Lenovo selling off cellphone business you never heard of

Believe it or not Lenovo makes cellphones, too -- they just happen to be crappy ones you probably didn't pay much attention to since they were mostly targeted at the Chinese market. Like many before it, the company is getting out of the absurdly competitive handset market by selling its cellphone group to private equity firm Hony Capital (that's Hony, not Sony) for a cool $100m. [Warning: subscription required for read link]

[Nick Catalano @ Jan 31st 2008 12:16AM]

Say it with me:
Lenovo had a cellphone business?

[Ellianth @ Jan 31st 2008 9:03AM]

Yep. They sold the phones in the palm stores.

[Blacksheep @ Jan 31st 2008 12:17AM]

That clarification should have read "that's Hony not Horny," because honestly, that's what I saw first, not Sony lol.

[ED @ Jan 31st 2008 12:46AM]

Seconded. Either that or Honey.

[NovaLand @ Jan 31st 2008 1:37AM]

To me it wouldn't matter since I can't read.

[zzz @ Jan 31st 2008 5:50AM]

To me it wouldn't matter because Steve Jobs said I can't read.

[bob @ Jan 31st 2008 12:26AM]

The one on the left looks a lot like a Dell Axim X50v.

[PeterF @ Jan 31st 2008 1:02AM]

Sure does. Aaah I miss my old x50v (and x51v). Nice VGA screen, no small HTC phone has one yet! Probably because they wouldn't be usable without video drivers!

[robert watsen @ Jan 31st 2008 12:42AM]

is that a google button on the pocket pc phone?

[Stevo @ Jan 31st 2008 2:12AM]

Hmmmm so it is, interesting

[David @ Jan 31st 2008 12:43AM]

I don't know why, but they have about a 5% share of the Chinese cell phone market. And compared to the Nokias and the SEs in China, they are pretty cheap. The one on the right probably costs about U$100

[Naveed @ Jan 31st 2008 12:44AM]

yeah, i wouldnt do that with a 100 million

[MacVicta @ Jan 31st 2008 1:01AM]

Take notes, Garmin.

[potato @ Jan 31st 2008 2:22AM]

Absolutely. For budget crap those phones don't look half bad, a hell of a lot better than what Garmin came up with for their iPhone competitor...

Now if they joined forces...

[jrhine @ Jan 31st 2008 1:19AM]

I live in china and I have DEFINITELY heard of their cell phones. They are everywhere, and have a decent cheapness/quality if you are looking below nokia/motoral and above BiRD and TCL (heard of those?), and those are only the non-fake brands :)

[Kip HT @ Jan 31st 2008 5:31AM]

Same here, I lived in Thailand and knew someone with a Lenovo phone, thought it was a fake at the time...

[dvdivx @ Jan 31st 2008 2:14AM]

Me so Hony

[tamoghno @ Jan 31st 2008 2:42AM]

so sad that lenovo is leaving the business before i could actually find a cellphone made by them .

and yes , i did know that they had cellphone business , but , well , i only KNOW , i could never found them . even on a store.

[locke6854 @ Jan 31st 2008 2:42AM]

those displays have horrible clouding ;P

[benjasmine @ Jan 31st 2008 4:05AM]

how do u know that they are "crappy ones" if you never used one..?

[peter @ Jan 31st 2008 4:30AM]

Are they the guys that make the NOKLA N95 ? :-)

[Jason Smith @ Jan 31st 2008 7:42AM]

Our Lenovo rep explained that they never sold any outside China as they are all rip-offs of other phones, as is the Chinese way..

[huh @ Jan 31st 2008 8:11AM]

Yes, engadget, the world is bigger than you knew. And words from other cultures are funny, too. Now get back to your grade 5 homework.

[medici @ Jan 31st 2008 9:11PM]

Crappy...China, it is time to reconsider the pre-conceived image already. Where do you think in today's global environment most of your gadgets are mnf'd? It is a pity that a lot off handsets don't work in the US market, GSM standardization and everything would be much easier to transfer.
Anyway, with the rumors on Motorola handset business, with their factories in China, it would be a nice move to be combined with ex-Lenovo's, add BenQ for that matter and shake well.

[tutut @ Feb 7th 2008 12:36PM]

I thought they don't sell in overseas market because of after sale service fuss. ??