Lenovo claims battery life crown with new Yoga tablets

Lenovo is claiming that its new Yoga tablets will offer 18 hours of battery life when browsing the web, which would be the longest when compared to other tablets.

The company's new Yoga tablets, which will come in 8-inch and 10.1-inch versions, will provide 12 to 14 hours when watching high-definition video, said Stephen Miller, Lenovo ambassador. The tablets were announced at a launch event in New York.

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The battery life can be even longer if the tablets are set to low screen brightness, Miller said.

If Lenovo's claims of battery life hold up, the Yoga tablets will beat competition handily. Tablets today are at best able to squeeze up to 11 hours of battery life. The Yoga tablets have high-capacity cylindrical batteries similar to ones used in laptops, which helps prolong battery life.

The 8-inch tablet, which is priced at $249, weighs 400 grams. The 10.1-inch tablet is at $299 and weighs 603 grams. The tablets will run Android 4.2 and be available in the U.S. on Wednesday. The company did not comment on worldwide availability.

The battery is housed in the tablet's circular base, which makes it easier to grip the device. A kick-stand allows the tablet to sit firmly on the table.

With a circular base, the Yoga tablets bears a resemblance to Notion Ink's now-defunct Adam tablet, which was one of the first Android tablets to ship when it became available in late 2010.

The Yoga tablets run on MediaTek quad-core processors with a clock speed of 1.2GHz. Both of the tablets display images at a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels.

Other features include a 1.6-megapixel front camera, a 5-megapixel back camera, up to 32GB of internal storage, and micro-SD card slot for expandable storage.

Lenovo has introduced a range of tablets, PCs, and hybrids in the last few years. The new products are important as buyers move away from PCs to mobile products.

"We shipped more smartphones and tablets than PCs," during the third quarter, Miller said.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com.

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iPhone 5s battery issue could result in reduced battery life

IDG News Service - Apple is reaching out to owners of the iPhone 5s because of a manufacturing issue that could result in reduced battery life.

The problem is affecting a "very limited" number of iPhone 5s devices, Apple said. In addition to reduced battery life, the issue could also could cause longer charging times.

"We are reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone," an Apple spokeswoman said via email. Apple didn't elaborate on how many phones were affected and what had caused the problem.

The company, however, isn't alone in struggling with battery-related problems. Earlier this month Samsung Electronics offered some owners of its Galaxy S4 replacement batteries because the existing ones weren't able to stay charged. The company said that a limited number of users were affected, but like Apple it didn't elaborate on the actual number.

The iPhone 5s was launched  Sept. 10 and has a 64-bit processor, a new 8-megapixel camera and a fingerprint sensor. Apple sold a record-breaking 9 million units of the iPhone 5s and fellow newcomer iPhone 5c three days after their Sept. 20 launch.

In the third quarter, Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, compared to 26.9 million during the same period in 2012. But that wasn't enough to keep up with the overall growth of the smartphone market and its unit market share dropped from 15.6% to 13.4%, according to research from Strategy Analytics. All the other vendors in the top five -- Samsung, Huawei Technologies, LG Electronics and Lenovo -- grew their respective share.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Lenovo claims battery life crown with new Yoga tablets

IDG News Service - Lenovo claims that its new Yoga tablets will offer 18 hours of battery life when browsing the web, which would be the longest when compared to other tablets.

The company's new Yoga tablets, which will come in 8-inch and 10.1-inch versions, will provide 12 to 14 hours when watching high-definition video, said Stephen Miller, Lenovo ambassador. The tablets were announced at a launch event in New York.

The battery life can be even longer if the tablets are set to low screen brightness, Miller said.

If Lenovo's claims of battery life hold up, the Yoga tablets will beat competition handily. Tablets today are at best able to squeeze up to 11 hours of battery life. The Yoga tablets have high-capacity cylindrical batteries similar to ones used in laptops, which helps prolong battery life.

The 8-inch tablet, which is priced at $249, weighs 400 grams (14.1 ounces). The 10.1-inch tablet is at $299 and weighs 603 grams (21.2 ounces). The tablets will run Android 4.2 and will be available in the U.S. on Wednesday. The company did not comment on worldwide availability.

The battery is housed in the tablet's circular base, which makes it easier to grip the device. A kick-stand allows the tablet to sit firmly on the table.

With a circular base, the Yoga tablets bears a resemblance to Notion Ink's now-defunct Adam tablet, which was one of the first Android tablets to ship when it became available in late 2010.

The Yoga tablets run on MediaTek quad-core processors with a clock speed of 1.2GHz. Both of the tablets display images at a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.

Other features include a 1.6-megapixel front camera, a 5-megapixel back camera, up to 32GB of internal storage, and micro-SD card slot for expandable storage.

Lenovo has introduced a range of tablets, PCs, and hybrids in the last few years. The new products are important as buyers move away from PCs to mobile products.

"We shipped more smartphones and tablets than PCs," during the third quarter, Miller said.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

View the original article here