Lenovo goes gangbusters for touch

Anyone else notice this? More than any other OEM, Lenovo is endorsing the touch-enabled, crossover-between-laptop-and-tablet ethos. They've got two separate three-model lines, one for the Idea line and one for the Think line. It's exciting to see an OEM, particularly one I like as much as Lenovo, throwing itself wholeheartedly into this new genre-bending era of hardware design. It's obvious they're wary of Windows RT--they only offer one model--but they seem pretty certain that touch is here to stay.

Thoughts?

THREE-TIERED THINKPAD TABLET LINEUP

Thinkpad Tablet 2, $650

Wacom-stylus-equipped 10" 1366x768 IPS tablet with a Clover Trail processor and a separate keyboard dock (no onboard battery or hinge, but probably a low price for the dock).

Thinkpad Edge Twist, $850

ULV Ivy Bridge processor powering a 12" 1366x768 IPS convertible tablet (keyboard doesn't detach). Swivel-style hinge. No Wacom.

Thinkpad X230t (Ivy), $1150

Full-power Ivy Bridge processor powering a 12" 1366x768 IPS convertible tablet. Includes Wacom stylus.

THREE-TIERED IDEATAB LINEUP

IdeaTab Lynx, $600

Clover Trail processor powering an 11" 1366x768 IPS display in a slate with a Transformer-style dock that also doubles battery life.

IdeaTab Yoga 11, $800

ARM processor and Windows RT (the "let's see whether this takes off with consumers or not" model) with an 11" 1366x768 IPS display with a back-bending hinge (usable either as a laptop or as a free-standing tablet, though not particularly nice to carry since it doesn't bend 360 degrees around).

Frankly, I suspect Windows RT will bust...but even if it does, the Lynx with the dock can cover the midrange consumer model as well as the base consumer.

IdeaTab Yoga 13, $1100

ULV Ivy Processor, 13" 1600x900 IPS display, back-bending hinge. Better specs/price combination than most ultrabooks that don't offer touch or a back-bending hinge...this should blow most ultrabooks out of the water and be a real shot across the bow of the $1200, 1440x900, no-touchscreen MBA 13.

 

thanks for the comparison. Didn't realize the Twist comes with ulv CPU.

 

Yep.

If I was designing these three-tier lineups, I'd have swapped the processors in the Lynx and the Yoga 11. That way, the Thinkpad's lineup would be

Clover Trail
ULV Ivy
Full-power Ivy

And the IdeaTab lineup would be:

ARM
Clover Trail
ULV Ivy

 

Didn't we say that about the X1 Carbon? Specs, pretty pictures and the inevitable unboxing video don't make the machine. Manufacturing line quality control, parts, lead time to delivery and customer support do. Lenovo did not execute on a critical machine, the X1 Carbon. You think they will on the Yoga?

 

Oh man, I completely missed that about the X1 Carbon. Bad QC, huh?