Lenovo Ideapad Yoga

But it's not a pie in the sky prototype; the 13.1-inch 1600 x 900 touchscreened Yoga is exactly the kind of machine that Intel's Mooly Eden was shouting about yesterday, taking the Ultrabook to the next level with touch and a convertible design so it can be a tablet when you need it. It's like Microsoft's vision for the Tablet PC from 2002. Only good. It's a reasonably standard Ultrabook weight at 1.47kg, while the device measures an incredible 16.9mm thick. Despite the small dimensions, the hinge feels strong and Lenovo says that is one of the things it thought most about with the design - it has patented the hinge itself. 

The convertible is powered by an as-yet undefined Intel Core processor, but we're dreaming of the possibility it could have a forthcoming Ivy Bridge next-gen chip inside. We do have other spec details though – 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Those kind of figures mean that the Yoga won't be slotting under Intel's Ultrabook target price of $999. Indeed, it'll be considerably more than that. Of course, the key component here isn't the hardware – it's Windows 8, which can be touch-based when the tablet is in viewing or converted mode and a standard laptop when in desktop mode. Lenovo has also thought about other details, too – there's soft touch rubber paint for gripping the device and a leather cover on the palm rest. Side buttons are designed for use in all modes. What's most exciting is that we'll be seeing plenty more devices like this during 2012. We can not wait. 

Source: Tech Radar

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Posted in: Acer ultrabooks at CES 2012,CES 2012,Lenovo Ideapad Yoga,Lenovo Ultrabook

Lenovo Ideapad U310 and U3410

As we revealed in our news on the launch, the IdeaPad U310 and IdeaPad U410 are the first Ultrabooks confirmed to have more "attractive price points" (Lenovo's words) starting at £599. That really does bring Ultrabooks into a more mainstream price point. Here's the IdeaPad U310. As you can see the keyboard and chassis are rather gratuitously Mac-alike, but appears to have the quality we've come to expect from Lenovo. However, these aren't really thin and light notebooks like the already launched IdeaPad U300s. 

The 13-inch U310 is 1.7kg with a thickness of 18mm, while the U410 is 21mm thick and weighs 1.9kg. Here they are atop one another, in a kind of notebook sandwich. The button you can see opens the lid. As you'd expect from an Ultrabook, there'll also be fast resume and up to eight hours of battery life. It's certainly a smart-looking thing, isn't it? It's not clear what processors these new units will pack, but signage on the Lenovo stand we saw indicated that the notebooks would have Core i5 processors. It is possible there may be a Core i3, while the cheaper model will come with a rather paltry 64GB SSD – though a 500GB standard hard drive option will be available in the UK. So our impression of these new models is a little reserved. Lower priced and great-looking they may be, but you get inferior features for that, while they're not proper ultraportables - and when PC World is doing £400 laptops with great specs and not a great deal more weight, we'd question whether they can really impress customers. It looks like a classic case of style over substance, but we'll have to wait for our full Lenovo IdeaPad U Series review to pass a final verdict. 

Source: Tech Radar

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Posted in: CES 2012,Lenovo,Lenovo Ideapad U310,Lenovo Ideapad U3410,Lenovo Ultrabook