It looks like Lenovo is preparing a new set of graphics cards, with a custom Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT revealed inside of the 2021 7000P LEGION pre-built gaming PC.
Lenovo shared a video teasing the new LEGION design on Chinese social media site Weibo, with the clip above being of the Lenovo Radeon RX 6800 XT LEGION graphics card. The design itself is pretty much a tweaked version of AMD's own reference Radeon VII graphics card -- the previous-gen Vega 20-based GPU with 16GB of high-speed HBM2 memory.
AMD's own reference Radeon VII graphics card had a slick triple-fan cooler and backplate design that Lenovo liked so much that it seems to have dipped its Radeon RX 6800 XT LEGION and Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION graphics cards in Radeon VII design and it looks kinda cool -- very chunky, but I'm sure it will also run cool, too.
If you were disappointed that Intel's latest gaming-fueled Tiger Lake-H35 processors only featured four cores and eight threads, we've got some good news for you this morning. The first signs of production laptops withTiger Lake-H45 processors have been spotted. While you probably surmised that Tiger Lake-H35 processors have a TDP of up to 35 watts, the H45 suffix, of course, corresponds with a higher 45-watt TDP.
The higher TDP allows Intel to finagle 8-cores and 16 threads into the Tiger Lake-H45 processors. The increased core/thread count makes the processors proper successors to the Comet Lake-H family launched with laptops in early 2020. Intel previously confirmed that these processors would with turbo frequencies of up to 5GHz and this high watermark applies to the flagship of the Tiger Lake-H45 family: the Core i9-11900HK.
The Core i9-11900HK was discovered in a CompSource product listing for an unannounced Lenovo laptop. In this case, it's the Legion 7 gaming laptop with a 16-inch QHD display. The high-end specs don't stop there, however, as you'll also find 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. The CompSource product page lists a price of $950.20 for the laptop, which is woefully inaccurate and is likely a placeholder value. The laptop's price is probably closer to twice that price (or higher).
There are also references to two other members of the Tiger Lake-H45 family: the Core i5-11400H (6 cores/12 threads, 2.4GHz/4.5GHz) and the Core i7-11800H (8 cores/12 threads, 2.4GHz/4.6GHz). All Tiger Lake-H45 processors feature support for 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes and native Thunderbolt 4 and integrated Wi-Fi 6E.
Tiger Lake-H45 so far is shaping up to be an impressive processor family for laptops, and we're eager to see how they will fare against AMD's Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 family of mobile processors. AMD got the upper-hand against Intel by implementing PCIe 4.0 on its Zen 2 desktop processors back in 2019. But the company failed to bring the high-speed interface to its Zen 2-based Ryzen 4000 mobile processors or even its Ryzen 5000 successors (potentially for power consumption reasons). And AMD has not even introduced native Thunderbolt 3 support for laptops, while Intel has moved onto Thunderbolt 4. However, neither of these omissions have dulled the appeal of the Ryzen 4000/5000 families with potential laptop buyers.
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This week we spent some time testing Lenovo’s Thinkpad X1 Nano — the company's thinnest and lightest ThinkPad at under two pounds. As usual, slimming things down comes with some trade offs, and Cherlynn Low tells us where the X1 Nano might leave you hanging. We also played around with the Poly Effects Beebo, an ambitious virtual modular synth in guitar-pedal form that Terrence O’Brien says is no more difficult to use than a smartphone. And Nicole Lee let the Amazon Echo Show 10’s rotating display follow her around her kitchen to find out if that new (and somewhat creepy) feature is worth paying $250 for.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Lenovo’s Thinkpad line is known for reliable performance, excellent keyboards and long-lasting batteries. The company’s new X1 Nano, which has a refreshed design and improved display, is noteworthy for weighing less than two pounds and for being one of the first laptops to meet Intel’s Evo certification. Cherlynn Low found a lot to like about the $1,399 laptop, namely its 11th-generation, 2.1GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, physical webcam shutter and 16:10 display
The X1 Nano is nearly identical to the X1 Carbon, and like all Thinkpad laptops, it meets military spec standards (MIL-STD-810H), making it quite durable. The display is a 2K panel that supports Dolby Vision and tops out at 450 nits of brightness, but doesn’t have touchscreen capabilities. It also has Dolby Atmos speakers, which Cherlynn found surprisingly loud, and four, 360-degree microphones that are intended to improve audio quality during video conferences. However in this case, the trade-off for getting a light and thin laptop is battery life: Cherlynn was able to eek just about 9 hours out of this machine.
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget
Poly Effects actually released the Beebo earlier this year, but the company recently merged the firmware with its other modular pedal, the Digit. This, according to Terrence O’Brien, has created one super pedal that’s basically a virtual modular synthesizer in a guitar-pedal format. The Beebo has a 5-inch touchscreen, which puts it on the smaller side, and Terrence said if you can use a smartphone, you'll likely be able to figure out this device.
In testing, Terrence said it was a versatile and complex touchscreen guitar pedal that’s easy to navigate with a bright interface and small, attractive icons. However, he found that some of the modules were a bit inconsistent and he ended up using the amp sim, cab sim and convolution reverb modules the most. The one glaring hole in the lineup is the lack of a looper. That being said, he found joy in experimenting with the Beebo and, despite its bugs, found it a wholly unique and powerful piece of gear.
Nicole Lee admits she was skeptical about the new Amazon Echo Show 10. The device looks different from previous models in that it has a display stuck onto a swiveling base, which enables it to turn and follow users so its screen is always in view. It’s also expensive at $250, making it more of an investment than the $130 Echo Show 8. However, after testing it in her kitchen, Nicole says she found the swiveling feature more useful than she thought it would be (albeit a bit creepy at first).
The Echo Show 10 has a 6.7-inch base and a 9.9-inch display, which means it takes up a fair amount of space — plus, it needs room to swivel around. Nicole said she found it best for watching videos since you’ll never miss an important moment with the screen always in view. She used it a lot to follow recipe instructions since she could keep track of things while moving around the kitchen to grab ingredients or wash her hands. The Echo Show 10 was smart enough to keep her and her husband in the frame, and to refocus on her when he left the frame. But in practice, the panning and zooming features were sometimes inconsistent and, as an Amazon device, it lacks functionality with some Google apps like YouTube and Nest cameras.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
On the outside, the MSI GS66 Stealth doesn’t look that much different from last year’s model. It still has the same slim and sturdy aluminum frame, 4.6-pound weight, solid selection of ports, LED back-lit keyboard and large trackpad. However, it now includes NVIDIA’s new RTX 30-series GPUs and a 2K screen, making it one of the first gaming notebooks with such a panel. This middle ground between a 1080p and a 4K display provides a sharp picture and the upgraded GPU provides a fast refresh rate that makes for smoother gameplay.
Devindra Hardawar took the new model for a spin and was pleased by the results of his battery testing, an area in which many gaming laptops falter. The GS66 Stealth lasted 8 hours and 25 minutes during our benchmark test, which is an hour more than last year’s model. However, it’s not necessarily every gamer’s dream machine: he found the keyboard to be a bit mushy when typing, and the 1440p resolution isn’t the most ideal for streaming video. Also, like most gaming laptops, the GS66 Stealth gets pretty warm on the underside. But the biggest drawback by far are the fans, which were loud enough for Devindra to recommend using a headset while pushing the machine to its limits.
It’s been one and a half years since Lenovo announced the last versions of the Galaxy Tab M7, and M8. The successors to these are already long overdue. Recent Geekbench listing suggested that a new Lenovo Tab with Model number TB-7306F could debut as the 2021 Tab M7 model. Now, a Google Play console listing shows specs of the Lenovo Tab M8 (3rd Gen).
Rep Image: Lenovo Tab M8 3rd Gen
Credit: GoAndroid
The listing via GoAndroid shows a new Lenovo Tablet with model number TB-8506F. The name of the tablet appears as the Lenovo Tab M8 (3rd Gen) and the SoC is the MediaTek MT8768A. Searching this model number on the Geekbench database yields us the results as below.
Contrary to the Google Play Console, the Geekbench listing shows the chipset as MediaTek MT8768WT. That said, the chipset could just be the MediaTek Helio P22T found on its own tablets like Lenovo Tab M10 HD but we will have to wait for the official info.
Moving on, the display seems to have a resolution of 800×1280 pixels which suggests that Lenovo is sticking to just over HD format. And going by the naming, it should measure 8-inches. Other specs include 3GB RAM, Android 11 OS. Although the Geekbench suggests a 4GB RAM variant, we would put a pin on that until the launch.
Lenovo has constantly been performing well in the tablet segment despite scattered launches. It has shipped about 5.6 million units in Q4 2020 and secured an 8.6% market share. Let’s wait and see how the company manages to price the 2021 versions to continue the momentum.
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Lenovo Tab M8 (3rd Gen) Specs appear on Google Play Console - gizmochina
Lenovo's Weekend Sale slashes up to 74% off select laptops like the Yoga 9i, IdeaPad Slim 7, Legion 7i series and more. If you're long overdue for a PC upgrade, you won't want to miss this fantastic savings event.
As part of the sale, you can get the excellent Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 for just $899.99 via coupon, "SALEYOGA21". This 2-in-1 laptop normally retails for $1,300, so that's $400 in savings. This is the lowest price we've ever seen for this 11th Gen Intel-powered machine.
Lenovo laptop deals
Lenovo Yoga 9i 14" 2-in-1 Laptop:was $1,300 now $900 @ Lenovo Now $400 off via coupon, "SALEYOGA21" the Lenovo Yoga 9i is one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptops. This configuration includes a 14-inch, 1080p touchscreen, 11th Gen Intel 2.4-GHz Core i5-1135G7 quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris Xe GPU, and 256GB SSD. Lenovo coupon, "WEEKENDSALE" takes $140 off the Yoga 9i with 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU. View Deal
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7:was $940 now $708 @ Lenovo At $232 off via coupon, "WEEKENDSALE", this IdeaPad Slim 7 is a steal. It packs a 1.1-GHz Core i5-1035G4 quad-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Additionally, its generous 14-hour battery life keeps you going all day long. View Deal
Lenovo's Yoga 9i is one of the best 2-in-1 laptops to buy. It has a rotating soundbar with Dolby Atmos speakers and can be used in laptop, tent, or tablet mode. It packs a 14-inch, 1080p touchscreen, 11th Gen Intel 2.4-GHz Core i5-1135G7 quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris Xe GPU, and 256GB SSD.
In our Lenovo Yoga 9i review, we tested the $1,400 Core i7 model and gave it an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars and our coveted Editor's Choice award. It won us over with its colorful 14-inch display, fast performance, and long battery life. At $400 off, the 11th Gen Intel Core i5 model Yoga 9i is an incredible value.
Use coupon "WEEKENDSALE" to snag the Yoga 9i with Intel's 11th Gen Core i7 CPU for $1,259.99 ($140 off) if you can afford to splurge.
If you'd prefer a traditional laptop, Lenovo is taking up to $293 off various configurations of the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 starting from $708. The base model packs a 1.1-GHz Core i5-1035G4 quad-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD. Use coupon, "WEEKENDSALE" to take $232 off its $940 list price.
Lenovo's Weekend Sale isn't all about laptops. The PC maker is also slashing up to 49% off select monitors. Save on ThinkVision productivity displays and Lenovo gaming monitors with prices start from $117.
Lenovo's Weekend Sale ends February 28.
More Lenovo deals this weekend
Lenovo Slim Legion 7i 15" Gaming Laptop:was $1,800 now $1,386 @ Lenovo Save $414 on the lightweight Lenovo Legion Slim 7i via coupon, "WEEKENDSALE". This machine packs a 15.6-inch 1080p display at 144Hz, 2.3-GHz Intel Core i7-10875H 8-core CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU with 8GB of graphics memory and speedy 1TB SSD.View Deal
Lenovo Monitor Deals:Up to 49% off monitors Lenovo's Weekend Sale slashes up to 49% off select monitors. Save on everything from ThinkVision productivity displays to Lenovo gaming monitors. Prices start from $117. View Deal
This big sale scoop was just going to be about the fact that Lenovo is holding a bumper annual save filled with huge discounts. But it seems like other retailers got the message.
Because Newegg, Best Buy and Walmart have all brought some deep price cuts to the table too, setting this weekend up to be one of the best for Lenovo savings.
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 2:was $1,499 now $899 @ Lenovo
Ideal for keeping that day-to-day workload running at peak speed, this configuration of Lenovo ThinkPad E15 rocks an 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4, 4GB DDR4 RAM and a 1TB SSD.View Deal
Lenovo IdeaPad 5:was $649.99 now $529.99 @ Newegg
A solid mid-ranger and a good choice for a family laptop — a stylish, sleek chassis with a 1080p display, 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD. More than enough for everything from crushing your day-to-day and binging (thanks to the addition of Dolby Audio), to attending online classes.View Deal
Lenovo Yoga 7i:was $899.99 now $749.99 @ Best Buy
Need a little more power and versatility? Check out the Lenovo Yoga 7i, which packs a gorgeous 14-inch FHD touch display on a 360-degree hinge, 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor, 12GB speedy DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD.View Deal
This sale spans casual laptops, business laptops, gaming rigs, and many many accessories, such as monitors and webcams.
So, whether you just need a new ultrabook or maybe want the full setup for working from home, you’re covered!
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is a hybrid 2-in-1 laptop; a laptop with a touchscreen, or a tablet with a keyboard – whichever way you look at it. But it isn't your average hybrid, this one has a folding screen.
The future, William Gibson once observed, is already here: it just isn’t very evenly distributed. That’s definitely true when it comes to the new technology of folding screens. We’ve seen folding phones from Samsung and Xiaomi, plus prototypes of other devices from companies like LG that use flexible screens in a variety of devices, but Lenovo is the first to put one in a commercially available laptop.
The ThinkPad X1 Fold includes a 13.3-inch screen that folds down smaller than the latest iPad, or roughly the size of a paperback, and weighs just 2.2lbs (0.99kg). This is a fully functioning Windows lightweight laptop that you really can take anywhere, but with portability comes compromise: the screen is rather dim and the tiny keyboard and touchpad are far from ideal.
Is it cool? Yes, very. Should you buy one? Not necessarily. While this is a clever device, it’s the first of its kind and better folding screen devices, with fewer compromises, are likely to follow.
Laptop screens just aren't meant to fold, so this takes some getting used to.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Price and release date
The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold was released in November of 2020, and starts at $2499. The configuration we tested (Intel i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is priced at $2749, including the optional Bluetooth keyboard and pen.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Design and build
This keyboard is also slim enough that it fits between the two halves of the folded screen, producing a handy, portable package, about the size of a thin paperback. The wrap-around leather cover makes it much easier to pick up and carry around than a Surface Pro or other non-folding tablet.
Let’s get the main thing out of the way first: yes, the screen folds, and you can’t see the fold. Fold it out to the tablet configuration, and you get the full 13.3-inch OLED screen, with no visible fold or join: it is one flat sheet of OLED screen. This 2048 by 1536-pixel display has great color, but isn’t very bright: we measured it at a maximum of just under 300 cd/m2. Look at this in direct sunlight, and you’ll see little but shadows.
In this folded-out position, the X1 looks rather like a Surface Pro but with slightly thicker bezels. The screen is also recessed in this bezel frame to protect it when folded closed. It doesn’t feel like it needs protecting, though. The touch screen has a plastic cover that feels pretty tough: we couldn’t scratch it with the stylus or a set of keys.
Folding the screen turns it into two separate displays.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
You can prop the tablet up on your desk with the kick-out stand built into the leather back cover, and there are two USB-C 3.2 ports: one on the left short side and one on the long bottom side. That’s a nice touch which means you can use the included 45-Watt charger with the tablet sitting in either landscape or portrait mode.
The hinge that allows this folding to happen is concealed behind the case and the bezel frame. It feels robust and holds the folding screen in any position between flat and fully closed. There are no obvious gaps behind the screen, but gunk could work its way between the laptop and the case over time.
Fold the screen back down halfway and the Lenovo Mode Switcher app kicks in, turning it into a dual-screen laptop where you can watch a video on one screen and run a chat app on the other, or use the bottom half as a touch keyboard. Alternatively, you can drop the tiny optional Bluetooth keyboard on top of the bottom screen, where magnets hold it in place, turning it into a laptop with a single 9.6-inch screen.
The keyboard is okay for something that is so thin. The keys are small with barely any travel, and due to the compact size, some characters are only accessible by unusual combinations. The question mark, for instance, is relegated to the unusual combination of Fn-Shift-Period.
The keyboard also features a tiny touchpad, just big enough for single digit operation. The keyboard connects over Bluetooth, and you have to remember to turn it on with a tiny switch on the right edge. Next to that is a micro-USB port for charging the keyboard battery: a USB-C port would have been a better choice, as it would mean one less cable to carry around. We found that the keyboard battery was good for a few days of use but gives you no warning when it is about to run out.
When closed the X1 Fold is smaller than an iPad.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Performance
Unfortunately, the X1 Fold is fairly pedestrian when it comes to processing power. Although the 1.4GHz Lakefield i5 processor and non-upgradeable 8GB of RAM are adequate for basic tasks like web browsing or word processing, it struggled with more complex tasks like complex spreadsheets or gaming. It could just about handle a game of Rimworld, but it started to struggle when things got more complicated with multiple colonists and baddies on screen.
The Lakefield processor is a bit unusual, having five cores: four low-power ones and an additional high-power one more like the standard desktop CPU core. The idea is that the four cores run the simple tasks of normal use, while the high-power processor kicks in when needed.
That saves power, but the downside is that the X1 Fold isn’t a speedy PC: it managed a PC Mark 10 score of just 2477. Contrasting that with the latest XPS 13’s score of 4241 underlines that the X1 won’t cut it for serious work.
The only available hardware upgrade available when buying is to increase the capacity of the solid-state drive to either 512GB or 1TB. We’d certainly like to see an option for the H-series processors that are used in the Yoga range.
With the keyboard placed over the bottom half of the screen, it functions as a 9in laptop.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Software
The ThinkPad X1 Fold comes with Windows 10 Home, though 10 Pro is available as an upgrade too. It does include the Lenovo Mode Switcher app, which controls the screen layout based on how the screen is folded. This can be overridden if required, forcing the device into full screen, two-screen, or one screen mode.
This was a mixed bag when it came to working with other apps. Microsoft Office handled a change in the screen size and shape when changing positions without problems, as did most of the 2D games that we tried. Some apps, however, declined to co-operate with such screen shenanigans.
No apps that we could find really took advantage of the dual-screen mode: everything simply ran on one screen or the other when the device was folded. That’s a neat trick, but the real benefits will come when you can truly use both screens. Imagine a video editing app, for instance, that used the top screen for a large preview and the bottom one for the editing tools.
Honestly, what this device is waiting for is Windows X, the next version of Windows that is designed for multi-screen and flexible devices. That’s been delayed due to Covid, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this device was relaunched when Windows X finally arrived.
The X1 Fold also includes Lenovo Voice, their own speech to text and translation app, but this requires you to buy “translation time” to do anything interesting. A selection of corporate apps to do stuff like asset management is also included.
Some programs adapt to the folding of the screen.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Screen and speakers
It takes some time to get over how odd it is to grab a tablet and fold it in half. Don’t try that with your iPad or Surface Pro, folks. Even when folded, the screen has impressively flat lighting, because the OLED backlight is built into the display itself. It lacks brightness, however, topping out at just under 300 candelas per square meter (cd/m2). Look at it under direct sunlight and it is barely visible. The OLED display has decent color, but there is no HDR, no extended color gamut, and no display rates above 60 Hz. It folds, but in every other way, it is a simple, standard 13.3-inch laptop screen.
Two small speakers on one edge of the case provide the sounds. These produce moderately loud, but rather flat and tinny sounds. Most tablets or laptops put speakers at each side of the screen to create some stereo separation, but the X1 has mono speakers only on one side of the screen. That makes for a somewhat disjointed movie-watching experience.
The X1's speakers are in one side of the device providing a mono experience.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Battery
Half of the bulk of the X1 fold is the battery; a thin 10.1Wh Li-ion device in the right side of the folding body that provides a fairly standard battery life. In our tests, it lasted 7 hours 34 minutes using the PC Mark 10 Video battery test with the screen set to 200 cd/m2. With the more arduous Modern Office benchmark, which runs a series of common tasks, that fell to 6 hours and 15 minutes. That’s comparable with the Dell XPS 13, which managed 7 hours, 35 minutes for video, and 6 hours 16 minutes for Modern Office.
The lower half of the screen can also be used as a touch keyboard when folded.
(Image credit: Lenovo)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold review: Conclusion
If you are going to lay down over $2500 for a laptop, it’s got to do some fancy stuff. The Thinkpad X1 Fold does that, with a folding screen that will impress everyone who sees it. The process almost seems to defy logic the first couple of times you do it: tablets just aren’t supposed to do that. But being the first isn’t always the best: most buyers should wait for the follow-up model in a year or so when folding screens are a more standard feature and have better support from Windows X.
