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Lenovo about to launch smartbook with AT&T

The rise of the smartbooks is about to begin, but would you rather have one of these than a smartphone?

Scott Stein Editor at Large
I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. Now I explore wearable tech, VR/AR, tablets, gaming and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.
Expertise VR and AR, gaming, metaverse technologies, wearable tech, tablets Credentials
  • Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
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Scott Stein

Lenovo smartbook: Smaller than a Netbook, or a smartphone in a different body? techtickerblog.com

Remember how we said new Netbooks were coming for CES? We might as well expand that statement to include smartbooks. The new terminology, coined to describe laptop-style devices running sub-Atom processors (Snapdragon from Qualcomm being one of them), is rapidly gaining in fashion lately, especially in relation to cell phone carriers. Packaging these types of extremely small and cheap smart devices in with cellular data plans seems like a match made in gadget heaven.

We've seen prototype smartbooks from Nvidia featuring the Tegra processor (the same that's in the Zune HD), but the Lenovo smartbook unveiled ever-so-briefly at a Qualcomm event Thursday is new and intriguing, and is the first smartbook to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon. Reports say that it runs a variation of a Linux OS (Windows 7 stops at Netbooks) and has an HD-supporting screen, although it's not clear whether HD video can actually be played.

On Tegra smartbooks, we know that the answer to that question is yes, since the Zune HD can easily handle HD video. Our other question--one we've asked before--is: if this essentially has a smartphone processor in a laptop's body, would you simply prefer a smartphone instead? The picture's fuzzy, but which would you want most, a smartbook, Netbook, or smartphone?

More details should be forthcoming at CES, which is only two months away.

(Via Liliputing)