Lenovo has introduced two colorful new Ultrabooks, as part of its efforts to extend a hand to college students and other consumers still not acquainted with the brandcurrently the second-largest PC maker in the world.
The IdeaPad U310 and U410 Ultrabooks feature third-generation Intel Core i3, i5 of i7 processors, display sizes of 13.3 and 14 inches, respectively, and will come in Sapphire Blue, Aqua Blue, Cherry Blossom Pink, Graphite Gray and Metallic Red.
Pricing for the 3.74-pound, 0.7-inch-thick U310 will start at $749, while the 4.18-pound, 0.78-inch-thick U410 will start at $799. Theyre both on sale in a number of countries as of June 4, though will arrive in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, India, China and Japan later in June.
The new Lenovo Ultrabooks offer up to 1TB of storage, Nvidia GeForce graphics, Dolby Home Theatre v4 and Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology for wirelessly projecting videos and other content. The U310 gets up to seven hours of battery life and the U410 up to nine hours.
Lenovos Enhanced Experience 3 for Windows 7 is said to offer a boot-up and quick-resume time thats 40 percent faster than nonoptimized devices, while its Smart Update function can keep email and instant messaging chats automatically updating, even while the devices are in sleep mode.
Lenovo Ultrabooks free people from having to choose between a device with a productivity-focused user experience and one with a style and design that inspire their creativity, Peter Hortensius, president of Lenovos Product Group, said in a June 4 statement.
Productivity-focused devices have been a Lenovo strong suit, but with the new UltraPads, Lenovo has also launched a five-minute Seize the Night short-film-slash-advertisement, indicting the U310, with a hoodie-wearing programmer, mix-master, artist, engineer and mastermind, in an underground scheme to power-down a city and turn a piazza area into a dance party. All of it Lenovos scheme, of course, to attach a bit of cool to the brand.
Other newly launched awareness-boosting campaigns include a Book of Do series, highlighting young peopleLenovo calls them the worlds tinkerers, creators and buildersdoing cool things with smart products. (Or is it smart things with cool products?)
Lenovo has also teamed up with Microsoft and Bing and will this summer launch a series of contests, called The Hunt: 11 Days of Doing, on college campuses starting July 10. Designed to inspire students to act in their communities, says Lenovo, prizes will include the U310 and U410, among other devices.
Lenovo, outgrowing the PC market by a wide margin, is expected to pass longtime market leader Hewlett-Packard during the second or third quarter of 2012.
Lenovo has managed to capitalize on the missteps of others in the PC market, research firm IDC said in an April 11 press release, announcing a quarter that saw 2.3 percent growth. The company has continued to expand its channel reach in the Americas and Europe, while still gaining ground in Asia. Overall growth above 40 percent was way ahead of the market and other competitors, leveraging strong results across regions and building on strong growth in recent quarters.
In recent weeks, Lenovo has also introduced the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook and a slew of business-centric devices.