Ahead of the company's first-ever Tech World event to be held in Beijing on May 28, Lenovo has revealed three new budget laptops, namely the Ideapad 100, the Lenovo Z41 and the Lenovo Z51.
At the Lenovo Tech World event, the company looks to reveal its vision on how computers and its technologies will evolve over the next five years. Low-cost consumer laptops seem to be part of that vision with the unveiling of three such devices before the event.
The Ideapad 100 will have a starting price of only $249, marking it as a true entry-level laptop which could challenge Google's Chromebook. The Ideapad 100 will offer customers with options of either a 14-inch screen or a 15-inch screen, with the laptop to feature processors of up to the Intel BayTrail-M N3540. This signals that the $249 base version of the laptop will pack a less powerful processor than that.
The Ideapad 100 will feature either up to 128GB of SSD or 500GB of HDD, with RAM of up to 8GB. The laptop, which has a battery life pegged at about four hours in a single charge, will pack a card reader, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, and an HDMI-out port. The laptop will not be light though, with 14-inch version to weigh 4.19 pounds and the 15-inch version to weigh 5.07 pounds.
The multimedia-focused Lenovo Z41 and the Lenovo Z51 laptops are a bit more upscale than the Ideapad 100, but are still considered as affordable. The 14-inch Z41 and the 15-inch Z51 feature a full high-definition 1080p display with an expansive range of purchase options, at a base price of $499.
The top specifications for the Z41 and the Z51, which will double the price of the laptop, will feature an Intel Core i7 processor, either HDD or SSHD storage of 1TB, RAM of 16GB and the AMD R7-M360 GPU on the Z41 or the AMD R9-M375 on the Z51.
Similar to the heavier than most weight of the Ideapad 100, the Z41 has a weight of 4.63 pounds while the Z51 has a weight of 5.07 pounds.
Customers can also choose to purchase the optional RealSense 3D camera with the Z51, which users can utilize for 3D scanning, gesture control and gaming. The Intel camera will increase the Z51's price to $599.
"We've created the new Lenovo Z41, Z51 and Ideapad 100 laptops specifically for customers who want simple and functional design," said Lenovo Notebook Business Unit, PC Group VP and general manager Bai Peng, adding that the three laptops will provide customers with more options.
The three laptops, which will be released to the market in June, are expected by Lenovo to help the company maintain its lead in the global PC industry. The company's share in the market slightly decreased from 20 percent in the third quarter of last year to 19.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
