Lenovo’s VP of Corporate Identity & Design, David Hill, recently blogged about the process and effort behind designing and building their space at CES.
There is no question Lenovo swept up at CES this year, with 23 new products announced and several that captured audiences across the world, like the innovative IdeaPad U1 hybrid. Accordingly they didn’t just put up a couple folding tables and hand out beer koozies, rather the talented design team got to work long ago on how to make their space at CES into a rich experience for everyone that would wander through.
The design of the venue, in our case the Aquaknox restaurant, was a critical component of setting the stage. Lenovo literally transformed the place into a product exhibition space/nightclub. We wanted to create a lasting and positive impression for everyone who attended.
If you missed the rather subtle announcement at CES, Lenovo is debuting a new feature on their IdeaPad Y560 and Y460 models. Dubbed ReadyDrive, this technology combines SSDs and spinning drives to maximize performance and still offer low cost, high capacity storage.
Boot time is said to be especially improved, with a claim from Lenovo of up to a 66% reduction. Unfortunately this system will only be available on these select IdeaPads for now, but a ThinkPad version isn’t out of the question.
Matt Kohut covered this topic well, so I’ll let him cover the important details:
The breakthrough is using a Lenovo patent-pending technology that connects both the SSD and HDD simultaneously as one big, contiguous drive. Unlike my setup above, this storage is dynamically pooled and managed. The end user does not need to do anything. The system manages the SSD depending on usage. Programs, documents, and other files are dynamically moved on and off of the SSD so that you can always get the fastest speed possible.
This sounds like a neat system, but its success will be determined by two things. The first is of course price: I know Lenovo is very sensitive to price, so they wouldn’t do this if it was going to be cost prohibitive, but value in the eyes of the customers is what matters in the end.
The exact implementation will also be important to ReadyDrive’s success with customers. A black box that magically routes all the data where it would best go sounds nice on paper, but in practice it must be flawless. One question that enters my mind is partitioning. It would be safe to assume that there must be at least one partition on the HDD where ReadyDrive can play with all its data, but can there be an additional one that remains untouched? Questions, questions.
In celebration of their overwhelming number of new products, Lenovo has kicked off a new corporate blog called Design Talks, written by the head of their Beijing design team, Yao.
Personal computers have two aspects that are overwhelmingly discussed and analyzed: design and technology. Lenovo is a company that banks on their design to help separate them in the highly commiditized market, so it would only make sense that they have a large internal focus on design, with three major product design centers across the world. Located in Japan, China and the U.S., the design teams and their leaders are tasked with shaping the future of the company’s products.
When Lenovo first started blogging, one of the original ThinkPad designers and head of the U.S.-based design group, David Hill, was the sole voice on design and as expected, speaking almost solely on ThinkPad design and about how Design Matters. Not long ago we saw the launch of Yamato Thinking, an outlet for the designers in Japan to tease us with T400s shots and share their New Years office celebrations.
Now we have Design Talks, an obvious play off of Hill’s blog title, which fills in the remaining piece of the design puzzle: a blog by Yao and the Beijing product design team. Yao’s introductory post is one filled with reflection of where they have been, where they are now and where they hope to go; very fitting considering both the new year and Lenovo’s onslaught of new products.
So head over there, leave a comment and be sure to visit the site again. For me personally, both David Hill’s blog and the Yamato blog have provided a great insight into just how and why ThinkPads came to be as they are today, and I expect a similar experience for Idea as well as China-only Lenovo products.
Amidst the notebooks, smartbook and netbooks, Lenovo also unleashed a new smartphone dubbed LePhone. Powered by Google’s Android operating system, LePhone packs a lot of modern smartphone features into a sleek design, but will only be available in China.
A cornerstone of any smartphone, the LePhone’s display is a 3.7-inch 800×480 capacitive touchscreen, although unfortunately not OLED like some competitors. At only 12mm thick, the LePhone is even thinner than the iPhone by a few tenths of a millimeter (for those who can notice 0.3mm difference).
There’s no word on storage capacity, but the processor is the same as on the Skylight smartbook and IdeaPad U1 hybrid: Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon. Interestingly, Lenovo fitted the device with two cameras, one facing away from the user and the other looking right at you.
What looks like the only hardware button on the device is on the side, which enables gesture support. An integrated accelerometer can relay commands to your applications, such as Google Maps which allows for you to move around the map by moving your phone.
EDIT How could I forget the dock? Yes, the LePhone will have an available dock that adds a physical qwerty keyboard, in addition to charging it of course. See a pic in the image gallery below.
LePhone will go on sale in China in the first half of 2010, but what one has to wonder what is preventing Lenovo from dipping their toe in the U.S. market? They now have a partnership with AT&T through the Skylight, so perhaps it is a matter of time.
Lenovo pointed a camera at some of the CES patrons visiting their booth and asked them for feedback on the new “chiclet” style keyboards used on the ThinkPad X100e and Edge.
I thought I’d just share this resource I came across to give you folks another view of the new keyboards, but of course take it for what it’s worth. The first interviewee’s reaction comes across as someone who isn’t already the ThinkPad touch-typing, so as I said when I introduced these new models in the first place, remember that the Edge and X100e aren’t necessarily for the die-hard ThinkPadders. They are for the next generation of ThinkPadders, or at least that is what Lenovo is betting on.
Lenovo just posted updated versions of its incredibly helpful PSREF documents. These data-laden PDF files contain specific model configurations and full detail of all their products. If you are a speeds & feeds freak, these are your bible. Feel free to hit the link at the end
We’ll go through the specific tidbits gleaned for each model and then provide a little analysis at the end of the post. Let’s get started!
“Red make Jerome angry, remind Jerome of quarterback. Jerome CRUSH LITTLE LAPTOP!”
I’m sure Lenovo’s Skylight smartbook will be a durable one, but just about any laptop that small will look like a toy in this man’s hands. Seriously though, let’s just hand that to someone else before one of the only models in existence gets destroyed…
Commenters, feel free to come up with a better caption for this Happy Friday
EDIT For our international readers, Jerome Bettis is a star (American) football player, who has the nickname “The Bus” for obvious reasons. Keep in mind this is American football, not “real” football/soccer.
I’m sure many of us have had our fears and doubts about yet another new keyboard design from Lenovo. After all, if it isn’t broken, why fix it?
Like it or not the new chiclet design is here to stay and a fellow from DigitalTrends.com spent some time with the new keyboards on the ThinkPad X100e and Edge. He doesn’t pontificate too much on the new design, but in not so many words lets us know to be scared no more.
While I wouldn’t say the new experience feels “better,” it certainly feels no worse. The keys retain the signature ThinkPad springiness and have plenty of travel – something many other companies seem to cut back on to make their notebooks thinner and thinner. And the bright red rubber TrackPoint joystick is there to stay.
Laptop Mag compiled a list of the most innovative new products announced at CES this year and is asking for your vote on which one deserves the “Best of CES” award.
Three Lenovo products are on this list, consisting of the IdeaPad U1 hybrid, Skylight smartbook and IdeaPad S10-3t tablet netbook. The U1 hybrid is actually leading ALL of the votes at 50%, but the polls are open until Sunday so there is still time for things to change.
Head over to Laptop Mag and let ‘em know what you think!
The new Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 is the company’s third generation 10-inch netbook, bringing a fresh new design and a multitouch tablet model to the fold.
The first thing you’ll notice is how different the S10-3 looks from the S10-2, which shared a lot of its aesthetics with the original S10. It comes off as more angular, with sharper edges and flat, rectangular sides that directly contrast with the S10-2. They even made the S10-3 a bit thinner, losing about a tenth of an inch from the last generation.
ThinkPad and IdeaPad News Blog, Reviews, Deals & Coupons
Exclusive Lenovo Offers
Hottest Deals
NEW 14-inch Lenovo Essential G455 Laptop in Grey (070832U) for $699 - $50 off - $150 stackable coupon (expires 16 or after first 100 uses) = $499 plus FREE shipping. Powered by AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-core M320 2.1GHz CPU, integrated Mobility Radeon HD 4200 graphics, LED-backlit LCD, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and more.
14-inch Lenovo Value Line G450 Laptop in Grey (2949CGU) with pre-loaded Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS for $799 -$100 instant discount - $130 stackable coupon: USPG4CG38 (expires March 16 or after first 400 uses)= $569 plus FREE shipping. To get this deal:
1. Click here to start at Lenovo direct 2. Select Lenovo G450 - 2949CGU - Grey, Click Customize & buy 3. Select Summary Review, Add to cart 4. Apply coupon code USPG4CG38 during checkout
Lenovo Multimedia Remote with keyboard (57Y6336) on sale for $59.99 - 20% coupon code (expires soon) = $47.99 plus FREE shipping. This Mini wireless keyboard with track ball has Palm-sized dimensions, USB nano dongle and 2.4GHz radio frequency w/ 10 meters control distance.
Send a Tip
RSS Feed
Follow us on Twitter
Happy Friday
14-inch Lenovo Value Line G450 Laptop in Grey (2949CGU) with 
Lenovo Multimedia Remote with keyboard (57Y6336) on sale for $59.99 - 
Loading ...
