Photo courtesy of Lenovo on Flickr
Lenovo took some serious recognition from CES this year winning CNET’s Best of Show this year with the Hybrid U1 laptop/slate. Looks like the beginning of a Hybrid type legacy with the new shots of the Lephone Lenovo Smartphone. This super slick new phone snaps in to the keyboard/dock to give you the option of touchscreen only or full QWERTY flip. The phone takes some resemblance of a few other models out from HTC & Motorola with the slim body and oval looking case. The keyboards circular pattern is the first I have seen like it with a center mounted D-pad style layout.
This could be the answer to those currently on the fence of getting a phone with QWERTY or not. You can have the best of both worlds and decide if you want to run with the keyboard or not. This is not the first phone to give you option, but is the best looking layout in my opinion to date. It looks like Lenovo will be sporting a skin overtop Android’s OS to the likes of Lenovo’s Skylite that they are putting on other various models.
The real mystery to me though is the connection to the keyboard. I see no pins or connector and the bottom of the phone shows only a small round port. Are the keyboard and phone only connected via Bluetooth? Is it just the renderings that leaves out the connection so we sit and wonder until someone gets their grubby hands on one?
If it is connected physically, one can only imagine what other goodness is packed in the keyboard dock. Hopefully the dock adds some additional battery life and maybe some other outputs or ports for convenience. The dock also may eliminate the need for a snap on cover or case as the screen is protected when folded down and looks to have a clear plastic base covering the back of the phone when its attached. I have yet to see any pricing or availability for the LePhone, but hopefully Lenovo deems it fit for US shores unlike the earlier Ophone.
Pingback: Allistair Lee