Lenovo has an event planned on October 9th in London. We know for sure that they will be announcing a new line of Yoga tablets. We know this because their press invites and live streaming event says so as you can see to the right.
It isn’t a secret that I really love what Lenovo has been doing with their Yoga tablets lately. The 8 and 10 were great for their size, price and battery life. The Yoga 10 HD+ pushed thing up in the screen resolution department and was able to keep the weight low and the battery life long. Now it is time for Lenovo to reinvent their Yoga tablets with a 2nd generation that is even better than before.
A series of leaks, FCC filing details and images have been appearing on the web over the last few days and I have been watching them pretty intently. While there will no doubt be a set of Windows variants, the new Android offerings are what I am after. The first bit of details on what Lenovo would bring surfaced on Mobile Geeks. They nabbed a screen with some device names and minimal descriptions. Liliputing also got a screen grab of the same thing on Lenovos site. Of course the details shown have nice been pulled back down.
You can see three different tablet sizes being listed. A 8-inch, a 10-inch and a whopping 13-inch variant. The mini description mentions 4 way to use the new line of Yoga’s – Stand, Tilt, Hold and Hang. The first three are aspect of the current Yoga tablets that I find quite useful, particularly the stand mode. ‘Hang’ on the other hand, that one is new. How they plan to do that is kind of obvious when you mix in the image below that was posted by comparatif-tablette.
Having used, and still use, the previous Yoga line, I can tell you that the oblong cutout on the stand is new. I am going to assume that the stand rotates all the way around now will let you hang it from that slot on a hook, or thumb tack. The speaker grill looks a bit different too.
The same site also covers the specs that are supposedly also coming with the new line. All three are said to launch with Android 4.4 KitKat. The screens seem to all be upgraded in resolution too. With the 8-inch hitting 1920 x 1200. I am reading specs that include quad-core Intel Atom Bay Trail chipsets, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on board storage. Along with an 8MP camera on the rear and a 1.6MP camera on the front. I am certain Lenovo has done their due diligence with the batteries meaning we can expect the usual 18 hour all day strong use.
While refreshed Yoga 8’s and 10’s are particularly interesting, it is the listing for a 13-inch one that has me all giddy. Again, relying on the info from comparatif, they state the 13.3-inch tablet will carry a resolution of 2560 x 1440. It is supposedly also packing in a 9,600 mAh battery. I would image that is to give that massive screen enough juice to compete with the 8 and 10 in terms of battery life. The internal storage is also said to be bumped to 32GBs. I am pretty curious about the odd rounded square on the back of it too. That looks like a speaker grill. I can’t be certain though.
All of them will likely have SD card slots, you are sure to find Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11n as well.
So far so good. It certainly sounds like Lenovo is continuing to move forward with the Yoga line and improve its hardware. A 13.3-inch variant with that resolution is going to make for a stunning viewing experience. Of course all of this is rumor, speculation and leaked renders over the last few days from various sources.
One more little precarious thought though before I leave you to your day. A recent YouTube video went up with Ashton Kutcher in it. He is the product engineer on the Yoga line and will be live at the event as well. He sat down with some entrepreneurs and talked about the Yoga a little. There is a little comedy mixed in, of course. Ashton asked the group a question though: “What if you could project what was on the screen to a wall?” Seriously, I think that would be pretty cool really. Check out the video for yourself.
