Lenovo reveals new gaming laptops and the smartest clocks

When it comes to quality computer hardware, Lenovo is certainly up there with the very best of them. Their range of laptops has made them one of the more popular companies and they remain a popular choice when people are looking for their next upgrade.

The company unveiled some of the new models that we can look forward to for the year ahead, which includes an update to the popular two-in-one and gaming notebook ranges, along with a decent tablet offering and a new Google-powered smart clock:

The Yoga 9 Series

When it comes to two-in-one laptops, Lenovo’s Yoga series has always found a way of combining both power and portability in the convertible market. The Yoga 9i replaces last year’s Yoga C940 and serves as the flagship of this laptop range. It will come in both 14-inch and 15-inch models, along with a non-convertible slim model that won’t have the ability to convert into a tablet but will be even thinner and lighter than any other Lenovo notebook before it.  

It’s not just the lightweight form factor and two-in-one convenience that they offer though as inside these lightweight devices is a load of power with each coming with an Intel 10th-Gen processor up to the Core i9 HK Series, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a GPU up to Nvidia’s GTX 1650 Ti with Max-Q design, with 16GB RAM and SSD hard drives at a minimum, but upgradeable depending on the configuration you desire.

They are great laptops of you are looking for ultra-portability and the ability to fold it into a tablet and utilise its touch screen in that format. Prices will start at $1399 (R25 000 – local pricing yet to be confirmed) and it will be available from October.

Legion Slim

Legion is the gaming brand of Lenovo and whenever you see that name on a laptop, you can be assured that Lenovo has packed some hefty specs into it. For the new Legion Slim though, the company has found a way of bringing gaming performance into a very thin and lightweight frame. The Legion Slim 7i can be configured with up to an Intel Core i9-10980HK processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of NVMe M.2 storage, along with your choice of Nvidia’s GeForce graphics.

The cheapest version of this will feature an Intel Core i5-10300H, Nvidia’s GTX 1650 Ti, and 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 128GB NVMe storage, setting you back $1329 (R23000). A serious gamer though could probably want to upgrade those specs, which will obviously see the price increase. It’s not the most powerful of gaming laptops, but at 18mm thickness and weighing just 1.7kg, it is certainly lone of the more portable options you can find.

Tab 11 Pro

Perhaps one of the more interesting updates to be announced is the new Tab P11 Pro. It’s not the fastest tablet by any means and does run on Android, which is not necessarily the greatest OS for tablet computing, but it does feature that excellent Lenovo build quality – with a decent price too.

Powered by a Snapdragon 730G processor, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage, you will definitely find faster tablets from other manufacturers. However, at a price point of just $499 (R8500), it is well priced and for an extra $100, you get a kickstand and keyboard that make it work like Microsoft’s popular Surface Pro. If all you want is a functional tablet and don’t require heavyweight processing, this could be a good value for money option for you.

Smart Clock

Lastly, Lenovo has also unveiled a new Smart clock that will be powered by Google’s voice assistant. Like the tablet above, Lenovo is not trying to make a powerful device that does everything, but rather has simply made a basic alarm clock, with some added on features. Along with a range of different clock faces, ringtones and the ability to store and play music, it can sync with your Google calendar and alert you of appointments, while also give you access to everything the Google Assistant can do, like searching the internet, making calls and answering all your bizarre questions while probably listening in all of your household discussions and updating your future google ads. Got to love the smart device era.  This device is expected to set you back $79.99 (R1400), though it’s not clear if we will be getting a local release of this.

Lenovo has always had a good range of devices on offer and while these new updates don’t drastically change their offering in any way, they do provide some good options at decent prices. Given we’re all trying to save for new gaming consoles now though in a difficult economic climate it will be interesting to see if there is a big uptake on this new hardware.

Last Updated: September 2, 2020