Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe Leak Unveils A Colorful MacBook Neo Rival
It looks as though Lenovo is getting ready to launch a new and colorful laptop line that takes direct aim at Apple's popular MacBook Neo. Called the IdeaPad Vibe, a series of what look to be official press renders (or less likely, a really good Photoshop job) have leaked, showing the upcoming MacBook Neo rival in seven different colorways.
The folks at WindowsLatest are once again the source of the leak, coming on the heels of revealing Lenovo's not-yet-announced Project Swan laptop with a giant rollable OLED display. This time, they got their mitts on a handful of IdeaPad Vibe renders showing the upcoming MacBook Rival in what the site describes as blush pink, bright yellow, terracotta orange-brown, sage green, navy blue, silver, and mint teal color options.
From a design language standpoint, Lenovo's lineup would trump the MacBook Neo with almost twice as many colors to choose from. Of course, what's more important is the hardware makeup, as well as pricing, especially on the heels of Microsoft reportedly raising its Windows OEM licensing fees.
It's said the IdeaPad Vibe will be offered in both Arm-based and x86 configurations. The former would be served by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip while the latter would tap AMD's stable processors, and undoubtedly an APU of some sort (to keep costs low compared to pairing a x86 chip with discrete graphics).
Regarding the port selection, the leaked images show a pair of USB-A ports, power button, and status LED on the right side, and an HDMI output, dual USB-C ports, a 3.5mm audio jack (presumably a combo headphone/microphone jack), and a microSD card slot on the left side. The MacBook Neo's external I/O only consists of two USB-C ports and a headphone port.
There is a lot to like about the MacBook Neo, as we covered in our review after spending almost a full month on the road with Apple's least expensive MacBook to date. However, Apple has since rolled out sweeping price hikes on its hardware, including the MacBook Neo, which now starts at $699 instead of $599. This has given Windows players like Lenovo a bit more wiggle room to compete on lower cost alternatives.
We'll have to wait and see what the overall value proposition looks like, but given the success of the MacBook Neo and state of the PC industry as a whole, it's not surprising that a Windows PC maker would look to replicate Apple's colorful lineup.
