Lenovo is leveraging two of its most iconic acquisitions to create its first business-focused smartphone; designed to hold on the torch as soon as held by the likes of BlackBerry; meet the newly-unveiled ThinkPhone by Motorola.

The ThinkPad model is well-established inside the trade, having long-served companies with their hardy, no-nonsense designs, robust battery life, succesful {hardware}, and once-legendary safety. Now, Lenovo is hoping that it will possibly distill the identical qualities that outline these noteworthy notebooks right into a cellphone; meant to function the proper companion for enterprise customers.

Apart from the occasional reasonably priced handset or high-end gaming cellphone, Lenovo itself has usually taken its foot off the pedal relating to competing within the smartphone house – underneath its personal title, not less than.

Having acquired Motorola from Google again in 2014, the corporate has continued to construct up this iconic legacy model, delivering a few of its most succesful units in years in 2022; with the Motorola Razr 2022 and Edge 30 Extremely being among the many finest Motorola telephones at present on the market. It is thought that this momentum – paired with Lenovo’s possession over each Moto and the ThinkPad model – is what led to the creation of the ThinkPhone.

The machine itself carries an analogous structure of cameras and exterior parts to the newest consumer-focused Motos – like the brand new Moto X40, which simply launched in China – however boasts a hardier design, due to an aluminum body, fronted by Gorilla Glass Victus and backed by ThinkPad X1 Carbon-inspired Aramid fiber.

The entire machine can also be IP68-certified towards mud and water ingress, in addition to boasting the newest MIL STD 810H compliance, with 1.25 meter drop resistance.

On the within, it is as potent as any late-2022 flagship, with a 6.6-inch 144Hz pOLED show, a Snapdragon eight Plus Gen 1 chipset paired with as much as 12GB of RAM and as much as 512GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery that helps 68W quick charging. The digital camera system holds promise too, with a 50MP major sensor, able to as much as 8K video recording.

In fact, all of this close to top-shelf {hardware} means nothing if the software program expertise cannot again it up, however fortunately it appears as if Motorola has taken steps to ship some added worth for enterprise customers.

As with consumer-focused Motos, the ThinkPhone advantages from a usually clear person expertise – Android 13 out of the field, with the promise of three years of OS updates and 4 years of safety updates (month-to-month safety updates for 3 years, with bi-monthly updates within the fourth), which is healthier than most of Motorola’s different telephones.

It goes deeper, nevertheless, with a devoted safety chip in Moto KeySafe and the AI-supported Moto Risk Protection software program, in addition to fleet administration instruments for IT departments to deal with scores of ThinkPhones concurrently.

Motorola’s desktop-like Prepared For expertise – discovered on lots of its finest consumer-focused telephones – has been constructed upon with Assume 2 Assume too, which presents tighter integration together with your companion ThinkPad.

This consists of computerized hotspot connection, a unified clipboard and notifications, drag-and-drop file administration between units, entry to the ThinkPhone’s apps and person expertise out of your ThinkPad, and webcam assist on PC by way of the ThinkPhone (permitting to be used of its superior digital camera sensors).

With the cherry on high being the Crimson Key – a programmable (crimson) aspect button that helps single and double-tap gestures to quick-launch your selection of shortcuts or apps.

Evaluation: what about the remainder of us?

Lenovo and Motorola are clearly trying to make a splash within the enterprise market with the ThinkPhone. A lot of its consumer-ready smartphones are already match for lots of enterprise use circumstances, however unique facets of the ThinkPhone – like its devoted safety chip, superior Prepared For implementation in Assume 2 Assume, extra-hardy design and devoted shortcut key collectively – give it one thing of an edge over different enterprise-ready rivals.

Past the fleet machine administration assist, nevertheless, these differentiators are all inclusions that may be simply as welcome on Motorola’s consumer-ready smartphones.

You may already purchase hardy Motos – like the newest Motorola Defy – and highly effective entrants, just like the aforementioned Extremely, however the ThinkPhone is the one machine that fuses efficiency and sturdiness to this diploma in Motorola’s present portfolio, and the truth that the common buyer is locked out of shopping for such a tool looks like an actual disgrace.

The ThinkPhone is about to launch within the coming months, throughout varied markets together with the US, Europe, Latin America, the Center East, Australia and choose Asian international locations, with pricing to be revealed at a later date.

We’re simply hoping that even when the ThinkPhone does not costume down and discover itself on client retailer cabinets down the road, that not less than the smarts behind it discover their approach into the broader Motorola lineup.