Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola hands-on: a ThinkPad’s greatest pal

I’m typically a Home windows consumer, however one of many issues that’s at all times sorely tempted me in regards to the Apple ecosystem is the interconnectedness. Not solely are macOS and iOS comfortably comparable in kind and performance (and getting moreso yearly), however there are such a lot of straightforward methods to switch content material between a Mac and an iPhone. That’s why I loved testing out Lenovo’s ThinkPhone by Motorola, which is meant to be — and I by no means thought I’d be scripting this phrase — the smartphone model of a ThinkPad.

The ThinkPhone has a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, a 6.6-inch OLED display screen, a 5,000mAh battery, a bunch of fancy enterprise safety features (a phrase ThinkPad lovers will definitely be aware of) and two rear cameras together with a 50-megapixel stabilized commonplace huge and a 13-megapixel ultrawide (plus a depth sensor). It’s MIL STD 810H licensed and IP68 rated for mud and water resistance. It ships with Android 13. However the coolest half, and the differentiating function for my part, is how a lot enjoyable it’s to make use of with a ThinkPad.

My favourite software program function known as Unified Clipboard. When you could have this enabled, any picture you’re taking, textual content you copy, paperwork you scan, or video you’re taking with the ThinkPhone is routinely copied to a clipboard that your ThinkPhone shares together with your ThinkPad. You may then paste that media immediately in your related ThinkPad, which appears very helpful for dropping images into shows and paperwork as you’re creating them. This was enjoyable to make use of, and labored completely every time I attempted it. (And I did attempt many occasions…it was actually enjoyable.)

This Unified Clipboard function is an element of a complete suite of options known as the Assume 2 Assume connectivity (come on, that’s cute) that connects the ThinkPhone and the ThinkPad. You can even drag and drop recordsdata, and the 2 gadgets can shortly uncover one another and join over Wi-Fi whereas close by.

You may even use the ThinkPhone as a webcam whereas taking convention calls on the ThinkPad. The latter works with any video conferencing software program, Lenovo advised me, so it’s not like another fancy webcam options firms have come out with this 12 months the place your organization’s conferencing software program of alternative must resolve to help them.

I used to be capable of pretty simply set the ThinkPhone because the ThinkPad’s conferencing webcam straight from Lenovo’s software program settings, however I’m advised that you are able to do it from particular person functions (Zoom, and so on.) as properly.

Bodily, there are another touches that make this telephone look blissfully ThinkPad-y. The black textured again… come on, you’ll be able to’t miss that similarity. However probably the most placing homage to Lenovo’s premium enterprise laptops is the pink button on the aspect of the ThinkPhone — which isn’t fairly a keyboard nub however, what, it’s shut. You may map each a single and double faucet of this button to shortcuts of your alternative, which I’m positive some ThinkPad customers (who could, for instance, have expertise remapping a number of the ThinkPad’s unconventionally positioned keyboard keys) will admire.

All in all, this telephone looks as if a enjoyable concept to me. There are many ThinkPad lovers on the market. Why not give them a telephone to match?