Hasta La Gadget!

While HTC might be closing its doors in South America, there’s still plenty more companies looking to set up shop. The latest addition appears to be Lenovo, which, according to ZTOP, is readying blueprints for a 325,000-square meter site in São Paulo. The factory will apparently recruit up to 700 locals when it reaches full capacity. While the company only has a minor market share at the moment, Brazil looks likely to be another growth market and perhaps success in South America will be enough to claim the PC-making top spot.

As others leave, Lenovo reportedly plans $30 million factory for Brazil originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TNW  |  ZTOP (translated)  | Email this | Comments

Lenovo has reportedly petitioned Microsoft for the Nokia-style freedom to modify Windows Phone for its own range of devices, dispatching R&D execs to Microsoft HQ to request more OEM flexibility. The company told Microsoft that it was less interested in developing pure Windows Phone 8 devices, Chinese site WPDang reports, and that it hoped to customize the smartphone platform in terms of UI and other aspects.

Lenovo confirmed plans to launch at least one Windows Phone last year, suggesting at the time that it would be the second half of 2012 when we saw the handset arrive. In the meantime, the company has established an $800m mobile-centric facility, tasked with developing new smartphone, tablet and other mobility-related products and software.

So far, Lenovo’s public phone plans have mainly consisted of Android devices, often heavily customized for the company’s home Chinese market. However, Lenovo is also apparently looking to make Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets, which would slot well into an overall ecosystem with Windows Phone.

Nokia, thanks to its unusual deal with Microsoft, has greater liberty than other OEMs adopting Windows Phone to modify the platform to its own needs. However, while it may be at liberty to hack away at the Metro UI, so far the Finnish software engineers have been relatively restrained, prioritizing consistency across Windows Phones rather than its own hunger for differentiation.

A glimpse of what was said to be the first Lenovo Windows Phone was spotted late last year, with the handset resembling the existing Lenovo S2 but running Microsoft’s platform.

[via Ubergizmo]

Lenovo meeting Microsoft over custom Windows Phone plans say sources is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Android tablets come in all shapes, sizes, and price but Lenovo‘s latest tablet, the IdeaTab S2109 is here on the review block at SlashGear and seems to be sitting right in the middle regarding all 3. It runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and comes offering decent specs at a great price, but can it compete with the iPad 2? Check out our hands-on and initial thoughts below.

Lenovo’s previous tablets were decent but nothing extremely top of the line, and the same holds true for this latest variation. Coming with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box — completely vanilla — without any of their changes and rocking a dual-core processor. When we said the specs were similar to the iPad we meant it. The S2109 comes with a 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 resolution 4:3 ratio display, a Texas Instruments 1.0 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. Some improvements are the SRS quad-stereo surround sound, and a micro-SD slot for extra storage. Here’s our hands-on:

Lenovo made this look extremely similar to the iPad, and priced it along with Apple’s lowered $399 iPad 2 as well. The IdeaTab S2109 will start at $349 and go up from there, so is slightly cheaper than the Apple slate. Without the Lenovo logo and rounded plastic unibody design you’d barely tell the different until you power it on.

Lenovo hasn’t had the best success with the tablet market, but this could be a shift into more sales for them. Coming with a mid-range price and specs could make this a go-to tablet for the budget conscious user. The design is improved over their recent tablets, the 4:3 aspect ratio is a plus, and the SRS sound is exceptional from our limited time with the device. You can get the IdeaTab S2109 Android 4.0 ICS tablet on sale for July 4th this week only for just $311 (8GB) or $351 for the 16GB model — making this a great alternative to the iPad 2. It even comes with a nice rubber case for free and additional storage options.

Stay tuned and check back shortly as we’ll be sure to give Lenovo’s new budget Ice Cream Sandwich tablet the full rundown to see what she’s worth.

Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 Unboxing is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This one isn’t fully official just yet, but Blog of Mobile has turned up some pictures and specs for a new Lenovo LePhone K860 that would appear to one-up the company’s existing offerings. Perhaps most notably, this one is said to pack a quad-core, 1.4GHz Exynos 4412 processor (the same found in some variants of the Galaxy S III), along with a 5-inch screen boasting a 1280 x 720 resolution. Otherwise, you’ll apparently get a 2 megapixel camera up front and 8 megapixels ’round back, 1GB of RAM, and Android 4.0 for an OS (no mention of a 4.1 upgade). No indication of a price, but it looks like it will be hitting China in August.

[Thanks, FT]

Lenovo LePhone K860 surfaces with quad-core Exynos processor, 5-inch screen, and Android 4.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Unwired View  |  Blog of Mobile  | Email this | Comments

Netbooks may have had their five minutes of fame, but it looks like Lenovo still thinks life left in the category. Netbook News has spotted specs for the upcoming Lenovo X131e, the successor to the X130e that was running AMD’s Zacate platform. The X131e looks to have the new Brazos 2.0 APU, featuring either a E1-1200 or E2-1800 CPU, plus boosted Radeon HD 73xx graphics. Just like the X130e, there will be an optical ULV Core i3 option too.

In terms of design, not much has changed: the 11.6-inch notebook still has a 1366×768 display, but the specs and port selection have been tweaked. Options will include a dual-core E1-1200 clocked at 1.4Ghz, or a E2-1800 clocked at 1.7Ghz. The GPU on the E1-1200 will be a HD 7310, while the E2-1800 gets a HD 7340 with slightly higher clock speeds and a turbo boost mode. TDP for both options is said to be 18W. There will also be an option for a Sandy Bridge Core i3 ULV CPU which will come with the integrated HD 3000 GPU.

Up to 8GB of RAM can be configured with X131e, although speeds get a bump to 1600Mhz, up from 1333Mhz. The notebook also adds two USB 3.0 ports and HDMI v1.4 in addition to the single USB 2.0 port, Ethernet jack, VGA port, and 4-in-1 card reader. Hard drive options include either a 320/500GB drive at 5400/7200RPM, or a 128GB SSD. The whole thing weighs 3.92lbs, and the 6-cell battery is rated for up to 8.5 hours of runtime.

There’s no word on exact pricing, or even a firm release date, but the current X130e runs around $500, so expect a similar starting price for the X131e. Lenovo’s landing page for the X131e only lists “September 2012” right now, so you’ll have to hold tight if this sounds like the right portable notebook.

Lenovo ThinkPad X131e specs detailed is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.