And so the manna begins falling from gadget-heaven. Actually it started falling way before CES officially begins, what with “leaks” and unofficial launches all over the net. Lenovo officially couldn’t wait to show off their new product, so they didn’t bother with rumors or pseudo-leaks and officially announced the Lenovo Ideapad U1 Hybrid before the start of CES as well. And boy, what a gadget: in its conventional notebook form, the Ideapad U1 Hybrid runs Windows 7 and is powered by a Intel Core 2 Duo U4100 CULV CPU. But actually the 11.6 in LED display isn’t just a display; it’s also a tablet:
If you snap off the tablet from the upper shell, it’ll switch to a different operating system called Skylight – a custom Linux OS – as well as to a different processor, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon. Understandably, the tablet has less memory: 512 MB DDR1 RAM and 16 GB flash storage compared to 4 GB DDR3 RAM and up to 128 GB SSD on the notebook. The notebook also uses an integrated Intel graphics chipset while the tablet relies on Snapdragon for graphics. The tablet also has a built-in accelerometer.
But not all of the hardware has been split between the two modes. They share the same battery and wireless components, i.e. 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth; multi-touch is also available on both modes. The Lenovo Ideapad U1 Hybrid also has three USB ports (one of which is an eSATA/USB combo port), VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, and a 4-in-1 reader (Multi-Media Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Secure Digital Card).
Unless the Skylight OS sucks, just about the only downside to the Ideapad is it’s price, and even then it’s not that bad considering what’s being offered. 2 gadgets, 2 hardware specs, 2 operating systems for 1 price: $1,000 (USD).
[via PC Mag]
