Lenovo launches 'family' tablet computer
Chinese computer giant Lenovo has unveiled a home tabletop touch-screen computer aimed at turning typically solitary online activities into family affairs.
The company proclaimed on Sunday the arrival of the "interpersonal PC" with the debut of the IdeaCentre Horizon Table in Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala is set to start.
"It's definitely a new category; the world's first home table personal computer," Lenovo director of global marketing Dee Kumar said while giving an early glimpse at the creation in San Francisco.
"This can be a full-power 27 inch (68.58cm) PC but at the same time we want families using this device," she said.
The "multi-user, multi-touch, multi-mode" table computer with a starting price of $US1699 ($A1630) can be used by several people simultaneously for communal activities such as games or for individual endeavours such as updating Facebook.
"We want to take social to the next level," Kumar added.
"Smartphones and tablets provide one-to-one interaction but it is great for a family to come back home and use this device to consume content."
Lenovo worked with videogame industry stalwarts including Ubisoft and Electronic Arts to tailor titles for group play on Horizon table computers.
"These games are simple mechanics-wise but really fun to play in a social space," Pixel, a member of an Ubisoft-backed group of girl gamers known as the Frag Dolls, said as she killed virtual zombies and raced cars on Horizon.
Lenovo is promising to showcase a slew of Horizon games and applications at CES, which begins on Tuesday (local time).
Horizon weighs about 8.2kg and is built with a hinged stand in the back so it can be propped upright to serve as a television or desktop computer screen.
Wheeled stands and joysticks are among accessories sold separately. Lenovo says Horizon table computers will hit the market by the middle of this year.
