It’s January, and that means two things: interminable New Year’s resolutions and CES. Yes, even though the ongoing pandemic has stopped the physical event in its tracks, CES is still going ahead, albeit digitally.
Lenovo has decided to jump the gun on CES this year, announcing a range of new laptops, tablets, and desktops a full four days before the expo even begins.
Let’s take a closer look at all of the Lenovo products.
Lenovo IdeaPad 5G
Remember when 5G seemed like a distant dream? In 2021, it’s very much a reality.
Lenovo launched the world’s first 5G-enabled laptop last year (the Yoga 5G) and is adding the IdeaPad 5G to its lineup.
Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, we should say that the IdeaPad 5G isn’t going to be available in North America at the moment. Why? We’re not sure but it might be to do with the relatively slow rollout of 5G connectivity in the US and Canada compared to Europe.
Either way, it looks like we’re missing out on a very interesting product. It ha a 14-inch screen and uses the Snapdragon 8cx platform instead of a normal AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processor. The 8cx isn’t as powerful as regular laptop processors — the IdeaPad 5G isn’t a device to compete with an M1 chip MacBook, for example — but it will let you do the basics.
There’s no word on price just yet but don’t expect it to be a bargain — 5G tech can still be quite expensive.
IdeaPad 5i Pro and IdeaPad 5 Pro
If you’re lamenting the lack of a 5G Lenovo in your life, you might take some solace from the other IdeaPads the company is launching at CES.
Lenovo is promising that the 5i Pro and 5 Pro will be the most powerful IdeaPad models ever. They’re both available with either 14-inch and 16-inch screens and both have 16:10 aspect ratios (making them slightly taller than conventional laptops) to aid in productivity.
The 5i Pro is powered by a choice of 11th Gen Intel Core processors and up to NVIDIA MX450 graphics. The 14-inch version has a 90Hz refresh rate screen and can achieve up to 400 nits of brightness. The 16-inch model, by contrast, has a 2.5K resolution display and an even faster 120Hz refresh rate. Faster refresh rates do take a greater toll on battery life but provide a far nicer viewing experience — they work brilliantly on phones and gaming laptops, so its good to see them trickling down to ultrabooks as well.
The 5 Pro, on the other hand, gets new AMD Ryzen chips and the same choice of graphics cards. You can also spec it up to include 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. The 14-inch version has a 2.8K display with a 90Hz refresh rate.
The 16-inch version, meanwhile, can include NVIDIA’s ray-tracing GPUs and up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, if you’re willing to pay for it. It also gets a 2.5K screen and a 120Hz refresh rate. All told, the 16-inch version looks like it could be a gaming laptop in a business suit.
The 16-inch IdeaPad 5 Pro will hit the shelves in May 2021, though we’re not sure when the other models will make their way to the US.
Lenovo Tab P11
Tablets seem to be a dying breed (iPads aside) but Lenovo is bringing a new convertible tablet to market with the Tab P11.
It has an 11-inch 2000×1200 display and comes running the fast (but not crazy fast) Snapdragon 662 processor and up to 6GB of RAM. Lenovo claims up to 15 hours of battery life – impressive considering that an iPad generally gives you around 12.
There’s also an optional keyboard and stylus (no word on pricing yet) but they should help make it more useful for note-taking and working.
It’s set to cost $300 when it goes on sale in mid-January.
Lenovo Yoga AIO 7
Finally, there’s a new all-in-one desktop PC. The Yoga AIO 7 comes with a 27-inch 4K Display with tiny bezels and a rotating hinge that allows you to orient the display vertically as well as horizontally.
You can upgrade it to include an AMD Ryzen 7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPUs. The AIO 7 also comes with Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant built-in.
