Lenovo's X1 Yoga :First-ever OLED laptop,

It has finally happened: You’ll soon be able to buy a laptop with an OLED display.
Already a common display technology in phones and televisions, OLED’s big advantage over traditional LED displays is its ability to turn off a pixel entirely, rendering it as a true, deep, inky black. This boosts contrast and provides far more natural image quality.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga will be the first laptop to offer this technology when it hits the market in spring of 2016, and believe me – it’s incredible. Lenovo will also build an X1 Yoga with a standard display, and showed it side-by-side with the OLED model. I could see the difference even from across the room. The OLED panel’s superior contrast made dark backgrounds look far deeper and, just as importantly, helped fine details stand out.

Lenovo says the 1440p OLED screen will add about $200 to the X1 Yoga’s base price of $1450. The OLED will also reduce battery life to some degree, potentially reducing endurance from 11 to 9 hours. Details will vary based on what’s viewed, as the OLED display is extremely efficient when rendering dark scenes, it can be power hungry when displaying white and bright colors.

Aside from its display, the X1 Yoga doesn’t stand out from a glance. But that may be a good thing. Lenovo has modeled the system off the X1 Carbon, an excellent enterprise Ultrabook. That means it shares the X1’s dimensions, keyboard, touchpad, and offers similar connectivity including three USB 3.0 ports. The keyboard particularly is very impressive. It offers an excellent layout with deep key travel and excellent feedback. Plus there’s trackpointer in the center of the keyboard, which works fantastically. You could see the difference even from across the room.

The hardware’s no slouch, either. There’s a selection of 6^th-gen Intel Core processors, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe NVMe storage. These specifications have become standard for high-end Ultrabooks, but no one can accuse Lenovo of falling behind in performance.

In short, the X1 Yoga looks like it’ll be a great notebook. It may not be such a great tablet, however – because as said, it’s similar to the X1 Carbon, which is a 14-inch system. Like most past Yoga 2-in-1s, this model uses a 360 degree hinge, which means the bottom half is always part of the package. It does offer Lenovo’s lift and lock keyboard, which retracts the keys to keep them out of the way when the system is folded back into a tablet. But the fact remains that this is a 2.8-pound notebook that’s a bit less than seven-tenths of an inch thick. It’s much larger than any tablet, even an iPad Pro


Source: Digital Trends.

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HP unviels new range of laptops for 2016

HP is updating its line of portable, business-class laptops and 2-in-1s with a new 12.5 inch EliteBook Folio laptop, a third-gen EliteBook 1040 notebook with a 14 inch display, a third-gen EliteBook 800 lineup featuring 12.5 inch to 15.6 inch displays,Spectre X360 will feature a 15.6-inch 4K diagonal touchscreen display and a Pavilion X2 featuring a 12-inch display.

EliteBook Folio G1

The EliteBook Folio is HP's answer to the MacBook. It isn't the most powerful computer in the world, but it's easy to take around with you and, in future generations, will likely grow much more capable. The machine is running on one of Intel's Core M processors (either an M3, an M5, or an M7), all from the new Skylake line.

This compact notebook measures less than half an inch thick and weighs less than 2.2 pounds. It has a CNC aluminum case, a durable MIL-STD tested body, and support for options including a 3840 x 2160 pixel display and a touchscreen display.

The notebook has two Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports and a headphone jack,a hinge that lets you fold the screen down 180 degrees, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, a 38 Whr battery which is supposed to run for about 10 hours., 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of solid state storage. Compared to the MacBook, it's slightly larger but then again you're getting more connectivity in return. HP says it'll stand up to MIL-STD 810G4 ruggedness testing too.

HP will offer models with Core M5 or Core M7 processors and prices are expected to start at $999 when the Elitebook Folio G1 goes on sale later in March.

EliteBook 1040 G3

The 14 inch EliteBook 1040 G3 appears similar to its predecessor, the EliteBook Folio 1040 G2, save for a more rounded trackpad. This now houses a new, stiffer mechanism for the left and right buttons, which is also used in the EliteBook Folio. Though it's a little bigger, but it’s also more powerful, with support for up to a Core i7 Skylake processor, and up to 16GB of RAM.

The EliteBook 1040 G3 is significantly lighter than the older model, down from 1.5kg to 1.3kg. It also switches up its extensive range of ports, replacing the DisplayPort with one USB-C and one full-size HDMI connector. That's in addition to two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader and, unusually, a SIM card slot, which enables 4G LTE connectivity. An optional fingerprint scanner can be fitted as well.
As for battery life, HP Inc claims that the EliteBook 1040 G3 can last for up to 11 hours of mixed use, while the EliteBook Folio can manage up to 10 hours.
The EliteBook 1040 G3 will be the first to launch, arriving in the UK in late January starting at £1,000. UK prices for the EliteBook Folio have yet to be confirmed, but will start at €999 when it launches throughout Europe - including the UK - in March.

EliteBook 800 G3 Series

The EltieBook 800 G3 series covers a lot of ground: there are models with 12.5 inch, 14 inch, and 15.6 inch displays which also has some more powerful internal specs with Intel Core processors, AMD R7 Radeon Discrete graphics, and a full HD, quad HD, or Ultra HD resolutions. It’s spill resistant, has a backlit premium keyboard, and a full-sized VGA port.

What these new business-class notebooks have in common is an upgrade to Intel’s 6th-gen Core “Skylake” processors and designs that are about 10 percent thinner and 13 percent lighter than last year’s models.
The new EliteBook 800 G3 notebooks should be available this month starting at $949 USD.

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Spectre X360 and Pavilion X2 

The new Spectre X360 will feature a 15.6-inch 4K diagonal touchscreen display, which is capable of resolution up to 3820 x 2160. Consumers will get to choose between an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, an up-to-512GB solid-state drive, and an optional Intel Iris GPU. This supersized version of the Spectre X360 will be available through Best Buy, with a starting price of $1,150.
The smaller of the two products, the Pavilion X2, is getting a boost from a 10-inch to a 12-inch display. HP is also offering solid-state drives up to 256GB — a major jump from the previous model, which maxed out at 64GB. Processor choices on this larger Pavilion X2 appear to be tied to which solid-state drive option you select. If you want the 256GB version, I have to stick with an Intel Core M solution. Otherwise, it’s the Intel Atom for solid-state drives up to 128GB. I’ll have about a month to make my decision, as this new 12-inch Pavilion X2 isn’t launching until February 7, when it will be available online and at select retailers for $500.

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