THE NEXT BIG THING? | Lenovo launches the Phab Plus

MANILA, Philippines – China-based tech giant Lenovo recently launched their new phablet, aptly called the Phab Plus. Targeted at today’s millennials, the new product, according to Lenovo executives, is said to “eliminate the dilemma of choosing between costly smartphones and underwhelming tablets”.

“Phablets are the next big thing,” said Michael Ngan, country general manager, Lenovo Philippines. He added that the Phab Plus is designed to combine the functionality of a tablet with the portability of a smartphone.

Charlotte Koa, Lenovo Philippines 4P manager for Tablets, urged that it is time that we should stop calling smartphones “phones” because users do so much more with them, like texting, searching the Internet, and using social media.

In Koa’s demonstration of the Phab plus, she displayed different specifications of the new device on three levels — as a phone, as a tablet, and as a phablet.

As a phone, it has 4G LTE Connectivity, runs on Android Lollipop 5.0, and has a 13MP back and 8MP front camera that is able to take selfies and panoramic “groufies” or “pano-selfies”, as was coined by the Lenovo Manager.

As a tablet, the Phab Plus has a 6.8-inch screen with full HD, a sound bar with Dolby Surround Sound capacity, runs on an Octacore processor, and has a battery life that can last up to 20 days at rest, according to Koa.

It was also demonstrated that as a phablet, the Phab Plus has one-hand capability with various easy-to-use features such as the double tap wake, screen shrink, one hand keyboard shrink and resize tools that users can access through simple finger taps and swipes

“We are a country in love with lifestyle,” said Blue Avelino, COO of Allphones, an online retail store partner of Lenovo. “The Lenovo Phab Plus fits every lifestyle needs that the Filipino wants.”

The phablet will be available at P14,999 both online through Allphone and in selected retail stores nationwide.

Ngan stated that their research shows that “bigger is better” when it comes to phones. “All needles are pointing to phablets and Lenovo will be at the forefront,” he added.

source: interaksyon.com

Lenovo bends over backwards in bid to claim top PC spot with ‘Yoga’

MANILA, Philippines — Lenovo is proving to be a strong contender willing to do everything to gain the coveted top spot in the PC market as it headlines its efforts with the local release of the IdeaPad Yoga, a 13-inch ultrabook that bends over backwards – literally — to become a tablet.

Lenovo Philippines Country Manager Vicky Agorrilla said the IdeaPad Yoga will be the company’s ticket to finally and officially claiming the number one spot in global PC sales, stealing the throne from erstwhile market leader Hewlett-Packard.

“Our claim to being number one is marked by 12 consecutive quarters of growth in an industry that has, for the last quarter, fallen by about 8 percent,” Agorrilla told the local technology press during the launch of the IdeaPad Yoga in the Philippines.

In October, research firm Gartner already declared China’s Lenovo as the number one vendor of PCs in the world with 15.7 percent market share from shipping an estimated 13.77 million units globally during the third quarter of the year, beating, HP’s 15.5 percent share.

Rival research house IDC has yet to award the top spot to Lenovo, but in the same quarter noted that the company is just 0.2 percentage points away from the US’s HP.

Agorrilla admitted that the overall PC industry outlook has been quite dim in the past year, overshadowed by newer devices such as smartphones and tablets as exasperated consumers quit holding off for the coming of Windows 8.

“We all know there’s a temporary slowdown in the market, but we also know that the PC is revolutionizing, and it is turning into many different things,” she said.




Chief of these transformations is the introduction of “transformable” PCs, or notebooks that can be used both as a PC and a tablet, thanks to the update to Microsoft’s operating system that allows for better touch input during usage.

In this front, Lenovo is pitting the 13-incher IdeaPad Yoga against similarly positioned notebooks by other vendors, including the XPS 12 from Dell and the Taichi from Asus, as it jockeys for the top PC crown.

Unique about the IdeaPad Yoga is its “revolutionary hinge,” which allows the display to move up to 360 degrees, turning the whole unit into a handy tablet computer.

Powered by Intel’s Core i5 processor, the IdeaPad Yoga runs the latest version of Windows 8 in a slim 16.9-millimeter frame and a battery life that lasts for as much as eight hours.

“With the launch of Windows 8 and Intel’s ultrabook technology, now is the right time for the convertible form factor to take off,” Agorrilla said. “Our convertibles are the perfect ‘do’ machines that users can seamlessly integrate into every aspect of their lifestyle.”

The IdeaPad Yoga will be available locally by the end of December and will retail for P60,995 in stores, while a high-end version running Intel’s Core i7 chip is due for release next year.

source: interaksyon.com