Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook
Monday, 11 January 2010 12:01
Open up the IdeaPad U1 and you will find an attractive but otherwise unremarkable ultraportable notebook. Using Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience technology, it boots up Windows 7 quickly, and its Core 2 processor opens and runs applications smartly. Your favorite YouTube video runs as you expect it would. It IS a PC after all.
A few astute people might judge from the fingerprints that it features a two finger multi-touch display. We chose resistive touch instead of capacitive touch to keep it thinner. However, as many reviewers have said so far, it does not act like clunky resistive touch. It acts like a capacitive touch system.
But even with that, it would not be more remarkable than any other multi-touch notebook on the market, and not that much different than our new IdeaPad S10-3t. What makes this machine special is the extra latch located along the top of the display. Once you slide that switch, the display separates from the base and that is when the magic happens.
Now you’ve got a highly portable multi-touch slate tablet PC in your hand.
![500x_lenovo5[1]](http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/files/2010/01/500x_lenovo51.jpg)
That YouTube video you were watching – it keeps playing without a glitch. That marathon web browsing session with 35 open tabs – it’s still there. Your Facebook chat session continues unabated.
Since it has 3G and Wi-Fi built inside, you can continue to surf the net while still sitting on the toilet or anywhere else for that matter. Interestingly enough, there are 2 Wi-Fi cards – one for each half of the system. If your base is downloading, that download will continue.
Compute. Download. Wander. When you later rejoin the two halves, your data is automatically sync’d between the two halves and you keep on going as if nothing has happened.
This magic is possible because this computer is actually two computers. The bottom half contains a Core 2 processor, standard HDD, memory, and battery which runs Windows 7. The top half has a 1GHz ARM processor with its own dedicated memory, storage, and battery. Running on the slate portion of is a version of Linux with the same “Me” centric interface that is found on our just-announced Skylight smartbook. Unlike Windows, this is a task based interface and has web, Facebook, YouTube, calendar, and other functions in an easy-to-navigate “six up” grouping.
When the two halves are joined, web tasks are actually running simultaneously on both halves. (For you techies, I don’t know all of the implementation details of how it works and how the discrepancies in processor performance are handled – it is early hardware after all.) When joined, the PC is smart enough to share resources like batteries, ports, and storage. Separating and docking is very fast. The team has a design goal that the switch between modes should happen in three seconds or less. Any more and the end user loses patience.
The industry may be waiting for another famous (vaporware) product, but I highly doubt it will announce at our IdeaPad U1’s planned $999 starting price point. Plus, with Lenovo’s IdeaPad U1, you will have the benefits of both worlds: full-function PC capability and full-size keyboard for getting real work done, PLUS the freedom to roam for those times when you want to be light and mobile. We are not making you buy yet another device to keep up with and figure out how to sync. We are giving you two devices in one.
January 6th, 2010 at 1:18 am
This is indeed a game changer, in fact you have beaten all other competitors to it, while Apple is playing with their tablet devices……. who knows from now on there would be a cult following for the Ideapad products, like that of Apple products.
There must be a good marketing strategy to acompany this great product, it is not enough to make a great product if not one buys them.
Lenovo should contemplate what Sony did with their first cassette walkman in the 1980s, give them to the high school and university students whom took it with them everywhere they go, especially all the public facility like libraries, metro, shopping mall, etc…..
January 6th, 2010 at 4:53 am
This is highly intriguing and I’m curious as to exactly how it works. From what I understand, the U1 runs two operating systems (Win7 and Linux) simultaneously. Any actions (notably browser tabs, but possibly others) that are started on Win7 are automatically replicated on the Linux OS. If the display is disconnected from the base, the display will switch over to the Linux OS and maintain all of your existing activity. Is this correct?
If so, color me impressed. I have no idea how you would go about blending these two OS’s so effectively. I would assume picking one (likely Linux) would be far easier, but naturally this would cut off the market that vastly prefers Windows.
What is the status with batteries? Is the only battery in the display, or is there a secondary one in the base as well? Is there anything else in the base besides the keyboard and ports?
Overall, this sounds quite impressive. I love my x200 Tablet, but at times I would appreciate something lighter when using it as a slate.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:00 am
Very impressive. My only concern is the battery life. I would love to use it as an ebook reader.
But would I buy it? As my only laptop – yeah definately. But as a addition to my semi portable 15 inch workstation laptop – nope. The thing is you really get a 2 in 1 so with my default machine it would 3 laptops overall (kind of).
Anyway, what I would like is the top half only with decent battery life. Or is U1 Hybrid price the same as it would be for a stand alone device like this?
January 6th, 2010 at 6:47 am
My initial concern about this, as I wrote in Gizmodo Australia, was the sturdiness of the device. Removing and then docking the tablet-screen must be as mechanically stress-free as possible, with no parts sticking out that can break off.
That aside, I love the concept! It’s like merging the Skylight with a traditional IdeaPad. Some Engadgeters were questioning the need for two different OSes, but it was pointed out by others that when you’re on the go and have it in tablet mode, most likely battery life, ease of use and quick access to applications take priority. It’s not like you need the full-blown Windows 7 experience each and every time.
As a corollary to what jonlumpkin said, which document types are supported out-of-the-box by both OSes? I’d guess first would be Office via MS Office on the Win7 side and OpenOffice or another alternative on the Linux side.
January 6th, 2010 at 7:06 am
WOW… Is all I can say about this pc. All I want to know is when will it be available to the public?
January 6th, 2010 at 7:22 am
Matt, this really looks like the innovation i was missing from Lenovo in the last years. Good job!
If that machine runs Linux partly, your developer team has tried loading Linux on the primary machine as well, right? If so, you can do another breakthrough by providing the knowledge from these attempts to the community.
Now i hope, that there are ressources free for such deep innovation for making an even lighter but more powerful successor of the T410s with an extraordinary screen.
Also a detachable screen would be nice for business machines. During meetings, you don’t need great computational power, but your calendar, the web and your presentations, right?
cheers
Hecke
January 6th, 2010 at 10:30 am
The 11.6″ IdeaPad U1 has a very interesting new concept and design!
As far as I understand it, when used in undocked Linux based slate tablet mode, it will at least offer common web based computing tasks and thus is then acting like a surfing web-tablet. To be more specific here, beside being a Windows 7 based PC, the U1 additionally seems to offer the “Lenovo Skylight” capabilities when used in slate mode. – See this German source about the Lenovo Skylight smartbook, which also mentions the U1…
http://www.heise.de/newsticker.....96416.html
January 6th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I have to wonder if it could run Linux both on the base unit and on the tablet and gain the sync capabilities. I own an S10 now which I run Linux on, and 3 Thinkpad all running Linux, and if I could get this thing running Linux on both parts and get the sync capabilities, I would drop my other devices and move to this in a heartbeat. Being able to sit at my desk all day, working away at things, pull out the tablet when I leave and get some personal browsing done and maybe a few extra work things, then slap the tablet back in the base and start the next day all over again. This would be great. That being said, I am highly unlikely to move to Windows for the honor of using this device, I have way to much invested in my Linux setup and how I do work to move to Windows without a severe drop in productivity.
January 6th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
How about putting a TrackPoint in there? Is there some reason why not?
January 6th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Very awesome product. Why did Lenovo decide to make this an IdeaPad product versus a “premium” ThinkPad product?
January 6th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
jonlumpking — you’ve got it as to how it works. There are 2 batteries. One in the base and one in the slate tablet. When separate, battery life of the slate is about 4 – 5 hours. When together, the batteries work together and you get up to 8 hours.
Lukas — items not sold separately.
Ray — as far as formats supported, still work in progress. We are still a few months from shipping and the target right now is to get everything rock solid stable. Additional features will come later.
Hecke — we intend to make an SDK available for the interface to allow people to write their own gadgets.
Vykr — yes. In addition, it is one of the few ARM/Snapdragon based devices that supports Flash 10.1. Since 1/2 of the web runs on Flash, we knew having that was pretty important.
Midnight — running Linux on both halves will be left up for the end user community to figure out. We’re not likely (though this is Matt Kohut and not Lenovo saying this), to have a full Linux preload through and through.
Mtl — The consumer world is overwhelmingly in favor of touch pads.
Edward — The Idea group came up with this idea and brought it to market. Initially we want to make it a consumer product as that is where we think we can sell more units. For future generations, who knows?
January 6th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Matt – this device looks incredible. I am super-excited about the possibilities here. My only question/concern is whether or not the slate can be used with a pen? My only real use-case for a tablet is collaborative teleconferencing (whiteboarding, basically). That is, incidentally, why I stick with the T-series ThinkPads over an X-series tablet – my 90%+ use-case is coding. I don’t want to sacrifice performance for my 90% case to satisfy the other 10%. So, to reiterate, will Lenovo have the tablet scenario (writing/drawing with an pen-style input device) in mind for this device?
Thanks!
January 6th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by bensonlee: WOW. I want to see this in action, impressive tech! Tablet AND a regular notebook. IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook http://tinyurl.com/y978dmu…
January 6th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Matt – I am not asking for a full preload, I am wondering if the API’s to make the sync possible will be exposed so that crazy Linux people like myself and others, would be able to build the controls in the background. And while I know you can only speak from your end, I am hoping you have some insight into if Lenovo will be releasing source for the SkyLight/Snapdragon Linux implementation that would allow people to figure out how to manage this sync between the base and the tablet.
January 6th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Thanks for the reply, Matt. I like this form factor a lot. I have a HP TC1100 that is wonderful for annotating PDFs using Xournal, and would love to have an updated version with a slate section that is much thinner and lighter — like the IdeaPad U1! It really needs pen input to do annotations, otherwise it’s only good as a reader. With options for pen input and TrackPoint, this device would be a good fit for me. The sync features sound very innovative. Sounds like it will be an exciting device!
January 6th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Okay, this is interesting… I like the seemingly seemless sync. But…
How about such seemless syncing between my weapons of choice, a full-grown ThinkStation (or maybe something cheaper but similar) and a real ultraportable, like the X200s… that would be beautiful! I need some power for my computing needs, but I don’t want to be lugging about a W series beast. And I need the Trackpoint…
@Matt, is this doable? May you offer this as ThinkVantage software? Seamless syncing between my ThinkPad and my stationary computer is… wonderful. The Holy Grail of power computing.
Did I say I love seamless syncing?
/O8h7w
January 7th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Love the idea. I am also a dedicated ThinkPad and Linux user and would be interested if Lenovo will release the complete Linux OS for the tablet half (they really should have to release at least the source for the kernel due to licensing conditions) and expose/document the sync capabilities.
Great job!
That aside, I’d even consider buying one with Windows 7
–
Simon
January 7th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
I just can’t see why Lenovo would not Open Source the entire code for the Tablet/Skylight. You are benefiting from Open Source, why not give back – and receive even more benefit? Or is Lenovo to afraid to anger MS?
January 7th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Matt, if the design team is soliciting sugestions for what apps to include as an option, here’s one: for the Linux side, ThinkFree Office (http://product.thinkfree.com/office). I actually won a copy of the mobile version and installed it on my IdeaPad S10 until we got a multi-user license for Office 2007 and switched to that.
January 8th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
One of the advantages of using resistive instead of capacitive touch is that one could use a stylus of some sort. That isn’t in our plan to provide this stylus, but you could do it if you wanted to.
We are going to offer an SDK to open up the interface to allow people to develop gadgets. How much gets opened up is unclear, but it is in our best interest to let people take this and run with it.
Sync is quite possible between other members of the Think and Idea family. We’d just need to provide the software to do it. Convergence is a word that has not been used too much in the last 2 or 3 years. Clearly at CES in 2010, it is back in force.
We’re always taking feedback in what to change/include etc.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Congratulations for winning Best of CES; Computer and Hardware category for the ideaPad U1 Hybrid!
January 9th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Well the idea is cool. But I actually did not find its look and appearance that cool…
January 9th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
[...] information: Hand-on video @ laptopmag.com A lot of pictures @ pocket-lint.com Inside info @ Lenovo blog AKPC_IDS += "676,";Popularity: unranked [?]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Lenovo Ideapad U1 – [...]