Cashing in on the Ultrabook excitement at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Lenovo rolled out four of its own slimmed-down models, including one geared specifically for the enterprise.
Lenovo, which released its first Ultrabook -- the U300S -- last October, worked on filling out its Ultrabook offerings at CES this week. "Ultrabooks" is Intel's trademarked term for a thin, lightweight, fast-boot laptop similar to Apple's MacBook Air.
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On Monday, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman and CEO, unveiled the IdeaPad Yoga, the company's hybrid Ultrabook that can be flipped around to look like a tablet computer. Lenovo followed that news by releasing three more Ultrabooks: the IdeaPad U310, a 13-inch Ultrabook, the IdeaPad U410, a 14-inch machine, and for enterprises, the ThinkPad T430U.
The new Ultrabook ThinkPad T430U, which has a starting price of $849, comes with Windows 7, has a 14-inch screen, weighs 3.9 pounds and is around 0.8 inch thick. It can store up to a terabyte of data and comes with an Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processor. It is scheduled to launch worldwide in the second half of the year.
Ashley Perry, a Lenovo ambassador, said the ThinkPad T430U is built for the traveling corporate worker who needs a powerful and durable machine.
Meanwhile, the hybrid IdeaPad Yoga is getting most of the attention at CES, Perry said. The IdeaPad Yoga is built to function as a laptop when it's opened in a typical laptop position, but the screen can fold all the way back so the machine looks like a tablet. It also can sit in either a tented position or a stand position where the keyboard becomes the base and the screen sits upright.
The hybrid machine, which also is expected to ship worldwide in the second half of 2012, has a 13.3-inch screen, weighs 3.4 pounds, and at 17 mm, is just over a half-inch thick. Perry said the Yoga will come with an Intel Core i7 processor but may also come in versions with an i3 and an i5 processor.
Lenovo is targeting a starting price for the Yoga of $1,000 to $1,200, according to Perry, who added that the machine is expected to ship with Windows 8, but could ship with Windows 7.
The IdeaPad Yoga also has 10-finger-touch capability. "You have games where you need multiple points of touch," said Perry. "You could use any app that accepts touch like this -- piano, air hockey."
This story, "A closer look at Lenovo's enterprise and hybrid Ultrabooks" was originally published by Computerworld.