It’s good to see the Chinese giant trying to keep its devices up to date, and this is especially important with all of their products wearing the famous ThinkPad logo. However, they also said the lower-end IdeaPad will get the same treatment, though again we don’t know when exactly that will happen.

We look forward to see all of the major smartphone and tablet makers releasing their Android 4.0 update schedules in the coming weeks. Heck, during the forthcoming Mobile World Congress we expect to see some of them launching devices with preloaded Ice Cream Sandwich. Can’t wait to visit Barcelona again.

[Via: AndroidCentral]

The handset has a very unique design, especially on the back side. The rear of the device is all plastic but has a brushed finish, which gives it a wood-like look and feel. Other than the great internals within the phone, the back side is our favorite part of the K800, but let’s move forward.

The K800 sports a 4.5 inch 720p display, 8 megapixel camera on the back, front-facing camera, and other expected features like WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Running on Android 2.3 (or at least the unit we demoed was), the K800 may ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich when it launches on China Unicom. Hopefully.

Below the gorgeous display, you’ll find the three capacitive buttons found on the majority of Android phones today, Home, Back, and Menu. Overall, the design of the handset looks rather boxy, which some may or may not like. We’re fans of the design but the real story is about the newly announced Intel Atom Z2460 powering the device.

While we’ve already seen dual-core processors clocked at 1.5GHz, the single-core Atom Z2460 should still be comparable thanks to the use of HyperThreading. Intel also claims that the new Atom will yield favorable battery life compared to that of existing ARM-based handsets, but the jury is still out on that one.

The K800 is an impressive handset and is just one of the many things we really liked coming from Lenovo here at CES. Let’s hope for a stateside release in the near future.

Well, it’s been a heck of a week but CES 2012 is over and there’s no doubt that mobile is becoming a bigger part of the show every year. We’re still going to have more videos and photos for you next week but we thought it would be a nice time to take a look back and see what really moved the needle in the mobile world.

Nokia was one of the big winners of the show, as the Lumia 900 was a major hit, even if it’s not that much different than the 800. Still, the larger screen, 4G LTE support and the very fact that it will likely have a massive marketing budget means it could be a big seller. One phone was never going to make or break Nokia but this does show the start of something potentially good.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone also had a great showing, as it was arguably the star of the show in terms of mobile platforms. Apple’s iOS never shows up and the Android devices announced were interesting (the Galaxy Note in particular) but didn’t compare to the aforementioned Lumia 900 or the HTC Titan II. There was also a lot of interest in Windows Phone on the show floor, too.

Intel can also mark this down as a successful show, as the super sleek ultrabooks were the talk of the show and it finally revealed its mobile ambitions with partnerships with Lenovo and Motorola to produce smartphones. We were able to play with the reference design and with Lenovo’s Intel-powered handset but we won’t be convinced until it actually hits the market. Still, the early results are very promising and the deal with (soon to be part of Google) Motorola could just be the first domino to fall for Intel in the mobile space.

AT&T easily had the best show of the major carriers, as it introduced six new Android devices, one new Windows Phone and multiple new tools during its Developer Summit keynote. Verizon was relatively quiet by focusing on 4G LTE and its enterprise applications and T-Mobile’s and Sprint’s announcements were quite muted. In terms of performance on the actual show floor and in Las Vegas, I found all four carriers had its ups and downs but Verizon’s was the most consistent while AT&T’s 4G LTE was the fastest, when it worked.

Tablets were once again a major factor at CES 2012 but this year showed a smarter evolution from these iPad-competitors. In particular, we saw some jaw-dropping designs like the Toshiba Excite and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 for Verizon. Just as important, we saw tablet makers offering devices at dirt-cheap prices: ViewSonic had a 7-inch Android Ice Cream Sandwich device for $170 and Asus had us drooling by teasing us with a quad-core Tegra 3-powered tablet for just $249.

Samsung and LG didn’t have amazing shows in terms of mobile but each had some stunningly-beautiful televisions (seriously, these were gorgeous). Samsung also got in front of the “connected life” movement by introducing things like a WiFi-enabled washing machine that can be controlled with an app. Sure, some of you may be saying what’s the point of an Internet-connected refrigerator but what’s exciting to me is that we don’t know the purpose yet but you can be sure a developer will be able to come up with something awesome.

Be sure to read through all of our CES 2012 coverage and let us know what excited you at the show.

The big question is will this thing ever come out in America? That’s a tough one to answer. It’s a bit telling that Lenovo has yet to launch a smartphone in the states. Motorla may save the day however since they were the second company to announce plans to ship devices using Intel’s new chip. The official word from Motorola is that an Intel based Motorola smartphone will ship during the second half of this year, which is just about as vague as you can get. That could mean July, but it can also mean September.

Why should you even care about Intel smartphones anyway? For one thing they’re freaking fast. Earlier today we saw benchmarks come out that show Intel kicking everyone’s ass left and right. We don’t yet know what type of battery life to expect, and we’re sadly going to have to wait until we get our hands on retail hardware before knowing whether to be excited about Intel’s latest efforts or to be disappointed.

[Via: Engadget]

The second device, LePhone S2, sports a slightly faster 1.4GHz CPU (again single-core), a bit bigger 3.8-inch WVGA touchscreen and an 8-megapixel camera. It till be available in two flavors, one with 512MB RAM and 8GB of built-in storage, and the other one with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Neither version will have a microSD memory card slot. In addition, a TD-SCDMA variant for China Mobile will also be released at some point…

We’ve no idea whether either of the two will ever be released outside of mainland China, but we’ll make sure to keep our eyes wide open and let you know as soon as we spot something new on that front…

[Via: Engadget]

At the moment, the LePad S2005 is the China Unicom thing only, but apparently Lenovo may export it to the other parts of the world using IdeaTab brand. We’ll follow this story and let you know as soon as we hear something new about it. Stay tuned…

[Via: Engadget]

Personally I don’t like ThinkPad computers, but I know some folks who can’t imagine having any other PC. Those folks will be glad to know that with Lenovo’s tablet they can now freely roam around the world. Actually not “freely” since mobile data roaming can cost a small fortune, but hey – something’s gotta give if you want to have Internet access at all times.

So what do you say – do you care about ThinkPad’s global connectivity capability or Wi-Fi is good enough for you? Comments form is all yours…

Unfortunately, not much is known about this 5-incher, except that it will rock a dual-core processor, micro-USB port, HDMI output, and a front-facing camera. Engadget noted that neither Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich are on the menu, because of its three capacitive buttons — so Gingerbread it is. Also, the source couldn’t confirm whether this tablet packs voice call capability, similiar to other 5-inch tabs like the Galaxy Note and Pantech Vega No.5.

Honestly, ever since the epic fail that was the Dell Streak 5, it seems like other companies are shaky when it comes to releasing their 5-inch slate stateside. The Samsung Galaxy Note released over a month ago, but the company didn’t launch it here in the United States and that may be because of the Dell Streak 5′s failures. With Lenovo working on its mini-tab, we can all hope that the company takes the plunge into the U.S. market. Who knows, if supported correctly, the slate could potentially take off.

[via Engadget]

Besides that, the 10.1-inch tab carries some pretty respectable features which includes a 2GB of 1,600 MHz DDR3 RAM, a standard USB host socket, a back-facing camera of unknown resolution with LED flash, a “Special Fusion-Skin Body” and a fingerprint scanner that apparently doubles as an optical joystick on the slate’s flat backside. There is little to no info on the dimensions and weight, but Engadget believes the 1.6GHz quad-core slate should be significantly thinner than the IdeaPad K1 or LePad.

If this pans out, Lenovo will be joining the long list of manufacturers from Acer, HTC, and ASUS rumored to be building an Android-based Tegra 3 tablet. The next couple of weeks and months will be very interesting as to what other company throws its name into the hat. Lets wait and see if more specs begin to roll out.

[via Engadget]