Lenovo is entering the TV business at this year’s CES, and it’s doing so with a splash: The company announced the world’s first TV set running Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich, Sunday. The device, dubbed the Lenovo K91 Smart TV, will initially be available only in China, but Lenovo is looking to launch it in other countries later this year.
Here’s what the TV will offer aside form the latest version of Android:
- The K91 is powered by Qualcomm’s 8060 Snapdragon processor, which clocks 1.5 Ghz.
- It will have 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and 2 GB SD card.
- There will be two models, one with a 42” and one with a 50” 3-D LED screen.
- It will have an integrated 5 MP webcam, which will be used for facial recognition. Why would you need that? Parental control, of course.
- There will be a 3-axis gyro gamepad, but the regular remote control sounds pretty cool, too: It will have a touchpad as well as an integrated microphone, and voice recognition will make it possible to control the devices without pressing any buttons at all.
Owners of the device will be able to access Lenovo’s yet-to-be-launched cloud services from the TV to stream personal media stored in the cloud. Lenovo hasn’t officially announced its cloud plans yet, but it sounds like it will offer media and screen sharing across mobile, PC and TV devices.
It’s worth pointing out that the K91 won’t actually be running Google TV, which is based on Android 3.1 a.k.a. Honeycomb. Lenovo instead chose to customize Android 4.0. It’s unclear whether it will have access to the Android Market, or whether Lenovo is launching its very own app store to power its foray into the TV market.
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