Lenovo wins design awards for concept PCs

It seems Lenovo has taken home two "Red Dot" design awards from a German design institute called the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. The first award is "Best of the Best for Highest Design Quality," and it was won by the company's "Yoga" concept, which consists of a laptop with an LCD that can be twisted all the way around such that the notebook stands up like an a-frame. The other award for "High Design Quality" was won by their "Sundial" concept, involving a slimline all-in-one PC on a stick that has some kind of whacky 3D scroller interface. We were pretty suspicious when we saw the "Red Dot" awards considering the color of the trackpoint on many IBM/Lenovo notebooks out there these days, but it appears to be a just coincidence. Maybe.

[Felix @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

i'm confused about the second in relation to the design award (and also too lazy to read the link). is there an actual methodology for the concept (say, exactly how user interaction is improved by using a hemisphere), or is this just a fancy graphic design?

[Shin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

The A-frame looks cool for 10 seconds, but then you start thinking about the functionality...

You can't put it on your lap.
You can't put the screen on the end of the desk.
You can't put it beyond the 45 degrees angle or it will fall down.

I hate designers with no logic...

[Iain @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

In my experience, red dots usually denote the item has been sold, as at an art gallery. Perhaps a gallery was masquerading as the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, and that Lenovo really has sold this technology on ...

;-)

[Fei @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

The "red dot design award" is actually a very prestigious international design award, one of the most prominent in the world. Many of the most popular and highly regarded electronics have won red dots. I'm surprised that I know this and apparently no one else here does... Quite unusual for Engadget as the red dots have been around for many years.

Check out our favorite category here: http://en.red-dot.org/316.html

[Woot @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

what would us gadget geeks know about design? most of us still have beige monolith pc cases

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Nobody wants to type on a completely flat keyboard. There, I said it.

[David C @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

What's the deal of giving away award to vapor ware that will never come out as real consumer produts?

I've seen tons of art design student come up with these crazy concepts. Unless Lenovo says they are going to make a holigrahic input device, test and market in the real world at a decent price point, I don't see the point.

[luke the gook @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I don't know, but those pictures look pretty sweet. Especially the "Yoga" laptop.

[luke the gook @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I don't know, but those pictures look pretty sweet. Especially the "Yoga" laptop.

[Bill Morrow @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Lenovo took over the PC Division in May-05, here it is about 7 months later..
RTP was an IBM design center as well as Yamato in Japan..
IBM has won many many awards for innovative designs they never brought to market..
one (of many) that they DID bring to market, the ThinkPad 701C with the butterfly keyboard, they did bring to market..
Now we have these two designs..
I wonder whether they are really an IBM inspired design or a Ledgend design put forth as Lenovo..?
Whichever is the truth or even if these are the result of a collaboration between the two new partners, my guess is that some of the features of each will wind up in real world products.
We all know that IBM had very high standards for design, manufacturing and customer support..
I hope Lenovo does in fact pick up that torch and carry on with new and innovative products which incorporate such features as the 3-D input device and the ultra thin wireless keyboard.

Bill Morrow, thinkpads.com

[Windows Update Advisor @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

"Best of the Best for Highest Design Quality" Award?

"Red Dot" Award?

Hmmm.. sounds to me the awards are "custom made" for Lenovo... Maybe a major sponsor perhaps...