Special business smartphones are no longer fashionable since Blackberry’s demise. Apple’s iPhone or the connection via Android are sufficient for work in most cases. But now Lenovo and Motorola are setting out to refute this thesis with the Thinkphone.
Lenovo has been very reserved when it comes to smartphones in recent years. Even the Legion family’s own gaming phones have not been consistently renewed. Lenovo and the American subsidiary Motorola attracted all the more attention at CES 2023. Because with the ThinkPhone you dare to completely break cover and introduce a business-driven mobile phone that is primarily intended to harmonize with the company’s own laptops. We looked at the CES in Las Vegas to see if that would work.
LENOVO THINKPHONE BY MOTOROLA IN THE FIRST HANDS-ON
Looks like a ThinkPad, feels like a ThinkPad – but it’s a smartphone. It’s amazing how well Lenovo has managed to transform the classic ThinkPad look into a smartphone. The red button is not only a reference to the famous button in the middle of the ThinkPad keyboard, but also has useful additional functions.
Software such as Microsoft Office is integrated ex works, the integration of Microsoft Teams will follow shortly. The ThinkPhone’s 68-watt charger can also charge a ThinkPad, so you only need one charger when using both devices.
The first impression of the ThinkPhone is quite good. The device lies comfortably in the hand and makes a high-quality and high-performance impression. It also survived the occasional fall from a height of 1.50 m without any problems in a quick on-site test. Thanks to the military standards to which it was produced, even extreme loads shouldn’t be a problem.
SOFTWARE AND UPDATES AS A UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION?
For the business target group, however, the software features that distinguish the ThinkPhone from an ordinary high-end smartphone are likely to be the most important. Guaranteed security updates for four years and special security software should convince business customers to switch to the ThinkPhone.
Whether this succeeds must first be clarified by a detailed test. The optics, the haptics and the idea behind the smartphone are impressive. And the market is big. The gray and black laptops in the ThinkBook and ThinkPad lines are widely used in the business sector. If Lenovo and Motorola pass the first test, the business cell phone could celebrate a small rebirth after the BlackBerry models were phased out.
