Lenovo has stepped up its gaming credentials by quietly taking orders for the IdeaPad Y470p. The 14-inch notebook swaps out NVIDIA's low-end GeForce GT 520M video of the regular Y470 for a mid-range AMD Radeon HD 7690M, giving it an edge in 3D games. The 2.2GHz quad Core i7 and 8GB of RAM help keep the system running at full pace.
Lenovo has led off CES Unveiled by revealing the IdeaTab S2, the sequel to its very first Android tablet. The new 10-inch tablet is one of the first mainstream slates to ship with Android 4.0 and is also a major leap in performance. It ships with a new, 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon MSM8960 that takes advantage of both a higher clock speed and a new cooler, more efficient chip design.
Lenovo has quietly chosen to show a netbook without waiting for CES. Both an official teaser video (below) and a listing at ProVantage point to the 10-inch mini PC being Lenovo's first with Cedar Trail-based Atom chips that should give a big lift to graphics and 64-bit OS support. It would carry a 98 percent of full-size keyboard and get relatively advanced extras such as USB 3.0 and a two-megapixel webcam.
Lenovo has finally begun taking pre-orders for its IdeaPad U300s ultrabook, which was initially expected to arrive in the US several months ago. The 13-inch MacBook Air rival features a 0.6-inch thick housing constructed from aluminum, with a breathable keyboard that takes advantage of Intel's laminar cooling technology.
A new rumor from the portable industry has Acer, Lenovo, and Samsung lining up their quad-core Tegra 3 tablets for the first quarter of 2012 for what may be a repeat of the conflict with Apple. While not specific on which models were coming, the Digitimes tips suggested Acer's Iconia Tab A510 and A700, the upcoming Lenovo tablet, and a future Samsung Galaxy Tab variant would all be unveiled at CES or Mobile World Congress. Prices wouldn't dip significantly below the high end at between $459 to $599.
Lenovo may be one of the first Windows PC builders to significantly undercut the current MacBook Air in price. An escaped roadmap (PDF) has a 14-inch "mainstream" ThinkPad ultrabook arriving in May or June. At a price closer to $800, it would be significantly less expensive than the current model.
Lenovo's recently introduced IdeaPad U400 has now gone up for sale on Amazon. The 14-inch notebook is priced at $920, and the 099329U model gets a 2.4GHz Core i5 processor and ATI's Radeon HD 6470M graphics processor with a dedicated 1GB of RAM. They're paired with 6GB of system RAM and a 750GB hard drive.
Lenovo has quietly begun taking sales for its new IdeaPad Tablet A1. The company had announced the entry-level device back in early September with similar lack of fanfare. The seven-inch device, which runs Android 2.3, is priced from $199 to $249, depending on capacity.
Any low ultrabook shipments may be a virtue of chronic aluminum shortages running through to 2012. An industry news tip stemming from Digitimes has some of the key companies making aluminum panels for ultraportable notebooks, including Foxconn and Catcher, fully occupied until at least the end of 2011. MacBook Air competitors that use aluminum, such as the Acer Aspire S3, Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, and Toshiba Portege Z830 might all be constrained as a result.
Lenovo despite its goals of rivaling Apple in tablets may not break out from other Android competitors in real shipments. Part suppliers claimed Monday that the firm planned to ship between 1.5 million to two million mobile tablets by the end of 2011. Estimates given to Digitmes maintained that no more than 500,000 would be ThinkPad Tablets, while 1.1 million to 1.5 million would be the core IdeaPad K1 model as well as the new $199 IdeaPad A1.
Netbooks may have faced another crucial setback as Intel's Cedar Trail platform was moved back again. Once intended to arrive for end users in the fall, the next-generation Atom platform should now ship to partners in the fall but won't be in end user devices until 2012. Netbook and hybrid division marketing lead Cindy Ng suggested at the Intel Developer Forum that it was coming out of a pair of technology additions.
The first batch of ultrabooks attempting to take on the MacBook Air might be produced with intentionally low production numbers to test the market, notebook industry insiders purported late Monday. Systems like the Acer Aspire S3, Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, and Toshiba Portege Z830 may all ship in early production runs under 50,000. The move Digitimes understood would be for "testing the water" to see if a market exists for non-Mac versions of the ultraportables.
Lenovo will soon begin offering an entry-level Android tablet with the IdeaPad A1. The seven-inch tablet will cost $200 to start and run on Android 2.3. That OS will be customized with Lenovo's own launcher software as seen on the K1, however, even with the non-tablet OS.
Lenovo contributed its own share to the just-expanding ultrabook category by formalizing the US launch of its new IdeaPad U notebooks. The 13-inch U300s is just 0.6 inches thick but uses a mix of its all-aluminum body and Intel's laminar jet cooling to give it a fast processor. It can still run a Core i7 processor and lets the keyboard and rear hinge serve as vents.
Lenovo's IdeaPad S100 has begun to show up on European shelves with MeeGo. This is the first netbook running the Linux-based, Intel- and Nokia-developed OS to be sold on the continent. It's not clear if Lenovo has plans to bring the variant on the netbook to the US.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing in an interview Sunday with the FT expected his company could outmaneuver Apple in China. He saw the iPad and iPhone as inherently limited in the country, where lower incomes often dictated lower prices. Lenovo was competing with similarly expensive phones and tablets, but it was also producing a $150 Android phone and an entry-level Android tablet that would reach customers Apple simply couldn't at the moment.
An analysis of Lenovo's spring results has shown that Apple is already outselling Lenovo in some areas in Lenovo's home country of China. Apple's $3.8 billion in sales across the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were more than enough to beat Lenovo's claimed $2.8 billion. While Lenovo puts Hong Kong and Taiwan into a separate category, the FT noted that it wouldn't have come close to overcoming the difference.
Lenovo in a low-key move gave the ThinkPad Tablet a hard ship date after it updated the product page. The pro Android 3.1 slate is now due to ship August 23. Prices still start off at $480 for the 16GB base version and step up to $510 for one with 32GB and pen input.
Lenovo's seven-inch tablet may be a very frugal design if a sighting Friday is accurate. The black, glossy design is using the same TI OMAP 3621 processor as the Nook Color, which could leave it too slow for Android 3 and segregate it from Lenovo's own IdeaPad K1. The Engadget tip accordingly showed front navigation buttons that hinted it would use some version of Android 2.
A new tablet from Lenovo has appeared at the FCC. It bears the IdeaPad A1-07 and LePad A1-07 names, which would likely be the same device sold in different markets. The only technical specification confirmed by the listing is the presence of a Bluetooth radio.
An update to the Netflix for Android app (Android Market) has given the OS support not just for more current devices but two new ones as well. The movie streaming app should recognize the Motorola Droid Bionic when it's announced and ships. Whether or not it gets any extra benefits from the 540x960 screen isn't clear, but it should stream over LTE for those with large enough bandwidth caps.
Lenovo on Wednesday formally tipped its hand and unveiled its first pure mobile tablets. The IdeaPad K1 and ThinkPad Tablet together have the familiar NVIDIA Tegra 2 and 10-inch, 1280x800 screens of most challengers but are the first Android 3 tablets anywhere to support Netflix: both add DRM that isn't in Android 3.1 itself and can not only stream the video service but rent movies outright from Google Videos. The Netflix app should be available as an update by the time the tablets ship and will be followed by an upgrade slightly after launch for buying movies.
Lenovo contributed a third model to its tablet introductions early Wednesday with a lone Intel model. The 10-inch IdeaPad P1 will be one of the last Windows 7 tablets and support both finger-touch and an optional pen. It carries an unnamed 1.5GHz Intel chip (likely an Atom Z670) and will be slightly bulkier than Android models at 0.57 inches thick and a weight just under two pounds.
Lenovo's often-delayed IdeaPad U1 is nearing a launch after it reached the FCC through an approval filing. The Android- and Windows-based hybrid tablet and netbook combo should now be cleared for sale in the US when ready. Few details are inside about the tablet itself, which uses Android with Lenovo's custom interface and a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor inside.
The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is now up for preorder at Amazon.com. The website shows both the black version, which made a brief appearance earlier, and a white K1. The listing confirms the 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and 10.1-inch 1280x800 multi-touch screen. In addition to a micro SD card reader, micro HDMI out, and 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, the K1 will also have a SIM card port.
Lenovo's ThinkPad director Jaison Patrocinio in a media event Tuesday gave the first public viewing of the ThinkPad Tablet. The early glimpse showed the businesslike 10-inch design using Android 3 and an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. ZTOP notes that Patrocinio also had the rumored keyboard dock and that it had an optical pad to provide mouse-like input, not a trackpad.
ASUS' MacBook Air-inspired Eee PC X101 is now slated to get a quick launch but also possibly a processor switch, tips hinted at on Monday. The ultrathin netbook is now poised to arrive in July, just a month over it was shown. To get to the $199 price for the MeeGo version, though, Digitimes heard it was using a single-core 1.33GHz Atom N435 and not the previously mentioned dual-core 1.5GHz Atom N670.
A Lenovo affiliate newsletter has given clues that the IdeaPad K1 and ThinkPad Tablet could be unveiled as soon as this coming week. The company's "upcoming product launches" have the K1 unveiled in late June or early July with the ThinkPad's date narrowed to June 28. Although both are believed to be Android-based, Liliputing in uncovering the info cautioned that the ThinkPad might be a Windows model.
Lenovo's IdeaPad and ThinkPad tablets were confirmed by company president Rory Read in an interview that also had Lenovo keeping out of the US smartphone race for now. Both of the tablets would have 10-inch screens, ship with Android 3, and cost between $450 to $900 depending on the model, he told Dow Jones. The IdeaPad K1 should be ready by July and could be followed by the pro-oriented ThinkPad edition as soon as August.
Lenovo's upcoming IdeaPad K1 tablet with Android 3.0 onboard is showing up on retailer sites, including Buy.com. The device hasn't yet officially been dated, and the sites lack a price and a shipping schedule. They also differ on basic specs from earlier reports.
Lenovoon the weekend quietly started selling the IdeaPad S205. The crossover ultraportable it showed at CES starts at $499 but has performance well above netbooks through its 1.6GHz AMD E-350, whose Fusion roots give it a Radeon HD 6310 graphics core that can handle 1080p video and HDMI video out. A 320GB hard drive and 3GB of RAM also put it closer to full-size notebooks in baseline features.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 notebook introduced at CES is now available for purchase from Lenovo's own website. The 15.6-inch computer starts at $699 and includes a 2.1GHz Core i3 CPU and a 720p display. The 500GB hard drive is preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and is joined by 4GB of RAM.
Lenovo's chief Yang Yuanqing in a presentation at the Chinese IT Leadership Summit revealed that the company already has a sequel to the LePad in development. He claimed that the new Android tablet had been developed almost side-by-side with the original in a distinct group and was due to ship in September or October, as little as three months after the original's world debut. While CCIDnet and others at the summit didn't get most hardware details, the CEO promised a thinner tablet to compete with the iPad, not unlike Samsung's reactionary approach with the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Lenovo's LePad tablet will ship outside of its home country in June for a price that could break the symbolic $500 mark, a representative said at the end of the week. PCWorld was told it would reach Lenovo's native China by late March but have a global release in June. The Android tablet would come in between $399 and $449, or as much as $100 below the iPad and possibly undercutting most other Wi-Fi only tablets.
Acer, ASUS and Lenovo are all planning new generation ultraportables to rival the MacBook Air, tipsters said Monday. A new Acer Timeline and an equivalent ASUS U series would arrive in the spring, while a Lenovo IdeaPad would be ready in the summer. All of them are planning to put the price "below $1,000" while outperforming the Air, Digitimes heard, to both beat Apple's pricing and avoid the fate of expensive ultrathins like the Dell Adamo.
Lenovo on Tuesday said it had created a group dedicated to making phones and tablets. The section will be there to provide a 'clear focus' on the category for senior level executives, the company's Think group lead Peter Hortensius said. Most of the products coming out of the group in the US will involve tablets, likely including the LePad and the IdeaPad Slate.
Nearly six months after Lenovo disclosed plans to develop an Android-based tablet, the company has brought its LePad to show off at CES. As expected, the company has introduced the LePad alongside a hybrid dock that converts the pair into a netbook running Windows. Electronista took a closer look at the LePad options, along with the Windows-based IdeaPad Slate.
The Lenovo LePad tablet and its accompanying IdeaPad U1 Hybrid dock have been confirmed to arrive on the market in 2011, and the specs are now finalized. Introduced at last year's CES, this year's CES was host to the announcement. The slate-like, 10.1-inch LePad portion of the device runs on Android 2.2 and uses a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor, while plugging in the tablet to the dock endows it with Windows 7 OS capabilities and processing power from an Intel CULV processor.
Lenovo's PC updates on Tuesday were headlined by two IdeaPad notebooks that claim to be more responsive than even the MacBook Air. The 14-inch Y470, as well as the 15.6-inch Y570 and Y570d, each have the option of a 32GB or 64GB SSD for the OS alongside a regular hard drive. Along with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors and optimizations to the boot process, they can start in as little as 10 seconds, versus Apple's 15 seconds, while still holding as much as 1TB of regular space.
Lenovo's IdeaPad updates tonight carried with it several designer models that focused on designer looks along with a tweak of established formulas. The 13.3-inch Z370, 14-inch Z470 and 15.6-inch Z570 all have transparent-effect covers with unusual colors not unlike Sony's VAIO E, including rarities like a light blue, brown and fuchsia. Every one has Intel Sandy Bridge processors from the 2.1GHz Core i3 to the 2.5GHz Core i5, and they all have dedicated options ranging from the GeForce 410M on the Z370 up to the new GeForce 525M on the larger two notebooks.
The more economic of Lenovo's IdeaPads were rounded out on Tuesday with three new models, including a completely new series. The V series is clad in aluminum and, with the 14-inch V470, is as thin as 0.8 inches. All of them are comparatively light and weigh as little as 3.7 pounds in the 13.3-inch V370, even with an optical drive, while peaking at 5.3 pounds with the V570.
As a minor element of its IdeaPad revamps, Lenovo today detailed the specs of the Y460p and Y560p it previewed last month. They can use the full range of Sandy Bridge chips from the 2.1GHz Core i3 through to the quad 2.5GHz Core i7. Either has the option of a 32GB or 64GB SSD as an OS drive that can dramatically speed up the boot time without sacrificing a primary disk up to 1TB.
Intel on Wednesday rolled out a new solid-state drive that could make for widespread dual-drive notebooks. The SSD 310 is as fast as some of the chip designer's full-size X25 drives but an eighth the size. They can reach up to 200MB per second in sequential writes and 70MB per second in similar writes, improving the responsiveness by as much as 60 percent compared to a 5,400RPM conventional drive.
Lenovo today brought out two IdeaPad notebooks that are the first known to be using processors based on Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture. The 14-inch Y460p and 15.6-inch Y560p will use the newer chips, up to and including the quad 2GHz Core i7 in the Y560p. Moving to the faster processors will also let buyers pick up to 8GB of 1,333MHz DDR3 memory.
Lenovo today confirmed the launch details for its inadvertent MacBook Air competitor, the IdeaPad U260. The 12.5-inch ultralight still has its 3.04 pound weight and is 0.71 inches thick at most, but its design both borrows from and improves on some Apple traits. It has a MacBook-like magnesium-alloy unibody outer shell that should be stiffer than usual and keeps relatively cool using both a "breathable" keyboard and the same airflow techniques behind the Portege R700.
Lenovo's LePad tablet will have a US launch sometime in 2011, CEO Yuan Yangqing said on Friday. The company leader didn't provide a price or a ship date to the WSJ, but he also delayed the Android device's release in China, where it would now ship early in 2011 instead of the originally planned December. As much as $15.1 million was already being invested in mobile app developers to foster a custom app store that would launch with the LePad.
Lenovo has slipped out details of a new IdeaPad that may provide the first early Windows parallel to the new MacBook Air. The U260 has an unusual in-between, 12.5-inch display and will be almost as thin and light as its Apple counterparts, weighing in at 3.04 pounds and with a design 0.71 inches thick at its deepest point. Performance is potentially faster with an ultra low-voltage Core i3 or i5, but the decision will likely relegate the design to Intel's integrated video versus the Air's usually faster GeForce 320M.
Acer Taiwan's president Scott Lin today insisted at a press conference that netbooks would survive in the face of tablets like the iPad despite signs to the contrary. He believed the dual-core Atom N550 would keep the category going as it gave about 50 percent more performance without hiking the cost, giving users a reason to pick one over a tablet. About 40 million netbooks would ship in 2010, or about 20 percent of the entire notebook arena, Lim told Digitimes and others at the event.
Lenovo's IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, a modular notebook that was introduced back around CES time in January, will be split up into separate products, according to Engadget. The device was said to be shelved shortly after its introduction, but now it will be produced again. The LePad tablet will be the first component of the IdeaPad U1 hybrid to see store shelves, albeit in China.
Lenovo on Tuesday signaled that it's developing a touch-only Android tablet. The LePad has few details but should be available by the end of 2010, according to the company's consumer group President Liu Jun. No details of American availability were given to IDG, but Lenovo may follow the path of the LePhone and concentrate on good sales in China before moving abroad.
