Lenovo ships first 4K laptop, challenging Toshiba

Lenovo's first 4K laptop, the IdeaPad Y50 UHD, starts at $1,300

IDG News Service - Toshiba is not the only company selling a 4K laptop anymore; Lenovo has finally shipped its first 4K laptop, sporting a 5.6-inch screen, after months of delays.

The IdeaPad Y50 UHD laptop starts at $1,299.99 and is targeted at gamers. The 4K screen can display images at 3840 x 2160 pixels, which is the highest resolution available in laptops today.

The Y50 is cheaper than Toshiba's Satellite P50T, which starts at $1,499.99. The P50T started shipping in April, but was temporarily pulled from Toshiba's website, and is now available again.

Laptop screens have so far topped out at 3200 x 1800 pixels in Samsung's Ativ Book 9 Plus, Lenovo's Yoga 2 Pro and Razer's Blade gaming laptop. TVs, monitors and cameras with support for 4K are already available.

Lenovo in January announced two 4K laptops -- the Y50 and the 14-inch Y40 -- but the initial units that shipped in May were missing 4K screens and instead came with HD screens. The Y40 model is not yet available with a 4K screen. Lenovo was having issues acquiring 4K displays, which delayed some laptops and monitors.

The Y50 has some of the latest PC technologies, pushing it into the class of a true gaming laptop. The $1,299.99 model has a Core i7 i7-4710HQ processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M graphics chip with 2GB of video memory, 8GB of DRAM and 1TB of hard-drive storage. The $1,599.99 model has the same Core i7 CPU, the GeForce GTX 860M with 4GB of video memory, 16GB of DRAM and 512GB solid-state drive storage.

The laptops have Windows 8, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, an HDMI connector and two USB 3.0 ports.