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Lenovo posts

Lenovo's O1e takes the O1 down a notch or three

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 21st 2009 @ 1:40PM

The O1 isn't even out yet, but a new filing with China's regulatory folks suggests that Lenovo's already hard at work at a lower-cost version that would swap out metal bits for plastic ones and kick the camera down from 5 megapixels to 3. On the plus side, buyers still make out with 8GB of internal storage and quite possibly China Mobile's homegrown Android skin, so it can't be all bad, right? Then again, this remix could be for a different carrier altogether, in which case we might be spared Open Mobile System's uncomfortably iPhone-esque home screen -- and really, that'd be just fine with us.

Lenovo's Android-powered O1 'OPhone' due next month

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Aug 7th 2009 @ 3:03PM

Good news, kids! It looks like Lenovo's O1 "OPhone" handset is finally ready to hit the shelves over on the Mainland sometime next month. Truth be told, the story arc of this Android-powered 3G (TD-SCDMA) handset has been quite the emotional roller coaster: Some were riveted by the sleek, sexy physical design of the thing, while others were repelled by its intensely KIRFish UI. China Mobile is obviously hoping for big things from the little guy -- and getting it into stores before Unicom gets the iPhone sorted can't hurt. Either way, it looks like someone's just taken a bite out of iOrgane's market share!

Lenovo and RIM's Constant Connect now available

by Darren Murph posted Apr 28th 2009 @ 1:23PM

We know you've been literally hanging on the edge of your seat waiting for this day to come, so it's our honor and privilege to announce that Lenovo and RIM's Constant Connect solution is now available. For those who managed to sleep right through February, the technology enables select ThinkPads to automatically pull down BlackBerry emails whenever it's within range, even if the laptop is completely off. There's no word on what it'll cost to have this added into your next corporate machine, but you can head past the break for a quick demonstration vid if you think you're interested.

Update: It's a $149 option from select business partners and through Lenovo.com.

Continue reading Lenovo and RIM's Constant Connect now available

China Mobile planning to subvert Unicom's iPhone launch with the OPhone?

by Tim Stevens posted Apr 20th 2009 @ 10:26AM

We've known for some time that China Mobile was planning to launch the KIRFy OPhone from Lenovo. Now, with word on the street that China Unicom has snagged the iPhone in that provider's home turf, a report from DigiTimes is suggesting that China Mobile might be trying to undermine the competition's supposed June iPhone launch by dropping the OPhone a month earlier. That sounds sensible enough, but are people there so eager for iPhone they'd jump on the imitation rather than wait another month for the real thing? We'll find out soon enough.

[Image courtesy of modmyGphone]

Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone gets hands-on video treatment

by Ross Miller posted Apr 8th 2009 @ 9:17PM

It's always nice to get an update on one of our favorite KIRFs as of late. Lenvo's Android-powered OPhone has popped up in a hands-on video, showing off its mock-iPhone OS interface and all the doppelganger apps / features -- weather, stock, calculator and even a near-identical push notification window. Surprisingly, it's actually pretty well put together and includes some things we wish our legit Apple phone would do, like on-screen widgets and an option to change backgrounds. It'll be a cold day in Hell before we see this serial patent infringer outside of China, so for now you'll have to get your OPhone kicks by checking out the video after the break.

[Thanks, Neerhaj]

Continue reading Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone gets hands-on video treatment

Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone shows itself again. Launch imminent?

by Donald Melanson posted Mar 31st 2009 @ 6:03PM

Lenovo's KIRF-tastic OPhone hasn't exactly been all that camera shy since it first dipped its toes into the Android waters in December, but it's now proudly showing itself yet again, and giving everyone their best glimpse yet at its China Mobile branding. What's more, while we've already heard that the phone is on track for a launch this quarter, the talk now seems to be that a release could be just around the corner, with some speculating that it'll roll out immediately after China Mobile's other Android handset, the Dopod G2 (a.k.a. HTC Magic). Hit up the link below for a few more pics, including a closer look at the phone's slightly familiar-looking UI in action.

[Via ModMyGphone, thanks Neerhaj]

Lenovo KIRFs again with the oPhone UI

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 24th 2009 @ 6:33PM

Alright, we have no idea why Lenovo's phone division is suddenly pumping out copycat handsets, but these supposed shots of the Android-based oPhone's UI look awfully familiar, don't you think? Combine that with the equally-fishy rip of Samsung's TouchWiz UI found in the recently-announced X1, and it more or less seems like Lenovo's running a high-end KIRF outfit over there -- no wonder this stuff never leaves China.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Lenovo's X1 for China is full of KIRF, win

by Chris Ziegler posted Mar 22nd 2009 @ 8:51PM

Okay, there's some amount of originality here, but enough to justify a Red Dot design award? What you're looking at here is the award-winning Lenovo X1 -- as opposed to, say, the Sony Ericsson X1 -- which is a triband EDGE handset Lenovo sells in China. To us, it looks like an Instinct with a slide-out keypad and TouchWiz, but what do we know? Coincidentally, Lenovo calls this totally original UI "Touch Dream," which sounds just a little bit (okay, a whole lot) like an HTC device. So, to summarize: Sony Ericsson and HTC branding, Samsung design, made by Lenovo. Right then.

[Thanks, Bin Xu]

Lenovo launches the frosty white i60 and i60s

by Sean Cooper posted Feb 25th 2009 @ 10:01AM

At first glance Lenovo's i60 and i60s sets really do look grand with the requisite screen reflection, really clean lines, and the general lack of clutter. Of course, good things come to and end and a brief peek under the hood tells a different tale. The i60 (pictured left) is a dual-band phone with a nice 3-inch WQVGA display, support for up to 16GB of memory, and even dual-SIM slots. The i60s has a slightly smaller 2.8-inch WQVGA display, also only ships with dual-band GSM support, and changes up the face design with the inclusion of a few more buttons. So the obvious take away is that we won't be seeing this in North America, neither seem -- the spec sheet is a bit wonky -- to have Bluetooth or WiFi, and no OS is mentioned, though, neither has the proper hardware configuration for either Windows Mobile or Android.

[Via ittechnews]

Read - Lenovo's i60
Read - Lenovo's i60s

Lenovo Constant Connect brings BlackBerry email to ThinkPads automatically

by Darren Murph posted Feb 16th 2009 @ 12:01AM

After two years in development, Lenovo Constant Connect is finally here. A groundbreaking new tie-up between Lenovo and RIM has led to the creation of a $150 54mm ExpressCard -- which slots into any ThinkPad from around Summer '08 onward -- and automatically pulls down any email sent to your BlackBerry via Bluetooth, even if the laptop is completely powered down. The idea here is to always have your most recent inbox available within eight seconds of opening your machine, and thanks to the card's dedicated Bluetooth radio and 500MB of inbuilt storage, it can pull down and send out emails so long as the card and your 'Berry are within 30 feet or so from one another. Aside from needing an ExpressCard slot, you'll also need a handset with OS 4.2 or higher. It's designed to work with Exchange, Outlook, POP and Gmail, with Lotus Notes support coming in 2H 2009; as for availability, the card will be available through Lenovo and its partners in early Q2 here in America, while those elsewhere in the world will have to wait until the latter half of the year. Full release and demo video is after the break.

Continue reading Lenovo Constant Connect brings BlackBerry email to ThinkPads automatically

Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone to hit China Mobile this quarter

by Darren Murph posted Jan 9th 2009 @ 4:18PM

Look out, China -- Lenovo's all-too-sexy OPhone is about to land in the hands of unsuspecting China Mobile subscribers, or so says Reuters, anyway. The planet's largest mobile carrier will reportedly launch the 3G handset sometime this quarter, though some reports are suggesting that development is being hampered as engineers struggle with creating a Chinese language version of the OS. Once launched, it will go down as the first Android-powered handset to operate on China's home-cooked TD-SCDMA 3G network, but there's no word on just how costly it'll be. Not like cost is really a concern here, right?

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of modmyGphone]

Lenovo's Ophone gets sized up against -- what else -- the iPhone

by Jacob Schulman posted Dec 26th 2008 @ 12:44PM

Okay, okay, we get it: everyone knows how big an iPhone is, so this comparison makes sense, we guess -- but both an original and a 3G? Seriously? At any rate, we'll just admire the latest in-the-wild shots of the Ophone, Lenovo's first Android device. We've seen shots of it before, but from this latest impromptu review, we learn that it's rocking a 624MHz CPU, mini USB interface, a 5-megapixel camera, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. We also learn that it's longer, wider, and thicker than the iPhones, though only by the slimmest of margins -- and when you take into account the considerable additional shooting power, we can cut it some slack there. Then again, we doubt we'll ever see one of these in the US of A, however, so it looks like we'll have to sit this one out and wait for another Android device to take our breath away anyhow.

[Thanks, Jason]

More shots of Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone: 'love on the rocks, with no ice'

by Darren Murph posted Dec 16th 2008 @ 12:58PM

What goes down easy with a gorgeous cellphone that'll probably never leave China's borders? Stately rocks, of course. The Android-powered "OPhone" is quite the sight to behold, and while the Lenovo logo may not look quite right to American eyes, we're sure you could learn to love it in time. We're also finding out a bit more about the unit's internals, as it will include a 5-megapixel camera (with Auto Focus and flash), a microSD card slot, English / Chinese input via virtual keyboard, a video recorder and Bluetooth 2.0. Check the read link for a few more angles, and just in case you're wondering, no touchscreens were harmed during the shoot.

Lenovo's Android phone for China hotter than a G1 with a defective battery

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 12th 2008 @ 3:40AM

What if we told you the most beautiful phone in the world was a Lenovo? Reactions to that statement are likely going to oscillate between "Lenovo doesn't make cellphones" and "impossible, considering this is the country that gave us the QKfone G998," -- but seriously, have a look. Even if you don't agree that it's one of the most attractive mobile devices you've ever laid eyes on, you're going to have a hard time making a cohesive argument that the Android-based slate doesn't run circles around the G1 for physical design. 'Course, that just makes it all the more maddening that it's apparently nothing more than an early model of the "Ophone," a handset designed to comply to China Mobile's Open Mobile System that combines Android's core with support and apps for the carrier's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G network. Translation: we'll never see one outside China, so yeah, just lust from afar while you pray HTC and its comrades are busy cooking up some stellar gear.

Lenovo's phone biz soldiers on with P80 flip

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 1st 2008 @ 9:23PM

In modern business, brand names frequently have very little -- nay, shockingly little -- to do with the company that's actually behind the product, and Lenovo's totally cool playing that game. Well, not Lenovo proper -- but Lenovo Mobile, which was sold off earlier in the year but continues to use the parent company's name to hawk goods. That's where the P80 comes into play, a new flip that features a 1-inch external OLED combined with a 2.8-inch primary display, microSD expansion to 4GB, 2-megapixel cam, and FM radio. Missing are dual SIM slots (surprisingly common in China) and GPS, but hey, at least it's available in seven tasty colors.