Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Incredibly light for a 14-inch laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is ruggedly built, and has a better keyboard than any ultrabook-style laptop, even Apple's MacBook Air.Lenovo, keeper of the venerated ThinkPad brand, was one of the first Windows laptop makers to directly take on Apple's MacBook Air, with its 13-inch ThinkPad X1. This was before Intel had begun publicly branding thin laptops with its trademarked ultrabook tag, and the rules for this new class of thin laptops were still in flux. We called that original X1 "an appealing middle ground for business road warriors," but also said, "It's not as sleek or as light as a MacBook Air -- not by a long shot."Lenovo's ultrathin ThinkPad is reborn as a 14-inch ultrabook, the X1 Carbon. When we first spotted the X1 Carbon at a Lenovo press event earlier in 2012, I thought it might not depart enough from the original. The name was nearly the same (not even called the "X2"), and it looked a bit thinner, but not all that much evolved from last year's X1.Getting an opportunity to test and review the final version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon makes a big difference. Lenovo previously stated that it would be the world's lightest 14-inch laptop at 3 pounds, and in the hand, you can definitely feel it. This is clearly a premium product, thanks to the light weight and the carbon fiber lid.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 for Windows 8

Lenovo has really been upping its game this decade. It has generally been the fastest-growing PC company in a world that seems to think PCs are dead. Apparently, Lenovo never got that memo and is doing pretty damn well as a result. Last week, it announced its Windows 8 halo product, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 for Windows 8.

The Lenovo Tablet 2 is the product that now sets the gold standard for Windows 8, in that it is lighter than the iPad, almost as thin, has similar battery life, and still runs a full suite of Windows products, including all the new ones from the Windows 8 app store.
Lenovo didn't rip off any Apple designs either; its design language is an updated variant of the ThinkPad classic look.
Lenovo typically builds the most robust business laptops in the market, and I'm expecting similar things from this product, which also conforms to security and management requirements in large enterprises.