Lenovo Debuts Flexible ThinkPad P40 Yoga, Thin And Light ThinkPad P50s Mobile Workstations

We’ve all enjoyed Lenovo’s Yoga series of consumer laptops for years, but it looks like the Chinese OEM is looking to extend that flexibility to its storied ThinkPad product line. That brings us to the introduction of the ThinkPad P40 Yoga, which Lenovo bills as the “first-ever multimode mobile workstation.”

The ThinkPad P40 Yoga is meant to be a versatile mobile workstation for business professionals, offering sixth generation Intel Core i7 Skylake processors, a maximum of 16GB of DDR3L memory (via a solitary SODIMM slot) and support for up to a 512GB SATA SSD. When it comes to displays, Lenovo offers two 14.1-inch options: a 1920x1080 IPS display with a brightness level of 250 nits and a 2560x1440 IPS display with a brightness of 300 nits. Both feature Wacom Active ES Technology, supporting 2048 levels of sensitivity, and are powered by a stout NVIDIA Quadro M500M GPU with 2GB of RAM.

The convertible comes standard with the ThinkPad Pen Pro, which can soak up an 8-hour charge in just 30 seconds. And you won’t have to worry about losing the pen, and is stores safely inside the ThinkPad P40 Yoga’s chassis. In addition, connectivity options are plentiful, as you’ll find three USB 3.0 ports (but no USB-C ports), HDMI 1.4, Mini DisplayPort 1.2, GbE, docking connector, Smart Card reader, microSIM slot, 4-in-1 media reader, Bluetooth 4.1, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

Given that this is still a Yoga at heart, it is capable of functioning in four different modes: Tablet, Laptop, Stand and Tent Modes. And just in case you have have butter fingers when operating the ThinkPad P40 Yoga, it is MIL-SPEC tested for “maximum durability.” The ThinkPad P40 Yoga also carries over the Lift ’n Lock keyboard from the consumer Yoga series, which automatically raises up the frame surrounding the keys when switched into tablet mode.

Whereas the ThinkPad P40 Yoga is aimed at mobile warriors that like the versatility of a convertible, the ThinkPad P50s is all about providing a lot of performance and features into a relatively thin and lightweight -- for a business notebook -- frame. Like the aforementioned ThinkPad P40 Yoga, the ThinkPad P50s uses a Skylake-based Core i7 processor and a dedicated NVIDIA Quadro M500M GPU. It features two SODIMM slots, so maximum memory capacity doubles to 32GB. You’ll also find support for SATA and PCIe SSDs along with traditional hard drives (if you’re still into that sort of thing).

On the display front, you’ll find touch and non-touch options along with an optional brilliant 3K (2880 x 1620) IPS display. All feature a screen size of 15.6 inches. Port and connectivity options on the 4.9-pound notebook mirror that of the ThinkPad P40 Yoga.

Both the ThinkPad P40 Yoga and ThinkPad P50s will be available in Q1 2016 priced from $1,399 and $1,299 respectively.