Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Photo Galleries
  4. Legacy Archives

Hands on: Lenovo’s new LaVie Z ultrabooks are awkwardly named, but lighter than Air

Add as a preferred source on Google

Updated 07/01/2015 2:51pm: We’ve added a hand’s on video, check it out!

Who makes the lightest laptop of them all? Apple? Dell? HP? Nope! The answer is Lenovo. The company has just released the details of its LaVie Z ultrabooks, the result of collaboration between Lenovo and Japanese electronics manufacturer NEC.

 

Two versions are available; the HZ550 and the HZ750. The former is an ultrabook only but the latter includes a 360-degree hinge similar to that on the Yoga series, making it a 2-in-1 device. Both are the lightest ever introduced in their respective classes, with the HZ550 coming in at 1.72 pounds and the HZ750 at 2.04 pounds. The systems are slim, too, measuring just 16.9 millimeters thick.

You might worry that such tiny, featherweight systems will be fragile, but Lenovo says it has tackled that problem with a unique magnesium-lithium chassis. The company says this material is 50 percent lighter than aluminum, but just as strong.

Lenovo-LaVie-Z-HZ550-6-press-image
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Performance looks solid, as well. Both notebooks have 5th-generation Intel Core processors, and the HZ750 can equip up to a Core i7 dual-core. Both models have a 128GB solid-state drive, Yamaha speakers, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 13-inch 2560 x 1440, anti-glare display. The HZ550 comes with four gigabytes of RAM, while the HZ750 can be upgraded to eight gigabytes.

Both will hit the United States in May 2015. The HZ550 will start at $1,299 while the HZ750 will be priced at $1,499. Lenovo says the systems will also be available in Japan sometime this spring.

Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
This app turns the iPhone Duo into a pocket-sized Mac
Headroom uses macOS's built-in Screen Sharing to let users control their Mac from the foldable iPhone, without installing additional software on the computer.
Headroom App on Apple iPhone Duo controlling a Mac

The iPhone Duo has barely been out for a day, and someone's already found a way to run their Mac on it. Well, sort of. Headroom, a remote desktop app from MusicFlow, lets users control their Mac from Apple's new foldable phone, with an interface that adapts as the device opens, closes, and folds in half. Think of it as turning a pocket-sized phone into a miniature MacBook, minus the actual MacBook.

Headroom turns the iPhone Duo into a mini Mac

Read more
AI helped uncover a hidden PHP flaw. Now websites worldwide are facing millions of hacking attempts.
A critical PHP vulnerability has websites worldwide racing to install security patches.
php-flaw-websites-under-attack

PHP is the programming language behind roughly 70% of websites, and it just ran into a serious problem. Security researchers used AI to uncover a critical flaw called PHP2Shell, which could let attackers take over web servers, steal data, or disrupt online services. Since the discovery, websites worldwide have been hit with millions of attempts to exploit it.

Hackers moved fast once the flaw went public. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said the attack attempts jumped from tens of thousands within 45 minutes to millions overnight, The Guardian reports.

Read more
Microsoft has begun rolling out Copilot Code for building apps with natural language
The workplace-focused vibe coding tool can pull context from emails, documents, meetings, and chats.
Microsoft Copilot code logo

Microsoft introduced Code last month as one of the three core parts of its revamped Copilot app. The app was pitched as an easy-to-use coding agent that lets users describe what they want to build in natural language, like an app, a tracker, a dashboard, an automation, or a workflow, and Copilot would build it for them.

Essentially, it's a workplace-focused vibe-coding app that turns existing work into a functional app, and Microsoft has begun rolling it out through the Frontier program.

Read more