Details have leaked about the first known quad-core smartphone, the HTC Edge. The phone, which uses the same Nvidia Tegra 3 Kal-El chipset as the recently announced Asus Transformer Prime, is expected to be the fastest smartphone ever, with four cores clocked at 1.3 GHz.

As well as this mighty processor, the Edge includes a blistering train of top-of-the-line specifications. Internally, you’ll find that four core processor, a full gigabyte of RAM, and 32 GB of internal storage. The optically laminated S-LCD 2 display is also a winner, at 4.7″ wide and featuring 720p HD resolution. The cameras are also high specification: The rear-facing camera is an 8 megapixel snapper with backside illumination which should take great pictures. It’s also capable of 1080p video capture, and the front-facer is capable of 720p video capture. That front camera means proper HD video chat is now possible, and as far as I know it’s a feat unmatched among currently released mobiles.

With such a laundry list of high-spec parts, you might think that the Edge is sure to be an unhip and ungainly phone, but you’d be far from the truth. The Edge’s unibody design, made in that standard high-quality HTC fashion, is just 8.8 mm thick, 0.5mm thinner than the iPhone 4S. Indeed, the iPhone seems to be a major source of inspiration for the design of the Edge, as it uses the same tricks to achieve its small size, including ditching normal SIM cards for micro SIM slot and leaving out expandable storage, e.g. a micro SD card slot.

So how much faster is the Edge? Well, looking at leaked benchmarks for the Transformer Prime which ships with the same chipset, it looks like we’ll see an almost 100% increase in speed whilst running multi-threaded applications. While not all applications are multi-threaded yet, the amount that are is due to rise rapidly, and the extra cores will also be great for multi-tasking.

The Tegra 3 chipset also includes a clever low-power companion core clocked at a lower speed of 500 MHz, which is used for low intensity applications like music or video playback. With judicious use of this core, battery life could be extended considerably, so the included 1800 mAh battery could last longer during typical use than in a dual-core smartphone.

If you’ve been thinking of picking up one of these dual core, HD handsets like the Galaxy Nexus, you may want to hold off – The HTC Edge will be available in late Q1 or early Q2 next year.

This article was written by William Judd. Will writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK’s leading retailer of Krusell iPhone cases and the Kindle cover with light.