IFA in Berlin hasn’t officially started yet, but so much news has come out of the pre-show already that it’s like Geek Christmas. Let’s keep the good times rolling with Lenovo, which has taken all the new
that Intel announced this week and turned it into some very sleek portable PCs. All of these new models are freshly announced today at the company’s own Innovation World event inside the show.
Of course, we’re at IFA, and so we’ve been able to take a peek at these notebooks for ourselves at a pre-announcement event. Before we get too deep into what’s been announced, be sure to check out the hands-on video, hot off the presses here:
Lenovo announced a whole series of laptops that span across the ThinkPad and Yoga ranges, dubbed Aura Edition. These portables represent a multi-year collaboration with Intel that stuffs the newest Lunar Lake x86 chips into 14″ notebooks that weigh less than one kilogram (that’s sub-2.2 pounds for those of us in the USA). Aura Edition laptops are filled to the brim with AI-enhanced capabilities that the two companies co-developed, so let’s take a look at those.
Smart Modes are meant to adapt to user needs. Those modes include:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Yoga 7i Aura Edition Notebooks
The flagship Aura Edition notebook is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition. This line is a perennial favorite ultraportable notebook among HotHardware editors, and the newest version packs in all the latest tech from Intel and Lenovo. This is one of the first x86 Copilot+ PCs, as Lunar Lake-based Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors are here complete with their much faster NPUs and new Arc Xe2 graphics. This system features a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with Dolby Vision certification and a 120Hz refresh rate. Lenovo says it should run for 18 hours on its 59Wh battery. That sounds like a great combination to us, and we’re eager to get our hands on it.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition got a redesign, as well. The weight starts at less than 1kg, which would make it the lightest of Lenovo’s lightweight ThinkPad X1 Carbon family. In an effort to increase its eco-friendlieness, Lenovo designed the battery to be a user-replaceable unit and the materials include recycled magnesium and 100% plastic-free packaging.
Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i 15″ Gen 9 also gets the Aura Edition treatment with all of the same smart options as the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It’s also sporting the same Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors. However, the Yoga series is all about a 2-in-1 design with a 360-degree folding lid that focuses on portability. It’s also got a larger 70Wh battery compared to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
Both of these notebooks include 1TB of SSD storage and up to 32GB of LPDDR5 memory. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura edition starts at $1,999 and will be available starting in November. Meanwhile, the Yoga 7i 15″ Gen 9 Aura Edition will be available later this month, starting at $1,299.
Lenovo has AMD-powered ThinkPads on the way, too.
Lenovo’s AMD Notebooks Get A Zen 5 Boost
Intel isn’t getting all the love, however. Lenovo has several new AMD-based notebooks as well, that feature the latest Ryzen AI processors from the red team. The Zen 5-based CPUs include AMD PRO enterprise-level management firmware, RDNA Radeon graphics, and of course AMD’s own NPU for AI acceleration. These PCs also support Copilot+..
The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD is a Ryzen-powered version of the ThinkPad T14s that was announced back in June. That previous model has a Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 Elite processor, but this one has AMD’s Ryzen AI PRO processors on board. Just like the Arm64 version, this notebook has a redesigned thermal solution with a rear exhaust vent, a 16:10 1920×1200 display, and Wi-Fi 7.
However, the AMD version should last 17 hours on its battery, and can be equipped with upwards of 64GB of LPDDR5x dual-channel memory, which should be good for performance with both the NPU and the integrated Radeon integrated graphics, the model of which depends on which CPU is installed. The ThinkPad T14s also features Dolby Atmos certification, a 58Whr battery, and a starting weight of just 2.86 lbs. This ThinkPad will be available in the US in October with a starting price of $1,699.
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14″ Gen 9 also has the latest Zen 5 processors on board and can be equipped with up to a Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU. This one also boasts a 14.5″ PureSight Pro OLED display with a 2.8K resolution, 120Hz display, and 600 nits of peak brightness. It should be great out of the box for photographers and videographers with 100% reproduction of Adobe’s RGB and DCI-P3 color spaces with a factory calibration with a DeltaE of less than 1. It will be available in September in Europe starting at €1,699.
Lenovo’s Proof-of-Concept Auto-Twists to Follow You
One other interesting device isn’t quite ready for prime time just yet. Lenovo showed off its Auto Twist AI PC Proof of Concept design, which adds motorized, voice-activated functionality to the ThinkBook Twist introduced at last year’s CES. The system can automatically turn its display to keep track of the user in order to keep them front-and-center during a presentation. It also has voice-activated commands that switch to laptop or tablet mode and close the lid. The Auto Twist AI PC can also close its lid when you leave it unattended. We got to play with the concept PC hands-on in Berlin, and captured the experience on video.
As you can see, it’s definitely not perfect yet. The laptop couldn’t quite perform every time, and it’s obvious that Lenovo has some work to do yet in order to get it into a state that consumers might actually want to buy it. Still, it’s really great to see some innovation in this space and a practical way to put AI to work for users. We’ll watch this one with interst.
While this is everything new and shiny from Lenovo at IFA, the show in Berlin is just starting to heat up. You can be sure we’ll have more of the latest announcements from the show, so stay tuned to HotHardware for the latest.
