IdeaPad

Lenovo may jumping into the Windows RT convertible business.

The Chinese PC maker is cooking up a convertible notebook/tablet outfitted with the ARM-based version of Windows 8, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Journal said that the new device would offer a keyboard that flips around to transform it from a notebook into a tablet.

Equipped with a processor from Nvidia, the convertible would run Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 designed to work on devices powered by an ARM chip rather than a traditional Intel or AMD CPU. … Read more

You can now grab a 3G/4G Lenovo IdeaPad for only $200 courtesy of Sprint. But don't forget that you'll be locked in for two years, that it's a Netbook, and that Sprint's 4G flavor of choice is WiMax.

The IdeaPad S205s will cost $199.99 after a $350 instant price drop and a $100 mail-in rebate through a reward card. Sprint is selling the heavily subsidized Netbook at its various retail stores and online outlet.

Lenovo's IdeaPad offers a dual-core 1.33GHZ processor, 2GB of memory, an 11.6-inch 1366x768 HD LED widescreen display, … Read more

We're more than a quarter of the way through 2012 (believe it or not), so it's time to ask: where are those hot laptops we saw back at CES?

The good news is, looking back at the products we saw back then, is that a surprising number of them weren't vaporware. Even better, a great number of them have already made their debut and have been reviewed on CNET. … Read more

When should you buy a laptop? That's always a very difficult question--buy too soon after new technology hits, and you miss out on refinements and price drops. On the other hand, you certainly don't want to spend upwards of $1,000 on a device that feels outdated just months later. It's an even more difficult decision in the wake of Microsoft's look at Windows 8 in Barcelona, Spain.

For Mac users, the decision's generally simple: wait for the new version, and buy, buy, buy. MacBooks, like iPhones and iPads, only come in so many versions, and they rarely drop in price anywhere.

Windows PCs? Well, that's another story. … Read more

Last summer, when HP discontinued the WebOS-powered TouchPad and fire-sold its remaining inventory, buyers went ape. Apparently a 10-inch tablet for $99 was too good to pass up--never mind the fact that app development was about to grind to a halt.

RIM's 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook is likely to suffer a similar fate, which begs the question: is it worth owning if you can get it for cheap?

Your inevitable next question: how cheap? RIM's newly slashed PlayBook prices are as follows: $199 for the 16GB model, $249 for the 32GB model, and $299 for the 64GB model.

This … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Lenovo wants to be the No. 1 personal-technology company in the world, but it plans to get there on its own time.

At this year's CES, the Chinese maker of laptop and desktop systems debuted more than 20 new products: There were plenty of more traditional systems, an Android smart TV and a pair of ultrabooks. But most interesting are the new IdeaPad Yoga tablet/laptop hybrid designed with Windows 8 in mind, and an Android smartphone--the K800--with Intel's Medfield Atom processor and enough power to rival Samsung's Galaxy Nexus.

There's just one more thing--we won't see the most notable of these devices on store shelves here in North America anytime soon. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sometimes you just can't come up with a good angle on how to spin a laptop update.

In the case of the Lenovo IdeaPad Z, G, and Y series updates announced at CES, consider these more of the same, with better graphics.

That's not bad at all, but we expect little updates like these every year: these IdeaPads certainly aren't out to surprise. Because Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge mobile processors won't be available for laptops right away, these IdeaPad updates are indicative of what we're seeing on laptops that aren't ultrabooks: small tweaks, nothing fancy.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ultrabooks are everywhere here at CES 2012. More importantly, a new class of ultrabook has emerged: the 14-incher.

Last year's Lenovo IdeaPad U300s was one of our favorites in an early first wave of ultrabooks. The new IdeaPad U310 and U410 alter the equation somewhat with the addition of standard hard drives instead of solid-state drives (SSDs), but that extra storage option could be exactly what attracts some buyers who might otherwise be turned off by the limitations of lower-capacity flash storage.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--The netbook's not quite dead yet. The Lenovo IdeaPad S200 features a next-gen Intel Atom processor, and it should offer a significantly better experience than previous-generation 10-inch Atom netbooks.

The rise of low-cost 11-inch ultraportable laptops began last year with a wave of affordable computers powered by AMD E-350 APUs. The colorful IdeaPad S200 series does include an AMD-powered version (the S206), but it's the Atom version that bears the most interest for us.… Read more