Back in February, Lenovo Philippines was kind enough to invite me to the launch of their Z series laptops. They weren’t touch-optimized at the time, but they did promise that a touch-optimized Windows 8 lineup would be hitting our shores pretty soon. Well, about a week ago, that promise came true and I can tell you that there’s at least one of them that have me drooling right now: The 11.6 inch Lenovo Yoga 11s.
Yoga 11S
The Lenovo Yoga 11s sports a respectable 11.6 inch HD IPS touchscreen with 10-point multitouch and is powered by a 3rd generation Intel Core i3 processor. Sounds like a proper Windows 8 touchscreen laptop, right? Well, that’s not all to it because it’s also a Yoga series convertible.
The Yoga 11s shares the same innovative design as the Yoga 13 and Yoga 11 before it. Because of its redesigned hinge, you can open it from a closed clam shell and into laptop mode for productivity, push the screen way beyond 270 degrees and into stand or tent mode, or just complete the 360 degrees and use the Yoga 11s as a tablet. It’s the simplest and most innovative convertible design I’ve seen yet. It’s physically smaller than the Yoga 13 so you’ll surely be using it more often in tablet mode, and it runs Windows 8 instead of Windows RT like the Yoga 11, meaning it’s a proper productivity machine. I WANT THIS.
There are also some neat Lenovo-only features such as Motion Control, which lets you browse through photo galleries, video or documents by swiping your hand in front of the webcam. You can even open various applications like PowerPoint even when the Yoga 11s is in stand, tent or tablet mode with the help of Lenovo Transition.
To top it all off, the Lenovo Yoga 11s will be available in Clementine Orange and will feature the same rubber paint finish and soft-touch exterior as the Yoga 13. The Yoga 11s will hit shelves in the second week of June with an SRP of Php44,995.
IdeaPad S and Z Touch Series Laptops
In addition to the Yoga 11s, Lenovo launched the IdeaPad S210 Touch, Z400 Touch and S400 Touch, all of which are touch-optimized laptops if you didn’t get that from the name.
IdeaPad S210 Touch
The IdeaPad S210 Touch is a compact laptop with an 11.6 inch HD touchscreen with 10-point multitouch. The base configuration consists of 4Gb of RAM and a 500Gb HDD/SDD and graphics are handled by a Unified Architecture GPU that is supposed to enhance the S210 Touch’s speed when it comes to data processing. The IdeaPad S210 can be outfitted with up to a 3rd generation Intel Core i3 Ivy Bridge ULV processor and will be priced at Php21,995.
IdeaPad Z400 and S400 Touch
I’m actually already familiar with the non-touch version of the IdeaPad Z400. The Z400 and S400 Touch are pretty similar when it comes to specs, both featuring 14 inch HD displays, VeriFace face recognition technology for enhanced login security and OneKey Rescue System for a no-brainer backup and recovery. The IdeaPad Z400 Touch is already available in stores with an SRP of Php34,995 for the Core i3 variant and Php39,995 for the Core i5 variant. Meanwhile the IdeaPad S400 Touch should be available in mid-June at Php27,995 and 32,995 for the Core i3 and Core i5 variants respectively.
Touch-optimized Desktops
IdeaCentre B540
There was actually another thing that wowed me at Lenovo’s product launch last week of its touch-optimized 2013 lineup. The IdeaCentre B540 is one mother of an AiO that is just begging to find its way into my room as my personal multimedia center. Boy would I have loved to quickly be able to switch from work to play by just staying on a single PC cum media center. You’re getting a 23 inch Full HD widescreen display with support for state of the art 3D vision and multitouch technologies, a built in TV tuner, and a Blu-ray RAMBO drive.
That’s all on top of up to a 3rd generation Intel Core i5 processor, up to a 1Gb Nvidia GeForce 615 GPU, 8Gb RAM and up to a 2Tb hard drive. Other specs include an HD high-sense webcam, HDMI output, a USB 3.0 port, an internal power adapter that makes cable management that much easier and quick access to the B540’s hard drive and memory so they can easily be upgraded. I cry myself to sleep knowing I can’t afford its Php54,900 price tag.
Lenovo C440
Last but not least, there’s the Lenovo C440 desktop. While it’s not as beefy as the IdeaCentre B540, it’s much sleeker and saves much more space on top of your desk. It sports a 21.5 inch touchscreen, a RAMBO drive, stereo speakers, a 6 in 1 card reader and the option to have HDMI output. The C440 also comes with neat software for its webcam, allowing you to enhance pictures, auto zoom on faces and add effects for a fun and interactive online experience. If you’re looking for a family-friendly PC, the C440 is it, and it even comes with a child-friendly software suite that includes 9 interactive applications that your kids can play around with.Want it? It’s yours for Php31,990 and Php37,990 for the Pentium Dual Core and Core i3 variants respectively.
Where would the 11s be available here in Manila? Any word on payment schemes?:)