Photo: Lenovo

Lenovo has released their latest smartbook device – the Skylight. They’ve combined the wi-fi and 3G features of a smartphone, and the great video and audio qualities of laptops, and brought them together into one device. The Lenovo Skylight is almost as thin as regular mobile phones and only weighs two pounds, so taking it around with you is no problem. One of the great features is the 10-hour battery life, which allows you to use the Skylight throughout the day for work or meetings, and recharge it overnight.

Powerful features

The Lenovo Skylight runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon ARM processor, providing around the clock Internet connectivity and 20 GB of storage space. The 10-inch HD screen is great for watching and downloading your favourite movies, and the interface displays up to six widgets allowing you to easily update your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The Skylight comes with 18 installed web gadgets like Amazon, MP3 sites and Roxio CinemaNow. One of the niftiest features is the integrated 4 GB USB stick that can be removed and plugged back in simply.

Photo: Lenovo

The Smartbook also has a 1.3 mega-pixel camera which isn’t very impressive in terms of quality, but is still a nice feature to have. There’s a slot for SD cards, headphones and a HDMI-out port which is great if you enjoy watching movies on your laptop. The always-on feature keeps the Skylight on standby, so no more waiting around for your device to load or shut down.

Stylish design

The Skylight comes in lotus blue and dashing red colours. The rounded edges make the device more sleek and modern, and easier to fit into bags and backpacks. The nice thing about the Skylight is that there aren’t any stickers or screws that are visible on the case, giving it a clean, fresh and professional look. The Lenovo Smartbook is perfect for people always on the go who need a reliable laptop all the time. The lightness of the product means it rests comfortably on your lap, this is great for kids who can enjoy a movie or show while on a long road trip.

The Lenovo Skylight will be available in the US from April and will be priced at $499 (approximately £323). Europe can expect it to hit the shelves later in 2010.

Photo: Compaq

Hewlett-Packard revealed the Compaq Airlife 100 on Friday as an alternative to both netbooks and tablets. The device, which is being referred to as a smartbook, combines the vertically integrated software and hardware found in a Smartphone with the form of a micro laptop.

Advantage

Hewlett-Packard is betting the advantages of a simplified user interface combined with touch-screen technology could give it the leg-up on netbooks, while being an alternative to the iPad. The one kilogram (a little over two pounds) smartbook has built-in wi-fi b/g with 3G as an optional extra. Its 10.1-inch touch-screen has an unconfirmed resolution, however a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM powers the smartbook. The storage consists of 16GB internal storage, 512MB of flash storage and an SD card for expandable storage. Its operating system – and what it derives its smartphone-like capabilities from – is Google’s Android OS.

Limited Distribution

The Compaq Airlife 100 will be available only in Europe and Latin America through distribution partner Telefonica. It appears HP, the largest PC maker in the world, is playing it carefully with its smartbook by testing its product in a small, focused marketplace to see if an international rollout is both viable and warranted.

With variety comes confusion

The increasing variations on mobile computers are to the benefit of manufacturers, for they can distinguish themselves from their competitors. But it may be to the detriment of consumers who may be overwhelmed by the product choice. Shopping for mobile devices has gone from simply choosing a laptop to selecting between laptops, netbooks, tablets and now smartbooks, in a matter of just a few years. The electronics giants are, in innovating, giving themselves the unenviable task of having to educate consumers who are unable to immediately distinguish between mobile device types. Whether Hewlett-Packard can educate consumers, circumvent netbooks, and one-up the iPad with the Compaq Airlife 100, remains to be seen.