Lenovo LePhone: a surprise arrival at CES

 

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By Tim Danton in Las Vegas

Posted on 7 Jan 2010 at 00:17

Lenovo pulled a final trick out of its well-stocked hat this CES, with its COO and president Rory Read announcing "LePhone".

Initially to be launched in China, Read described LePhone as "something exciting, something new, something different. And this device is just beautifully designed."

60mm wide, it includes a 3.7in "crystal clear" high resolution screen, with 800 x 480 pixels on display. "There are no buttons," said Read with pride, "just a secondary touch area."

Indeed, there were few aspects of the phone that didn't excite Read. "The side is really interesting too. Just 12mm thin. On that side we also have the volume control and a really powerful nine-pin connector, allowing us to connect a whole set of peripherals."

Examples include a set of speakers and a docking station complete with keyboard, and the station includes a battery to provide what Read described as "all-night life to go with the smartphone's all-day life".

Taking a swipe at Apple, Read also mentioned that the battery was removable.

LePhone uses Google Android as its operating system, with the current model using version 1.6. It's been customised, however, with Lenovo adding its own skin, and it anticipates that the shipping version of the phone will operate on version 2 of Google Android.

Read explained that it includes "a world of [pre-installed] applications to do all the traditional functions you might do on a laptop. All here on a phone, specifically tailored to the local market with a partner for that market.

"I might want real-time stock information. I can hit my email, my news, I can watch my video - all pre-loaded on my device."