First stop on Friday’s docket was Lenovo’s setup at the Aquanox restaurant in the Venetian. My first stop was some hands on time with their new products, which were shown to me by Nick Reynolds, Lenovo’s Global Marketing Director. Nick got me some hands on time with the wicked thin U260, which boasts a Core i7 processor in a chassis that’s well under an inch thin. The secret to this PC is the unique “breathable keyboard” that draws air in through the keyholes and vents it out the back so the PC stays cool without packing a monster fan.
Nick and I also got a first look at the beautiful B520, Lenovo’s new 3D all-in-one. It’s the first frameless all-in-one, meaning there is no bezel holding the display; it’s just seamless, edge-to-edge glass. The design is so unique that it’s up for CES 2011 Best in Show.
Finally, I met up with John Mese, one of the Lenovo Software Architects behind Enhanced Experience 2.0 for Windows 7, Lenovo’s optimization of their PC software load. EE 2.0 is new, and it results in a seriously fast boot – sometimes under 10 seconds! To put it to the test, I brought my custom-built Lenovo t410 that’s packed with a Microsoft Signature install of Windows 7, a Core i7-620 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, and ran it head-to-head against an EE2.0 system. As you can imagine, it didn’t go well!
My PC booted in 24 seconds, which was good enough to beat every other challenger and a heck of a lot faster than most PCs, but fell way short of the insane 8-second boot of Lenovo’s new PC. Here’s the final leaderboard from last night’s party; I come in at #7, right after all of the new Lenovo EE 2.0 PCs.
Even though I lost to the EE 2.0 PCs, its still pretty cool to see that Microsoft Signature so severely beat everyone else. Check out the next best finisher in the top 10 – they booted almost 15 full seconds longer than my PC!
I’ll be at CES 2011 for the entire show, meeting with our hardware partners to get a behind-the-scenes look at their newest, most innovative gear. Keep up with me by following me on Twitter @BenThePCGuy, and let me know if you have any questions by sending me a tweet with the hashtag #askben