Apple’s iPhones are more or less made for Mac owners, so what do owners of a PC go for? If they own a ThinkPad, Moto’s latest phone might just suit.
It’s not unusual for owners of a computer to end up with a similar phone, such as how owners of a MacBook Air might end up with any one of the current iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro models, or even how owners of a Samsung Galaxy phone might opt for a less common Samsung Galaxy Book laptop.
While brand familiarity is clearly a part of that, shared features is another part, and it’s one that familiarity can connect to.
For instance, if you own both an iPhone and a MacBook, the two can talk, sharing messages, files, and in recent versions of the operating systems, even use the camera from the phone to the Mac. Samsung’s laptops may well not be known in a big way in Australia, but they exist and talk nicely with Samsung phones in a similar way, thanks in part to software, as well.
It’s then a little strange that one of the largest PC laptop brands hasn’t offered a phone of its own, at least until now.
If you’re an owner of a Lenovo ThinkPad, a ThinkPad-styled phone is on the way, and it aims to provide a ThinkPad-like experience made to be more compact.
Looking a little like that style of laptop, it’s coming from Lenovo’s phone division, Motorola, and is launching in Australia as the “ThinkPhone”, an apt name given what it offers.
The phone itself comes in a carbon fibre look with an aluminium frame and Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus for the front glass, while the phone itself sports IP68 water resistance, a degree of the durability you can usually expect from Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops.
You can also expect a somewhat decent camera system on the back, sporting a 50 megapixel F1.8 camera, 13 megapixel F2.2 ultra-wide with macro, plus a depth sensor for those portrait-style shots, while the front offers a 32 megapixel camera for the selfies.
There’s a big 6.6 inch Full HD OLED screen with a surprisingly fast 144Hz refresh rate, plus last year’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip under the hood alongside 8GB RAM and 256GB. Oh, and while your ThinkPad may well be a Windows machine, the ThinkPhone will run Android 13 out of the box.
The regular flagship fix-ins are also included, such as 5G, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC for Google Pay, and even wireless charging, too.
ThinkPad users will also find a way to connect the phone to their computer easily, something Motorola and Lenovo have coined “Think 2 Think”, and it’s basically the Lenovo equivalent of how nicely Apple phones talk to Apple computers. Motorola is also including a piece of software called Moto KeySafe that adds a layer of security for passwords, PINs, and keys, handy if you’re the sort of person that wants that.
“There are millions of Lenovo ThinkPad users in Australia and the ThinkPhone now enables those users to experience a seamless PC-to-smartphone,” said Kurt Bonnici, Head of Motorola for Australia and New Zealand.
Locally, the ThinkPhone will land for $999 in Australia at both JB HiFi and Lenovo’s online presence, and this release won’t see it arrive alone.
Alongside this new phone, there’s a new mid-range Moto G53 5G sporting a 6.5 inch 120Hz display, 50 megapixel camera, and Snapdragon 480 chip for $329, while a much lower-end entry-level Moto E13 is popping up for $149 on prepaid plans, sporting a 6.5 inch HD+ display and the Go edition of Android 13.
