Lenovo’s U1 Hybrid Hands On: Don’t Fool Me Twice [Video]

I’m having deja vu. I’ve definitely done this before . Except this time, once I try the Lenovo U1 Hybrid , most of last year’s lingering doubts were replaced by anticipation.

The U1 owes it most of its renaissance to its totally overhauled tablet. Rather than that proprietary Skylight OS, Lenovo’s finally embraced Android for the ominously French-sounding LePad. While the model that I saw-the person who’s shipping to be sold in China today-runs Froyo by the time the U1 reaches the usa this summer it’ll have the delicious-looking Honeycomb on board.

Until then, it’s hard to tell exactly what your LePad experience is going to be like. What won’t change, presumably, is Lenovo’s custom skin. It recalls Skylight’s four-paned approach for organizing your content, and as far as custom interfaces go it’s relatively non-intrusive. And apart from photos, you’ll probably be navigating your oceans of video and books and music through apps anyway.

The LePad’s also mercifully large at 10.1 inches, and feels light within the hand. The display was nice and responsive, although the accelerometer was somewhat slow on the uptake. But between the forged build, 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor, and 1280×800 display, its hardware is unquestionably within the advance guard of Android tablets.

Of course, LePad may also do something those other tablets can’t: become a Windows 7 PC with a flick of a switch. And it truly is nearly instantaneous going from Android to Windows, although the reverse has a delay of more than one seconds. As a ULV-processor PC, it’s not likely to damage any records; best to consider it as a small step up from a netbook. And don’t expect much PC mode battery life, either.

There was no internet connection to this out, unfortunately, but the U1 purports to provide a continual browsing experience, meaning that the page you’re viewing in on the LePad will still be there in PC mode when you’ve docked. And after undocking, the base continues to run as a functional PC. At once web content are the best thing that transition seamlessly, but Lenovo says they’re gazing easy methods to expand that feature.

Let’s hope they do! Because otherwise, I’m not sold that there’s a clear advantage to this sort of hybrid. Lenovo will inform you-and they did tell me-that the U1 cuts down on the number of screens you must travel with. But that’s not entirely true; most folk who want a PC once they’re traveling will need something with a bit more oomph, especially considering the nearly $800 premium the dock will cost you.

But for now, besides the fact that we just examine the U1 hybrid as a novelty, it’s the correct of novelty. One who blurs the lines between the kinds we parcel our gadgets into while still being, at its core, functional. $1300 is an awful lot to pay for an experiment. But in any case it’s not mad science.

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This post is tagged: accelerometer, advance guard, battery life, custom interfaces, internet connection