It's a neat sounding part, but I don't think they're actually doing much r&d on the CPU core - it's an ARM11-based SoC.

This may be true, but think of having all that graphic firepower in the palm of your hand. Their graphic abilities are impressive (I run dual high-res monitors with Nvidia on my laptop)

I only have an 8600 GTS at home and it's plenty powerful enough for 2x2560x1600.