Lenovo serves up ThinkPad-inspired phone for China

We hear nary a peep out of Lenovo's handset division in these parts -- but in China, they do a fairly brisk business, offering the full range from commodity candybars all the way up through Windows Mobile-based powerhouses. You'd think, then, that if the company chose to grace a phone with its treasured ThinkPad branding, it would be one of those higher end pieces, yeah? Apparently not. This here P768 is the first Lenovo we've seen to evoke the storied laptop marque, lacking any sort of smartphone operating system (as far as we can tell) but offering up a metallic shell, 2 megapixel cam, 64MB of storage with microSD expansion, and an FM radio with a thumbstick that looks vaguely like a real ThinkPad's track stick. Grab it in Lenovo's domestic market for 999 yuan, or about $132 -- a far cry from even the cheapest Lenovo lappie, we reckon.

[general_generic @ Aug 9th 2007 5:09PM]

If this had a titanium shell like my Thinkpad, it would be a great field/backup phone, and I know quite a few luddites who would love a solid, reliable phone like this.

[Mike @ Aug 9th 2007 5:41PM]

Blah.

[Ali @ Aug 9th 2007 8:18PM]

its a track point...not a stick

[Fenway Beer Man @ Aug 9th 2007 8:57PM]

Oh boy, I hope it comes with that snazzy top-to-bottom plastic protector!

Seriously, they couldn't take it off for the photo-op?

[kyle allen @ Aug 9th 2007 9:31PM]

if that realy is a track point, im totally guna buy one!

[Maxime Rousseau @ Aug 9th 2007 9:42PM]

Knowing IBM, this is probably the kind of phone that you buy once, looks slick but plain for the first years, then serves just fine as a backup phone for years and years and years over years. IBM stuff is rock. And that`s a fact. And in the end, it isn't that fugly.

[Jeff Couch @ Aug 10th 2007 12:55AM]

this phone looks like the 80s pooped out a blackberry pearl. a really shiny pearl.