Event Coverage

CES 2011: Show Floor Coverage (Part 1)

By Vijay Anand - 7 Jan 2011

Lenovo's Booth

Lenovo's Booth

Lenovo's got a great setup and lineup going at CES 2011 in the Venetian hotel.

First thing's first - The hybrid U1 notebook/tablet machine is finally going retail! However, it's currently targeted for release in China first. Further release schedules in other countries might have to wait a little while more. At least the concept product is coming to life. It's going to be expensive however as it's the equivalent of getting two separate machines (there are two processing platforms) and it's going to cost just as much at about US$1200.

A quick look at Lenovo's Android based smartphone for the China market, complete with a Lenovo apps store with customized apps. The tight integration with their app store that's currently rolled out in their home ground only limits the phone's availability elsewhere.

Moving on to Lenovo's notebooks, one of their star products is this IdeaPad Y570d, an upgrade with the latest Intel Sandy Bridge processors over the Y560 which we reviewed not long ago, Now with the updated specs and an improved screen, this unit has NVIDIA 3D Vision support with built in infrared emitters to sync with the 3D glasses.

The new ThinkPad E220s is a very swell looking notebook that will command respect from your peers. It has an all matte finish from the exterior to the interior (though not the screen). On the outside, it has a thin metallic strip lining its edge, but that's the only 'bling' to give the notebook a modern and sophisticated look and feel. In our opinion, it's one to look out for. If this 12-inch model isn't big enough, there's also the E420s, a 14-inch edition that comes with a built-in slot-loading DVD drive.

On to AIOs, the IdeaCentre B520 is a 3D-ready machine with native NVIDIA 3D Vision support for the best possible 3D gaming solution at the moment. Comes with in a variety of configurations, but it will feature the latest Intel Sandy Bridge processors and 23-inch Full HD screen with frame-less multi-touch technology.

Lenovo has been promoting their Enhanced Experience for most of last year and it's basically a feature that says how much Lenovo has worked to speedup the boot process of systems with Microsoft. Tweaks have been made at both the software, drivers and BIOS level to help their systems come out on top. Now in version 2.0, Lenovo has kicked up a notch on their optimizations to quite an extent that they've put up an open challenge for anyone to better them with $10,000 prize money.

Exactly how fast are the latest crop of Lenovo machines with Enhanced Experience 2.0? Their desktops can boot into Windows 7 in just over six seconds while their notebooks can manage a cool 7.35 seconds. And those are the figures to beat. As you can see from the score board, at position seven, the next fastest person submit their standings is well over 38 seconds. So if you need a system that boots fast and comes with the suite of control and management software, you know Lenovo should be on top of your mind.

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