Lenovo showed off its new Skylight smartbook during the CES Unveiled pre-show teaser event. First impression count for a lot, and it is the freshest looking product. It’s extremely thin, with funky rounded edges and a 10in 1,280 x 720 screen, and it weighs just under 1kg.

The new smartbook label is in effect another way of saying netbook – you can think of the Skylight as a netbook without an Intel Atom processor inside it. Instead, Lenovo has opted for a 1Ghz Qualcomm SnapDragon processor based on low-power ARM technology, which stretches battery life to around 10 hours.

The Skylight’s keyboard isn’t bad at all for a device of its size, but similar machines are available with keyboard that less cramped. The trackpad and buttons feel solid enough. The Skylight uses a Lenovo build of linux that includes simple application switching and an application dock similar to the one in Mac OS X.

While the OS is fairly in use, it’s a brave move by Lenovo – most netbooks manufactures have tried Linux, but have restored to Windows XP or 7 because it’s more familiar to most users. Only time will tell whether this is a success for Lenovo, but its options are fairly limited until Google releases its Chrome OS later this year.

One feature that seemed strange was the representatives explained that it’s for connecting additional storage. As the device is designed to be used mostly by online applications, the storage options are a little more creative, but it has a 20Gb SSD build into the Skylight.

The Skylight will cost $499 in the US and will be available in red or blue.

Hot News :

lenovo skylight smartbook, lenovo skylight windows XP