MWC19 | AMD Zen+ Ryzen 3200U, 3500U, and 3700U will debut on the Lenovo IdeaPad C340 convertible series

Mobile World Congress is home to some of the biggest smartphone surprises of the year, but it holds a few laptop announcements as well. Lenovo has unveiled its brand new 2019 lineup of mainstream IdeaPad and high-end ThinkPad laptops at the Barcelona event all set to launch in the March to June time frame.

One of these new mainstream models is the IdeaPad C340 convertible laptop. This particular model consists of 14-inch (C340-14IWL) and 15.6-inch (C340-15IWL) SKUs that otherwise share the same I/O ports. The chassis incorporates narrow bezels, an optional backlit keyboard, glass fiber outer lid, up to a GeForce MX230 GPU, and a physical TrueBlock Privacy Shutter switch inspired by the webcam switch on the newest ThinkPad laptops.

The biggest surprise, however, is its choice of processors. While the Intel Core i3-8145U, i5-8265U, and i7-8565U Whiskey Lake-U CPUs are expected, the 14-inch C340 series will also carry next generation AMD Ryzen 3 3200U, Ryzen 5 3500U, and Ryzen 7 3700U Zen+ options with integrated Radeon RX Vega graphics. These AMD SKUs will be just a hair thicker than the 14-inch Intel variant (17.93 mm vs. 17.94 mm), but both versions will otherwise be visually identical to one another. Nonetheless, the Ideapad C340 series looks to be the best chance we will have to directly compare the performance differences between an AMD Zen+ laptop and an Intel Whiskey Lake-U laptop.

The 14-inch and 15.6-inch IdeaPad C340 family is launching this March in EMEA and this April in the U.S. for a starting price of $450 to $500 USD. SKUs may carry the usual "Flex" name when sold in the U.S. in order to ride home the 2-in-1 form factor and 360-degree hinges. The C340 follows the new Lenovo naming convention for distinguishing between convertibles and traditional laptops.