Lenovo expands its PC lineup with new AI computers at Innovation World 2024

At the IFA 2024 trade show, the entire PC ecosystem announced new systems based on the latest AI PC chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. Lenovo led the charge for OEMs in terms of number of announcements and breadth across all chip vendors.

At Lenovo’s Innovation World 2024—held in Berlin in conjunction with IFA—the company brought out its closest partners and refreshed its PC lineup with the latest Copilot+-capable chips from all three chipmakers. Earlier that week, Lenovo also had a significant presence at Intel’s Lunar Lake launch event, where Lenovo executive Luca Rossi discussed the multi-year effort with Intel to bring that processor to market.

Leader with Lunar Lake

While Lenovo technically kicked off the show with AMD’s lineup of products, it was pretty clear that Lunar Lake systems were Lenovo’s focus. This was particularly noticeable because Lenovo created a special “Aura Edition” for its Lunar Lake-based products, for example with one of its flagship devices, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The X1 Carbon is an exclusive Intel ultra-light platform (under 1 kg), so it should come as no surprise that Intel kept this flagship ThinkPad within the Intel Core Ultra family. The X1 Carbon comes with a 120Hz 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio 2.8K OLED display with Dolby Vision and 100 DCI-P3 color accuracy for professional-grade editing. It would be great to see this come with 5G connectivity for the ultimate portability platform. The X1 Carbon will start at $2,700 and will be available starting in November.

Apart from the X1 Carbon, Lenovo introduced the Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, which features the latest Lunar Lake chipset and comes in a 15-inch variant. This system also comes with an OLED display, which will hurt battery life compared to an IPS display, but it will also look a lot better. I recently reviewed the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x with the Qualcomm X Elite inside, so I’m interested to see how the Intel-based platform will compare in a similar configuration. Both systems will be limited to 32GB of RAM because Lunar Lake’s on-chip memory is limited to that level, but really most laptop users don’t need more than 32GB today or even in the near future . The Slim 7i Aura Edition was made available in September and starts at $1,400.

Qualcomm based Lenovo laptops

Qualcomm, like Intel, also launched a new processor at IFA 2024: the Snapdragon X Plus chip with only eight cores. This is in contrast to the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus and 12-core Snapdragon X Elite CPU. The octa-core Snapdragon X Plus is designed to provide a more affordable level to the Snapdragon X family, enabling Copilot+ PCs with a starting price of $799 – which I believe could drop even lower next year as competition increases . The lower price points of the PC market have always been the worst for consumers, but with this chip, Qualcomm can enable OEMs, including Lenovo, to ship systems that offer great value , while they are performant and have a long battery life.

That brings us to the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5X and 5X 2-in-1, which have this new Qualcomm chip with a starting price of $899. Both versions come with a 14-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. They are almost identical in almost every way, including the battery size. The only difference is that the 2-in-1 version has one less USB port. These two computers became available in September for $899.

The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 also gets the Snapdragon X Plus octa-core treatment. It has a large 16-inch display paired with a colossal 84 Wh battery, which could make it one of the AI ​​computers with the longest battery life on the market. Lenovo says this system will be available starting in October with a starting price of $819 — pretty close to $799, but not quite. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has said that we will probably see $799 systems next year.

AMD based Lenovo systems

AMD didn’t announce any new chips at IFA; however, its Ryzen AI processors, which it announced at Computex this summer, have found their way into many new systems from Lenovo. This may explain why Lenovo led the show with AMD. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is arguably the flagship laptop for Lenovo outside of the X1 Carbon; it is considered as a working platform for the company. It’s no surprise that the company will put AMD’s Ryzen AI PRO processors in this device, along with up to 64GB of RAM and 5G connectivity. Oddly enough, this platform only has 1 TB of storage, while others get much more. It comes in 14-inch touchscreen and non-touch screen variants and starts at 2.86 pounds, or 1.3 kg.

The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7+ is very similar to the Qualcomm variant, but has a Ryzen AI 365 processor inside. Lenovo has added a Thunderbolt 4 port to this device; Thunderbolt isn’t native to AMD machines like it is to Intel ones. Thanks to the AMD platform, this system also supports up to 4 TB of storage space in a 2 x 2 TB configuration. Lenovo has upgraded the display on this AMD version with a 165 hertz IPS display compared to the 60 hertz model. It’s clear that Lenovo built the Qualcomm version for longevity and battery life, while the AMD version is more of a powerhouse.

The Yoga Pro 7 is another Ryzen AI 9 365-based system that features a 14.5-inch OLED display with similar specs to the Yoga Slim 7x that I reviewed as part of my Copilot+ PC review. That said, this system has full-sized USB Type-A ports and HDMI ports while the other does not; this makes this device a little thicker, although it still has plenty of performance. It’s a little disappointing that this laptop is shipping with Wi-Fi 6E while almost everything else in Lenovo’s lineup has Wi-Fi 7. It also probably won’t have the best battery life considering it has an AMD chip and a OLED screen. The Yoga Pro 7 became available in September for $1,699.

Finally for AMD-based machines, we have the IdeaPad Slim 5, which comes in both 13- and 15-inch variants and is not to be confused with the Qualcomm-based Slim 5X. This is, without a doubt, Lenovo’s budget segment compared to the rest of the announced systems. Both versions of it ship with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series, which I was admittedly surprised to see, considering it’s an older two-generation processor. Furthermore, both screens are only 60 hertz, although the 15-inch Slim offers an OLED upgrade option. Both versions are expected to be available in October starting at a very competitive $699. That might explain why Lenovo went for such an old chip, though it was definitely surprising to hear when it was announced.

Looking for the Future

Lenovo also showed off a new PC concept in Berlin, which the company likes to do at big events. This concept computer is the Lenovo Twist, an AI-powered computer that features a screen that can open and close on its own and rotate based on tracking the user’s face. While it may seem silly to some, I can see this as a useful feature for teaching classes remotely or just holding some teleconferences. Additionally, it can be useful for people who want to read a recipe hands-free without touching the computer. Twist can also be placed on a coffee table, enabling the whole room to talk to someone.

I suspect Lenovo hasn’t figured out all the ways Twist can be useful; I found the demonstration of his skills exciting but not particularly practical. I think we’re still discovering the mods of foldable PCs that Lenovo offers as commercial products – but they could be very fragile and expensive compared to this prototype PC. Moving into next year, I expect we’ll see more AI PCs with unique features as OEMs try to differentiate their offerings from the wider AI PC landscape, including what we saw from Lenovo at Innovation World 2024 in Berlin.