At Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona today, Lenovo unveiled a slew of new products. The Chinese company announced new two Windows 10 laptops, one Windows 10 “detachable,” two Android tablets, and an update to its global wireless roaming service Lenovo Connect.
Lenovo is the world’s biggest PC maker. The company also happens to own phone maker Motorola. While the company dominates in PCs, it’s also pushing “detachables” and tablets in an effort to see what sticks.
Windows 10
Microsoft’s Surface influence continues to make an impact on Lenovo’s latest laptops. Two are laptops with a tablet mode, and the third is a tablet with a laptop mode.
The Yoga 520 comes in 14-inch (1.5kg) and 15-inch (1.74kg) models. Both are powered by the latest 7th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, and offer hour 10-hours of battery life in FHD (1920×1080) resolution. The graphics card can be upgraded to the Nvidia GeForce 940MX. The 520 can be upgraded to include a fingerprint reader. In North America, this laptop is marketed as the Flex 5.
The Yoga 720 comes in 13-inch (1.3kg) and 15-inch (2kg) models. Both are powered by the latest seventh-generation Intel Core i7 processors, and offer hour 9-hours of battery life in FHD (1920×1080) resolution. The graphics card can be upgraded to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050. The 720 comes with a fingerprint reader built-in.
Like all other Yogas, the 520 and 720 can switch into four modes: laptop, stand, tent, and tablet. They also both offer optional active pen support for editing, note-taking, and sketching using Windows Ink. The Yoga 520 starts at €599 ($ 630 USD), with shipping starting in July 2017, while the Yoga 720 starts at €999 ($ 1,060 USD), with shipping starting in April.
The Miix 320 is a 2-in-1 10-inch tablet weighing 550g. It features optional 4G LTE, comes with a detachable keyboard, and provides up to 10 hours of battery life. It can be upgraded to 64GB eMMC of storage and 4GB DDR3L of memory.
The 320 starts at €269 ($ 285 USD) and will be available in April 2017.
Android
Lenovo has smartly decided not to launch any non-Moto smartphones at this year’s event, keeping the “Lenovo” brand tied to just tablets. The Tab 4 Series ships with Android 7.0 Nougat, so they’re definitely worth a look despite their dumb names.
The Tab 4 8 and Tab 4 10 feature HD displays, quad-core Qualcomm MSM8917 Snapdragon processors with Adreno 308 GPU, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. They also have front-facing dual-stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos moving audio.
The Tab 4 8 and Tab 4 10 start at €169 ($ 179 USD) and €179 ($ 189 USD), respectively. They ship in May.
The Tab 4 8 Plus and Tab 4 10 Plus are slightly higher end: FHD IPS screens, octa-core Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon processors with Adreno 506 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. They also have dual speakers and Dolby Atmos moving audio, a fingerprint reader, USB Type C, and Quick Charge 3.0.
The Tab 4 8 Plus and Tab 4 10 Plus start at €259 ($ 274 USD) and €299 ($ 316 USD), respectively. They ship in May.
Lenovo Connect
Lenovo Connect is a global wireless roaming service that works across devices, networks, and borders for customers in China, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The whole point of the service is to eliminate the need for a separate SIM card when you travel — instead it offers low-priced global roaming for companies and mobile professionals. Beginning this quarter, Lenovo will offer the technology on select Miix 320 detachables and plans to expand to Yoga convertibles later this year.
Final thoughts
Lenovo unveiled fewer devices at MWC this year. There’s still plenty of overlap here, but it’s much easier to digest: Pick an operating system and then pick a screen size.
