An ultraportable, laptop/tablet hybrid with some great versatility where it matters, the Ideapad Yoga 11, barely fits that description. Being the world’s thinnest multimode laptop, it struggles when endowed with performing the tasks of either a laptop or a tablet, which sort of defeats the purpose of a hybrid.
When the Idea of a laptop/tablet Hybrid was first introduced, many manufacturers went after the idea of productivity with a bit of versatility. Um…not to say that its a bad investment, but there is definitely better.
Once again, Lenovo has taken into priority that modern design is well, modern, and that if used correctly, can be extremely satisfying. Enter, the Thinkpad T413s ultrabook, which uses “graphite black”, a thin bezel, is 20.6mm thin, a polished trackpad, and a carbon fiber top with a magnesium exterior to make it look visually interesting while still meeting military-grade standards. On the inside though, it’s current-generation laptop parts: up to 12GB of RAM is nice (starting with just 4GB), typical Lenovo software with Windows 8, the comfortable isolated-style keyboard, a 14-inch 1600×900 matte screen, Intel HD graphics,and a dual-core 1.8GHz Core i5 processor (up to a 2.1GHz Core i7 is available).
Google has taken the initiative to build a high-end Chromebook laptop. The Chromebook Pixel starts at $1,299 for a Wi-Fi model or $1,449 for LTE and more storage. (a full 1TB of Google Drive storage, per user, for three years) and ships in the first week April from Google Play or Best Buy — pre-orders start now.
Lenovo has done some pretty great things with IBM’s ThinkPad brand ever since they purchased it in 2005, however Lenovo has mostly been known for its lower-end computers plus the mainstream laptops. The ThinkPad brand remains their only high-end market line of computers, so in an effort to be more efficient and better promote the brand against companies like Apple, Toshiba, and Samsung, they’re splitting the ThinkPad brand away from the Lenovo household.
After a week passed, sitting down in the middle of a forest, I was using the Lenovo U310 ultrabook and thought, “you know, it’s not the best laptop I’ve ever used, but for the price, it’s okay”. Now, I think about that thought and realize that the U310 has a design akin to another laptop, to the point where Lenovo’s creativity could be questioned, but that isn’t per say a reason to be hostile towards the U310.
Here’s what Lenovo has just announced: A 10-inch tablet running Windows 8 with an Intel Atom processor. It has a 1,366 x 768 IPS screen, a 10-hour battery life, optional 3G / 4G, micro-HDMI output and a pair of 2MP/8MP (front and back) cameras. Abroad, the ThinkPad Tablet 2 will have HSPA+, but in the US will be available on AT&T’s LTE network so you can use ultra-fast internet, almost anywhere. It also is 9.8mm thin, has NFC, with a fingerprint reader and a pen, both of which can are stored away on the tablet.
So, uh, what’s up Lenovo? Honeycomb tablets you say? Three of them launching later this year, eh? Alright, let’s take a look.
This is now one of my personal favorite laptops to hit the market in recent months: the Lenovo X1. Launching tomorrow starting at $1,399, you get a 13.3-inch Gorilla Glass display with 1366×768 resolution, tough as nails construction which can survive several spills and falls, a fully-backlit keyboard, Intel’s WiDi 2.0, Dolby enhanced speakers, HD webcam, weighs 3.89 pounds, is .87 inches thin at its thickest point, and .67 at its thinnest. Processor options include a dual-core Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3.
Just two days before Earth Day, Lenovo has released the new L series, aimed at being very, very eco-friendly. Starting striaght off the bat with specs — as always — an entry-level model starts at $649 and gets you a Celeron P4500 CPU, 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. You can upgrade the 14-inch L412 and 15-inch L512 with a Core i3 or Core i5 processor, ATI Radeon HD 5145 graphics, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a 500 GB HDD, has 4 USB ports, a 7-in-1 card reader, and purported battery life of up to 10 hours on a 6-cell battery. The only main drawbacks here are weight: 5.22 lbs is the L412 and the L512 adds an extra half pound on top of that. In the meantime, you can check out the gallery and press release, which is hiding somewhere after the cut.
