Things have been pretty quiet at Lenovo over the past few months and while they had a very strong year in 2007, we are all looking forward to seeing some new gear. Part of the surprise was seemingly ruined by an Intel press release that made it clear that they would be showing off a number of new MID/UMPC products at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, including something from Lenovo. This product would run Intel’s Silverthorne mobile processor and would almost definitely be the smallest and lightest product available from Lenovo. As it turns out, today’s announcement was much more exciting.

Today the news was made official–Lenovo announced an entirely new line of products. The new line will be called “IdeaPad” and it will be kicked off with three models- the 17″ Y710, the 15″ Y510, and an 11″ 2.4lb ultraportable, the U110. All the models will be widescreen and some features include VeriFace facial recognition, frameless screens, touch controls, and Dolby speaker systems. This means that the IdeaPads, specifically the Y models, are something that many people have been looking forward to for some time–a ThinkPad for the home user. The U110 is something else we have been looking forward to, namely an ultramobile system from Lenovo.

Looking at the preliminary shots of the IdeaPad it’s clear that these mark a big departure from Lenovo’s normal way of doing things. They took over the ThinkPad brand not too long ago and were always intent on keeping it aimed at business users.

Even Lenovo’s own brand notebooks lacked the consumer-friendly entertainment features we see from companies like Dell and HP. Lenovo has been releasing more widescreen models, but cool design elements like touch-sensitive controls, multimedia functions, and Dolby sound have been avoided.

The two Y models are entertainment-friendly and this where we see those consumer features, like a multimedia control center, impressive, glossy looks, and a Dolby speaker system (two main speakers, two secondary speakers, and a subwoofer). The touch-sensitive multimedia controls will have normal controls (volume, forward, back, etc.) as well as a quick-adjust EQ. Other interesting design notes include a backlit logo on the notebook’s cover, a 6-in-1 card reader, and a unique drop-style hinge. Perhaps the coolest feature though is the facial recognition system that will allow Windows users to login to their notebook simply by sitting in front of the computer. The 17″ model has a control panel with a small display on the left side of the keyboard area that the 15″ model leaves out, making the Y710 an even more specialized entertainment system.

IdeaPad Y710

The Y710 is a full-on desktop replacement. It packs in high quality sound, multiple video outputs, up to two hard drives (the second of which is hot-swappable), and even be upgraded to a Blu-ray drive. At about 8lbs is it not that heavy, but it’s clearly designed for the desktop replacement market. The one obvious shortcoming at this point is that the display only goes up to 1440×900, even though we have seen higher resolutions from 15.4″ ThinkPads (like the T61p). This was probably done to keep costs down, but it means the notebook as capable an HD display as many other options.

IdeaPad Y510

The Y510 offers most of the features of the Y710, but is more of a general use notebook. It has all the crowd-pleasers, like the touch-sensitive controls, external battery power indicator, and 6-in-1 card reader, but drops more specialized additions, like the second hard drive, some of the frills on the keyboard area, and HDMI. It still manages to have TV antenna-in, S-video out, and the ExpressCard slot though. It does not have the Y710’s robust graphics though and instead uses a standard notebook solution.

IdeaPad U110

The most exciting of the three is the smallest of the group, the U110. It will be 2.42lbs, 0.72 inches thick, and be covered in a textured red lid. It will also have the touch-sensitive controls from the Y series and Lenovo is already claiming a battery life of up to 8 hours. Perhaps most importantly, we will finally see an SSD upgrade option from Lenovo. The 11.1″ display is widescreen (16:9) and frameless but there is no word on its resolution yet. This is not quite the low-voltage notebook we expected to see– Lenovo’s press release says to expect a Santa Rosa platform and Merom processors.

Despite the U110’s size and that fact that it uses a 1.8″ disk it still have the Dolby Home Theater sound, a remote control option, and the touch-sensitive controls. It even touts the face recognition and 1.3MP camera built into the display. Despite all this, there is no word on LED backlighting or an optical drive, but we are not expecting either. Nothing is mentioned about mobile broadband (WWAN) either, but this will probably be left out as well.

Expect to see these models quiet soon. The Y710 and Y510 should be appearing some time in January and the U110 is expect in March. Pricing details are not firm, but from what we understand the Y710 will start at $1199, the Y510 at $799, and the U110 at about $1800.

Specifications:

IdeaPad Y710
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 and T9300
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
Display: 17″ widescreen WXGA (1440×900)
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD2600 with 256MB
Storage: 250GB 5400RPM or 500GB (250GB x 2)
Memory: 2×1GB (4GB max)
Optical drive: dual layer DVD recordable or Blu-ray
Extras: hot swappable 2nd disk, HDMI, 1.3MP webcam, ExpressCard slot
Dimensions: 15.5 ” 11.2″ x 1.02-1.51″
Weight: 7.9lbs
Battery: up to 4 hours

IdeaPad Y510
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T, 2330, T5450 and T9300
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
Display: 15.4″ widescreen WXGA (1280×800)
Graphics: Intel GMA X3100 (up to 256MB)
Storage: 160GB 5400RPM or 250GB
Memory: 2×1GB (4GB max)
Optical drive: dual layer DVD recordable
Extras:1.3MP webcam, ExpressCard slot
Dimensions: 14.1″ 10.3″ x 1.14-1.42″
Weight: 6.4lbs
Battery: up to 4 hours

IdeaPad U110 (based on available information)
Processor: Intel Merom
OS: Windows Vista
Display: 11″ widescreen
Storage: 1.8″ disk, including SSD upgrade option
Memory: DDR2 667MHz
Optical drive: none
Extras:1.3MP webcam,
Dimensions: 18.4-22.4mm thick
Weight: 2.4lbs
Battery: up to 8 hours

Source:http://www.geek.com