Lenovo Launches ThinkPad X1 Yoga At CES With OLED Display
by Brett Howse on January 3, 2016 10:33 PM EST
The ThinkPad Yoga has been around for some time, as a business focused version of the Yoga family, but Lenovo is launching the X1 Yoga today which takes the Yoga series to the next level. It is the first convertible device being launched with an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display. We’ve seen these displays predominately on smartphones, with the occasional tablet as well, but it’s now made its way to the laptop form factor.
Lenovo is using a Samsung OLED as the optional panel, and it’s a 14-inch 2560x1440 version. Samsung is the market leader in OLED technology, so it makes a lot of sense that they would turn to them for this display. The base device comes with a 1920x1080 IPS LCD, and there is also an optional 2560x1440 IPS LCD too, but the OLED should give a large gamut and of course the deep blacks that OLED is known for, along with infinite contrast. It is exciting to see that this technology is now making its way here.
The X1 Yoga also features an active stylus, which docks into the keyboard base. When docked, the pen charges, so keeping the stylus charged and available should be a breeze. Keeping with the tradition of the ThinkPad Yoga, the X1 Yoga’s spill-resistant keys and trackpoint retract into the base when the display is rotated around, to improve the ergonomics when used in tablet mode. Having the keys on the backside is generally one of the big drawbacks of these types of convertibles, but the ThinkPad line solves that little issue.
The laptop is powered by Skylake-U series processors, up to a Core i7 with vPro. You can get up to 16 GB of memory, and a 1 TB PCIe NVMe SSD as well. There are plenty of connections available, with three USB 3.0 ports and OneLine+ for Ethernet, along with mDP, HDMI, microSD, and optional 4G LTE, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X7 LTE modem. It also features WiGig wireless docking, as well as a Windows Hello compatible touch fingerprint reader.
The convertible weighs in at 1.27 kg / 2.8 lbs and is 16.7 mm / 0.66-inches thick.
The new X1 Yoga will be available starting in January, with the OLED model shipping around April. Prices start at $1449.
Source: Lenovo
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digiguy - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Not happening. 16:9 is not going anywhere any time soon, especially on bigger screens (14 inches and above)doogless - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
How long until there's burn-in from the taskbar?fokka - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
i heard even some galaxy s6 suffer from burn in on the notification bar after less than one year, so as cool a oled on a laptop sounds at first, it could have pretty much the same problem.wyewye - Tuesday, January 5, 2016 - link
Complete.Bull.Crap.Valantar - Tuesday, January 5, 2016 - link
I work in electronics retail, and the original Tab S demo units that we had (running a demo loop, not just the same home screen all the time) had horrible burn-in issues after less than a year. Text elements from the demo, home screen icons, and other semi-static content burnt in in pretty bad ways. This was with the units running the loop 24/7, though, so with running 8hr/day or something similar you'd probably get farther than that. But it will DEFINITELY happen.Even with this issue, this is an extremely tempting laptop. 1.27kg for a 14" convertible? That's lighter than my old X201. With pen support, U-series CPUs and loads of bells and whistles (including spill-resistance, hooray!), this looks sweet. Although the lack of Thunderbolt 3 is a serious bummer.
jjj - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Great, now it would be nice if someone had a trace of decency and stop faking pixels in OLED.Not that it matters for now it laptop at those prices.fokka - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
yep, i would hate for my gpu to have to crunch extra hard to render all those pixels (something like 3.6m instead of 2.1m at 1080p) and then throw 1/3 of the subpixels, and hence definition, out of the window.edzieba - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Dangit Lenovo, stop making nice things! This would make a great upgrade over my original Thinkpad Yoga, but that money is earmarked for VR equipment. Hopefully there OLED panel survives for the 2017 Thinkpad Yoga.shadarlo - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
What is this OneLine+ for Ethernet ?Valantar - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
It's a typo for OneLink+, Lenovo's wired docking solution (for laptops without bottom-mounted docks).