Lenovo reveals Lepad tablet and hybrid laptop

CHINESE LAPTOP MANUFACTURER Lenovo plans to unveil a slew of laptops at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) but its Lepad and Ideapad U1 laptop surely will steal the limelight.

News of Lenovo's Lepad tablet had been widely reported however the firm has waited until CES to show off its answer to Apple's Ipad. The answer is a device that looks almost identical to Apple's unit, up to and including a single button on the front.

Beneath the 10.1-inch, 1280x800 screen, Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip powers the Lepad. There's 1GB of RAM with 16GB or 32GB of flash storage along with wireless and 3G connectivity as standard. The Lepad is no lightweight, weighing 760 grams. The tablet runs Android 2.2 and Lenovo claims it has a battery life of eight hours, comparable to that of Apple's Ipad.

While Lenovo's tablet might look like the Ipad, thanks to the Ideapad U1 it has a clever trick up its sleeve. The Ideapad U1 laptop acts as a docking station for the Lepad, not only providing a full Qwerty keyboard but transforming the Lepad into a full laptop. A switch on the device turns the Android tablet into a Windows 7 laptop, powered by an Intel CULV processor backed up by 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive with the whole combination weighing 1.8kg.

Lenovo is pricing the Lepad at $520, with the option of buying both a Lepad and Ideapad U1 for $1,300. China will be the first market for the Lepad Ideapad U1 combo. Lenovo has not disclosed when Europe and America might see the devices in stores.

Aside from tablets, Lenovo bolstered its Ideapad laptop range with models aimed at consumers. Of particular interest is the Y-series, with the Y470 and Y570 laptops having 10 second bootup times thanks to a combination of SSD and hard drive storage.

Lenovo's latest additions to the Ideapad range will be available from March with prices from $329. µ