Hasta La Gadget!

Elon Musk shared a tweet Sunday claiming the recent murder of a college student in Georgia was being subjected to a “media blackout.” But the killing, allegedly committed by a 26-year-old Venezuelan national in the U.S. illegally, has been covered extensively by just about every media outlet in the country.

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Lenovo announced several new business laptops and hybrids at this year’s MWC conference, including refreshes in the ThinkPad T-series and the ThinkBook line. The company’s calling them “AI PCs” because they all feature a dedicated Microsoft Copilot button that offers immediate access to the digital assistant.

The just-announced models include the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5, ThinkPad T16 Gen 3, ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 and ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4. These computers are powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, which has come to be expected with new Lenovo computers.

Lenovo

The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 boasts a durable 3:2 display with Corning Gorilla Glass and the whole thing’s powered by an Intel Core Ultra U processor. You can spec this tablet/laptop hybrid with up to 32GB of RAM, for multitasking. The detachable backlit folio keyboard boasts a three-button TrackPad and the tablet includes a front-facing 5MP camera and an 8MP rear-facing camera.

The redesigned ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 features an ultra-thin 16.85mm profile, which is slightly thinner than the previous generation. It’s also light, weighing just over 3.5 pounds. The 14-inch display boasts a 16:10 aspect ratio and the keyboard includes a larger touchpad that has been crafted with glass-like Mylar. It also ships with the new Magnetic Slim Pen for more nuanced touchscreen controls.

Lenovo

In addition to the Core Ultra processors and the near-instantaneous Copilot integration, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 and T16 Gen 3 have been built for DIY repairs. The iFixit team was on-hand to advise the overall design, so there are plenty of customer replaceable parts, making it easy to swap out the DIMM, SSD, WWAN card and battery, among other components. With this in mind, iFixit has proactively rated these laptops with a repairability score of 9.3 out of 10. That’s a whole lot better than products from many rival companies.

The ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 goes on sale this April and will be available in several SKUs, starting at $950. The ThinkPad T16 Gen 3 also goes on sale this April and will start at $1,220. The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 will be available the same month and will feature a starting price of $1,400. Finally, the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 goes on sale this March with a starting price of $1,170.

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lenovo-debuts-core-ultra-powered-laptops-and-hybrids-with-dedicated-copilot-key-230016023.html?src=rss

It’s not often you encounter a device that looks like it came straight out of a movie set. But Lenovo’s Project Crystal, supposedly the world’s first laptop with a transparent microLED display, is an example of sci-fi come to life.

Currently there are no plans to turn Project Crystal into a retail product. Instead Lenovo’s latest concept device was commissioned by its ThinkPad division to explore the potential of transparent microLED panels and AI integration. The most obvious use case would be sharing info somewhere, like a doctor’s office or a hotel desk. Instead of needing to flip a screen around, you could simply reverse the display via software, allowing anyone on the other side to see it while getting an in-depth explanation.

When combined with the camera built into the rear of the system, Lenovo says there could be possible AR applications. One example would be to use the camera to identify an object, similar to Google Lens. And with its transparent display, it should be possible to take that idea a step further by overlaying a diagram or schematic on top of the object for things like troubleshooting or repair.

But the best thing about Project Crystal, is that Lenovo bothered making it at all. Currently, even standard microLED displays are extremely expensive with those panels typically reserved for cutting-edge gadgets like Samsung’s The Wall or Apple’s Vision Pro. And, see-through versions have only been seen as concepts like on the transparent microLED TV Samsung showed off a couple of months ago at CES 2024.

In person, the transparency effect is bewildering. When closed or when its display is off, Project Crystal’s screen almost looks like an ordinary piece of glass with a slight brownish tint. But at a moment’s notice the whole thing lights up like a battleship. Nominal brightness goes all the way up to 1,000 nits, with Lenovo saying peaks can go as high as 3,000 nits, which would make it brighter than the new Galaxy S24 family. And despite being made of multiple layers, the panel is extremely thin, which helps blur the line being the digital and analog worlds. Lenovo says it’s also considering adding some sort of contrast layer, so it can turn into a traditional opaque display at the touch of a button. However, for a relatively large 16-inch display, its resolution isn’t super high, so if you look closely you can see individual pixels.

Another design twist is that instead of a traditional keyboard, Project Crystal features one of Lenovo’s touch-based replacements similar to those on older Yoga Books. Unfortunately, it still suffers from a lot of the same issues. The most obvious example of this is that your hands drift while typing because there’s no tactile feedback, which leads to decreased accuracy. Lenovo says AI may be able to address that in the future by learning a person’s typing habits and then using that info to account for your hands straying from the home row. But right now, it’s still a problem.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The rest of the laptop is very much a work in progress, too. I only saw two ports on the entire system which would be a major faux pas for a notebook this big. Project Crystal is also based on a last-gen CPU, while other components like its hinge was so weak that its screen threatened to close anytime it tilted below 90 degrees. And for some reason, the laptop seemed to build up a static charge, as it sometimes shocked people who touched its display.

Project Crystal is a solution in search of a problem. A problem that does exist in niche situations and may be an issue worth tackling more seriously down the line. But more importantly, it’s challenging us to think about what is possible with emerging display technology and how it might fit into a laptop of the future.

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lenovos-project-crystal-is-the-worlds-first-laptop-with-a-transparent-microled-display-230025521.html?src=rss

Lenovo has officially introduced the new ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2, a device designed to cater to the needs of highly mobile professionals by combining performance, portability, and versatility. This latest iteration in the ThinkPad series comes with a 3:2 ratio 12.3-inch display, protected by Gorilla Glass, ensuring durability.

The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 is powered by the latest generation Intel Core Ultra U series low-power processors, which features an integrated AI engine. This combination promises to elevate productivity levels through a seamless user experience. The device is built to handle multitasking and productivity/office tasks, thanks to up to 32GB Dual Channel LPDDR5x (soldered memory).

For professionals constantly on the move, this laptop’s detachable, backlit folio keyboard, complete with a three-button TrackPad and an optional magnetic pen, offers huge convenience and versatility. That’s a form factor that has proven very successful in certain Windows verticals.

Whether for insurance agents, healthcare workers, or law enforcement officers, the ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 is tailored to support tasks like capturing photographic evidence, form completion, and digital signature collection. Connectivity is built into the design of this device, with [optional] CAT16 4G WWAN support ensuring that users stay connected no matter where they are.

In this age of Zoom conferences, there is a user-facing 5MP + IR camera and an 8MP World-facing camera, both of which promise clear video calls and high-quality photography capabilities for remote users.

We had a chance to play with the keyboard and can vouch for its amazing quality and tactile feedback. We demanded that Lenovo make it available to their Android tablets. The keyboard connects via pogo pins, which ensures easy instant connectivity and no latency.

Measuring just 283.3 x 203.5 x 8.8 mm and weighing a mere 0.34 kg (0.75 Lbs without the keyboard, the ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 is a highly portable yet powerful device option for professionals across various sectors.

Key Specifications

Lenovo Unveils New ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2

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We’ve been hearing about Netflix’s plans to bring Avatar: The Last Airbender for live-action for years, and the news has bounced between “oh, that’s interesting” and “oh, it’s over.” And after all the purported changes and trailers, the end result appears to be… an adaptation that’s at best, perfectly Average and at…

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