We all know ThinkPads are pretty great. They’re rugged, easily upgradable, and fully-featured. Now you can even freeze the buggers or push them around in the dust. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X200, X301, X200s, X200 Tablet, T400, T500, R400 and SL300 machines just passed Mil Spec tests for “semi-rugged” computing which means you can use them in extreme conditions for all of your computing needs.
Low Pressure – Tests operation at 15,000 feet
Humidity – Cycles 95 percent humidity through the environment
Vibration (operational and non-operational) – Jostles and jolts the laptops to make sure they can withstand shocks
High Temperature – Simulates high heat conditions by baking the laptop up to 140°F
Low Temperature – Tests operation at -4°F
Temperature Shock – Fluctuates between -4 and up to 140°F to test operation
Dust – Blows dust for an extended amount of time
We may see Lenovo netbooks packing NVIDIA and VIA chips pretty soon here. Digitimes is reporting that “Lenovo plans to launch 11.6-inch and 12.1-inch netbooks combining Intel’s Atom processor and Nvidia’s Ion platform in the second quarter of this year.”
DigiTimes is reporting that Lenovo is prepping a 12-inch IdeaPad netbook called the S20. The machine will apparently use an Intel Atom N280 CPU while ignoring Intel’s specification that Atom-based machines must feature screens smaller than 10 inches.
Workaholics rejoice. Lenovo notebooks will soon be able to sync with BlackBerry handhelds thanks to the power of Bluetooth for automatic and instant access to enterprise email. The sync is designed to work without any user intervention too and according to the press release, even works when the notebook is powered off. The software is set to roll-out in the second quarter of this year but it still isn’t clear if it will work with existing ThinkPad’s right from Lenovo without the help of an enterprising hacker or two.
Who ever said having a dual-screen laptop that looks like a tank wouldn’t get you a little strange? Lenovo seems to think so and is saying as much in what amounts to some sort of internal test advertisement for the W700ds, a dual-screen laptop so massive that it should just be called a desktop PC.
Lenovo opened the floodgates today, announcing a new All-in-One desktop — the IdeaCentre A600 — and three new laptops: the Y650 (a 16-inch thin-and-light), the Y550, and the Y450. The company also announced updated social networking software, plus a few other extras for the already-available IdeaPad S10 netbook.
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds broke cover over the weekend, there are so many questions on how it will work. This quick, 10-sec video does shed some light on how the action will take place. It seems that the second screen simply slides-out behind the main screen. Hopefully it works well. Video after the jump.
This really doesn’t look like something that will catch on, but it’s certainly momentous. The Lenovo W700DS has one 17-inch display like its predecessor, and another 10-inch one that slides out from behind. Madness, you say? Yeah, I agree.
Look at that little cat! It’s on the screen of the Lenovo IdeaPad S9, the little bro-ham to the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. The S10 has a 10.2-inch screen and runs Windows, while the S9 has an 8.9-inch screen and runs Linpus Linux Lite.
The S9 is available for $344.99 at Geeks.com or $359.46 at Buy.com. That, or you could just order the S10 with the bigger screen and Windows starting at $349 directly from Lenovo.
[via Laptoping]
First there was the iPhone, then came a bunch of stuff no one cared about. Now we have what appears to be the OPhone, a cellphone developed by Lenovo in conjunction with China Mobile. It’s using Android as its operating system, a move that took a great deal of bravery for China Mobile to accept. (Apparently the firm doesn’t like the idea of relying on outside technologies for its products; it would rather have developed its own OS for the phone.)
There’s little to no information about it, other than that is uses Android and China Mobile’s TD SCDMA, the company’s weird 3G-like standard.
It looks a little like the BlackBerry Storm, no?
Some suit in a Lenovo boardroom had a great idea that if the company slaps the letter ‘e’ onto the S10 netbook name, the world would be a better place. The S10e is therefore geared to the education crowd, touting the same exact specs of the original S10 netbook of an Intel 1.6GHz Atom processor, 4GB SSD or 160GB HDD, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 10.1 LCD display, but now comes equipped with the Lenovo Quick Start instant-on OS powered by Splashtop. So rather than simply rolling out the update to the current offerings, the world now has another netbook and I doubt the world is better because of it.
Oh my! Three of the biggest laptop makers out there all announcing 4G/WiMAX/XOHM service. All on the same day, too. It’s almost as if it was planned. Acer has it in their big ones, Toshiba has it in their little ones, and Lenovo has it in just about their entire line.
Boy, with all these laptops sucking up the signal, they might want to put those WiMAX points on higher ground!
In one of these multi-part shuffles that characterize high-level business dealings, it looks as if Lenovo is going to be taking over the consumer PC part of the Fujitsu/Siemens joint venture. It seems Siemens has had enough and is selling its part to Fujitsu, and Fujitsu (not really loving the “end-user” market) will spin off that part of its PC business and sell it to whoever. “Whoever” in this case has been rumored to be Lenovo, as those guys have been making noises about “challenges” and acquisitions. If this goes down, it’ll strength Lenovo’s position even more; they’re already the biggest PC makers in China. Next, the world.
And why, you ask, is there a picture of a pretty girl at right? If you look really closely (and I encourage you to do so) you’ll find that the computer she is gently touching is a Fujitsu Siemens laptop. So it’s kinda related.
Update: Looks like Fujitsu is leaning up! Or down. Whichever way makes you more lean. They’re looking to spin off their hard drive bidness too. That means more action for Western Digital, who would probably be the buyer. I know people are divided on WD, but even if you don’t think their hard drives are reliable (NewEgg commenters are harsh), the company is at least driving the HDD industry to make bigger and better drives. So let ‘em grow.
Lenovo’s got six new LCD monitors to add to its ThinkVision line. Each uses 30-60 percent less energy than ThinkVision LCDs from the past and some of the packaging uses 65 percent recycled materials.
Read More
Today and tomorrow, you can save up to 36% on Lenovo notebooks by using e-coupon USP2DAYSONLY at Lenovo’s online store. It’s one of those “You Pay What We Pay” sales that seem to be so popular with withering domestic automakers except that this time, it’s Lenovo, which is based in China. Go figure.
Lenovo Two Day Sale [Lenovo.com]
Liliputing is reporting that Lenovo has missed the September 9th ship date they were promised and has changed the new ship date to November 18th. I know a few of you here have ordered these machines and were given ship dates of September 9th as well. Has your ship date changed? Lenovo originally promised the S10 in early October, so the September 9th ship date seemed mighty early. Now it’s looking like these machines might possibly be showing up even later than scheduled.
Lenovo’s CEO William Amelio told reporters earlier today that his company had no interest in purchasing Dell’s factories. Makes sense considering Dell sold them to cut costs. Amelio went on to say that Lenovo was content with their capacity and that the global economy’s weakness would lead to less spending by tech companies. So that’s that.
The A62 is a fairly staid ThinkCentre desktop that should sell for about $399 in September. It runs an AMD 15w CPU, the Athlon 2650e, on select models and is aimed at businesses trying to reduce their energy bills or, dare we say it, go green. It includes all of IBM’s fleet add-ons like Express Repair, Dash 1.1 remote trouble shooting, and ThinkVantage for hardware maintenance. Boooring, Sidney, Booooring.
PR
All the specs were leaked earlier in the month and it was just a matter of time before the FCC divulged the rumored tablet from Lenovo. Well, the wait is no more as the X200T is now in the FCC database. The FCC filing shows that the X200T will come with UWB, so I wonder if those supposed specs from earlier are real? It shouldn’t be too long before Lenovo officially announces it.
Update: An in the wild shot after the jump.
Read More
Lenovo recently announced the ThinkPad X301, the next in line for the X300 line. Surely you remember the X300, Lenovo’s answer to the MacBook Air. Well the X301 seems to be stuffed in the same less-than-three-pound shell, but the delicious candy inside has changed a little bit.
For starters, you can get the X301 with a 64GB or 128GB solid state drive (available in September). You’ll also get 20 percent better performance over the X300, according to Lenovo, thanks to “the latest DDR3 memory and the latest Intel Core 2 Duo ultra low volt processor.” Finally, there’s new support for the DisplayPort interface so you can hook your rig up to your home theater setup or what have you.
Pricing for the standard hard drive model starts at $2,599 and goes up from there based on your desired configuration. They’ll be available on August 26th.
Read More
