Lenovo Announces New Lunar Lake, Zen 5, and Snapdragon PCs

Ahead of IFA, Lenovo announced a sweeping set of updates across all its major commercial and consumer PC brands that include processors from all three silicon makers. As interesting, the world’s bigger PC maker also highlighted a ThinkBook “Auto Twist” concept PC that could influence future designs.

Plus: Check out my photo slideshow and a video from a pre-IFA Lenovo event.

“Our latest AI PC innovations represent a significant leap forward in making technology more personalized, productive and protected for our customers,” Lenovo executive director Tom Butler said. “By combining cutting-edge AI technology with more sustainable designs and user-centric features, we are not only aiming to lead the market but to redefine what’s possible in the AI era.”

Lenovo announced new ThinkPad and ThinkBook products for businesses and new Yoga and IdeaPad products for consumers. Most interesting, to me, is that some of them are available with your choice of each of the three major PC processor architectures, including AMD Zen 5, Intel Core Ultras Series 2, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X. Lenovo’s ThinkBook Auto Twist prototype drew some oohs and aahs from the bloggers and YouTubers who attended the company’s pre-IFA press briefing. And thanks to a partnership with Intel, new Aura-branded Lenovo PCs will deliver new software experiences like Smart Modes, Smart Share, and Smart Care.

Here’s a rundown of the announcements.

ThinkBook Auto Twist AI PC proof of concept. While it looks like an OG Tablet PC at first, with its round, centered display hinge, the ThinkBook Auto Twist AI PC tracks its user so that it can rotate the display to face them at all times. It also supports natural language commands–like “open laptop,” “close laptop,” and “tablet mode”–and will auto-close the display and lock the PC when you walk away. Some of this was a little hokey, of course–it’s not clear that opening a display lid with your voice is optimal for most users–but there are fun extra features, too, like the ability to take a panorama shot in which the display auto-rotates to take each of the required shots in turn.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition. The next-generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon is one of two Lenovo PCs to pick up the Aura branding in partnership with Intel. In addition to its unique Aura features (noted below), the new X1 Carbon is thinner and lighter than ever, runs on Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors, provides 18 hours of battery life, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth, and optional 5G connectivity, and has the expected range of modern and legacy ports. It starts shipping in November at $1999 and up.

ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (AMD). I just reviewed the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 in Snapdragon X Elite form, and this version is physically identical, but with an AMD Ryzen AI chip and integrated Radeon 800M graphics. It offers 300 nit and 400 nit display choices at Full HD+ (1920 x 1200)/16:10, Wi-Fi 7, 5G, and up to 64 GB of RAM. Battery life is 17 hours. It starts shipping in October at $1699 and up.

ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 and 7+. These two laptops are powered by Snapdragon Plus 8-core and Ryzen AI 9 365/Radeon 880M processors, respectively, but are otherwise identical. They feature 16-inch 3.2K displays with notable 91 percent screen to body ratios, Dolby Atmos, and, in a nice touch, a large set of arrow keys that extend below the rest of the keyboard. The Snapdragon version offers multi-day battery life, while the AMD version is rated at 17 hours of battery life. The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 arrives in October and will start at $749. The Gen 7+ is coming to the EMEA in October at €999 and up.

Yoga Pro 7. Powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, the Yoga Pro 7 offers a mix of legacy and modern ports, X Power software acceleration, X Power hardware boost, a soft-touch keyboard, a 14.5-inch 2.8K PureSight OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 600 nits of brightness. The Yoga Pro 7 will ship in the EMEA in September at €1699 and up.

Yoga Slim 7i Gen 9 Aura Edition. This is the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 version of what is widely believed to be the best Snapdragon X laptop. It features the Aura software suite, of course (see below), a 15-inch display, up to 32 GB of RAM, up to 1 TB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and two months of Adobe Creative Cloud. It ships September, with prices starting $1299.

IdeaPad Slim 5 13 and IdeaPad Slim 5 15. The IdeaPad 5 series is powered by AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, offer up to 32 GB of RAM in the 15 and 16 GB in the 13, and come in a silk aluminum finish. They offer a range of modern and legacy ports, Full HD webcams, and are a good value with low starting prices: The Slim 5 13 comes to EMEA October 2024 starting at €699, and the Slim 5 15 comes to EMEA in October 2024 starting at €699.

IdeaPad Slim 5x 2-in-1 and IdeaPad Slim 5x 14. Powered by a Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor, this PC is offered in traditional laptop and 2-in-1 form factors, each of which features a 14-inch 16:10 OLED display, 16 GB of RAM, and up to 1 TB of TLC SSD storage. It has a range of modern and legacy ports, a microSD card reader, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. It’s coming to the EMEA in September 2024 with prices starting at €849/899.

Aura software experiences. Lenovo partnered with Intel to deliver new Aura experiences to specially branded PCs. These include Smart Modes with a dedicate key so you can enable any combination of Attention Mode, Wellness Mode, Collaboration Mode, and or Shield More, an intriguing Smart Share feature that builds on Intel Unison to provide phone/PC integration that launches when you tap the PC with your iPhone or Android phone, and Smart Care, a dedicated concierge-style support offering with human technicians via phone or PC.