Lenovo’s Android Phone Comes into Focus?

New details and images show a sleek touch phone bound for China.

Though the Chinese electronics powerhouse Lenovo is known across the world as the  manufacturer of the vaunted ThinkPad line of notebooks, not much is usually said about its lower-key line of mobile handsets, which really never appear outside China. That changed this past week, though, when striking images of an upcoming Android-based phone from Lenovo perked up interest in the company’s offerings.

Forum user “Living Sword” posted images on the ModMyGPhone forums earlier this week that depict a sleek all-touch-screen phone similar to the iPhone, with chrome accents and a shape that recall the Korean Cowon S9 media player. According to the posts, the so-called Ophone will carry a five-megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video recording capability, Bluetooth 2.0, a virtual keyboard, and microSD slot.

The posts also indicate that the Ophone moniker comes from China’s Open Mobile System standard, which the Lenovo phone will be built to comply with. That means it will ruin a special version of Android tailored to operate on China’s own TD-SCDMA wireless data networks, the country’s own 3G equivalent.

Sadly for U.S. users, this most likely means that the phone will most likely never leave the bounds of its home country, much like the company’s earlier offerings.