Lenovo to launch first U.S. consumer laptop

When you hear the name Lenovo, you probably think of the company's much-loved ThinkPad line or perhaps one of its other business-oriented PCs. In the Asian market, however, the Chinese vendor has been selling PCs of all stripes for years. Now, in a bid to expand their presence in the U.S. market, Lenovo is launching a consumer-oriented laptop, the 3000 Y410, which you see to your right. This puppy sports a 14.1-inch glossy LCD display with a maximum resolution of 1280x800, a 1.46Ghz Pentium Dual Core T2310, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, dual-layer DVD writer, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Intel X3100 graphics, Dolby Home Theater speakers and a built-in webcam and card reader. And, as you might expect, it runs Vista Home Premium. The price? $700 as described above and up to $950 with configurable options. That's a pretty respectable machine for a pretty low price, so Lenovo should have no problem competing with the Dells, HPs and Apples of the world, as long as they can get this thing out in front of consumers. And what do you know: they'll be selling it exclusively at big box retailers like Office Depot, Micro Center, and Staples.

For more on the 3000 Y410:
- see this CNET article