LenovoIdeapadU1Hybrid
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Lenovo LePad to ship in December, IdeaPad U1 Hybrid dock slated for January 2011
Seeing that swiveling Dell Inspiron Duo earlier this week immediately made us think of the other really enticing tablet / laptop we've been waiting for... Lenovo's IdeaPad U1 Hybrid. To recap: it was over eight months ago that the company unveiled it at CES only to tell us a few months later that it was being shelved for the time being. However, we're hearing now that it's definitely still kicking! According to Lenovo, the 10.1-inch LePad (the tablet part of the U1 Hybrid) will be released in China in December running some version of Android. The LePad (apologies for repeating the name, we just love saying it in a French accent) will then be greeted in January by its "hybrid option" -- a separate case containing a keyboard and laptop guts. Lenovo didn't have any updates on the internal specs of the docking / hybrid part, though we're assuming it'll still pack some sort of Intel processor and Windows 7 to transform it into a real life laptop. Unfortunately for now, Lenovo's saying the LePad and the Hybrid part will only be available in China, but we're gonna keep wishin' and prayin' that both actually see the light of day and journey across the rough seas.
Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid hands-on and impressions
There's no hiding the fact that the first images of the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid amazed us, and now after seeing the device we can say the feeling was well-founded -- the detachable resistive multitouch display worked better than we ever expected for such an early preproduction unit. Check the mouthwatering gallery below and then head over the break for full impressions and a few videos showing off the U1's finer points. %Gallery-81541%
Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid: laptop by day, unhinged tablet by night
We're still trying to wrap our heads around what Lenovo's just announced here, but it appears that the 3.8-pound IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is a 11.6-inch laptop with a retractable multitouch screen. It's sort of like the Always Innovating Touchbook, but in our opinion a lot more interesting. When the screen is locked into its upright position in the laptop's chassis, it's powered by a CULV Intel Core 2 Duo processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. But when the screen is pulled from its shell it morphs into a Qualcomm Snapdragon powered-multitouch slate with a 16GB SSD that boots Lenovo's customized Skylight Linux interface. Two processors and two operating systems? Hybrid is right. It seems like we'll have to wait until June to buy the $999 device, but we've been promised a look at it in Vegas so stay tuned. Updated: Hit the break for the press release. %Gallery-81440%
