New consumer-oriented Y510, Y710 and U110 laptops cater toward both gamers and the budget-conscious.
Hands-on impressions
| Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 |
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 Probably our favorite new notebook introduced at CES, Lenovo's IdeaPad Y710 is a significant departure from the company's inherited IBM ThinkPad heritage. With a glossy exterior and a redesigned keyboard space, Lenovo is demonstrating that it is no longer afraid to assert its own brand identity. A couple of cool features on the Y710 include a "turbo" switch that will crank up the clock speed of the CPU (even while the system is in use, according to Lenovo reps); a mini-LCD that displays date, time and battery usage; and unusually large directional buttons to accommodate gamers. While ATI's Mobility Radeon HD2600 probably isn't going to outpace 17-inch gaming notebooks with Nvidia's SLI setup (i.e., two graphics working in tandem), this is still one of the more innovative designs we encountered during the show. Release: January 2008. Price: $1500.
Pros: Turbo button to increase CPU clock speed, mini-LCD display, big directional buttons
Cons: ATI's Mobility Radeon HD2600 only graphics option
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With the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas around the corner, Lenovo announced on Thursday the introduction of a new IdeaPad line of laptops. These low-cost notebooks will target everyday consumers and will complement HP's ThinkPad line, which serve mainly business customers.
The IdeaPad will debut in three versions: the Y710, a 17-inch desktop replacement; the Y510, a 15.4-inch mainstream notebook; and the U110, an 11-inch ultraportable. The Y710 will be the gamers' laptop, with discrete ATI graphics, CPU overclocking and an optional Blu-ray optical drive.
The Y510 will be the mainstream notebook for those seeking a balance between performance and affordability, and the U110 will be a 2.3-pound notebook configurable with solid state drives. All will be based on Intel's processors and come pre-loaded with VeriFace, a face recognition technology that uses the embedded webcam for a secure login.
The IdeaPad Y710 (image gallery) and Y510 will be available sometime in January, while the U110 (image gallery) will go on sale in April.
Philip Berne, Matthew Ruiz, Edward Distel and Sindre Lia contribute to the CES 2008 coverage.
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