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Went to the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 Launch at BoConcept located in Paragon Shopping Centre.

There are 2 products being launched yesterday, one is the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 (which is the main highlight) retailing for S$2,699 and the other is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 retailing for S$1,499.

Lenovo describes the IdeaCentre A720 as the industry’s slimmest 27-inch AIO with a frameless display from just 24.5mm, thinner than a typical club sandwich while the IdeaPad Y480 is a high-performance laptop capable of handling intensive multimedia applications. Personally, I would describe the IdeaPad Y480 as the laptop version of IdeaCentre A720 because the specifications are very similar (same processor, RAM, HDD, and graphics card).

IdeaCentre A720
The Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 will be available from the first week of June 2012 and will be retailing for S$2,699.

Specifications

• 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3610QM processor (2.3GHz up to 3.3GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
• 27″ Full HD (1920×1080) frameless multi-touch display, 16:9 widescreen
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M 2GB graphics
• 8GB DDR3 memory – 1600MHz [SODIMM slots (2x4GB)]
• 2.5″ (SATA III) 750GB HDD storage
• Integrated Blu-ray ROM with Super Multiburner Drive (DVD-RW)
• Integrated Bluetooth & 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
• 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 6in1 (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, MS, MS-Pro)
• Integrated 720p HD webcam
• HDMI in/out for connecting to other high-definition devices
• Integrated stereo speakers supporting Dolby Home Theatre V4 audio enhancement
• Integrated TV tuner
• Weight: 11.6kg (25.52lb)
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 650 x 480 x 220 mm (25.5 x 18.8 x 8.6 inch)
• Responsive
  • 10-point multi-touch technology for greater accuracy
  • Lenovo Enhanced Experience 3 for Windows 7 with RapidBoot lets you start 40% faster than a typical Windows 7 computer (available on certified models with Intel CoreTM i3, i5 or i7 processors)
  • Lenovo Camera Fun Zone – see yourself on screen and move your applications such as a synthesiser and games like Angry Birds
  • Lenovo IdeaTouch – a range of touch-optimised multimedia
• Comfortable
  • Widely adjustable screen angle (from -5 to 90o) so you can use the touch-screen function in perfect comfort
  • Lenovo Dynamic Brightness System – protects your eyes by automatically adjusting screen brightness based on ambient light conditions
  • Lenovo Eye Distance System – alerts if you are too close to the screen hands to interact with these fun games

One of my favorite feature of the IdeaCentre A720 is able to make it lie flat like the photo I took below, this allows you to make it into a cheaper Microsoft Surface (BTW, MS Surface 2.0 is selling for S$30,000+ in Singapore). The IdeaCentre A720 is capable of 10-point multi-touch which is great for games like Fruit Ninja. Unfortunately, Windows 7 still sucks with touch UI, so the multi-touch is pretty useless outside of the applications.

I did ask whether users who bought the IdeaCentre A720 will get to upgrade to Windows 8 for free, but the answer given was no plans have been made yet, so I am guessing most likely not.

Note that the Blue USB Port supports USB 3 while the Black USB Port is USB 2.

An interesting feature of the IdeaCentre A720 is that it supports HDMI In, this means that it can be used as a display for other media players. Other features include a TV Tuner and a Blu-ray ROM.

The material used is all plastic (including the keyboard) except for the hinge which is made of aluminum. Does anyone notice that the design of the bundled keyboard is similar to the Apple Wireless keyboard?

Both the IdeaCentre A720 and the IdeaPad Y480 comes with Lenovo Enhanced Experience 3 (EE3) for Windows 7.

EE3 certified products feature supreme Windows start-up performance and other optimization features. These products, with their traditional spinning disk hard drive (HDD), can start on average 40 percent faster than typical Windows 7 PC users, thanks to Lenovo’s RapidBoot technology. RapidBoot uses optimized processes and hardware settings to allow Lenovo PCs to boot up faster.

EE3 certified Lenovo PCs boot up in 24 seconds on average, while the typical Windows 7 PC trails with an average time of 41 seconds.

Personally I am a bit skeptical when it comes to boot time, no way can a Windows with pre-installed software boot faster than a native Windows. Whenever I get a computer from manufacturers for review, the first thing I do is to uninstall all those crap that came with it.

I did a test on the IdeaCentre A720 (Prototype) and it took 1 minute to boot right after we press the power-on button. I want to see how the final product will be able to boot in 24 seconds. Even on my MacBook Air with SSD, it took 30 seconds to boot.

IdeaPad Y480
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 will be available from the first week of May 2012 and it will be retailing for S$1,499. I did not play much with the IdeaPad Y480 and hence I can’t comment anything on it but I took some pictures of it.

Specifications

• 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3610QM processor (2.3GHz up to 3.3GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
• 14″ HD display (1366×768), 16:9 widescreen
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M 2GB graphics
• 8GB DDR3 memory – 1600MHz [SODIMM slots (2x4GB)]
• 2.5″ (SATA III) 750GB HDD storage
• Integrated DVD reader/writer
• Integrated Bluetooth & 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
• 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 6in1 (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, MS, MS-Pro)
• 1MP (720p HD) webcam with night view
• JBL speakers (2x 1.5W) with Dolby Home Theater V4
• Batter Life: Up to 5 hours
• Weight: 2.3kg (5.07lb)
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 345 x 239 x 32.8 mm (13.5 x 9.4 x 1.3 inch)
• Simplified
  • Energy Management protects the long-term durability of the battery and uses advanced energy-saving technology to increase time spent between charges
  • Intelligent Touchpad – large touchpad with easy scroll, zoom and rotate functions
  • OneKey Rescue System makes data backup and recovery simple
  • Enjoy your notebook content on a big screen wirelessly with Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) Technology
  • Long battery life (up to 5hrs) for extended use on the move
• Comfortable
  • Metal cool-touch cover and palmrest
  • Backlit AccuType keyboard with individual rounded keys for more comfortable and accurate typing

Official Site: Lenovo IdeaCentre A720
Official Site: Lenovo IdeaPad Y480