Articles
When Lenovo launched the ThinkPad P40 Yoga last month, it made no mistake in its marketing about whom it’s targeting with its latest laptop/tablet hybrid: “From digital artists storyboarding the next Hollywood blockbuster, to engineers designing the next hot new car, creative professionals need to both sketch their designs and bring those designs to life.”
To sketch and then develop a design in 3D CAD software, an engineer would normally need a tablet computer and a laptop, says the firm. But the Yoga’s screen rotates through 360° and can be folded into the keyboard to turn the laptop into a touchscreen tablet. While in tablet mode, you can sketch using Wacom Active ES pen technology on the high-resolution (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) display.
Having used one for a short period, I found the pen and touchscreen input responsive and fluid – a pleasure to use. Whether it replaces paper and pencil as your sketch medium of choice is another question, but there are workflow advantages in having a digital sketch to import into a 3D CAD environment.
However, the P40’s real strengths are hidden from view. Under the keyboard are some powerful mobile-computing components: a sixth-generation Intel Core i7, a Nvidia Quadro M500M graphics processor with 2GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of
SSD storage.
Yoga tablet/computers have been around since 2012, but the P40 is the first version that is powerful enough to handle intensive 3D CAD applications. The computer’s form factor is less than 2cm thick, it weighs 1.8kg and its battery can last up to eight hours, says Lenovo.
The capability to perform demanding CAD tasks on the move, with the ability to sketch and present ideas, makes for a capable tool that any engineer would be proud to use – even if it means sitting next to a digital artist storyboarding a Hollywood blockbuster. The P40 will be available in the UK from 1 February, with prices starting at £1,000.