What is Lenovo’s Aura Edition?

Lenovo and Intel have worked together to create a new type of high-end PC. Called Aura Edition, they aim to solve the problems faced by computer users around the world.

The Lenovo Aura Edition series of laptops haven’t appeared out of nowhere. This is the result of a two-year partnership between Lenovo and Intel based on feedback from thousands of frustrated users.

Here, we speak to two of the people behind the technology: one from Lenovo, the other from Intel.

How the Aura Edition project started

First, we spoke to Greg Myers from Intel. “My title won’t make any sense in relation to the Aura Edition, but technically I’m the Senior Director of Sales supporting Intel,” he told me.

“I’ve been supporting Lenovo through this Aura Edition journey for the past 24 months, from the ideation stage.” At this point, there was no Aura Edition. Intel and Lenovo shared a common aim, to solve people’s problems by working closely together, and that meant they had a clear first job: discover those problems.

“It was ten of thousands of users we studied over a four-month period where we asked a simple question, what do you love? What do you hate about your current PC?” said Greg. They also decided to focus on the younger generation: university students and first-jobbers.

While Greg didn’t explicitly say this, one reason for this choice is that the younger generation of buyers gravitates to Apple’s ecosystem. Which is why they didn’t restrict the questions to Windows PCs. “We asked about other ecosystems as well. The phone ecosystem, even the Apple MacBook ecosystem.”

From this research, Lenovo and Intel painted a picture of the pain points people faced. Solving problems with their computers. Making phones interact seamlessly with Windows PCs.

It was then an 18-month project to turn those findings into solutions based on the hardware and proprietary software: in this case, Intel’s second generation of Core Ultra chips, Lenovo’s laptops and Aura apps for PCs and phones alike.

Lenovo Aura Edition: Smart Share

Greg described a “super strong signal in the data” that people were still focused on the basics. “They were telling us, we need extraordinary battery life. The second thing they needed was, make the experience between my smartphone and my PC exquisite. Seamless, simple, non-technical.”

Battery life should be an easy problem to solve. Intel’s new Core Ultra chips are incredibly power efficient, as shown by a new ThinkPad X1 Carbon on display. This had been working all day, from 8am, and when I visited at 4pm it was still at around 35%. The second problem is solved by Smart Share.

Here, explained Wahid Razali from Lenovo, they wanted to “break the barriers of siloed ecosystems”. In the demo, shown below, you’ll see that he uses an iPhone. “This is a purposeful choice,” he said. “We know people that are hooked to their iPhone for good or bad reasons aren’t going to let it go for a nice-looking laptop or something that is 150 bucks cheaper.”

The answer: to make it just as easy to transfer files from an iPhone to a Windows laptop as it is on a MacBook. And there’s even a fun element to it, with the connection activated and an image transferred by simply tapping your phone onto the side of the laptop. So long as you have the Aura app installed, of course.

Peace of mind via Smart Care

Another problem highlighted by the research was customer support. Or, as Wahid put it, peace of mind. Imagine, he suggests, something goes wrong with your laptop today.

Where do you turn? How do you check your warranty? What number should you call? With a Lenovo Aura Edition laptop, he explains, that shouldn’t be an issue.

“Whenever that happens, you can chat, you can call, you can video call. It’s all flexible, and it’s all from your device or from your companion app. So that’s really removing the friction of which number do I need to call, and everything like that.”

Aura’s Smart Modes

Bearing in mind that Aura Edition will only be available in premium models, the chances are that people buying them won’t appreciate all the features they can use.

That’s why Lenovo has created an Aura Edition widget that makes it “easy to manage modes, easy to access settings, to provide a simplified, single point of entry that’s very easy to understand,” said Wahid.

Some of this ties in with existing tools, such as Lenovo’s Vantage software and Windows’ own modes, so Lenovo’s aim is to make it obvious.

For example, clicking the Shield button takes you to options that might otherwise be hidden in various places across the operating system.

There’s also Attention, which will set attention times, silence notifications and allow you to focus on work. Wellness promises to improve your “digital health” via posture alerts and tweaking the monitor’s blue light settings to reduce fatigue.

Finally, it offers Collaboration tools. This will automatically apply your preferences, such as setting a background blur using one of the Windows Studio Effects and adjusting low light.

What are Lenovo’s Aura Edition laptops?

Not all of Lenovo’s laptops will support Aura Edition. This first silo includes two models, both from Lenovo’s top-end Yoga and ThinkPad ranges. Both, of course, use the new Intel Core Ultra chips.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition

This is a slightly slimmer, slightly lighter update to Gen 12 – but now with built-in AI and Aura Edition. If you’re unfamiliar with Lenovo’s almost legendary X1 Carbon range, it’s extremely light, offers excellent battery life… and typically rather expensive.

It will go on sale in November with a starting price of €2,699 excluding tax.

For more on that read our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition review, for a first look at this ultra-slim business laptop

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (15″, 9)

This is a stylish laptop that packs a 70Wh battery to ensure it delivers superb battery life to meet people’s expectations. Lenovo is packing this laptop with all the top-end technology, including a 15.3in OLED panel. And it’s relatively light at 1.46kg, measuring as little as 13.9mm thin.

It’s available from 24 September and prices start at €1,399 including tax.