CES 2011: Lenovo LePad shows up with Android OS

Last year, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Lenovo won accolades for its IdeaPad U1 Hybrid tablet laptop. Now Lenovo has taken the same thing ahead and announced the IdeaPad U1 hybrid that adds the LePad Slate tablet to form a complete laptop. So, now there are two products; LePad that will cost $520 and IdeaPad U1 hybrid laptop that costs $1300, but is available only in China at the moment. Lenovo hasn't announced the pricing and availability for other regions, reported Computer world.

LePad Slate tablet comes with a 10.1-inch touchscreen and sports a 1.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. On this Slate tablet, Lenovo has put a custom Google Android 2.2 OS dubbed as LeOS. This interface LePad promises eight hours of battery life and is available in four different stylish colors- White, Brown, Scarlet and Black.

Lenovo plans to add Flash Player 10.1 support in the LePad, which means there's no default Flash support. LePad will come with several pre-loaded applications and will also connect to the Android Market. Lenovo has also offered a Keyboard Dock bundle with the LePad Slate just like Apple offers with the iPad.

The IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is the same U1 concept notebook that was shown at CES 2010. Hosting the Intel CULV processor, the U1 notebook supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 320GB SATA hard drive. Also, you can use the LePad with this notebook by sliding it on the U1 screen base; typically like a case or cover for the tablet but it connects to proper hardware with keyboard et al. After you put the LePad Slate to the U1 base, it boots into Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.

Buying LePad separately with the Keyboard Dock would make it a bit attractive. The $1300 U1 hybrid netbook with LePad Slate tablet would otherwise be quite a costly affair. We believe this LePad and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid would be shown at the CES 2011 starting January 6.