Another mainstay at CES is Lenovo, and the company’s 2016 offerings seem to reinforce the multiple platform solution philosophy but with an emphasis on flexibility. One size does not fit all, but that doesn’t mean a nice pair of leather shoes can’t be worn on casual Friday—at least in Lenovo’s perspective.
From business devices to midrange smartphones, Lenovo’s announcements at the big event cater to a lot of consumer needs and have listened to feedback regarding their previous-generation products. Here’s our shortlist of the things Lenovo has announced at CES 2016 that merit a second look.
The X1 Series
Lenovo’s X1 Series of devices offer a lot of flexibility for both office and personal needs. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet features a Core m7 processor for lag-free computing, with a few attachments to suit your needs. The Productivity Module extends the battery life by up to five hours and turns the tablet into an ultralight laptop thanks to a keyboard, while the Presenter Module comes with a battery pack and a pico projector. The 3D Imagine Module on the other hand, allows the capture, rendering, and processing of 3D images via the Intel RealSense camera, ready for 3D printing.
The ThinkPad X1 Yoga brings the twisty-bendy functionality of Lenovo’s Yoga series to an office laptop format with a few perks. It comes with a laptop-sized ThinkPad keyboard with the iconic TrackPoint button mouse that can be removed for dedicated tablet use. Its best feature has to be the OLED display for more design-heavy use, in addition to being armed with 16GB of RAM, 1TB storage, and an Intel Core i7 processor.
The ideapad Y900 Gaming Series
Gaming is set to be big in 2016, and Lenovo has an eye-catching offering for the gamer-on-the-go: the ideapad Y900 and Y900 RE. A part of the Yoga series of devices, the Y900 laptop features an overclocking button to boost processing, graphics, and memory. The ideapad Y900 RE (Razer Edition)’s backlit mechanical keyboard’s colors can be customized, and while it may be a little heavy, it’s loaded with goodies gamers will want to take a look at.
Under the hood is a Skylake mobile processor (depending on model) and an NVIDIA GTX 980 card. Users can boost their setup up to 512GB of SSD or a 1TB hybrid drive, and increase the on-board 8GB RAM up to 64GB. Wrap a 17.3-inch Full HD display on the Y900 and it becomes a competent competitor in the gaming laptop scene.
The VIBE S1 Lite
Lenovo’s midrange smartphone series gets a boost in the low-light photography department in the upcoming VIBE S1 Lite, which features a five-piece lens 8MP front shooter with a Sony imaging sensor plus a built-in flash and panorama function for great nighttime selfies or group shots. The rear camera has a 13MP PDAF sensor complete with dual LED CCT flash to get the lighting right for a round of food shots in dimly-lit restaurants.
Rounding out the VIBE S1 Lite are its 64-bit MediaTek 6753 octa-core 1.3GHz processor with LTE, 16GB of built-in memory expandable up to 32GB, and a 2,100mAh battery pack which might seem a little low for latest-gen smartphones, but Lenovo has a great track record of getting their power management just right.
