Lenovo

Lenovo ThinkPad Stack Review

Posted on August 28, 2015September 12, 2021 by Adam Fowler

The ThinkPad Stack. It’s a new product set from Lenovo which takes a little explaining to realise what it is, but also has plenty of potential use cases.

What Is A ThinkPad Stack?
Follow me on this explanation: It’s a series of devices that can be stacked together, for use by one or more computers. Each device can run standalone, or somewhat in tandem with each other.
Currently, there are 4 possible components to the ThinkPad Stack – each can be purchased separately, or you can buy the whole kit (currently for $389.97US).

ThinkPad Stack Box

The stack of devices can be placed in any order – they all have pins to connect device above and below. Connectivity through the pins (named ‘pogo’ pins) is primarily for power, but will also pass through data. On top of that, each device has magnets on top and below, so they won’t fall off and become quite stable when stacked – but also gives the option of quickly taking one device off if required.

What Are The Components That Make Up A ThinkPad Stack?

Battery Pack – a 10,000mAH battery pack is the main way of providing power to everything in the stack. It takes in power via Micro USB, and has two USB A (rectangle) ports so you can charge phones, tablets or anything else that can run off USB. It will also power the other devices in the stack.

Bluetooth Speaker – Running Bluetooth 4.0 and 2 x 2 watt speakers, along with a microphone, this speaker can be used wirelessly or wired via a standard 3.5mm audio jack. It has it’s own battery which will provide up to 8 hours of use. Paired with the dedicated Battery Back, it provides up to 48 hours of use. At a guess I’d say the Bluetooth Speaker has a 2500 mAh battery, but couldn’t find any technical details to confirm. This can also be charged seperately through Micro USB if not connected to the battery pack in stack mode.

Hard Drive – a 1 terrabyte hard disk drive (platter, not SSD) is encased within this component. This isn’t upgradable – there are no visible screws or ways to open any of the modules. It is accessable through either the USB 3 port (cable included), or via the router if you’re connected to that.

Router – A standard router that can be used in a few scenarios (bridged, gateway or Wireless ISP): Connect an ethernet cable into the back, and have a wireless access point for internet/network access or connect a 3G/4G dongle via the USB port to share internet to connected devices. The router supports both 2.4G and 5G WiFi running 802.11 a/b/g/n/a.

Managing and Configuring The ThinkPad Stack

Out of the box, most of the components just work. You can download the ThinkPad Stack Assistant software for Windows, iOS or Android. If you enable advanced mode on the router, it’s managable from the url http://lenovo-stack – otherwise check out the admin user guide. It has a bunch of details about the software, and FAQs which will help you get the devices working the way you want.

ThinkPad Stack Unboxed

Size compared to an iPhone 5S

Use Cases

The ThinkPad Stack isn’t a dock replacement, nor is it a standalone PC – those are common misconceptions (which I had too!) on what the product actually is.

Here are several scenarios I can come up with, where the ThinkPad Stack would be useful:

Sharing a single ethernet cable to provide network/internet access amongst one or more staff (even one who may not have an ethernet port on their laptop, and forgot the dongle).
Centralised storage on small scale – two or three laptops can use the same 1TB storage.
Presenting audio/video, and putting the Bluetooth speaker in the middle of the table so everyone can hear
Making a call via Skype, and using the Bluetooth speaker (with built in mic) as a portable handsfree kit
Emergency charging for phones/tablets

I believe this product is aimed at the mobile worker – if you’re in the same office all day, this probably isn’t for you (you could definitely still make use of it though).

Other Bits

A few extra comments and info around this unit – it comes with a nice fabric pouch to carry the stack, along with cables for the hard drive, power, speaker and a power adapter. It’s surprisingly small for what it is, but I hope they release more modules – I’d recommend a small computer as one, and a monitor extender – plug in USB 3, and you can output to two separate screens. More USB ports is always handy too. I’d like to see it as a full dock replacement, or a full standalone PC.

It’s worth mentioning that there is support for 5 units max currently, which means you can add a second power brick if you really want a lot of battery life.

Overall it’s an interesting looking piece of kit, which will suit certain people in certain situations. I feel it’s well designed and built, and using the pogo pins with magnets to make stacking incredibly easy is a nice addition.

You don’t need to use a Lenovo laptop to connect to these devices either, they’re rather generic.

Got any questions about it? Feel free to post in the comments below.

Lenovo supplied the Thinkpad Stack for this review.

Lenovo X1 Carbon – Three Generations

Posted on April 13, 2015April 7, 2017 by Adam Fowler

An updated version of this article is available here: Five Generations Of The X1 Carbon

The Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen3 came out recently, so I thought it would be a good time to review the 3 models and compare. I won’t be looking at too many of the specs, because each generation has had many configurable options – but where it makes sense, I’ll draw attention to technical differences.

The X1 Carbon is part of Lenovo’s Thinkpad series. These are normally aimed at businesses, due to their military-spec testing. Consumer models of Lenovo laptops are still of high quality, but don’t have the same stringent testing and guarantees. Thinkpads have been around since 1990 – then they were owned by IBM, but Lenovo bought out IBM’s personal computer business in 2005 and continued with the name.

Generation 1

Originally, the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen1 launched in 2012. It was the successor to the Thinkpad X1, and was quite popular when it hit the market, but there were a few major drawbacks. No touchscreen, and a 14″ 1600 x 900 res screen were still good, but not in the realm of amazing. This was partly resolved about 4 months later at the start of 2013, when a touchscreen variant, inventively called the Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch. This still had the lower resolution though, while the Lenovo Helix released at the same time had a much smaller 12″ screen yet ran at 1920 x 1080.

Battery life was quite good too, Lenovo quoting 8 hours under ideal conditions. For a 2012 laptop, that was pretty impressive.

Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch Gen 1 Keyboard

The Gen 1 laptop was powered by a 3rd Generation Intel CPU, Intel HD 4000 graphics chip . It weighed in at 1.54kg. Keyboard wise, this was the standard design that most Thinkpad laptops had, and worked well.

Generation 2

Then in early 2014, the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 2 launched. For the CPU, Lenovo had moved to the 4th Generation of Intel CPUs. Screen wise, the base model was still the 1600 x 900 res, but there was also upgrades available – a massive 2560 x 1440 resolution with an additional touchscreen optional.

Several new design changes were made, and not all were seen as improvements. The biggest was a new feature called the ‘Adaptive Keyboard Row’ which was a long LCD panel at the top of the keyboard. Instead of actual buttons for function keys, it was now a cycling set of images that let you toggle to the keys you wanted – standard function keys, or 3 other screens of laptop shortcuts. Software could be installed to auto detect the most likely keyboard option you’d need, but personally I’d almost always want the function keys. It was also possible to always default to the one you wanted which made it more usable. Personally, I’d rather just have keys and a function button.

Other major changes were the dropping of the left and right buttons on the trackpad – now it was just where you clicked on the trackpad. I prefer those physical buttons. A strange adjustment was removing the caps lock key, and replacing it with ‘Home’ and ‘End’ buttons. For anyone who uses a keyboard regularly, changing the placement of buttons to the opposite side of the keyboard than you’d expect them to be isn’t a great design choice.

Caps lock was still possible to do by pressing ‘Shift’ twice, and that would light up a tiny LED on the shift key to indicate Caps Lock was on. Another strange design choice, as it was very easy to accidently press Shift twice, and start typing in capitals.

Despite these changes, the laptop was still solid overall. For it’s weight, it was 200 grams lighter than it’s predecessor at 1.34kg. The graphics had been updated to Intel HD 4400/5000, and battery life was ‘a bit longer’ at around 9 hours.

Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch Gen 2 Keyboard

The laptop was also thinner, and sported more ports than the Gen 1. Between then Gen 1 and Gen 2, each had it’s pros and cons. If only they could mash them together to make the perfect laptop…

Generation 3

Enter the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen3 in early 2015. A 5th Generation Intel CPU would be inside each laptop, along with another updated Intel HD 5500 graphics chip. The base level resolution had been bumped up to 1920 x 1080, with the standard 2560 x 1440 high res option available, along with a touch variant.

Battery life had gone up another hour or so, to 10ish hours depending on what screen you had. It hadn’t shed any weight, depending on the variant it came in at somewhere between 1.31kg and 1.44kg, which is still rather light and comparable to the MacBook Air.

Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch Gen 3 Keyboard

The adaptive keys were gone, function keys were back. Caps lock had it’s place back on the keyboard too, with Home and End being moved to the right side of the keyboard again. The trackpad had it’s left and right mouse buttons back too!

Almost perfect, except they put the function key back in the bottom left hand corner. For people used to finding the Ctrl button there, it’s a bit of a change to get used to (and Gen 1 had the key in the same spot). Really, it should be one key over – such as Lenovo’s Yoga 2 Pro has.

Generation 4

Please read the bottom of this post for more info.

More Photos

To show what ports are available on each model, and comparing size/style, here’s some photos from each side of the laptops stacked together:

Top to Bottom: Gen3, Gen2, Gen1

Summary

There are many other areas I haven’t covered – such as all three models have a backlit keyboard which is great in the dark. They all have RapidCharge technology, meaning you’ll get about 80% of your charge back in 35 minutes. The screens on all options are high quality with great viewing angles.

They all have Dolby speakers, and dual noise cancelling microphones. All have spill resistant keyboard. There is a lot to like about all the models, but each has it’s own style. Who knows what they’ll do with Gen 4.

Back to Front: Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen1, Gen2, Gen3

Update

The Lenovo Carbon X1 Generation 4 came out in 2016, but I didn’t get one to review. Instead I got the Lenovo X1 Yoga which I think is a better all rounder vs the Carbon X1 Gen4. Check out that review and decide for yourself!

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Review

Posted on March 27, 2015April 12, 2016 by Adam Fowler

I recently reviewed the Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 which I tink is a really awesome laptop. Now, I’ve had a chance to check out the newer Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 which is a bit different again, while being another solid laptop. This will be a mix between looking at the Yoga 3, and comparing it to the Yoga 2. Here’s my thoughts:

Firstly, the model I received was silver. It’s a nice silver, but the Clementine Orange colour of the Yoga Pro 2 which is also available for the Yoga Pro 3 really grew on me, which I was surprised about. Given the choice, I’d pick orange – but the silver probably looks a bit more professional. My other slight disappointment was that Ashton Kutcher, Lenovo Product I Engineer wasn’t featured on my laptop as per the picture:

I moved on fairly quick from that. Here’s the specs of the laptop I have:

DESCRIPTION	LENOVO YOGA 3 PRO MULTIMODE ULTRABOOK
Processor	Intel® Core™ M-5Y70 Processor (4M Cache, 1.1GHz), Turbo Boost 2.0 (2.6GHz)
Operating system	Windows 8.1 64-bit
Display	13.3″ QHD+ (3200×1800), 300nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, with Gorilla glass
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 5300
Memory	8GB, PC3-12800 1600MHz LPDDR3, soldered to system board
Webcam	1.0-megapixel, 720p HD Camera, fixed focus, with dual array microphone
Storage	256GB

Dimensions	330 x 228 x 12.8 mm
Weight	1.19kg
Case colour	Platinum Silver
Battery life	Up to 9 hours
Audio support	Integrated JBL® stereo speakers
Wireless LAN	802.11ac, with Bluetooth 4.0
Ports	2 x USB 3.0 DC-in with USB 2.0 function Combo audio/microphone jack 4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDXC, SDHC) Micro-HDMI

There’s several interesting points here, especially when comparing to the Yoga Pro 2 specs.

The CPU is an Intel Core M model, rather than the i series in the Yoga Pro 2. In a generel performance shootout, the i7 that I had slightly beats the Core M in terms of speed and performance, but the Core M has much more efficient power usage. The Yoga Pro 3 is very quiet when running (there is a fan, but quieter than the Yoga 2 Pro’s). The Yoga 2 Pro gets rather hot when under full load, where as the Yoga Pro 3 only gets slightly warm; a big difference between the two.

This smaller, more power efficient Core M CPU also means the laptop itself can be thinner. Keep in mind that the lower end Yoga Pro 2 comes with an i5 CPU which seems to be so close on performance vs the Core M, you’d notice no difference. There’s also a higher end Yoga Pro 3 than what I have, with the Intel Core M-5Y71 Processor (4M Cache, 1.2GHz), Turbo Boost 2.0 (2.9GHz) CPU which will give you a little extra performance if needed.

There’s not that much difference grunt wise between all these options though, and unless you’re doing really intensive CPU work, they’ll all be more than fast enough for your requirements. The real benefit of the Yoga 3 is the lowered power consumption.

Display is the same between both models, with the very high QHD resolution. Both laptops have amazing screens. Not much else to be said here!

Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 Screen

Keyboard wise, it’s very similar to the Yoga Pro 2. Keys are spaced nicely and it’s nice to type on. The trackpad is a little nicer – I’d still prefer having a separate right click button, but haven’t found any issues with clicking the wrong part.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 Keyboard

Onboard graphics has jumped from the Intel HD 4400 model which has become commonplace, to the HD 5300. There’s no huge difference between these, so again you won’t notice much difference. Intel have a list of games that are playable at 30fps or higher with this chipset, which by no means is an extensive list – but gives you an idea of the capability.

8GB of RAM is more than enough these days, unless you’re doing fairly crazy high end work, or trying to run multiple Virtual Machines – not really what this laptop is designed for. Standard photo and video editing is fine of course. The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard itself which is becoming standard in slim line laptops to save on space.

The internal drive for the Yoga 3 is a 256GB SSD, same as what I had on the Yoga 2. If that’s not enough, there is a 512GB option. Plenty for a laptop!

The Yoga 3 is a rather thin 12.8mm in thickness – thinner than the Yoga 2’s 15.5mm. As a comparison, the Macbook Air‘s thickness is 17mm – so both of these are really thin! Weight wise, the Yoga 3 is also 200 grams lighter than the Yoga 2, and 160grams lighter than the Macbook Air.

Battery life is around the same – again one of those things that is hard to measure and dependent on many factors. You generally won’t get a full day’s work out of it (the 9 hours is really a best case scenario if it’s on the dimmest setting and doing nothing), but it’s still pretty decent for a thin laptop. Power plugs are everywhere anyway! One day we’ll have a Windows capable laptop that can run for a full 8 hour working day under load, and not be chunky (Lenovo Helix with it’s second battery in the keyboard falls into the chunky category).

Ports are pretty standard, apart from the power jack. Recently Lenovo has been using a rectangle plug around the size of a USB-A in most their models, including the Helix, Yoga 2 Pro, Carbon X1 and so on – but the Yoga 3 has a different plug. This time it’s USB-A shaped with an angled end:

Source: Lenovo Forums Supermod “Bananaman”

The angled end plugs into the laptop, and the standard USB-A rectanged end plugs into the power pack. The reason they’ve done this, is to let the port on the laptop double up as a normal USB port. I like the idea of that, but wish they’d done it sooner and standardised – but my guess is that it’s something to do with the new lower power usage of the Intel Core M CPU.

The other benefit of this new cable is the power plug – it will support a normal USB cable and charge your phone or tablet. It gives you a double up on the usefulness of the plug.

The operating system that comes with the Yoga Pro 3 is Windows 8.1 – not the pro version. This may not bother most, but to see if there’s a feature you need have a look at this comparison chart from Microsoft. This OS is not for use in a business environment, as it won’t join a domain – but in saying that, many businesses should have their own licensing agreement with Microsoft and not care about OEM licenses.

I almost forgot – the hinges. The hinges between base and screen are a new style, and look like they’re off a watch. They look pretty classy, and are very functional. The Yoga Pro 2 had a different style which also worked well, but was probably too thick for the thinner Yoga Pro 3.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 Hinges

@dgaust from Twitter recently bought a Lenovo Yoga Pro 3, so I asked him for his thoughts on the device:

@AdamFowler_IT Hardware wise it’s nice, doesn’t heat up, powerful enough, and has enough battery life to get through my days use.

— dg (@dgaust) March 24, 2015

He also mentioned he would have preferred dedicated function keys which is a fair comment, but personally I’m used to just using the function button combo’d with the number keys to get function key usage. I prefer this over the 2nd Generation Carbon X1’s context sensitive panel, which can be frustrating to toggle through.

All in all, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 is an incredibly light and thin laptop, with low power consumption, good battery life and reasonable power that should make most people quite happy to use.

At the time of writing, the base model which I have been using is $2099 AU including GST and delivery.

If you have any questions about the laptop feel free to ask in the comments.

Thanks to Lenovo for providing this laptop for review, and thanks to both @Ant1958 and @AdrianGHughes for asking extra questions which helped in this review.

Review – Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

Posted on February 27, 2015September 12, 2021 by Adam Fowler

Thanks to Lenovo, I’ve been using a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro for the last few months, and I have to say I’m quite impressed with the laptop, so I thought I’d share my thoughts and experience with it.

First, there’s a bit of naming confusion. There are several similar sounding laptops, some even run Android such as the Yoga Tablet series. Wikipedia has a list of all Lenovo Yoga devices which may help clear things up.

The Yoga 2 Pro isn’t the newest iteration either, there’s the Yoga 3 Pro that’s now out, but you may be able to pick up the 2 Pro still and hopefully at a cheaper price than the 3 Pro.

Spec wise, this is a beefy laptop. Lenovo’s website covers a lot of information about the Yoga 2 Pro, but I’ll point out the important bits of the laptop I received:

DESCRIPTION	LENOVO YOGA 2 PRO
Processor	Intel Core i7-4500U Processor (4M Cache, 1.8GHz), Turbo Boost 2.0 (3.0GHz)
Operating system	Windows 8.1 64-bit
Display	13.3″ QHD+ (3200×1800)
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 4400
Memory	8GB DDR3L (on-board)
Storage	256GB (SSD)
Dimensions	330 x 220 x 15.5 mm
Weight	1.39kg
Case colour	Clementine Orange
Battery	4-cell (54Wh)
Battery Life	Up to 9 hours system idle @ 150 nits Up to 6 hours FHD video playback @ 150 nits
Audio support	HD Audio, Dolby® Home Theater® v4 / stereo speakers,

The CPU is a 4th Gen Intel Core i7 – that’s pretty grunty, and like most thin laptops these days, you can really feel the heat coming from the laptop if you push it hard enough and long enough.

RAM wise, 8gb of the stuff should be more than enough for a laptop user. Enough said!

The display is very impressive – it’s rich, bright and has a crazy high resolution, called Quad HD Display. This means you might be winding it down when running certain applications or games that don’t like the newer high resolutions, but that’s not difficult to do. If you need to run the whole laptop in 1920 x 1080 it still works perfectly fine and looks great.

The onboard Intel HD Graphics 4400 is more than adequate, and does very well unless you’re expecting to play games that require a dedicated graphics card.

256gb of SSD is plenty, and fully dedicated SSD – none of this hybrid nonsense. General use of the laptop is very speedy, and I’m now running Windows 10 Technical Preview on it without a hitch.

The sound that comes out of this laptop is better than most due to the Dolby Home Theater Stereo Speakers. No tinny noises from this laptop!

Battery life is really good too – this is a thin, light laptop but still goes for several hours of usage.

Until I read the specs, I didn’t know what sort of Orange the colour of the laptop was – but now I know it’s Clementine Orange. At first I was a bit taken aback, but to my surprise it didn’t take long to get used to the colour and now I really like it. It’s orange enough to look rather different, but not hypercolour orange which you might see construction crews wearing.

The Yoga 2 is a laptop/tablet hybrid, and converts really well. The screen bends all the way back, 360 degrees and disables the keyboard for handy tablet usage. I prefer this to the laptops that undock from the keyboard, or other swivel display type laptops. It’s quite robust and easy to change back and forth.

One of the interesting design choices was moving the power button to the right side of the laptop, near the front. It’s not the first place I’d look for the button, but it does keep it out the way – plus it’s designed to not easily be pressed, so no accidental shutdowns.

Other notable features are the backlit keyboard, which is handy for typing in bed. The surface around the keyboard is slightly grippier than other laptops, which I’m guessing is designed to help when in tablet mode. I’ve also found myself using the laptop in stand mode, which puts the keyboard behind the screen. It’s easier to use as a touchscreen that way, without having to hold the laptop with one hand.

Do we even call this thing a laptop? I’m not sure, but I’m a fan of any device that seems to work just as well in any mode you want it to be in.

I’ve used similar Lenovo laptops, but in the Thinkpad space – that is, the ones designed for business. My work laptop currently is a Lenovo Carbon X1, but I’ve also used the Lenovo Helix of late. Of these, I like the Yoga 2 Pro the most. The Carbon X1 comes close, but it’s a bit heavier and doesn’t have the tablet mode option.

Read the customer reviews on Lenovo’s website and you’ll see similar comments to mine – this is an impressive laptop, which I really can’t fault.

Update:

Regarding Superfish, this particular laptop didn’t have it. The manufacture date on the back is May 2014, well before the September 2014 – February 2015 period that affected several Lenovo laptops, including this one.

Superfish can be uninstalled with Lenovo’s Superfish Uninstaller.

Update 2:

Here’s Lenovo’s announcement on the issue: http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1934

I look forward to zero bloatware on new Lenovo PCs running Windows 10!

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