This week Lenovo had their big “Yoga event” in London, where they announced several new “Yoga” branded products (if you don´t know, Yoga is Lenovos brand name for flippable 360° Convertibles and Tablets with kickstand, the first Yoga 13 Convertible was introduced in 2012). Not only did they introduce 5 new Yoga 2 Tablets and the Yoga 3 Pro, the successor of the Haswell Yoga 2 Pro with a really cool hinge design, but also the new ThinkPad Yoga 14. This is not just a refresh of an existing product, but an entirely new product. Not only is it the first 14” seized Yoga, but also the first 14” ThinkPad Convertible. It does not replace the current 12.5” Yoga, it is rather another addition to the product line (the 12.5” Yoga will be refreshed with Broadwell…as well as an rumored new 15.6” TP Yoga). In addition, it is the first ThinkPad Convertible with dedicated graphics.

The new model announced yesterday (full non-markting name: ThinkPad S3 Yoga 14 S300, so this is part of the ThinkPad S-Series and replaces the S440) will be on the market this fall, since Lenovo still uses Haswell U CPUs in here - it is confirmed however that it will come with Broadwell U CPUs when they hit the market in early 2015 (namely, it will come with the Core i3-5010U, i5-5200U and i7-5500U, which all have not been announced yet). Also in January, models with a brand-new fingerprint-reader will be available.

Some Specs:

  • 14” FHD (1920x1080) IPS, 10 point Multitouch, 300nits, Antiglare Glass, LG/AUO screen / 14” HD+ (1600x900) TN screen - 360° hinge

  • Haswell Core i & (starting early next year) Broadwell Core i CPUs

  • GPUs: Intel HD 4400 (Haswell) / HD 5500 (Broadwell) / nVidia GeForce 840M (Optimus)

  • Up to 8 GB RAM (1 DIMM slot, like X240)

  • Dimensions: 338 x 238 x 20 mm

  • Weight: 1.9 kg

  • Up to 1 TB HDDs (5400rpm), 500 GB HDD (7200rpm) or 500 GB SSHD, or up to 512 GB SSD, 2.5”

  • 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 (Always on), 4-in-1 SD card slot, HDMI, Onelink Dockingport

  • AC WLAN & Bluetooth, no WWAN

  • Internal 56 Wh 4 cell Smart Battery / 8 hrs of video playback

  • ThinkPad Precision backlit keyboard / Lift´n Lock / 1.8 mm travel

  • UltraNav with 5 Button ClickPad

  • New Fingerprint-sensor (available January 2015) / Lenovo-made / Touch instead of Swipe

  • Many CRUs compared to the first ThinkPad Yoga: Keyboard, RAM, HDD/SSD, WLAN card, base-unit

  • New lay-flat hinge design

Unfortunately, it lacks some features you might have expected and liked, like LTE or a digitzer-pen for example. Hopefully, someday in the future we will see these features integrated in a 14” Yoga model (in fact, only the Haswell models have been announced, so there is still hope that these features will come with the Broadwell announcement).

All in all, a nice addition to the lineup, for those who want a bigger Convertible. Its clear that Lenovo is expanding their Yoga-portfolio, as these devices are very successful - look out for the ThinkPad Yoga 15 in the coming months.

A hands-on from the announcement:

Again, available this fall/holiday season with Haswell, Broadwell next year.