Lenovo at CES 2019: ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gets Thinner Aluminum Body, 4K HDR LCD
by Anton Shilov on January 11, 2019 8:00 AM EST
Lenovo has announced its fourth generation ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible laptop. The new notebook will come in thinner all-aluminum chassis and will also get lighter than ever when it hits the market several months down the road. In addition, the new ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertibles will be offered with the same display options as the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which means a 4K Dolby Vision-supporting LCD panel in case of the range-topping SKUs.
Despite being a part of the ThinkPad X1 product family, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon clamshell and ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible have always had many differences when it came to design and dimensions. To a large degree this happened because Lenovo wanted to build MILSPEC-graded convertibles and offer some extra graphics performance with its 1st Gen and 2nd Gen ThinkPad X1 Yoga laptops. Last year Lenovo decided to cease using Intel’s processors with Iris Pro Graphics for its ThinkPad X1 Yoga notebooks and thus ended up using the same platform both for clamshell and convertible ThinkPad X1 machines. This year the company switches to usage of CNC-machined aluminum chassis for its ThinkPad X1 Yoga, which enables it to make the system considerably more compact and bring it closer to carbon fiber-based ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
The 2019 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga comes in an enclosure that is 15.2 mm thick (down from 17.05 mm) and weighs 1.35 kilograms (2.99 lbs). Because of thinner display bezels, the new convertible 4th Gen ThinkPad X1 Yoga is 17% smaller than its 3rd Gen predecessor, Lenovo says. The chassis are MILSPEC-graded and has passed all the tests that Lenovo puts its ThinkPad X1 laptops through to ensure their maximum durability. The company claims that it was particularly challenging to design an aluminum enclosure this strong and light because aluminum has to be thick to retain its strength.
When it comes to internal hardware, the new ThinkPad X1 Yoga will be powered by Intel’s 8th Gen Core i5/i7 processors (think Whiskey Lake) accompanied by 8 or 16 GB of DRAM and a PCIe SSD featuring an up to 2 TB capacity. As for connectivity, the new convertible features Wi-Fi + Bluetooth featuring an improved antenna design, an optional 4G/LTE-A Cat16 modem, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, USB 3.0 Type-A connectors, GbE with a dongle, an HDMI output, a TRRS audio connector, etc. Multimedia capabilities of the new X1 Yoga are also similar to those of X1 Carbon: the convertible has Dolby Atmos-badged speaker system, multiple far-field microphones, and a 720p webcam with or without IR sensors that can be covered using Lenovo's ThinkShutter. Besides, it is important to note that the new X1 Yoga supports all docking solutions, including Lenovo’s ThinkPad Mechanical Dock.
Last but not least, display options. The manufacturer will offer its premium 14-inch 10-bit Ultra-HD display panel with a 500 nits brightness and Dolby Vision HDR support with advanced SKUs, other systems will come a Full-HD panel featuring a 400 nits brightness and the ThinkPad Privacy Guard, whereas entry-level models will be equipped with a Full-HD panels featuring a 300 nits brightness.
Just like its ThinkPad X1 Carbon brother, the 4th Gen ThinkPad X1 Yoga is half a year away and will hit the market only sometimes in June, 2019. Starting price of the convertible laptop will be $1,929.
Related Reading:
- Lenovo Unveils New ThinkPad X1 Carbon, X1 Yoga Laptops: 8th Gen Core, Dolby Vision HDR
- Lenovo Reveals Yoga C930 Convertible: 13.9-Inch LCD with Dolby Vision, 8th Gen Core i7
- Lenovo Launches Yoga 920 Convertible: 13.9” 4K LCD, 8th Gen Core i7, TB3, 3 Pounds
- The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review: OLED and LCD Tested
Sources: Lenovo, Tom’s Hardware
Images by Tom’s Hardware
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brakdoo - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
Is anybody in the world using touch on a 14 inch laptop? Some marketing gags are going too far.Findecanor - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
Yeah, I'm trying to _avoid_ touching the screen so that it doesn't get smudged.MattMe - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
I found it useful sometimes for collaborative working or talking someone through some documentation, that type of thing. Swiping and zooming etc is nice and seems intuitive. But as a feature for most day-to-day activities, it's not very useful and the reflective screens on all this touch displays are unusable in any office environment I've worked in.Valantar - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
A 14" pen display is a very nice thing to have. After getting my 13" Dell Latitude 7390 2-in-1 last week (finally! Thanks to Intel's production issues, I've waited more than four months for this), I can't ever imagine going back to a non-pen-enabled laptop for work. So far I've used it for note taking, lectures, presentations and document markup, all of which are a significant portion of my job, and the flexibility this affords in use of the laptop is amazing. Definitely not a gimmick. And if my university didn't have an exclusive supply deal with Dell, the X1 Yoga would have been at the top of my list. An extra inch of screen real estate would definitely not bother me, at least not at the same weight.Prestissimo - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
You have no idea. Fluid assimilation into your workflow does take constant exploring and customizing programs and their features, but there is absolutely no turning back. My first 2 in 1 was an Asus Transformer, then Lenovo Yoga 3, HP Spectre x360 13 with the first pen and finally Thinkpad X1 Yoga 2nd gen with OLED, each one better than the last.There are lots of tweaking involved on both hardware and software level. From finding what screen protector and pen works for you to setting up programs like Chrome and PotPlayer to work with touchscreen, customizing macro gestures with GestureSign, learning big, complex programs like OnteNote and Sketch. I prefer convertibles to detachables, but the whole 2 in 1 concept has been a major game change in my life.
Biggest hindrance is of course, Microsoft's lack of native support for 2 in 1s even when Surface line is their best selling PCs. Compared to IOS especially the experience is, well, not enjoyable, but still a lot more productive and faster.
BigDragon - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
Yes. I use touch all the time when using a 2-in-1 as a digital whiteboard or when doing creative things like drawing and sculpting. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga isn't powerful enough to appeal to me though. I'm using its beefy ancestor -- the 15" Yoga 720.jbwhite99 - Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - link
I've got a 13" Yoga 2, and just got a 1st Gen X1 Yoga for work. I don't use touch all of the time, but I consider it better than the so-so touchpad on the Yoga 2 - I missed not having a Trackpoint, and I just realized after I'd had it a day or so - just touch the screen, dummy! It is easy to unlock - just touch the screen and swipe up. Running Win 7 on this would be terrible, but 8 or 10 (10 is better) gives it a good environment to work with.fire400 - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
running TPX1-Gen1 on w8.1, limited telemetry, limited bloatware and interface-unlocking OS compared to w10, and without two season system upgrades each year? w10 is good, too, but it's not superior to w8.1; w10 is a step backwards in terms of strip-down hardening for enthusiasts.cosmotic - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
Real dongle free Ethernet or a multi use port instead, pleasejbwhite99 - Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - link
You can be too portly (ie have a real Ethernet port) or be too thin - you can't be both.