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Lenovo's new Titanium Yoga laptop will feature Sensel's force-sensing tech

The ultrathin laptop uses Sensel's all-new touchpad designed for laptops.

To date, Sensel’s force-sensing technology has only been found in its own Morph product, but at CES 2021, the company showed off a touchpad that might appear in other company’s laptops. Now, Sensel has announced that the first product to use its tech will be Lenovo’s thinnest-ever ThinkPad, the X1 Titanium Yoga.

As I discovered with the Morph, Sensel’s ultra-thin sensor can detect X and Y position with high accuracy and also do force sensing in the Z direction. “This allows for a dramatic reduction in device thickness, making it a perfect fit for the thinnest ThinkPad ever,” Sensel wrote in a press release. Since it detects force uniformly, it also allows for zero wasted space and you can even wear gloves while using it.

Sensel Supplies Force Touch Technology For Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga
Sensel Supplies Force Touch Technology For Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga (Lenovo/Sensel)

As for the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga itself, Lenovo’s premium ultrathin convertible notebook is a mere 11.5mm thick and weighs 2.54 pounds. It packs Intel’s 11th-generation Core i7 vPro processors, up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of PCIe SSD storage, 5G connectivity and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Meanwhile, the 13.5-inch 2K 450 nit display has a 3:2 aspect ratio (2,256 x 1,504) and supports Dolby Vision. It’ll arrive sometime this month with prices starting at $1,899.

Unlike Apple, very few PC laptop manufacturers have got touchpads right. To that end, it’ll be interesting to see what Lenovo and Sensel can deliver — if it’s any good, lots of other laptop makers might want to jump on board.