Cocerned about IdeaPad U1

I was watching the marketing video about the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and got a little excited. I do however take a lot f what manufacturers say with a grain of salt as it's their inention is to entice and excite. What concerned me right away was this video onYouTube by Notebooks.

Here are my thoughts.


In the first video Kevin Gao makes a compelling case for a two-computers-in-one device. He touts one as being a dual core device, and the other a standalone screen with standalone processor and operating system. While this is a great in theory in practice it is clumsy and potentially missing the mark.

In the second video Kevin’s hype is put into practice but with a major stumble, i.e. when the device is undocked (leaving behind a perfectly good Dual Core Processor embedded in a standalone keyboard!!?!?!!) the screen reverts to the ARM processor and unquestionably struggles to perform the “synchronisation” Kevin highlights in his speech. The reason I am being brutal on this point is that the user experience ultimately suffers and the device itself will be criticised for it. Given there are still so many months before this device hits the streets I hope Lenovo will heed some of this and make the “sync” story and better one. Hopefully these are nothing but pre-production jitters and everything will be sorted soon.

On a bright note, this has heaps of sex appeal (as a device) and conceptually stunningly presented. The Lenovo Operating System (more than likely a Linux flavour of sorts) looks gracious, addictive and sticky enough to perhaps keep users in slate mode and perhaps win the hearts of traditional notebook users. It’s nice to see Manufacturers paying attention to successful UI (User Interface) like Apple iPhone, Nintendo Wii and DSi.

Just some thoughts! :-)