The screen is a 13.3-inch QXGA OLED panel, 4:3 aspect, running at 2048 x 1536 resolution.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen Lenovo’s foldable, though some things have changed since back in January and its CES 2020 debut.

So, the silicone bezel around the foldable display has been improved, with Lenovo claiming it’s now more durable. The kickstand angle has been adjusted, too, and the pen loop for the stylus is now on the keyboard accessory, not on the cover. The leather cover on the back is more durable now.

On the software side, Lenovo’s customizations for Windows 10 have been upgraded. There’s now a significant improvement in how the mode-switching operates, the company claims, as you switch between layouts and orientations. That’s including when you place on the optional Bluetooth keyboard, at which point the Fold recognizes that it has been attached and adjusts its use of the display accordingly.

The range starts out with an Intel Core i5 processor, with 8GB of memory and up to 1TB of PCIe-NVMe M.2 SSD storage. Connectivity includes one USB Type-C Gen 1, one USB Type-C Gen 2, and a SIM slot; there’s also WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, and optional embedded 5G (Sub-6 GHz).

There’s both a 5-megapixel webcam and an IR camera for Windows Hello, while the 50 Whr battery is good for up to 11 hours of use, Lenovo estimates. It’ll have a USB-C docking station for easier desktop use, too. As part of a launch offer Lenovo is throwing in a Bluetooth Mini Fold Keyboard and Active Pen for free.

The big question is just how people will actually use all this. Lenovo says that, while it’s a real ThinkPad, it’s also an experiment of sorts: this first-generation model will help the company figure out the right screen size for foldable, how much battery life and performance people will expect from them, and indeed just what demand there actually is for a product like this. As a result, it won’t be a high-volume device: Lenovo isn’t saying how many it’ll make, and it’s not officially a limited edition design, but “we are not making many,” according to Jerry Paradise, VP of Commercial Portfolio.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is up for pre-order now, priced from R69 999. It’ll be in stores sometime next year.

The Lenovo Smart Tab M10 offers the best of tablets and smart displays by combining a slim, portable slate with a large stand,which enables the popular hands-free ‘Show Mode’ experience from Alexa® when docked and charging in its Smart Dock. This model follows the company’s M8 tablet.

The tablet features a 10.3-inch Full HD display, a pair of side speakers with Dolby Atmos, up to 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, a 5000mAh battery, dual microphones, a variety of sensors (gyroscope, etc.), as well as an SD card slot and USB-C port. The model is powered by a MediaTek Helio P22T Tab octa-core processor and it comes with Android 9 out of the box.

The Lenovo Smart Tab M10 second-generation tablet will be available later this month with Alexa Built-in starting at R4999.

According to Lenovo’s guidance, “using disinfectant product containing alcohol (at least 70%) to wipe down your device with; ensure you leave your cleaning solution on your device for several minutes before wiping it off. This will give the solution enough time to ‘soak’ and effectively remove any existing germs from your device.” The guide makes specific note of bleach, too – don’t you DARE use bleach on your device.

Whenever there’s a note like this, where a product is mentioned specifically, it’s almost certainly there because Lenovo’s had to deal with people that’ve used bleach on their devices, then complained that their devices malfunctioned. It’d take a few times, too, they wouldn’t likely make a note like this if more than one person hand’t come to its support centre to see why their bleached Yoga Tab wouldn’t turn on.

“Don’t use bleach. Always read the directions to make sure you’re using the products as recommended to avoid damaging your sensitive electronic devices. Another solution would be to use wipe-able covers for your laptops and other electronic devices, as this will make the cleaning process much simpler and time-effective.”

The rest of Lenovo’s tips for cleaning your tech products are not brand new this week, but remain good advice nonetheless.

• Remove and debris (crumbs, dust particles etc) from your device by gently turning it upside down or using compressed air;
• Apply a cleaning agent* to a lint free towel or cloth;
• Wring excess liquid out of your towel/ cloth to avoid damage to your device;
• Thoroughly wipe down all surfaces of your device, and subsequently allow to dry for the specified time on the cleaning agent label;
• Wipe off any remaining residue or liquid from the surface of your device

That goes for all Lenovo products – and any other gadgets you might want to clean around the house, while we’re at it. Don’t get extra wild trying to make sure you don’t get COVID-19 (aka novel coronavirus) by bleaching your entire collection of mobile devices. Bleach won’t do what you want – it’ll wreck everything.

The newly unveiled 10th-gen Intel Core H-Series processors promise better performance over its older hardware — when playing Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1080p, for example, the Core i9-1098HK offers a 54-percent FPS boost compared to the older Core i7-7820HK.

The newly unveiled Intel offerings include the Core i9 up to 5.3GHz, the Core i7 up to 5.1GHz, and the Core i5 with up to 4.5GHz. There’s also the new Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0, integrated WiFi 6 AX201 Gig+, and Speed Optimizer. Ultimately, Intel says its Core i9 processor can offer ‘desktop caliber performance’ in a portable machine.

Lenovo’s next-generation gaming laptops will offer these new 10th-generation Intel H-Series processors; the Legion 7i model will sport the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU with Max-Q design and the Legion 5i model will offer up to the NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU. Both models will also pack support for NVIDIA G-SYNC and will be the first to offer NVIDIA Advanced Optimus tech.

According to Lenovo, the Advanced Optimus technology works to improve battery efficiency by dynamically detecting GPU workloads and connect the iGPU for less demanding processes or the NVIDIA GPU for more demanding work. Put simply, this tech helps boost battery life by lowering the energy demand when light tasks are performed.

Lenovo isn’t providing all of the details on its new lineup of gaming laptops — we’ll have to wait until later this month for the full specs. We did get a look at each model’s design, however, revealing an aesthetic similar to the current-generation Legion gaming laptops. Once these models hit the market, consumers can expect to get the Legion 5i for starting at R17 979.00 99 and the Legion 7i for starting at $1,199.

Both laptops are designed to meet the needs of SMBs, offering up to 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors as well as long battery life, rapid charging support, privacy and security features, and more.

The ThinkBook 14 and 15 laptops feature aluminium materials, a stylish design that maintains a professional appearance while deviating from the common ThinkPad aesthetic, as well as a smart power button with a built-in fingerprint sensor, ThinkShutter webcam privacy cover, a hidden USB port, hotkeys for Skype for Business, and a USB-C Gen2 port.

ThinkBook 14

The ThinkBook 14 is offered with up to the 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors, 4GB DDR4 Intel Optane memory, up to 1TB SSD storage and a 2TB HDD dual drive, and an optional backlit keyboard. In addition to the aforementioned smart power button, ThinkShutter, and Skype hotkeys, the ThinkBook 14 offers up to 12 hours of battery life with a 57Wh battery — or, alternatively, users can get a 45Wh battery with Rapid Charge support.

As the name suggests, this model features a 14-inch display with a Full HD resolution and 6mm bezels. The ThinkBook 14 is available starting at R16 299

ThinkBook 15

The ThinkBook 15 is similar to its smaller counterpart, offering a 15-inch Full HD display with 7mm bezels, up to the 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors, up to a 1TB SSD plus 2TB HDD dual drive, and 4GB DDR4 Intel Optane memory.

As with the other model, the ThinkBook 15 features up to 12 hours of battery life with a 57Wh battery or Rapid Charge with a 45Wh battery, an optional backlit keyboard with Skype for Business hotkeys, the smart power button with a fingerprint sensor, ThinkShutter privacy cover, plus there’s a numpad on the keyboard.

The ThinkBook 15 is available starting at R12 499.

On the ThinkBook 13s, users can use hot keys to answer or hang up when making Skype calls. Music can be played while the system is still in standby mode, resuming to full working capacity in less than 0.5 seconds. Its pricing starts at R14 999

First Impressions Count

The Lenovo YOGA 900 is one of the more beautiful YOGA products, and while it brings with it the best elements from the lineup (that is, the flexibility), it offers quite a bit more. The design is at the same time simple but elegant, featuring a metal exterior shell hiding a soft, somewhat leather-like material on the interior wrist rests. The lid features both “Lenovo” and “YOGA” branding, with the “Lenovo” logo very subtly placed and the “YOGA” logo very prominently positioned in shiny chrome near the top.

The laptop is, speaking of the overall design, very thin and lightweight, and the watchband hinge complements the thinness by serving as a seemingly seamless connection between the display and lower portion. When looked at from a profile position, the laptop looks like a single unit that happens to be extraordinarily flexible in the middle.

Greatly complementing the design is the material used around the keyboard — it is textured and feels like a slightly softer version of a Moleskine cover. The keys, meanwhile, are plastic and shallow and produce very little noise when typing. Rounding it all out are the edge pieces where the ports lie; these are distinctly plastic and have a more pronounced texture with a dot-matrix pattern.

As with other YOGA laptops, the hinge allows the display to be positioned at a variety of angles, including completely flat or folded all the way back into a tablet mode. Lenovo calls these positions laptop, tent, stand, and tablet modes, and they come in handy during times you’re watching movies or using a stylus.

The last element, the trackpad, sports the same style we’ve seen on some other recent YOGA laptops — it has shiny chrome trim around an otherwise smooth and button-less surface. A short and thin red line marks the centermost portion of the bottom edge, separating the two halves

The laptop’s lid can be opened and closed easily using one hand, and it features Auto Lock to stay in place at whatever angle it is positioned. Lenovo offers a few different colors, including the Clementine Orange one shown below, and the more subtle Platinum Silver and Champagne Gold.

In Use

The Lenovo YOGA 900 comes pre-installed with several Lenovo applications: Lenovo Companion 3.0, Photo Master, SHAREit, REACHit, and OneKey Recovery. The system is also loaded with McAfee LiveSafe antivirus, as is common with the maker’s laptops. It is possible to uninstall McAfee if you don’t want it.

As far as benchmarks go, we got expected and fairly substantial results from Geekbench. Our particular system runs an Intel Core i7-6500U 2.50GHz/2.59Ghz processor, which is of course on the highest end of things; those who go with less powerful hardware options will get lesser results. Performance was solid, however, with the laptop doing everything we expected it to, and without hiccups. You can compare the benchmarks to other laptops by checking out our Laptop Reviews portal!

In Closing

Those who have only ever used Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops and find them bland will find the YOGA 900 is an entirely different beast, one that is unashamed of its luxurious design elements but able to carry them without pretension. The laptop is, from a purely utilitarian standpoint, entirely suitable for most users’ needs.

Few people care solely about a device’s utility, though, wanting a design that matches their personality or draws attention. The YOGA 900 meets both those needs, and does so with a design unlike any other thanks to the watchband hinge.

Price for the 13-inch Yoga 900 starts at R29 999 

Starting with the ones intended for everyday consumers, the Yoga 3 11 replaces – you guessed it – the Yoga 2 11, while the Yoga 3 14 is actually a substitute for last year’s 13-inch model. Though the two have a similar design, complete with a bright orange color option, the performance is going to differ from one to the other. Whereas the 14-inch version runs on Intel’s fifth-generation Core processors and can be configured with discrete graphics, the 11-incher makes use of a lower-powered Intel Core M chip, allowing for a thinner and lighter build — just 1.20 kgs and 0.6 inch thick (down from 1.60 kgs/0.67 inch)

Meanwhile, though the 14-inch version technically rocks a larger screen than its predecessor, it has roughly the same footprint and nearly the same weight: 1.60 kgs. Either way, both new machines come standard with a 1080p touchscreen and 802.11ac WiFi, and can be configured with up to 8GB of RAM and either an SSD (128/256GB) or a 500GB hybrid hard drive. Look for them this month, starting at roughly R24999 at Incredible Connection stores.

Then there’s the Yoga Tablet. As of Tuesday, the lineup includes both Android and Windows tablets, mostly in the 8- and 10-inch range. Now, though, Lenovo is blurring the lines: Its new 13-inch Yoga Tablet 2 is the same size as its ultraportable laptops, except it has a kickstand that folds out of the back, and the optional keyboard doesn’t attach to the device. Pricing on the models is TBC.

For starters, it’s got a 1,920 x 1,200 screen, a quad-core 1.6GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, 2GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel front camera. Those are all big steps up from the previous model’s 1,280 x 800 screen, 1.2GHz MediaTek processor 1GB RAM and 5-megapixel camera. Meanwhile, the new Yoga has retained its rather monstrous 9,000mAh battery, meaning it still has an impressive 18 hours of battery life, according to Lenovo. The Yoga 10 HD+ is set to retail for R4599 at your usual retailers.

Unlike its namesake Windows laptop, which reveals no obvious signs of its differentiation at first glance, the Yoga Tablet has a silver, cylindrical side that is reminiscent of extended laptop batteries. Indeed, it contains the battery here as well as making for a grip that is at first unfamiliar, but which allows the rest of the tablet to be very thin.

To preserve the versatility behind the name, Lenovo had to get creative in its marketing of the Yoga Tablet, which includes among its three usage scenarios “hold mode” (the tablet-equivalent default of “laptop mode”), “tilt mode” (lying flat at a slight angle well-suited for typing) and “stand mode.” The latter requires extending out the device’s kickstand, in similar fashion to Microsoft’s Surface.

On the topic of Android, Lenovo also unveiled ”Zuzu,” Africa’s first Android statue, to commemorate the launch of the Yoga Tablet and Lenovo’s most recent line of Android tablets in the continent.

Before you get up in arms over its pricing and availability, Lenovo just confirmed this morning that the Yoga 10 will be starting at R3,699 for 8-inch model and R4,499 for 10-inch model at Incredible Connection, Makro and selected HiFi Corp stores nationwide. Our Hands-on with the device will soon follow