Lenovo always comes to CES prepared with a roster of heavy-hitting announcements, and this year is no exception. With ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ThinkPad X1 Yoga updates, some seriously big monitors, and a few amazing accessories to round things out; let’s dive in!
Up first are the new Thinkpads for 2019. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is made from woven carbon fiber finish, comes in at under 2.5lbs, and yet still manages to include Dolby Atmos speakers and a Dolby Vision FHD screen. It will be rocking a 14″ screen, and Lenovo points out it has a “full range of ports” — which has to be a (fair) dig at a certain fruit-themed computer maker that’s intent on killing all their ports. Look for the X1 Carbon in June of 2019 starting at $1,709.
Meanwhile, the flexible and popular ThinkPad X1 Yoga has some new style for 2019. They’ve shaved the bezels down, cut the overall footprint by 17%, and added an Iron Grey color. The Yoga will also have an aluminum chassis, and it continues to offer that amazing hinge that lets it flip into tent mode, tablet mode, and regular mode. No word on whether it has fully mastered downward facing dog yet though. X1 Yoga should ship in June of 2019, and it starts at $1,929.
Over on the monitor side, Lenovo has the ThinkVision P44W. It’s a 43.4″ borderless business monitor, and I desperately want one — just looking at the pictures makes my dual monitor setup seem sad. Unfortunately for me, I don’t get to choose my office equipment. But if you have buying power and a healthy budget, this looks like an amazing monitor. It has a detachable Harman Kardon speaker, a hidden USB hub, USB-C, and the option of Picture By Picture (two images side by side) or Picture In Picture if that’s more your style. Better save your pennies because that kind of immense monitor comes at a price — it will be available in April for $1,299.
You never know when you’re on the go and need to do a web conference, so Lenovo has you covered there with a VoIP 360 Camera Speaker. It offers noise cancellation and suppression, a 360-degree camera (don’t nod off during your meeting, it will see it), and it supports Skype, Webex, Google Hangout, and QQ. Look for these for $249 in March 2019.
It’s apparently some sort of unspoken law that everyone must make a Bluetooth speaker, and Lenovo at least made their 700 Ultraportable Bluetooth Speaker interesting by slicing it down to almost nothing. They’re calling it the “world’s thinnest” speaker, and at only 5.1oz and 0.43″ thick, that sounds about right. It also comes with Alexa and Google Assistant, plus it is splash proof and can provide up to 8 hours of music. That’s pretty cool for something so thin! Be ready to rock out this April for $149.99.
Finally, while not as exciting, Lenovo also has a travel-sized Powered USB-C Hub. This way you can charge your speaker and webcam all while plugged into a giant monitor with your computer doing yoga in the corner. If you’re cursing life and wishing for more USB space, this should be available in January for $79.99.