile World Congress, the annual phone trade show in Barcelona where the Medfield-powered Motorola is expected to make its debut. We'll be there to bring you all the latest news, hands-on previews and videos from the cutting edge of the mobile phone world -- so keep it CNET.

Image credit: Pocketnow