Fitness Carter: New Lenovo Yoga convertibles on the way?

There’s evidence that Lenovo may be preparing to expand its Yoga line of notebook/tablet hybrids.

The company’s Yoga devices are notebooks with touchscreen displays — and if you push the screen back 360 degrees so that it rests behind the keyboard you can hold the computer and used it like a tablet.

Lenovo already offers models with 11.6 inch and 13.3 inch displays and a few different processor, memory, and storage configurations. Documents at the FCC website ^[1] suggest some new models could be on the way.

The FCC listing comes from wireless chip maker Broadcom, who appears to be seeking certification for a new WiFi and Bluetooth card. But it looks like Broadcom has been testing that card with a few Lenovo Yoga devices.

There are multiple references to the Yoga convertibles in the documents, as well as a few photos. Here are a few things that caught my eye:

There are label drawings for Intel Pentium, Core i3, and Core i5 chips — making this the first time I’ve heard of a possible Yoga tablet with a Pentium processor. Could there be a new low-cost model on the horizon?

Several label drawings also mention a Lenovo Yoga 2 11. The PC maker recently launched a Yoga 2 Pro with a 13.3 inch screen, but it sounds like there could be a next-gen 11 inch model in the works as well.

If Lenovo is working on a model with a Pentium chip, it’d likely be cheaper than any of the models the company currently offers, which typically sport Core i3 or faster processors.

yoga chips

Interestingly, if you go to the Lenovo web store and look for the Yoga 11S, you’ll only find models with 3rd generation Intel Core “Ivy Bridge” chips, but US retailer Best Buy has been selling a newer model ^[2] that has a 4th-gen Intel Core “Haswell” processor ^[3] .

If Lenovo is getting ready to launch a new Yoga 2 11, it’s likely it’d feature chips based on Intel’s newer processor architecture.