Lenovo Pocket Yoga Netbook Concept is Striking

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

With the increasing popularity of netbooks (with oh so ubiquitous specs), standing out is becoming more and more important. Sony hit us with the Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC in January and while it was “not a netbook” the ultra portable was definitely an eye opener in terms of design.

Today Lenovo revealed some sleek looking competition for Sony’s Lifestyle PC in the form of the Lenovo Pocket Yoga. While the first picture (sent to Engadget China) wasn’t an official photograph, Johnson Li, the director of Lenovo's Beijing Innovation Center says the device is a two-year-old laptop design concept that features a leather exterior and detachable keyboard.

“Last week some buzz was created by a photograph that someone snuck out of our Beijing design studio,” writes Li in a blog post. “The picture was of a pocket-sized PC we developed about two years ago, well before the current netbook craze and the introduction of a similar form factor by one of our competitors,” he explains adding that since we’re all talking about it, he might as well dish some details on the design itself and share some photos.

The full Yoga concept was a folding notebook with a detachable keyboard. The system unit was covered in leather. 

Pocket Yoga is shaped just like a large wallet, that fits easily into your pocket. Covered in leather and topped off with a “belt” around the middle, the surface is meant to be “warm and considerate” rather than cold, plastic or metal. Li details that the “pocket Yoga” inherits the 360-degree soft hinge design from the company’s Yoga notebook. Its hinge supports three modes, locking into each position. The thing that impressed us most was not the touch screen or the hinge but that fact that that decorative belt we mentioned earlier becomes a pretty nifty mouse.

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While there’s no word as to whether or not we’ll ever see this device on shelves, this is a really great concept and they sold us when they broke out that mouse. That said, it all comes down to price. We think this could smash the Lifestyle to pieces if it were even a hundred dollars cheaper (the Lifestyle PC is roughly $900). What about you guys, are you into it?

Jane McEntegart
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pei-chen
    No, everything has to be boringly white. Apple proved 2009 will be just like 1984.
    Reply
  • theuerkorn
    Like the design, though it's distinctly feminine. Of course the usability of such a keyboard remains to be seen, but it's certainly better than a smartphone. I still think an ultraportable may be a better choice.
    Reply
  • I absolutely love it. If they can price it under 500 USD I would buy 2. Over that it becomes more of a novelty item than a useful ultraportable.
    Reply
  • mdillenbeck
    I find the design intriguing, but I wonder how much screen display there are on these form factors. If they are only 400 pixels tall, then that would be a hindrance to web browsing for me - where most content is based on at least an 800 pixel width with most content in a vertical format.

    To me, I'd rather use it in portrait than landscape mode like my cell phone. Then again, I am really looking for a compact netbook/cell phone hybrid to be released some day - something that is 2.5" wide and 4.5" tall in an all front touch screen, uses multiple batteries in serial to supply the screen with a long life, buttons all along the side, and a backup hardware keypad underneath a slide-off cover to allow me to use the cell phone if the touchscreen ever goes bad.

    Alternatively, give me a built-in bluetooth headset and a second "cellphone" battery to power 3G services when the main netbook is off, and that would make me happy too - I would love such an innovative hybrid product.
    Reply
  • hellwig
    Pei-chenNo, everything has to be boringly white. Apple proved 2009 will be just like 1984.Now now, 1984 was more of a beige. Apple uses white to make itself noticeable, that's all. If people don't know you're using an Apple computer, whats the point of paying so much for it?

    It was only 9 years ago (jeese, already been 9 years?) when I was getting comments on my all-black (w/ black monitor and keyboard) Alienware computer (9 years ago, they were an honest boutique, not a coprorate puppet of Dell). The idea of a non-beige computer was simply unheard of. Now of course, beige is history and blacks/greys and silvers are the standard (though a computer can come in any color these days).

    theuerkornLike the design, though it's distinctly feminine.Agreed.
    Reply
  • Tekkamanraiden
    That is a really nice looking design.
    Reply
  • falchard
    Not a netbook. netbook emplies cheap, not $900 as long as it uses an atom processor. It was originally intended to sell less then $100.
    Reply
  • Shnur
    Pei-chenNo, everything has to be boringly white. Apple proved 2009 will be just like 1984.Epic.
    But they have now uni-body aluminum Macs. ^^
    Reply
  • the design is ok, but you either have a too large keyboard, or a too small screen.
    If the keyboard would be a standard keyboard, the screen could technically support a 1280x600 resolution.
    If the keyboard becomes a little larger than the EeePc 701, the screen resolution could possibly go back to 854x480, 1024x480 or 1024x576.

    I found for comfortably browsing a webpage current 1024x600 resolutions are just too small,and a 1024x720 or similar screen would be optimal.

    The screen is not 16/9 (widescreen); but rather extra wide screen.
    Reply
  • Ow,and I really dislike the brown-pinkish leather, and the fact that the screen's vertical resolution is so small (probably not more than 480 pix.).
    Also it either makes use of a laptop mouse joystick or needs a separate USB mouse or touchscreen.
    Reply