Month: August 2018

Valentina Palladino

Lenovo didn't forget about its quirky, keyboard-less Yoga Book. The netbook-like device that came out in 2016 was an acquired taste, to say the least, but it was also a chance for Lenovo to experiment with the traditional two-in-one form. The company returns in 2018 with a new version still named the Yoga Book (officially it's the Yoga Book C930), but it now has an e-ink panel attached to the main touchscreen slab and powerful internals that kicked its price up by quite a bit.

Lenovo abandoned the "halo" keyboard found on the last Yoga Book and replaced it with an e-ink slab that transforms from keyboard to sketch pad to e-reader. The e-ink keyboard fills the entire screen when activated, and a small, square area at the bottom, directly underneath the space bar, brings up an e-ink trackpad when tapped. Considering the overall size of the device, the trackpad is still small like it was on the old Yoga Book. However, its collapsible nature gives the rest of the keyboard more room to breathe when you're not using it. Also, you have two input options since you can use the trackpad or the Yoga Book's touchscreen.

Lenovo

The ThinkPad X1 series has firmly established itself as one of the best thin-and-light laptops around. But what if you need a bit more oomph packed into its 13-inch frame? Enter the ThinkPad X1 Extreme.

This is a 15-inch X1. It's still thin and light—the weight starts at under 4lbs (1.7kg), and it's 0.7 inches (18mm) thick—but Lenovo is making good use of the extra space afforded by the 15-inch screen. The processor is bumped up to a hex-core 8th-generation Coffee Lake, paired with up to 64GB RAM. For graphics, there's an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. This can drive up to a 2840×2160 HDR display with support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and it's capable of showing 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color space. The screen also supports touch and a tilt-sensitive pen. And it comes with all the bells and whistles we'd expect from a premium Lenovo machine: two Thunderbolt 3 ports, HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, two USB 3.1 generation 1 ports, an SD card reader, fingerprint authentication, a shutter for the webcam. The battery is 80WHr, with a 135W charger.

Valentina Palladino

The Yoga family is one of Lenovo's most well-known PC lines, but the company doesn't want consumers to see it and only think "two-in-ones." Lenovo is transitioning the Yoga line to encompass all things premium, not just those with a hinge that flexes 360 degrees. To usher in the new Yoga era, Lenovo came out with the Yoga C930, a two-in-one with a new hinge style and a hidden stylus enclosure, and the new Yoga S730, a thin-and-light clamshell PC that may tempt some MacBook lovers.

The Yoga C930 embodies "premium" in nearly every way. The all-metal Ultrabook looks much like past Yoga devices but with one immediately noticeable difference: Lenovo didn't carry over its signature watchband hinge to this new convertible. Instead, it created a new hinge that holds the device's Dolby Atmos-ready speakers.

Lenovo

Lenovo has three new Chromebooks coming in October. Two of these are very traditional Chromebooks: the $280 C330 and $250 S330 are designed for affordability in highly price-sensitive markets such as education. But the third, the $600 Yoga Chromebook, is a bit different: it's a Chromebook aimed at a more discerning, upmarket buyer.

The C330 and S330 are more similar than they are different. On the inside, they have a quad-core MediaTek ARM processor, 4GB RAM, and 32 or 64GB of eMMC storage. They have the same connectivity options (802.11ac with a 2×2 antenna, Bluetooth 4.1) and the same ports—one USB 3.1 generation 1, HDMI, SD Card, a headset jack, a 720p webcam, and one USB Type-C, which supports charging and video output, as well as USB).