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Lenovo announces A10 Android laptop amid slumping PC sales

Lenovo announces A10 Android laptop amid slumping PC sales

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Lenovo IdeaPad A10
Lenovo IdeaPad A10

After unintentionally leaking its existence, Lenovo has today officially announced the A10 Android laptop. It's the first laptop from the world's top PC vendor to ship with Android 4.2 on board. As we learned before, the A10 features a 10.1-inch HD display, 1.6GHz processor, up to 32GB of storage, and a max 2GB of memory. That quad-core Cortex-A9 processor allows the laptop the reach nine hours of video playback, according to Lenovo's estimates.

Lenovo builds a file manager into Android

The A10's "laptop mode" brings Lenovo's customized Android user interface to the forefront, including an app launcher, task bar and status bar for "quick, intuitive access to the app library and desktop." The company has also built file manager software into the A10, which it claims "makes it easy to locate and manage a library of documents, videos and music." Laptop mode also nets users a full-size keyboard, though the A10 also accepts input via its multitouch display. But the A10 can also be flipped around into a "stand mode," which Lenovo says has been optimized for touch-enabled apps and entertainment. Stereo speakers are there for your Spotify and Netflix streaming, though don't expect to be taking many keepers with the integrated 0.3-megapixel webcam.

Lenovo's Android laptop leaked earlier this month when service manuals for the device appeared on the company's website. A spokesperson would later confirm its existence, though it's unclear how aggressively Lenovo plans to market the A10 — or why interested customers won't opt instead for a Chromebook. But with Windows PC sales slowing recently, we can't fault Lenovo for trying something new. We've reached out to the company for pricing and availability information.

Update: Lenovo tells us that the A10 won't be made available within the US (or North America as a whole). Instead, it will be sold in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific countries.  It's definitely a budget offering, with pricing set to start around $249 USD equivalent.