Lenovo U1 Hybrid

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

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Okay, I’ve shown you the ICD tablet competitors, and they’re really cool gadgets. But this one. This one I want.

Lenovo is close to releasing the U1 Hybrid — a netbook that snaps apart and becomes a tablet. Check it.

Here’s a link to an engadget review. This guy looks sweet. It’s been delayed a bit because they’ve decided not to use the Skylight OS demoed here, but to switch to Android, since it’s robust and they’ve had good luck with it on some of their smart phones. (Says something about an OS when you dump your own for it.)

The reason H and I have been down on the iPad and its ilk is that, while it is more flexible than an eReader, it is still very limited because of its format. The U1 looks like it will provide the best of the netbook and tablet worlds. Perhaps by year’s end it will have been out long enough for some decent reviews. I’ve wanted a color, large screen alternative to my Nook for reading large-format PDF eBooks that don’t reflow well to the smaller Nook screen. I’ve contemplated a netbook, which would allow me to write or do email as well as read PDFs and track my D&D characters live at the game (yes, I am that geeky). I hope the U1 is all it’s cracked up to be.