The Lenovo LePhone will hit the market on April 19, according to Lenovo Chairman Liu Chuan Zhi. The world’s fourth biggest computer giant has now entered the high-end smart phone market with its new tough screen smart phone based on Google's open source Android system.
A few mobile phone web sites and companies, including ChinaLabs.com and PCPop.com, received Lenovo LePhone before the end of this week. They were told that the new Android smart phone would come to the market one month before that Lenovo had planned earlier this year, according to the blogs and statements they published today.
LePhone Android Smart Phone to Bring Lenovo Profits
Experts see the hurry as Lenovo’s push to increase profits. “To Mr. Liu Chuan Zhi, it is no doubt that LePhone will be the most important product that helps Lenovo increases profits in the future,” said Zhang Xiao Rong, vice general manager of the ChinaLabs.com, in his blog published today.
Zhang said that Lenovo sold its cellular phone business at a price of $100 million to Hony Capital, a Beijing-based investment firm, January 2008. But they bought back the Mobile Lenovo at $200 million soon after Liu took back the power of Lenovo in 2009 when the company suffered a loss of $264 million due to the downturn of their PC business.
Lenovo will spend more than 100 million RMB yuan ($14.7 million) on the promotion of LePhone, according to Lenovo vice general manager Zeng Guo Zhang. “We hope that this heavyweight can help us improve the image of Lenovo as a mobile phone brand,” said Zeng in a 3G mobile exposition held in Guangzhou last weekend.
Price and Features of LePhone Android Smart Phone
The Beijing-based PCPop.com published April 16 a Lenovo LePhone review titled as “New King with a Different Face.” The review says that LePhone, a smart phone with a sexy buttonless body, will be the most promising mobile phone this year.
LePhone supports WCDMA network and runs on LEOS, a new operating system developed from Android by Lenovo. The LEOS system includes the Contact-Centric functional module – a system that integrates instant messenger (MSN and Tencent QQ), text message, phone call, and email.
The remarkable features of LePhone include a 3.7-inche capacitive touch screen with 800x480 resolutions and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Other features include two cameras (one on the front and one on the back. Both have 5 megapixels, not 3 megapixels some earlier review mentioned), a 3.5mm headphone jack, A-GPS, WiFi, and a 1,500mAh removable battery. LePhone also provides a proprietary 9-pin dock connector to avoid abrasion of plugging mini USB or micro USB. LePhone will also provide an optional clamshell-style external keyboard, which is very similar to the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid's.
LePhone may be priced at below 3,800 yuan ($557), according to a wholesaler who allows advance booking for LePhone. “LePhone may be a good product. But the price should be more competitive to win the market,” said the Guangzhou-based wholesaler Yang Feng.
Chen Nanyang - Chen Nanyang's journalist career began in 2002 when he started writing for China's Nanfang City News, Singapore's United Morning Post and ...
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