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It’s insane how light this laptop is. Lenovo and NEC partnered to build a notebook PC with one goal in mind: The World’s Lightest Laptop. No performance compromises as the LaVie Z is packing a Core i7 processor, but did they have to skimp elsewhere? Let’s take a look!
Shop the LaVie Z on Amazon.
LaVie Z Speaker Test.
More info on the LaVie Z.
More news out of the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel showed off an Ultrabook powered by a new “Broadwell” processor which utilizes a 14nm construction.
Known as a “die-shrink”, newer processors are refined and made smaller than their predecessors. This improves power management, which should reduce wasted electricity (also reducing wasted heat), and improve battery life. At some point however, we’ll be fighting physics as we wont be able to continue shrinking these parts forever.
While we might hit that manufacturing brick wall some day, that day is not today.
Intel recently released “Haswell” to the market, and its 22nm construction has already allowed for new tablet-like form factors for full-fledged PC’s from Sony, Lenovo, Asus, and other manufacturers. Computers which run full versions of desktop operating systems and programs, but in form factors approaching consumer grade tablets. Intel is estimating that Broadwell based computers will see an almost 30% gain in battery life over current Haswell technology. We could be seeing Windows 8 tablets and hybrids approaching or surpassing iPad battery life by early next year.
Intel also discussed 14nm construction for their Atom line of low power chips used in phones. Those parts should be shipping in actual devices by the end of 2014.
Intel president Renée James also teased future development from the CPU developer, claiming “we have 14 nanometer working and we can see beyond that. I assure you it’s alive and well.” Exciting stuff, especially for future mobility products.
It’s happened to you at some point. You’re busy, in the middle of doing something on a laptop. You aren’t able to get to a charger, but you’re trying to wrap up what you’re working on. Even if you have a spare battery charged and ready, you still probably want to safely power down your lappy rather than just yank the battery out. It sounds like a first world problem, but when you’re in the zone, it can be a pain.
Lenovo might have a solution for you weary laptop warrior. Utilizing their new “Power Bridge” technology newer Thinkpads will be able to swap a battery without having to shut the system off. This is a welcome improvement to power management. In combination with Intel’s new Haswell processors, newer Thinkpad laptops and Ultrabooks should be good for substantially longer run time. Lenovo is claiming to the tune of 17 hours in between charges.
More news regarding Lenovo’s updates to the T, X, and S Series notebooks after the jump.
Continue reading “Lenovo Intros Thinkpads with Hot-Swap battery”