Lenovo LePad and Hybrid IdeaPad U1 will be released worldwide (date unknown)

Lenovo LePhone might be a mystery to many of you US readers, because the Chinese company only released it in their region. There were rumors about it reaching the US, but they remained only rumors. However, if you are a fan of the phone’s neat looks, you’re in for a real treat: the Lenovo LePad will be very soon available in China (Q1 of this year), and it will reach worldwide markets some time later.

Talks about a Lenovo slate have emerged since last summer, when Liu Jun, vice president senior and president at Lebovo’s Consumer Business Group, stated that the Chinese tablet would be available by the end of the year. He didn’t get it right about the release date, but let’s hope the delay will be worth it. In fact, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be, because actually we’re in for two new devices.

The first, the Lenovo LePad, is Lenovo’s Android-running tablet and an iPad and Galaxy Tab competitor. Here are the specs:

– 10.1 inch screen
– 1.3 GHz Snapdragon processor
– Android 2.2
– a front-facing camera
– 32 GB SSD
– the tablet is approx. a half-inch thick and weighs a little less than 2 lbs.
– battery life: 8h
– 3G, Wi-Fi, Adobe Flash

Now, since the Lenovo pad will have to endure tough competition from the iPad and the Galaxy Tab, I’ll list the main specs of these two tablets too. Let’s start with the iPad:

– 1GHz Apple A4 processor
– 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB of flash memory, depending on the model
– 9.7 inch screen
– Up to ten hours of video playing
– Probably the iPad’s biggest minus is the lack of a camera
– 3G, Wi-Fi

…and now the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which features:

– 1 GHz (1.2 GHz in Brazil) ARM Cortex A8 ”Hummingbird”
– 16 GB/32 GB of flash memory
– 3.2 MP AF camera with LED flash + a 1.3 MP front-facing camera
– Weight: 380 g
– Android 2.2

In case you want a thorough comparison of the latter two, you might want to try an article of ours which dealt with that..

Back to the LePad. How about placing it in a portable laptop framework (running Windows 7)? I know it sounds great, and it’s possible too, with the help of the new hybrid Lenovo IdeaPad U1, which will compete with the likes of Samsung’s Sliding PC 7. If you only want a LePad with a keyboard, that will also be possible, with the help of a keyboard dock device.

Now, let’s get to money. The LePad costs about US$520, while the U1 hybrid laptop requires approx. US $1300. The keyboard dock can be purchased separately, if you don’t want the U1 hybrid, and will cost around $100.