Lenovo played around with 360-degree hinges for its laptops years ago, but then the company opted for the dual-hinge design in its original Yoga two-in-one and the rest is history. Now it's thinking about trying again with the more flexible hinge design, but with some perks made practical by the passage of time.
The ThinkBook Auto Twist AI PC, Lenovo's latest concept laptop, has a hinge that can rotate all the way around and lay the screen flat for a tablet mode. This model's, uh, twist, is that it's motorized, can obey voice commands for its operation and can automatically follow you to position itself.
"Why?" you may ask. My initial reaction when I saw it was it seems like a clever design for people who do a lot of presentations. Because it can be voice operated it might have physical constraints. Lenovo tosses security into the mix, since it can close the lid if you walk away.
There's not a ton of AI, just a little of the basic stuff you can do with an NPU; it's the presence of the NPU that makes it an "AI PC."
Lenovo also launched its new cross-line Aura Edition laptops -- starting with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 and Yoga Slim 7i -- which primarily seem to be differentiated by the "Smart" software they include, which is essentially expanded or skinned versions of what's available in Windows, plus access to a sort of customized support experience (like HP's Dragonfly Pro).Â
For example, the Attention allows you to set attention timers and silence notifications. That's more or less what Focus mode in Windows lets you control. Collaboration turns on a user-defined set of Windows Studio Effects. Smart Share is similar to Windows Unison, but slicker; you can launch it by tapping your phone to the screen edge (it uses software, not a hardware sensor).
They were co-somethinged with Intel, so they're based around the new Core Ultra 200V series processors Intel announced this week.
The ThinkPad Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition is slated to ship in November starting at $1,999; the 15-inch Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition ships this month starting at $1,299.