CES 2016 Lenovo Razer gaming PC.jpg

In a press release accompanying its CES 2016 product launch, Lenovo lays out ambitious plans for 2016, including a commitment to:

“constantly refine and innovate to create ever lighter, faster and more powerful devices that combine technical prowess and striking design to re-imagine computing experiences.”

At CES 2016, the company showed off innovation, power and striking design in spades. 

Yoga 900S

The convertible laptop category was a hot one last year and Lenovo is ensuring that trend accelerates in 2016. Lenovo’s Yoga 3 Pro convertible laptop was a big hit among those looking for laptop performance combined with tablet flexibility—and everything in between. One of the stars of Lenovo’s CES 2016 line-up is the the new Yoga 900S convertible laptop.

CEs lenovo yoga 900.jpg

Billed as the world’s thinnest convertible laptop, the Yoga 900s is just 12.8 mm thick and weighs only 999g, thanks to the use of carbon fibre. It uses a 360-degree “watchband” hinge for quick and solid transformation between laptop, tablet, stand and tent modes. The 13.3-inch display offers the option of QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution and Lenovo is offering an optional active pen for onscreen annotation. Power is courtesy of the latest Intel Core M processors. Case colour options are Champagne Gold or Platinum Silver. Dolby Audio Premium makes sure this laptop sounds as good as it looks and with 10.5-hour battery life, power outlet anxiety shouldn’t be an issue.

Besides the new stylus accessory, there’s also A Yoga mouse, designed to offer portability while complementing the look of the Yoga 900S.

Lenovo Y27g.jpgY Series Gaming PCs and Monitor

PC gaming was a big part of Lenovo’s CES 2016 presence. As part of its commitment to the needs of PC gamers, Lenovo is partnering with gaming powerhouse Razer, including special Razer Edition styling and lighting effects on select PCs and bundled Razer Chroma gaming keyboards.

Included in this partnership is the ideacentre Y900 RE gaming PC with a quad core, 6th generation Core i7 K-series CPU, dual Nvidia GTX 970 video cards and a semi-transparent side panel. All illuminated by Razer Chroma effects, with Razer Chroma keyboard and mouse included. The Y900 is a powerhouse gaming laptop, featuring a 17-inch display, mechanical backlit keyboard, quad core, 6th generation Core i7 K-series CPU and Nvidia GTX 980M graphics.

Also of interest here is Lenovo’s first 27-inch FHD curved gaming monitor. The Y27g (also available in a Razer edition) offers immersive curved, big screen experience with a 144 Hz refresh rate and 8 ms response time for gaming.

lenovo ideacentre 610s.jpgideacentre 610S compact home PC with removable projector

Remember that quote from Lenovo about reimagining computing experiences? Well, the desktop PC doesn’t come much more “re-imagined” than with the ideacentre 610S.

This a compact desktop PC designed for the living room. It’s been described as resembling a Star Wars droid and that’s not far off. It’s small, stylish with a triangular metallic case and you won’t want to hide it out of sight, especially once you realize what it’s capable of. The ideacentre 610S can be specced to be a decent little PC, including the option for a Skylake (6th generation) Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GTX 750 graphics card, up to 16GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD (expandable up to a 2TB hard drive). It also has a full range of ports.

So far that doesn’t sound all that different from other compact desktop PCs. However, the ideacentre 610S has a removable wireless projector mounted onto its top. The projector can be used standalone (it has an HDMI input, tripod mount and even built-in speakers), but when connected to the ideacentre 610S, the setup lets you project a 720p image up to 100-inches across. You can project content in the background while using the PC to perform another task with a traditional computer monitor. 

Playing movies, streaming videos and photo slideshows on your PC just got a whole lot more interesting …

ideapad 700 and 710S laptops

Lenovo’s ideapad 700 and ideapad 710S laptops are capable new mainstream laptops designed to offer portability combined with performance. 

The ideapad 710S has a 13-inch narrow bezel display, optional Intel Iris graphics, high speed PCIe SSD storage and ultra-fast Wi-Fi in a package that weighs just 1.16 kg. The ideapad 700 offers 15-inch and 17-inch display options for a big screen experience, with 6th generation Intel Core i7 CPUs. Optional Nvidia GTX 950M graphics and JBL stereo speakers give the ideapad 700 the multimedia performance to appeal to gamers as well.

lenovo thinkapd x1 yoga.jpgThinkPad X1 Yoga

Last but definitely not least, is the ThinkPad X1 Yoga. This new 1.27 kg model combines the enterprise performance of Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup of laptops—thin, light and tough—with the flexibility of the Yoga line. The result is a 14.1-inch convertible laptop with a high quality spill-resistant keyboard, high performance hardware and the ThinkPad’s signature trackpointer. It has the 360-degree hinge of the Yoga line, so the ThinkPad X1 Yoga can be used in tablet and other configurations, plus an active stylus that’s always ready for drawing or scribbling a note—it docks inside and recharges for 100 minutes of use in just 15 seconds. 

The 14.1-inch multitouch IPS display at 2560 x 1440 pixels resolution is crisp and bright, but if you want to take it to the next level, Lenovo is offering it as an OLED option. This marks the first time an OLED display has been offered in a laptop, so fans of the eye-popping contrast and deep blacks the technology can produce will have a new item on their gadget lust list.

The new Lenovo computers should start shipping in late spring (March to April) so keep an eye out for them at Best Buy.

There is still plenty to come from CES 2016, so stay tuned to Plug-in for the latest, including hands on accounts for some of the coolest gear. in the meantime, check out our wraps of CES 2015, including the new technology, TV technology and laptops that were on display last year in Las Vegas and made it to Best Buy in 2015.

Brad Moon
Editor Computing solutions
I’m a long-time electronics and gadget geek who’s been fortunate enough to enjoy a career that lets me indulge this interest. I have been writing about technology for several decades for a wide range of outlets including Wired, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, MSN, About.com, Kiplinger, and GeekDad. I’m in my 10th year as a senior contributor for Forbes with a focus on reviewing music-related tech, Apple gear, battery power stations and other consumer electronics. My day job is with the Malware Research Center at AI-native cybersecurity pioneer CrowdStrike.