Quad-Core Phones

One of the big mobile buzzwords of 2011 was “dual-core.” Dual-core processors became the standard for smartphones. In 2012 it will be all about quad-core.
Nvidia was the first to bring dual-core processing to mobile with the LG Optimus 2X, which debuted at the beginning of this year with the Tegra 2 chip. Nvidia is blazing the multicore trail again with the release of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 tablet. The Transformer Prime is the first device to ship with Nvidia's 1.3-GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor. For now, it’s the only quad-core device on the market. The Transformer earned high praise from us for its stunning graphics and zippy performance.
Manufacturers are keeping mum about when we’ll see quad-core phones, however. Nvidia has said it is working with a number of device makers on Tegra 3-powered phones, but can’t reveal who they are due to nondisclosure agreements. Quad-core phones are “on track,” however, for 2012's first quarter.
Samsung’s phones and tablets have used both Snapdragon and Tegra chipsets, but the manufacturer’s semiconductor division is hard at work on the next generation of its own Exynos line of systems-on-a-chip. The next one, the Exynos 5250, isn’t quad-core, however; it is a dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor. Like TI, Samsung seems to be confident that the Exynos 5250 can produce benchmarks and performance competitive with a quad-core processor.
The information above was taken from "pcworld" website.