Heading down to SITEX this weekend? Here are some deals we spotted to whet your appetite!

Huawei Sonic (S$248, no contract)
The Huawei Sonic is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone with an unbelievably low price. And yet, the phone doesn’t feel that cheap, and it actually quite sturdy. Specs-wise, the phone does feel like it came out of the era of the first iPhone: a low-res screen, 600MHz processor and 256MB of RAM all add up to a phone which pales in comparison to the powerhouses out there today. But if you can look past all that and won’t use it to play intensive games, the Sonic is a decent low-end Android phone.

M1 Fibre Broadband (S$39/month)
M1’s fibre broadband promotion just keeps going! Introduced at COMEX earlier this year, the 100Mbps can be yours for just S$39 per month. M1 says “it’s a steal”, and we couldn’t agree more. The only catch: if you’re too invested in other telco packages – such as StarHub’s cable TV – it will be difficult to decide whether you should switch.

Lenovo IdeaPad Z470 ($799)
The Z470 offers a great bang for your buck: a Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, 640GB of storage space and 1GB of dedicated graphics for only S$799. Sure, the laptop isn’t the sexiest of beasts, but the specs let you pull in some HD entertainment and even play games at decent FPS rates. This would make a great laptop for those who use their computers as an entertainment device, with the occasional work thrown in, of course.

Acer Iconia Tab A100 (S$599)

If you recall, this was on our list of great gadget gifts under S$500, so what’s with the S$599 price tag? Folks, the 3G version of the A100 is here! For one hundred more dollars, you’ll be able to tot the A100 around, and it’s small enough to fit into a big purse. Again, it’s not a particularly premium device, and there’s a close competitor in Huawei’s MediaPad, but the A100 has more port options and even a micro SD card slot for expandable storage.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
This might be a relatively older model, but ASUS’s has a winning form factor here. Its specs are vanilla Android tablet – Tegra 2 chip, 1GB RAM, etc. – but ASUS baked in other features to sweeten the deal. A full-sized QWERTY keyboard accessory that provides additional battery life means this could probably replace your netbook. What’s more the full package even includes two USB ports and SD and micro SD card readers, and the audio is enhanced with SRS.

(This story first appeared on Techtalk, our technology content partners at Yahoo! News Singapore. Photos courtesy of Yahoo! News Singapore)

Folks looking out for an ultrabook this holiday season has yet another choice on top of the increasingly crowded segment – the Lenovo U300s. Eschewing the wedge-shaped design championed by Apple and ASUS, Lenovo’s take on the ultrabook is a sensible book-shaped machine that has a nice heft and overall feel. We go hands-on!

Hardware and design
Measuring 14.9mm thin and weighing in at a mere 1.32 kg, the U300s has an understated design that at the same time looks classy and sophisticated. A “Clementine Orange” colour option jazzes things up a bit, but isn’t that bright as to look out of place in a boardroom.

Unlike the Zenbook, the design of which is unabashedly inspired by the MacBook Air, Lenovo’s take is more like a traditional laptop. It looks like a bound hardcover book, and one-piece magnesium alloy roll-cage feels sturdy enough to withstand frequently jostling.

Open up the U300s and you’ll find a nicely spaced chiclet keyboard. But Lenovo’s experience at making the excellent ThinkPad keyboards didn’t shine through: the keyboard is noticeably shallower than standard laptop keys.

But the keyboard has a redeeming quality: it helps the laptop stay cool! Lenovo engineered and upside-down fan which draws in from the keyboard, ensuring that your hands stay cool while typing.

Underneath all that, you get your choice of Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, up to 256GB of solid state storage, and up to 4GB of RAM. Unfortunately, while a USB 3.0 and HDMI port are present, you won’t find an SD card reader on the U300s. Unlike the Toshiba Protégé Z830, the U300s also lacks an Ethernet port.

“Enhanced Experience”
Instead of an ostensible skin over Windows 7 (like Dell’s Stage), Lenovo has added in under-the-hood enhancements to the U300s, which the company termed “Enhanced Experience 2.0”.

For one, the U300s is said to boot up in just 10 seconds, and can last up to 8 hours on a single charge. If left idle, Lenovo claims that the system can sustain up to 30 days of standby. Plus, Lenovo RapidCharge technology can charge the U300s to 50 per cent capacity in just half an hour.

Price might be a problem
Despite several omissions, the U300s is a fine piece of work. The only problem? Its price. Starting atS$1,899 for the Core i5 variety, Lenovo is cutting it too close to S$2,000. The local price for the i7 version has not been announced but Lenovo executives confirmed that it will definitely go above S$2,000.

Toshiba has a similar premium pricing strategy, while ASUS continues to undercut the rest of the ultrabook pack, with a better spec’ed 13-inch ultrabook starting at just S$1,498.

The U300s will have some convincing to do on the showroom floors, but with some luck, Lenovo’s ultrabook might just break through with its stylish design and unique enhancements.

This story first appeared on Techtalk, our technology content partners at Yahoo! News Singapore

The high-level results confirm what most people already know, e.g. people are more willing to spend if the price point of the application is low, and that people spend the most on entertainment and games. However, some of the results from the Lenovo survey are pretty interesting.

Android developers, take note, as market surveys like this can be useful to your business!

What are your three favourite types of applications?

No prizes for guessing this one. Entertainment (aka games) is unequivocally the top category for Android users.

How much are you willing to pay for a great application?

Hmmm… People still expect “great” applications to be as cheap as possible, or even free. Seems like ad-supported or freemium models, if you’re a developer, is the way to go.

If you were to buy an application, what type of application would it be?

What type of application have you paid the most for?

Productivity tools and entertainment look to be the top categories that people buy. Seems like few people would buy social applications (even though they are popular — see first survey question).

From the survey, people do not want to spend on travel and news apps. It’s not surprising since Google already has an excellent free Google Maps app, and many news portals and sites (like Techgoondu!) provide free content on their websites.

What is the least useful type of application on the Android market?

Interesting question. Seems like wallpapers, libraries and demos are apps that people find the least useful.

To achieve this, it is the tech sponsor for Fashion Night Out, a global shopping extravaganza initiative that is in its third year.

Showing off their latest IdeaPad U300s Ultrabooks at the glitzy fashion event, Lenovo hopes to increase their brand awareness amongst consumers.

With brand recognition currently hovering around 12 percent in the US, according to Nick Reynolds, Lenovo’s executive director of integrated product communications, Lenovo has much more room to grow as a brand.

“We have great engineered products, but it’s sad that not that many people know about us,” he said.

Hence, the big marketing blitz on their new IdeaPad ultrabook, which Lenovo hopes will be a halo product that changes consumer perceptions about them.

Lenovo’s Ideapad U300s: First impressions

I got a good hands-on impression with the Lenovo U300s Ultrabook at the New York City Fashion Night out event, which Techgoondu went to.

The first thing that drew me in was the form factor. The sleek single-piece aluminium shell — available in both graphite grey or clementine orange — is really gorgeous.

With a thickness of 14.9mm (1.5 cm), weighing slightly over 1.3kg, and with a 13.3 inch HD 16:9 widescreen display, the U300S Ultrabook is one super swee (i.e. beautiful, in Singlish vernacular) machine.

There are no vents at the bottom of the Ideapad U300s, unlike most other laptops. All the air that cools the machine exits through the side vents and the back hinge. Not only does this make the machine look super sleek, users can use the machine on their laps for extended periods of time and it never gets hot.

The machine takes in air from Lenovo’s patented “breathable” keyboard technology. The keys of this keyboard – which feels great tactilely – are slightly raised to allow air to enter and cool the system down.

Specs wise, the IdeaPad U300s seems to be pretty good as well, including an Intel Core i7 processor, a RapidDrive hard disk (a hybrid SSD and hard disk drive) that boots up Windows 7 in 10 seconds or less, and a long-life battery housed within the chassis that lasts up to eight hours of continuous use.

The Lenovo RapidCharge power charger is sleek and small as well, and is touted to be able to charge up to 50 percent capacity in just 30 minutes.

It seems like Lenovo is really banking on the Ideapad U300s to crack the high-end super-thin laptop segment, which was a space pioneered by Apple’s Macbook Air in 2008.

Not any longer, with many consumer PC makers shipping sleek Intel Ultrabook devices this year in Q4, like Lenovo’s Ideapad U300s, Toshiba’s Portege Z830 and Acer’s Aspire S3.

The U300s isn’t a sub $1000 device, which Intel originally intended the Ultrabooks to be. Still, the U300s is more than competitively priced with the Macbook Air at US$1149 based on specs. If you’re looking for a high-end chic laptop, it’s definitely worth considering.

The IdeaPad U300s will be available in Singapore and in the region sometime in October this year.

Techgoondu will be giving out two of these beauties in a contest in October/November, so do watch out for that!

All photos here are courtesy of fellow Singaporean consumer lifestyle blogger Superadrianme. Big thanks to Adrian for letting Techgoondu use his photos when my handphone shots suffered from technical failure.

Early images of China Mobile’s Ophone has surfaced in recent days. Lest you think this is another iPhone rip-off, the Ophone is being made by Lenovo, and will use China Mobile’s Android-based OMS (Open Mobile System) to be launched by the second quarter of 2009.

So far, very little is known about the phone’s full specs, apart from a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, a Marvell 624MHz processor, a microSD card slot and a mini USB connector. It is expected to work on China Mobile’s homegrown TD-SCDMA network.

OMS is built by Borqs, a Chinese mobile platform developer, and can operate on TD-SCDMA/EDGE/GSM networks. Chinese new reports have indicated that China Mobile will not mandate the use of OMS exclusively on TD-SCDMA handsets, preferring to leave the decision to handset makers.