Starting to get bored of the ThinkPad's classic look but not keen on the Edge series? Then we have good news for you! Earlier today we received a couple of photos that show off two upcoming Lenovo Ultrabooks: the 13-inch ThinkPad S3 (codename "Labatt") and the 15-inch ThinkPad S5 ("Guinness"). As you can see above and after the break, both aluminum laptops feature a new "floating design" that might have taken a page out of Samsung and Vizio's book: shaving off the front outer edges of the bottom side to create that slim and floating illusion. Also, these will apparently come with either a black or silver lid.

Some folks on Sina Weibo have received other teaser photos of the ThinkPad S5, with one confirming the presence of JBL stereo speakers. The funny thing is Chinese website Yesky reported on a charity auction that actually sold limited editions of the S3 and S5 earlier this month, but those unannounced Ultrabooks went under everyone else's radar. If you're curious, Yesky speculates that a launch is due in China at the end of this month, but you'll have to stay tuned for the prices and specs.

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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Fussy about boot times, carry-weight or weak battery life? Then you probably gave Lenovo's IdeaPad U310 a wide berth. The thing is, aside from those flaws, it was otherwise a very solid Ultrabook for those whose wallets couldn't stretch to a premium model. We want to know, did you buy one? If so, what did you think of it, and let's imagine you were dreaming up a budget Ultrabook -- what would you change?

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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It arrived with a bang, but it's been dead silence ever since. Lenovo's Intel Clover Trail+ smartphone, the Android-based K900, is finally ready to make its grand entrance into the consumer realm. The 5.5-inch powerhouse will ship with a dual-core Atom Z2580 CPU (2.0GHz) within, a PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU, a 1080p IPS panel slipped behind a coating of Gorilla Glass 2 and a 13 megapixel camera. Despite the sizable display, it weighs just 162 grams and measures 6.9 millimeters thick, and should be available across greater China right now for RMB 3,299 (around $536) -- or RMB 2,999 if you're lucky. For those outside of Lenovo's homeland, you'll need to wait until summer for it to hit an unspecified amount of "international markets."

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Lenovo

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Source: Lenovo, JD.com

Lenovo teased a potential sweet spot in its convertible laptop line when it revealed the IdeaPad Yoga 11S, blending the portability of the Yoga 11 with the raw performance of the Yoga 13. As of now, we can do more than just imagine how well that balance works: the Yoga 11S is at last available to order. Those who plunk down at least $800 can buy the bendy Windows 8 PC online from either Best Buy or Lenovo, although shoppers will want to think carefully before jumping in with both feet. While both outlets equip their Yogas with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive at that price, Best Buy lists a 1.5GHz Core i5 where Lenovo starts with a more modest 1.4GHz Core i3. No matter which outlet beckons, would-be owners will have to bide their time. Lenovo is quoting a four-week wait for new shipments, and Best Buy will only see the Yoga 11S grace its retail stores on June 23rd.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Lenovo

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Source: Lenovo, Best Buy

Looking for a place to stick that super-sized slate? You might opt to mount it in a wooden table modeled after a treehouse, or a piece of furniture designed to accommodate a digital "family game night." Of course, you'd clearly be drawing some inspiration from two such concepts that feature Lenovo's Horizon Table PC as the star of the show -- both, along with a third project that employs a more traditional bar-stool concept, will debut at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair next week in New York City. (You're going, right?) It's certainly not the first time we've witnessed a non-traditional marriage of form and function, but considering that we have yet to see these gigantic 1080p tablets on the street, it's a bit of a curiosity at the moment.

Filed under: Desktops, Household, Lenovo

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Who says a carbon fiber chassis with sufficient cooling for a Core i7 has to be heavy? The ThinkPad X230s, revealed on Lenovo's Chinese site following a partial leak in January, looks like a significantly more portable version of last year's X230, with a weight of just 1.28kg (2.8 pounds) and a minimum thickness of 17.7mm (0.7 inches). There's room inside for up to 8GB of RAM, either a 240GB SSD or 1TB HDD, fingerprint reader, 720p webcam, VGA and Mini DisplayPort outputs, two USB 3.0 ports and keyboard backlighting. It's a Windows 8 machine, of course, with shortcut keys and a gesture-optimized TrackPad. We're on the lookout for further details, including any pricing, and will update this post soon as we have some.

Update: We're going to hazard a guess that the resolution is 1,366 x 768, based on the January leak. Chinese pricing looks to be around 7,399 yuan ($1,200).

[Thanks, Os]

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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Source: Lenovo

When we reviewed Lenovo's IdeaTab S2109, one quote sums up the essential frustration of this particular device. "There's no one huge, glaring reason to stay away; no, it's the combination of a middling CPU, unimpressive battery life and design quirks [...] that adds up to an experience that leaves us wanting more." So let's talk about why this device inspires so much apathy? If you bought it, what about it made it so unspectacular, and what do you think Lenovo could have done differently?

Filed under: Tablets, Lenovo

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You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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This week's After Math appears to have taken on a comic book theme. Want to make your own Thor hammer? How about your very own Atomic Watch -- rather than those radio-wave-based excuses of a timepiece? We've also got the very real prospect of civilian flights to outer space and, er, Kobe Bryant advertising Lenovo smartphones. Stranger things have happened, right? Join us after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Alt

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Lenovo sure likes to tease, and apparently so does Kobe Bryant. In a recent "behind the scenes" video of Lenovo's upcoming P780 ad campaign, the NBA star is seen bouncing a basketball around for a while before he eventually starts talking. "Are you prepared for a new style smartphone? Say hello to the Lenovo..."

At that point, the video -- embedded after the break -- awkwardly fades into a still showing Kobe holding the P780, and that's all there. Luckily, more details of this WCDMA device have been trickling out of Sina Weibo since then. Most notably, a few official Lenovo accounts mentioned a 5-inch display (our money's on 720p resolution) and a generous 4,000mAh battery, thus making the P780 a natural progression from the 4.5-inch P770 that came with a 3,500mAh cell. MyDrivers' source also tipped a 9.9mm thickness, along with the presence of "super sensitive touch" technology -- as featured on Nokia's Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, plus Huawei's Ascend Mate and Ascend P2 -- that supports glove and non-capacitive stylus input.

Having gotten up close and personal with a working P780 (photos after the break), Sina Weibo user Lisancha added that said phone features dual-SIM with dual-standby, a quad-core MediaTek chipset (likely the Cortex-A7-based MT6589) and a launch date set for the second-half of May. We're assuming that like many other Lenovo phones, this one may only be made available in China; but we'll be keeping an eye out for its official launch, anyway.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: GizChina, MyDrivers

Source: Lisancha (Sina Weibo), Lenovo (Youku)

Lenovo is giving fans of professional laptop chic a treat today: in addition to shipping the ThinkPad Edge E431 and E531, it's unveiling one more model, the ThinkPad S431. The new Ivy Bridge-powered system is closer to the Edge S430 in spirit, carrying a similar 0.8 inches thick chassis, an aluminum lid and a thin-bezel design that stuffs a 14-inch touchscreen into a small body. It does carry the newer Edge line's unifying OneLink connector and gesture-friendly touchpad, although the svelter profile also involves some sacrifices -- the S431 tops out at 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, or about half what its peers can manage. The slimmer, touch-enabled design will also boost the asking price to $699 when the S431 ships in June, although the cost conscious can spring for the E431 and E531 today for a distinctly cheaper $599.

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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Source: Lenovo (1), (2)

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Normally, when a company releases two laptops in different sizes (the MacBook Air, anyone?) we review just one: we assume you'll get the gist about the design and trackpad the first time, ya know? So it's funny, then, that we're taking a look at the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 after we've already tested the Yoga 13 and named it one of our favorite Windows 8 convertibles. They look alike, with an inventive hinge allowing you to fold the screen back like a book cover. The keyboards are the same too, though the 11-incher's is understandably a tad more crowded. They even have the same oddly shaped power port.

Except, of course, they're totally different products. Whereas the Yoga 13 is a proper laptop, with a Core i5 processor and full Windows 8, the Yoga 11 runs Windows RT, and is powered by a Tegra 3 chip (yes, the same one you're used to seeing in Android tablets). That means a big dip in performance, but exponentially longer battery life. Legacy x86 apps are off-limits too, given that this is Windows RT and all. Now that we've set up that equation for you (weaker performance plus longer battery life minus standard Windows apps equals what?) let's meet up after the break to see if this is just as good a deal as its big brother.

Gallery: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 review

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Lenovo

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You asked; you got it. When we ran our first-ever laptop buyer's guide earlier this year, many of you wrote in, requesting that we include more affordable picks (not just, you know, twelve-hundred-dollar Ultrabooks). So with this latest seasonal guide, we've added budget and mid-range options, some with touchscreens, some without. The only unfortunate thing? We're expecting Intel to drop its new Haswell chips sometime this summer, so it should go without saying that it might be worth waiting for the various PC giants to refresh their lineups before committing to anything. If you absolutely can't wait, though, we've picked our favorites, with a particular emphasis on models we don't think will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung, Sony, ASUS, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo

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Lenovo's ThinkPad Helix has had one of the rockier roads to the US market, having been promised for February only to be delayed to April. Things are getting smoother, however, as the first units of the are rolling off the production line -- and there are already customers waiting at Seton Hall University. Keeping up its recent practice of handing out gadgets to junior students, the school expects to test the dockable Windows 8 tablet within a few weeks, and then deliver about 2,000 units to newcomers starting in June. The turn toward a hybrid lets the university settle on one PC design for the fall rather than divide its attention between tablets and Ultrabooks, Seton Hall's Drew Holden says. As for the general public? Lenovo hasn't officially put the Helix on sale through its own store, but a handful of customers say they've already received theirs through other channels. In any event, keep a close watch on third-party stores if you're willing to part with $1,499 for a ThinkPad convertible.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Lenovo

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Via: Ultrabook News

Source: The Setonian

Much like bears, tablet designers are coming out of hibernation: there have been a handful of noteworthy models reaching the wild after a few months of silence. Most of these are the Windows 8- and RT-based tablets that didn't quite make the cut for the holidays, and we're launching our 2013 spring tablet buyer's guide with a dedicated Windows section to accommodate a distinct and rapidly filling category. Just be careful before you commit to a purchase, wherever your allegiances lie: Mobile World Congress brought us tablets that haven't quite shipped yet, like the FonePad and Galaxy Note 8.0. (We've included a heads-up in those situations where waiting a few weeks, or months, may be wisest.) As chaotic as spring can be, our guide might just provide some kind of stability if you're shopping for your next slate.

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, ASUS, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T, Lenovo

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