October 26th, 2009
Lenovo reveals dazzling Windows 7 IdeaPad, IdeaCentre lineup
Lenovo on Monday officially unveiled its Windows 7-powered lineup of IdeaPad laptops and IdeaCentre desktops, and the company is clearly upping the ante in the visual department.
On the notebook front comes the ultraportable 11.6-inch IdeaPad U150, the 15.6-inch U550 and the performance-focused 15.6-inch IdeaPad Y550P.
[ZDNet Image Gallery: Lenovo's new Windows 7 lineup]
The IdeaPad Y550P is the most powerful laptop in Lenovo’s consumer portfolio and is its first notebook to offer new Intel Core i7 processors. In addition to that comes NVIDIA discrete graphics, a 15.6-inch HD widescreen display, Dolby Home Theater surround sound, and a “SlideNav” touch-sensitive bar above the keyboard for quick tasks. It will be available soon for $1,149.
More Windows 7 Lenovo love, after the jump:
The IdeaPad U150, built for portability, is only 0.53 in. thick and weighs less than 3 lbs. Inside comes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, support for up to 8GB DDR3 memory, 11.6-inch HD widescreen display and lengthy battery life. It’s got the company’s Active Protection System for hard drive shock protection and the OneKey Rescue System for faster data backups and antivirus scans. It will be available soon for $585.
The IdeaPad U550 is an ultraportable that’s supposed to straddle home and work lives. It’s 0.94 in. thick and sports a 15.6-inch wide HD widescreen display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, switchable discrete graphics, Dolby Sound Room surround sound, ambient light sensor, DVD drive, integrated fingerprint reader and VeriFace facial recognition software. It will be available for $650.
On the desktop front are three new IdeaCentre desktops: the B500, K300 and H230.
The IdeaCentre B500 is positioned as a high-performance, entertainment-minded all-in-one PC. (Enough hyphens for you?) It features an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, discrete graphics, up to 8GB DDR3 memory and 1TB HDD storage space, a 23-inch full HD screen, JBL integrated speakers and a 4-in-1 remote control that acts as a motion-drive games controller, VOIP handset, air mouse and media remote. It will be available for $649.
The IdeaCentre K300 is a mid-range rig with an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, RAID configured hard drives and a power control switch to adjust how green your system will run. It will be available for $499.
Finally, the IdeaCentre H230 is a value-minded system that starts at $449. Lenovo says it will be offered “with a range of HDD and DDR3 memory configurations,” but offered nothing more at this time.
Not content with the new Windows 7 systems, Lenovo also gave the already-announced IdeaPad U350 ultraportable laptop and S10-2 netbook dazzling new finishes. I’ve seen several major PC manufacturers take a stab at colorful finishes on laptops, but the U350’s might be the most daring I’ve seen for a mainstream (read: not netbook) notebook.
The U350 offers textured finishes such as brown lizard print, white lamb skin print and red light weave (pictured at top). (It’s available for $649.) The S10-2 comes with a painted lid in pop art, violet floral, red floral, green floral, phoenix, garden, sailing and origami themes for $349.
All will be available soon on Lenovo’s site.
Prefer business PCs for your Windows 7 fix? See Lenovo’s recent announcement of its SL410, SL510 and T400S ThinkPad laptops.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Email Andrew Nusca 
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to The ToyBox via Email alerts or RSS.
