Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Demo

Lenovo was at the Aquanox as usual, with a slew of products on display. We'll take the items that caught our eye in turns, starting with the ThinkPad Helix. Simply put, the Helix is an Ivy Bridge based tablet with a keyboard dock, with the added bonus feature being that you can reverse the way the screen connects to the dock (what Lenovo is calling "Rip and Flip"). This would allow you to use the keyboard base as a stand for watching movies or doing presentations.

The Helix can be configured with up to a full Core i7 ULV processor, and all of the "smarts" are housed in the tablet/screen portion. There are obviously going to be some thermal constraints with the design, but when you dock to the keyboard portion--which includes additional battery capacity--you also get improved cooling to unlock the full performance potential.

The tablet portion of the Helix weighs in at 835 grams and should provide around five hours of battery life. The keyboard includes additional battery capacity that doubles battery life up to ten hours (though Lenovo didn't specify the weight, it's probably close to that of the tablet). The display is a 1080p IPS panel, and in additional to the usual 802.11n WiFi the Helix has optional LTE support and contains NFC technology.

It's not for the faint of wallet, though, with an MSRP starting at $1499. Availability is expected in late February.