You've heard of smartphones and netbooks, but how about a smartbook? The new IdeaPad U1 signals the advent of yet another category of computing devices. The IdeaPad U1 smartbook is less of a phone, and more of an internet-access device and a netbook packed into a single package.
At first glance, the IdeaPad U1 looks like any other netbook, with an 11.6-inch display, full-sized keyboard and touchpad. Powering this netbook is an Intel Core 2 Duo processing running Windows 7 Home Premium, supported by 4GB of RAM and a Solid State Drive of up to 160GB.
You also get a 1.3-megapixel webcam, an e-Sata port for connecting to high speed external hard drives, as well as HDMI and VGA outputs.
But take a closer look at the U1, and you'll find a completely different side. The display for the netbook is detachable from the U1, and becomes its own computer, or 'slate', complete with its own Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and memory.
Once detached, the display of the U1 automatically switches to Lenovo's Linux-based Skylight operating system with support for multi-touch navigation.
In this mode, the U1 becomes an ultra-portable media device that can access the internet via wireless, handle e-mail, calendaring, as well as social networking applications. Presumably, what you do in this mode will be synchronised with the netbook's memory.