Lenovo has officially announced its Windows 8 ThinkPad Tablet 2 this week, which is aimed at professional users. However, the company’s consumer side is also preparing for its very own Windows 8 products, including the its IdeaPad Yoga, which was first unveiled earlier in the year at the Consumer Electronics Show.

What’s interesting about the design of this newest product is that it looks like a regular laptop until the screen folds backwards to morph into a tablet. The device is scheduled to hit the market about the same time as the general availability of Windows 8, which is scheduled to come out around October 26.

In addition to that, there will be two versions of the Yoga, one that comes with an Intel processor and one that comes with a lower-powered ARM Nvidia Tegra processor. The ARM version will have double the battery life of the Intel version, according to sources from within Lenovo.

Windows RT tablets based on ARM won’t have access to all the legacy applications for Windows, though Windows RT tablets, like the Yoga, will have access to all the apps in Microsoft’s Store, which is said to be launching alongside Windows 8 in October as well.

A lot of Windows 8 computers and tablets are expected to come out all at once in October, including Microsoft’s very own Surface tablet. Earlier in the week, Dilip Bhatia of Lenovo was quoted saying that Surface has brought excitement to the market. When asked for comment, a Lenovo spokesman stated that the company plans on having a number of different Windows 8 devices, though declined to comment on unannounced products.

Surface is expected to be the next big tablet since the iPad, with many people looking forward to Microsoft’s first foray into the tablet market. Convertible tablets are popular because they fuse a tablet and a laptop into a single device. How Lenovo’s will stack up against other Windows 8 tablets and laptops remains to be seen.

Source: ABC News – Lenovo Yoga Convertible Laptop-Tablet Coming with Windows 8 RT