APAC firms face a 2026 AI reckoning, forced to turn fragile pilots into robust, edge-ready systems without collapsing legacy IT. Read...

Lenovo’s Yoga Mini i is Lenovo’s answer to one of the hottest categories around: the mini PC. And yes, it’s round, with a light bar that’s as productive as it is fun. Lenovo claims that this devices takes up a liter of volume. It does not, according to a rather indignant product manager that insisted that the total volume might be closer to 0.85 liters instead. In any event, the Yoga Mini i will ship in June for an estimated starting price of $699. Mini PCs have begun to surge in popularity, partly because they can offer a substantial amount of computing horsepower in very little space. They’ve become the territory of ambitious Taiwanese and smaller Chinese vendors, but Lenovo, traditionally at or near the top of the PC vendor list, is determined to make its mark. How? Though a nifty little light bar that runs underneath this mini PC. Naturally, you can configure the color within a Windows application, and you can tell the Mini i to light the bar or flash it in a variety of scenarios: when it detects your presence, when something happens (like an email), or any number of other configurable situations. The Lenovo Yoga Mini i mini PC can be controlled via the Lenovo AI Turbo Engine app.Mark Hachman / Foundry The Lenovo Yoga Mini I uses Wi-Fi sensing, a technology that Intel debuted in the Core Ultra 200, or “Lunar Lake.” Imagine sitting by a still, foggy pond, whose surface begins to ripple and splash as something moves through it. Wi-Fi sensing can’t tell the Mini i who’s there, but it can wake up the device. The mini PC has an integrated fingerprint sensor to identify and authenticate the user. Lenovo’s demo showcase proclaimed its close alliance with Intel, and no wonder: the Mini i includes the core Ultra X7 358H inside of it, one of the “Panther Lake” chip variants due for a more formal unveiling here at CES 2026. This mini PC can be literally held in the hand, but the Lenovo Yoga Mini i really isn’t portable.Mark Hachman / Foundry The Lenovo Yoga Mini i weighs just 1.32 lb, and Lenovo feels that it’s small enough to be moved from room, or even into a backpack. I don’t agree; disconnecting all those cords and cables will be a pain. It’s 5.12 inches in diameter, and just under 2 inches thick. On the outside, there’s a Thunderbolt 4 port, two 10Gbps USB-C ports (one designed to accept power), an HDMI 2.1 interface, and a 5Gbps USB-A port, too. An Ethernet jack accepts up to 2.5Gbps inputs. Ports, ports, ports adorn the Lenovo Yoga Mini i .Mark Hachman / Foundry Lenovo is still saying that the Mini i can include up to 32GB of LPDDR5x memory and up to a 2TB PCIe SSD, apparently banking on what the company says is a stockpile of memory and storage components to help offset sharp price increases. We also don’t know the minimum specification. But $699 is a pretty diminutive price for this mini PC. Read...

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist may be a mouthful to say, but the concept is a simple one: it’s a laptop that can recognize you and swivels itself to face you. Why? Because not everyone sits at their desk. Lenovo’s new ThinkBook might be useful for lecturers walking around a stage or simply for those people who can’t help but pace during a video call. And if that’s not enough, the laptop can pop up at your command. If you’ve been following Lenovo, you probably are familiar with the company’s ongoing proofs-of-concept, which generally evolve into actual products. That’s the case for the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist, which my colleague Chris Martin of Tech Advisor saw Lenovo show off in 2024. Today, Lenovo is announcing it as a product, shipping in June 2026 for a starting price of $1,649. Lenovo has shown off similar concepts in the past: at CES 2025, for example, Lenovo showed off a display that could twist and track your face as you moved, presenting the display at an optimal angle. That’s the same concept as the Auto Twist. It swivels, and opens and closes so that the screen is facing you at all times. It’s similar to the OBSBOT webcams I’ve reviewed for PCWorld, which have an independent gimbal that allows the camera to twist and turn to follow your face. Lenovo’s Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist incorporates a “Space Frame” motif that collects all of the I/O components in the same area without needing to extend the thicker portion of the laptop across its entire length. Mark Hachman / Foundry While I didn’t have a chance to test the original proof of concept, Lenovo now says that the electromagnetic motors inside the Auto Twist are quieter than before. They’re certainly not silent, however. Lenovo also showed off the laptop’s ability to respond to gestures and even spoken commands. Otherwise, the new ThinkBook Auto Twist is very similar to the other business and consumer laptops Lenovo is showing off here at CES 2026. Inside the 14-inch ThinkBook is an Intel Core Ultra Series 3, code-named Panther Lake. The display itself is a 2.8K touchscreen OLED, with a 120Hz refresh rate and one capable of pumping out 500 nits of brightness. Frankly, I was surprised that Lenovo seems committed to giving this ThinkBook premium specs: up to 32GB of LPDDR5x DDR5 memory, and up to 2TB of M.2 2280 PCIe SSD storage. Of course, who knows what they’ll cost, given the ongoing memory shortage which has driven DRAM and storage prices through the roof. Inside is a 75 watt-hour battery, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth, paired with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports. The notebook weighs in at 3.09 pounds. The other side of the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist. On the screen some of the controls can be glimpsed including the laptops’ ability to use voice commands. Mark Hachman / Foundry I didn’t have time to really dig into the the ThinkBook, though my brief hands-on showed that it worked as advertised. I’m a little curious to see how sensitive it will be over time, reacting to minor head movements and glances between multiple displays. I’d also agree with Chris Martin’s assessment that it might be a little jerky when moving around the room, leading to a rough experience to whoever you’re talking to. Sure, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist might be a bit niche. Maybe even weird. But everyone still wrestles with laptops and webcams that don’t always show your face, directly facing the camera. Lenovo’s ongoing work in this area may continue to pay dividends down the road. Read...

At CES 2026, Lenovo showed up with a big gaming refresh that focuses less on a single exorbitantly expensive laptop and more on options for different types of gamers. But there’s one concept laptop that both confused and delighted me. That concept is the Legion Pro Rollable (pictured above) and it’s exactly what it sounds like. It starts as a 16-inch gaming laptop, but the OLED screen can physically roll out to 21.5 inches or a full 24 inches. Lenovo says it’s meant for on-the-go esports players who train on big monitors. Internally, it’s based on the Legion Pro 7i and packs top-tier Intel Core Ultra chips and an RTX 5090 Laptop GPU. Lenovo The Legion 7a is thinner and lighter than last year’s model, runs AMD’s new Ryzen AI 400 processors, and pairs them with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50-series graphics, which can push up to 125W. Lenovo’s positioning it as a machine you can game on, but also use it for coding or 3D work. The Legion 5 series sits right below that. You can get it with Intel or AMD CPUs, but either way you’re still getting RTX 50-series GPUs, OLED displays, and Lenovo’s AI Engine+ tuning for when you want to adjust the power and thermals. This is the mainstream option for those who want strong gaming performance without dropping tons of cash. Then there’s the LOQ lineup, which is geared more toward students and people buying their first gaming PC. It’s cheaper and simpler, but still fast enough to run modern games.  Prices start at $1,149 for the LOQ, while most Legion models fall between $1,499 and $1,999, with a spring 2026 release. Read...

Lenovo’s latest prototype rollable, the ThinkPad Rollable XD Concept, clearly demonstrates that Lenovo feels that rollable displays are the future — or if not the future, than a niche that it can serve while its competitors do not. Yes, it looks familiar: the ThinkBook Plus Rollable debuted in 2025, extending the laptop’s screen vertically upwards by about 2.5 inches. Now, the ThinkBook Plus has given way to the ThinkPad Rollable XD at CES 2026, with a few tweaks to presumably make the laptop more accessible to corporate customers. The key feature of the ThinkPad Rollable is that the extended display is functional in both modes, in both the “extended” configuration as well as in a “normal” laptop configuration. While in its compact “laptop” mode, the display actually wraps around the back of the laptop, creating a small rectangular screen a few inches on the rear of the ThinkPad Rollable XD. In this configuration, the rear display is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus cover, which allows the laptop to be stored in a backpack or carrying bag without harm to the display. Lenovo also believes that the rear-facing screen could be used as a business tool, and the concept that the company showed reporters included such items as a calendar, various widgets, and potentially an ongoing translation of what the speaker was expressing in a different language. Lenovo didn’t state whether the ThinkPad Rollable XD would be a candidate for Qira, its AI tool that will debut on “select” Lenovo devices and Motorola smartphones, but it’s likely that it could be. Mark Hachman / Foundry Otherwise, the ThinkPad Rollable XD learns from its consumer-oriented counterpart. The laptop’s display also extends from 13.3 inches upwards to nearly 16 inches, creating an extra ribbon of screen space, or transforming a landscape laptop into one oriented as a portrait screen. Lenovo didn’t release specifications for the device, given that it’s still in prototype mode. But I was told to imagine it as a potential candidate for Panther Lake, Intel’s Core Ultra 300 processor which is debuting this CES 2026 as well. Naturally, Lenovo claims that the ThinkPad Rollable XD is still a prototype, and will remain so for now. But Lenovo has a habit of actually launching its prototype devices as finished products, so keep your fingers crossed that it eventually comes to market. Read...

If you’ve been waiting — like we have — for truly useful artificial-intelligence applications to land on your laptop, Lenovo has an answer: Qira, a Lenovo-authored AI app that will live on new, select Lenovo PCs and Qira smartphones in the first quarter of 2026. Lenovo describes Qira as an “ambient” intelligence, which might be both good or bad; Windows’ Clippy was famously an assistant which tried to understand what you were doing and offer assistance. Qira sounds like something similar, though with the intent that it “follows” you from Lenovo device to Lenovo device, or on to a Motorola smartphone as well, using a combination of agents and other tasks. Lenovo says that this will be marketed as Lenovo Qira, launching on “select” devices in the first quarter, and as Motorola Qira on smartphones later on. Lenovo says that Qira was designed for privacy, running locally as well as in conjunction with “secure” cloud services. “Every aspect of the Lenovo Qira experience is designed to be secure, ethical, and accountable,” Lenovo says. I didn’t really have a chance to see Qira in action before CES 2026, where Lenovo launched the technology. But the company describes Qira as performing three key functions: presence, actions, and perception. Yes, Lenovo Qira looks a bit like an LLM.Mark Hachman / Foundry Qira can “proactively surface suggestions,” or it can be invoked by saying “Hey, Qira” or by clicking the app’s icon. Lenovo says that you’ll be able to specify documents or “memories” for Qira to access, but that it also “orchestrates actions across apps and devices, coordinates agents, and moves work forward without forcing users to manage every step themselves,” using agents or even offline. The idea is that will develop a “living model of the user’s world,” understanding “context, continuity, and personal patterns over time.” Naturally, a Windows PC like Lenovo’s will already have Microsoft’s Copilot running. It will be interesting to see if the two can interact, or if Lenovo will try to push Copilot to the background instead. That’s a lot of buzzwords that could mean just about anything, depending on the context. Native applications are polarizing enough already: some users like an absolutely “clean” Windows installation, while others appreciate apps like Lenovo’s Vantage software, a centralized command and control center for configuring various aspects of Lenovo laptops, such as function keys or whether a laptop’s charging ports work while the laptop is in a sleep state. Lenovo Qira, presumably transcribing voice input.Mark Hachman / Foundry I personally like Vantage, but there’s a major difference between clicking through a series of actions in a centralized app, and then giving access to personal documents to an unknown AI. I can’t help but suspect that Lenovo will have a kill switch in place for certain customers. What, specifically, can Lenovo’s Qira do? Some of Qira’s abilities sound familiar: “Write for Me,” for example, is something most AI’s can do, penning some text in an appropriate style or voice. Catch Me Up is something apps like Slack offer: the ability to summarize an active chat Here, it “highlights what matters, and helps you re-enter your work.” Similarly, “Pay Attention” provides translations and transcriptions when enabled, as well as AI summaries, similar to Otter.ai or other transcription services. Another use case for Lenovo Qira.Mark Hachman / Foundry Others feel a bit more experimental. A Live Interaction feature “enables real-time, multimodal interaction while you are sharing your screen” — whatever that means. “Next Move” sounds like the weirdest, offering “proactive, contextual suggestions based on what you’re doing in the moment, with continuity across devices evolving over time,” Lenovo said. “It surfaces useful next actions to help you move forward without extra steps.” Qira, naturally, is a big bet for Lenovo. Corporate customers are sure to give Qira a doubtful eye…but many of those same customers are being actively encouraged to use AI to save time and resources. A vocal cadre of consumers actively hate it. We still don’t know which devices Qira will debut on. But as one of the largest PC companies in the world, Lenovo is almost obligated to give AI a try. We’ll have to see if it can pull it off. Read...

At CES 2026, Lenovo rolled out refreshed Yoga Aura Edition laptops. The idea is that the laptop figures out what you’re doing and quietly adjusts itself, instead of you constantly poking around in your settings wondering why your battery is dying so fast.  Foundry / Mark Hachman The big one is the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition. This thing is clearly built for creators who want power without going the full desktop route. It runs Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips with Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics, and Lenovo redesigned the thermal system so it can run harder without overheating or getting super loud.  The most interesting thing is the new Force Pad, though. It looks like a normal touchpad, but you can draw directly on it with the included Yoga Pen. This is kind of perfect for quick sketches or marking things up without whipping out another device. And because this is an Aura Edition device, you get access to Lenovo’s Smart features. Whether you’re deep in the throes of a complicated spreadsheet or binge-watching your favorite Netflix show, Smart Modes quietly alters performance, battery life, and so on based on whatever you’re doing.  Smart Share, on the other hand, lets you tap your phone to the laptop for quickly moving photos and videos around. And, if anything goes horribly wrong, Smart Care lets you connect with Lenovo’s support team with a single click. Foundry / Mark Hachman If you don’t want a big, heavy laptop, there are lighter options too. The Yoga Slim 7i Ultra Aura Edition packs a lot of power into a sub-2.2-pound body, while the Yoga Slim 7x is all about long battery life (you can thank the Snapdragon chip for that one!). No matter which one you gander at, OLED screens and solid speakers are pretty much a given. Depending on the model, Yoga Aura Edition laptops will cost between $949 and $1,899 and are expected to hit stores in Q2 2026. Read...

At CES 2026, Lenovo officially pulled the curtain back on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition and the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 11 Aura Edition. It’s a refreshed take that focuses less on gimmicks and more on smarter performance and AI that actually does something useful. The biggest change, however, is the redesigned cooling system. Foundry / Mark Hachman Lenovo has a new internal design, dubbed “Space Frame,” that reorganizes the laptop’s internals so the components now sit on both sides of the motherboard. This reorganization should result in better cooling, higher sustained performance, and… easy repairs! USB ports, the battery, keyboard, speakers, even the fans! It’s all modular, which is pretty interesting. Performance gets a sizable bump this year thanks to the inclusion of new Intel Core Ultra X7 Series 3 processors with built-in NPUs for AI stuff you can use directly on the laptop itself. Lenovo says the improved thermals allow up to 30W of sustained power, and they’ve got faster LPDDR5x memory too, so, given the equipment we’re working with here, these ThinkPads should have zero problems tackling some heavy multitasking. Foundry / Mark Hachman Lenovo’s also rolling out new AI-powered software features on Aura Edition laptops. There’s Smart Modes, which automatically adjust performance, privacy, and focus settings based on whatever it is you’re doing at the time. Smart Share enables tap-to-share photos and videos, and Smart Care acts like an AI troubleshooting assistant when things go sideways. There are hardware upgrades too, including a new 10MP ultra-wide webcam, larger haptic touchpads, a better pen for the 2-in-1 model, and more sustainable materials throughout the chassis. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition and the X1 2-in-1 Gen 11 Aura Edition are expected to launch in March 2026, with prices starting at $1,999 and $2,149, respectively. Read...

In 2025, Lenovo stole the show at CES with a rollable ThinkBook. At CES 2026, it’s doing it again, but with a rollable Legion gaming laptop widescreen that expands the screen to either side, transforming into an ultrawide gaming notebook at a moment’s notice. Right now, the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable concept is a proof-of-concept prototype, but so have the rollable laptops that Lenovo has shown previously. Most if not all have come to market, though we won’t known when or for how much. Give credit where it’s due: Lenovo isn’t afraid to show off concepts of future devices, encouraging discussion and feedback before they even ship. Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Rollable from last year was all about productivity: the $3,299 notebook’s screen extended upwards from 14 inches to create a 16.7-inch display, adding a bit of extra screen space for road warriors. The underlying argument is that more screen space is better than less, especially while working on the road and without an external monitor. The Legion Pro Rollable goes the other way, literally. The screen extends twice: both from a 16-inch display to a 21.5 inch screen, on out to about 23.8 inches, all controlled (for now) via the function keys on the top row of the keyboard. It’s all based on Lenovo’s masterful Legion 7i, which earned nearly five stars in PCWorld’s review. Lenovo’s Legion Pro Rollable concept in action.Mark Hachman / Foundry Are ultrawides worth it for gaming? In certain situations, absolutely. Games which don’t focus on competition, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, simply use that extra space to show more of the world. Games like Civilization may show more of the map. Even if a game is locked to a 16:9 ratio, that extra space can be used for something like the Xbox app or Discord. And if the app does refuse to use that extra space — such as applying black bars around a cutscene, for example — the Legion Pro Rollable would always offer the option of “shrinking” the display back down to a more comfortable ratio. Since Lenovo’s Rollable is a prototype, however, we don’t know too much else about it. Lenovo executives say if they build it, you should expect the “best of the best” with a top-of-the-line gaming processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. (Lenovo does make laptops based upon AMD and Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, but everything we saw at CES 2026 from the company had an Intel processor inside.) The one component that Lenovo appears to have settled upon, however, is the screen: a rollable OLED featuring a high contrast ratio. Right now, the resolution is “3.6K,” or a hair under a 4K display, running at 60 to 90 Hz. Again, those are prototype specifications: an OLED with between 165Hz to 240Hz is much more likely, executives said. (At those resolutions and refresh rates, why would you ever go back to an IPS display?) I didn’t have too much time to go hands-on with the Legion Pro rollable, but it certainly felt like a finished device. About the only drawback I noticed was the motors: the gearing which rolled and unrolled the laptop’s display was on the loud side. Just remember that it’s still classified as a prototype…even if we can expect it to arrive as a product before long. Read...

Smart appliances that can be controlled with voice commands are nothing new, but IAI Smart is showing a new line of Emerson Smart appliances at CES that respond directly to voice commands. They don’t need a smart speaker in the middle, and they don’t rely on a broadband connection, an app, or anything other infrastructure—everything is processed locally. If you’re leery of the privacy and security vulnerabilities of IoT devices, this could be the answer. Emerson Smart devices—tower fans, space heaters, air fryers, and smart plugs, to start—use IAI Smart’s proprietary SmartVoice technology, which embeds natural-language voice processing directly into the appliance. Each device has an integrated microphone, so you can speak a wake word relevant to the appliance you want to use: “Hey Fan,” “Hey Heater,” or “Hey Air Fryer,” for example. Most also include an onboard speaker to provide audible confirmation of your command without relying on an intermediary device or an internet connection. There’s nothing new about smart plugs, except that this Emerson Smart model can be controlled with voice commands without depending on Wi-Fi.IAI Smart Emerson Smart is not marketing its technology as a replacement for Alexa- or Google-powered smart homes, but SmartVoice’s disconnected nature will be a compelling feature to many. Since all processing occurs on the device itself, recordings of your voice—and your usage data—will never leave your home. And if you have slow or limited broadband service—or an onerous data upload cap—they eliminate the need for persistent connectivity to the internet. The Emerson Smart SmartVoice Air Fryers (one is pictured up top) are the most ambitious products in the new lineup. Available in 5.3-quart ($129.99) and 10-quart ($169.99) sizes, the cookers support more than 1,000 voice commands and have more than 100 cooking presets. Users can issue commands such as “Cook salmon,” “Reheat pizza,” or “Increase temperature,” allowing basic meal prep without ever touching the controls. The company is also showing three SmartVoice tower fans: 29-inch ($89.99), 40-inch $99.99), and 42-inch models ($119.99). The fans have 15-hour sleep timers, wide-angle oscillation, and LED touch controls. The 42-inch model also features an integrated aroma diffuser. SmartVoice Fan-Heaters will be available in two sizes: 25-inch ($129.99) and 32-inch ($169.99). Both provide up to 1,500 watts of heating power, with oscillation options and multiple heat modes. Safety features include tip-over protection and automatic shutoff timers. There will also be Emerson Smart tower fans and fan-powered space heaters with local voice processing.IAI Smart To control lamps or dumb appliances, there will be SmartVoice Electrical Plugs in two configurations: A single-outlet ($24.99) model and a dual-outlet ($29.99) SKU that includes USB charging ports ($34.99). Using the wake phrase “Hey Emerson,” users will be able to issue more than 30 preset voice commands to turn devices on or off, set timers, schedule routines, or group multiple plugs–all without a Wi-Fi connection. Emerson Smart has started with the basics (aside from the air fryer), possibly to find out if there’s a market for its offline approach. If there’s a sizable contingent of buyers who want all the features with none of the connectivity, can refrigerators, washers and dryers be far behind? As novel as these appliances sound, they aren’t the first household products we’ve seen that have local voice-command processing. Simple Human introduced a pricey garbage can that responds to simple voice commands (“open can,” “close can,” “stay open”) way back in 2020. If you’re attending CES in person, Emerson Smart appliances are on display at the Venetian Expo Center, booth #52808. Read...