CES 2019 | The Lenovo Yoga A940 AiO Desktop is the Surface Studio clone we've been waiting for

At CES 2019, Lenovo introduced its take on how a touchscreen drafting table should like and it is not very unlike the Microsoft Surface Studio lineup we've known so far. Featuring a 27-inch 4K touchscreen that can angle between 25 to 90 degrees without effort and a dial that plugs into a convenient USB port, the Lenovo Yoga A940 is everything what the Surface Studio is and more. 

The Yoga A940 offers flexibility in configuration but the top model offers an 8th generation Intel Core i7 CPU, 32 GB of RAM, 512 GB PCie SSD, 2 TB HDD, and an AMD Radeon RX 560 GPU. Needless to say, the target demographic of the Yoga A940 is the creative professional crowd and Lenovo includes two accessories that will benefit them the most — the Lenovo Active Pen and the Lenovo Precision Dial.

The Active Pen enables precise selections and fine strokes while the Precision Dial offers easy access to different functions such as brushes, colors, and other app-specific options. The Precision Dial is in many ways similar to the Surface Dial but instead of latching on to the screen, it plugs into a USB port on either side of the display. It has two rings and a clickable button at the top that offers options that are app-specific; the ring also glows to match the icon color of the app being used. Currently, the Lenovo Precision Dial is compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator as well as Microsoft Office. 

Lenovo seems to have paid as much attention to aesthetics as to performance. The keyboard can be neatly tucked away in the space designated for it above the base. The base also integrates a wireless charging dock and a holder for the Active Pen.

The presence of a good discrete graphics solution in the form of the Radeon RX 560 should help in unwinding after a busy day. It is obviously not as powerful as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 in the Surface Studio 2, but it will suffice for the intended functionality of the device. 

Pricing is where the Yoga A940 will have the advantage of drawing (pun intended) in the crowds. The top configuration retails at US$2,350, which is a whole US$1,000 less than what the maxed out Surface Studio 2 retails for. The Lenovo Yoga A940 is all set to be available starting March 2019.

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