Rumours have been circulating for a while now that Titanium will be used on the new X1 and X1 Yoga models. In a recent contest on Twitter, Lenovo has essentially confirmed that they are coming, probably at CES 2021.
Our 6-day countdown until #LenovoCES announcements begins NOW!
Follow the TrackPoint, spot the highlighted letters, and then unscramble the word. Comment the answer below for your chance to win a surprise! #CES2021
Full Ts&Cs: https://t.co/b44T10jUsS pic.twitter.com/BGnxmQlsUG
— Lenovo (@Lenovo) January 1, 2021
However, as I discuss in a recently released video on the channel, this isn’t the first time they have used Titanium on a laptop.
I really hope that Lenovo has learned their lessons on how to best use this material as it does have some significant drawbacks as seen in the video. Granted manufacturing technology has improved significantly since then, I would be very mindful about what sort of abuse I would put a chassis that has this metal at its core.
Another thing to consider is that materials in engineering, even from my limited understanding, are rarely interchangeable and equal. I occasionally watch Ian McCollum’s Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel to hear about design decisions in the firearm industry. While I don’t have a major interest in firearms beyond interesting trivia, I feel like one can learn a lot about design from a fellow like Ian. He is involved with a joint venture with a firearms manufacturing company to create a polymer lower to the AR-15 platform and has documented that it isn’t as simple as casting the same part using a different material.
All that to say, I’m curious to see what, if any considerations exist between the build process between the regular X1 and X1 Yoga variants and their newer Titanium counterparts.