ZTE announced a “strategic collaboration” with Intel, with the Chinese vendor set to launch devices powered by a new Intel processor which was announced at Mobile World Congress.

In a statement, the ambitious Chinese manufacturer said that the Atom Z2580 will “bring significant performance enhancements to the next generation of ZTE smartphones with Intel inside”.

ZTE has already offered Intel-powered devices, with the ZTE Grand X IN apparently “one of the best-selling smartphones in Austria during 2012”.

Atom Z2580 is a dual-core processor with hyper-threading technology, which is said to provide “double the compute performance and up to three times graphics capabilities over the previous generation Intel Atom Z2460 processor while delivering the same competitive battery life”.

ZTE recently said it is planning “super phones” powered by the latest silicon from Intel’s rival Nvidia.