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Lenovo's upcoming five-inch 1080p phone to feature dual-SIM connectivity
By now you should already know that HTC, Sharp and Oppo share a common theme: 1080p display on their five-inch phones. As it turns out, Lenovo also wants in on the VIP list. Spotted on Sina Weibo earlier this week (but have since been deleted) are the above three screenshots showing off Lenovo's customized Android UI in 1080p glory. As with many phones in China these days, the device in question supports dual-SIM connectivity -- the screenshots indicate that it's connected to China Telecom's CDMA2000 network and China Mobile's 2G network simultaneously. Our own source wouldn't directly confirm that it's a five-inch display on this mysterious phone, but we were told that it'll be somewhere between 4.5 inches and 5.5 inches -- we'll take that as a yes, especially since the only 1080p mobile panels available right now are the five-inch, 440ppi ones from Sharp and JDI. Our source also said the phone's entered DVT (Design Verification Test) phase for some time, so it might not be long before we hear an official announcement in China. As always, stay tuned. %Gallery-171174%
Lenovo's LePhone S2 joins the Beijing party, boasts a 1.4GHz chip in a much lighter body (updated)
Just to wrap up today's product launch extravaganza in Beijing, Lenovo also threw in its new LePhone S2 dedicated to the phone category in China (while insisting the 5-inch LePad S2005 is more of a tablet, but we'll let you guys do the debate). This 3.8-inch WCDMA phone is no match for many of the big players out there with its single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chip, but other than that it should be pretty sufficient for the average user. The specs include a 800 x 480 TFT display, Android 2.3.4, 512MB RAM with 8GB ROM or 1GB RAM with 16GB ROM (neither comes with memory expansion), slightly different casing design for both models, eight megapixel 720p CMOS camera and a much lighter body compared to its two predecessors -- we're looking at a reduction from 165g to just 120g (including the 1,500mAh battery) at 10.9mm thick. Despite the weight loss, this phone has kept the handy gesture area below the screen. Sadly there's no word on release dates or prices for the S2, so again, come back in a bit for our hands-on photos from Engadget Chinese. Update: We've now been told that starting today the S2 will be sold for RMB 2,990 (about $470) unsubsidized. There will also be a TD-SCDMA variant at some point for those hooked up to China Mobile. Update 2: And our hands-on photos plus video are up now! Enjoy.
Lenovo's upcoming LePhone S2 seen running Android as well as Windows Phone, looks confused
We're not quite sure what's going on here: you see, Lenovo's been cosying up to Android for its smartphones and tablets all this time, so we were a bit surprised when one of its product managers posted some photos of a Windows Phone-powered handset (even Engadget makes an appearance). More interestingly, this mysterious phone looks identical to the upcoming Lenovo LePhone S2, which features a heavily customized Android 2.3.4, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chip, 480 x 800 display, eight-megapixel camera (with 720p recording) and a smaller plus lighter body than its predecessor. PCPOP's done a brief preview of the S2 Android if you're curious. But the bigger story here is that if Lenovo is indeed developing a Windows Phone Mango device for the Chinese market (and remember that Lenovo has yet to market its smartphones outside China), then this S2 variant could be the first of its kind that gets the blessing from the Chinese authorities. Right now Windows Phone has a tight Facebook and Twitter integration, both of which are unfortunately banned by the Great Firewall; and additionally, even the Windows Phone Marketplace had fallen victim to the system for unknown reasons back in August. Of course, Windows Phone's China penetration could be just a matter of time anyway, but it'll be interesting to see what compromises Microsoft will have made to keep the authorities happy -- Nokia will surely need this to keep a good shape in China. On the other hand, given the common hardware compatibility between the two mobile OSes, there's also a good chance that this strange device is merely the work of some curious engineers at Lenovo -- you know, much like the Android-powered Nokia prototype spotted in June. If this is indeed the truth then let our bubbles burst. Update: It turns out that Lenovo's less-known A60 Android handset has already made it to the Philippines at least, so the company does have a small presence in the mobile market outside China. Thanks Ravin! %Gallery-137895%
Lenovo 7-inch Honeycomb tablet coming Q4 according to leaked PDF, Le OS genetics in tow
Hot on the heels of yesterday's leaked 10.1-inch ThinkPad tablet comes another juicy tidbit about another forthcoming device from Lenovo. This is my next reports that in the PC-maker has a 7-inch Honeycomb-equipped slate in the pipeline sporting a high resolution 1280 x 800 display and ARM dual-core processor. The slides also indicate the presence of the "Lenovo family UI," which most likely means Le OS. Release is purportedly slated (ugh) for Q4, but given the presence of a placeholder image and the fact that these slides are at least a month old, most of this is subject to change. Still, we hope Lenovo takes the time to get things right with its Honeycomb customizations, since its the little differentiating touches that make all the difference in burgeoning sea of screen-centric devices.
Lenovo LePad tablet and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid return with Android 2.2 in tow
Remember last year at CES 2010 when Lenovo made a huge scene with the tablet / netbook U1 Hybrid, which ran Windows when docked and Lenovo's Skylight Linux in tablet mode? And then Lenovo killed Skylight in favor of Android and put everything on hold? Well, it's back -- and we just got some serious hands-on time with production-ready Chinese versions of what's now being called the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid with LePad tablet. Things have substantially changed for the better in the past year and since we saw a pre-pro model last month -- in addition to Lenovo's skinned version of Android 2.2 (called LeOS, sigh), there's now a newer 1.3GHz Snapdragon in the LePad and an 1.2GHz Intel Core i5-540UM in the U1 base, with an optional i7 available. Switching from Windows to Android just requires disengaging the latch on the base -- the flip to Android is basically instantaneous, while getting back to Windows takes a few seconds. The U1 base is much nicer than the unit we played with last year -- it's been restyled and features a chiclet-style keyboard and dimpled trackpad. Best of all, the LePad now features a 10.1 1280 x 800 capacitive multitouch display, instead of the floppy resistive unit we saw last year. Both pieces are pretty thin individually, but docked up it makes for a pretty chunky laptop -- but you are getting two machines for the price of one. Now for the bad news -- the LePad will run for about $520 when it arrives in China this quarter, but the full U1 kit will run $1300. There's also no US availability or pricing right now -- and Lenovo told us the U1 won't hit the States until it runs Android 3.0, so we could be waiting months while the company reskins the OS. And we might have to wait even longer for Lenny to retool the LePad to meet that supposed dual-core CPU requirement -- but then, it's already been a year. We can wait a little longer, we suppose. You know, for love. Video and PR after the break. %Gallery-112528% %Gallery-112532%
