Lenovo continues to use IFA Berlin as a springboard to introduce new innovations. With voice recognition being a rapidly-growing element in today’s connected devices, Lenovo is integrating this capability into its product portfolio. Fresh from the oven is its stunning new Yoga 920 flagship 2-in-1 convertible, which now features far-field technology so you can use Cortana from up to four metres away.
According to research, the global market for voice recognition is expected to be valued at USD6.19 billion this year. This number is anticipated to balloon up to three times by 2023.
Thanks to far-field technology in the Yoga 920, you can get Cortana to play music, make a shopping list, check traffic, and more, at a distance while you’re busy with other tasks.
Cortana understands context and natural language, so you don’t need to speak like robot. Which is cool.
From a design standpoint, the Yoga 920 is a refined version of its predecessor, the Yoga 910 (on which I’m typing this article on). It has a more simplified form, a unibody made from premium aluminium. The new Yoga retains the groundbreaking watchband hinge, the secret sauce that gives the Yoga its metal gymnastics prowess.
It weighs more or less the same as the previous Yoga, at 1.37kg and measures 13.95mm thin. It’s available in copper, platinum and bronze colour options. Lenovo is also bringing a limited edition Yoga 920 Vibes variant sporting Gorilla Glass cover designs.
And in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars (and today’s Force Friday II by the way), it’s also bringing a Star Wars Special Edition Yoga 920 Rebel Alliance and Star Wars Special Edition Yoga 920 Galactic Empire.
Lenovo has also done a couple of design tweaks. The web camera, which used to sit at the bottom of the screen, is now at the top (yes, thank you).
It has also added a carved out section on the front of the top lid so it’s easier to flip it open.
The Yoga 920 gets a beautiful 13.9-inch 4K (3840×2160) display (there’s also a FHD option), with a razor thin 5mm vertical bezel. There’s still a big bottom bezel due to the screen ratio, but that’s not a deal-breaker.
Moving on, there are several other welcomed additions to the Yoga 920. First, dual Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports which the previous Yoga 910 lacked. Thunderbolt 3 is 8x faster than USB-C, in case you were wondering. It also has one USB 3.0 (always-on charging) and an audio jack.
The Yoga 920 also gets 360-degree Dolby Atmos, which audiophiles will appreciate. As you know, I’m a huge fan of Dolby Atmos, so this addition is great news indeed.
Another thing the Yoga 910 lacked was support for stylus input. The new notebook is now enabled for Pen, and comes with optional Lenovo Active Pen 2. It boasts 4,096 levels of pen sensitivity, is Bluetooth-enabled and support Windows Ink. Windows Ink lets you write, sketch and draw on-the-fly.
Under the hood, the Yoga 920 packs the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, which delivers 40% better performance than previous gen Kaby Lake. It features up to 16GB of DDR4 memory, up to 1TB SATA SSD of storage.
Battery life is rated at up to 10.8 hours for the 4K UHD variant, while the FHD version delivers up to 15.5 hours.
Similar to the Yoga 910, the new device features an integrated biometric fingerprint scanner that supports Windows Hello.
The new Yoga 920 runs Windows 10 Home out-of-the-box.
Pricing and availability
Yoga 920 will start at EUR1,599.99/MYR8,128 (VAT included) in September 2017. Yoga 920 Vibes will start at EUR1,799/MYR9,145 (VAT included). Star Wars Special Edition Yoga 920 Rebel Alliance and Star Wars Special Edition Yoga 920 Galactic Empire will each start at EUR1,899/MYR9,653 (VAT included) in December 2017. All products are available on www.lenovo.com.
