You know that the MobilityMinded team is always looking for the best solutions available on the market that can help mobile professionals as well as average end users.
I personally use a Lenovo X60 tablet as my primary notebook and I’m very excited to write down my thoughts, practical experiences, and views about a great product:
“The Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter can power your notebook, cell phone, MP3 player or other peripheral devices, when it is plugged into a standard AC wall outlet or the DC outlets available in automobiles and airplanes. It is Lenovo’s smallest and lightest combo power adapter yet, so it tucks easily into your carrying case for travel.”
What is in the box ?
I received the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Power Adapter in a very basic cardboard-coloured box, with the information from the manufacturer like product- and serial-number. The picture above shows you an overview of the contents of the simple cardboard box.
At first there is some paper documentation included in the box of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter.
- Important information about the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
- Safety information about the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
- A quick start guide with Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter set-up in car-, plane, and home-usage-scenario;
- A thank you note for purchasing the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
I would lik to emphasize that the thank you note is something you don’t see that often. However it really shows the focus on customers and customer satisfaction within Lenovo, that I can only appreciate.
Furthermore in the picture below you can see an overview of the quick start guide of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter, that gives you a feeling about the different ways you can use the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter.
In addtion to the documentation you can see the black case for the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter (just below the Bluelink letter head). The case for the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter consists of the following hardware parts:
- DC Output Module of Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
- Dual charging cable for Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
- Lenovo Powertips – Select a Lenovo Powertip for your peripheral device(s);
- Lenovo Power Adapter;
- Wall charger cable for Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
- DC Input Cable for Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter;
In the following sections I will address each of the hardware parts in more detail, and provide some insights on the design from both an engineering and end-user perspective.
1. DC Output Module of Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter
The first hardware part of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter I would describe as the DC Output Module that is shown in the picture above.
On the left side of the picture you see the light grey, familiar, 20V powertip for most Lenovo Thinkpad notebooks. This Lenovo Powertip is removable, and in one of the upcoming sections I will look in more detail at this part of the hardware design.
In the middle there is a wider black part, that features the two icons: (1) a notebook icon, and (2) a cellphone icon, suggesting that you can charge both type of devices.
The right part of the picture shows the rest of the DC Output Module cable, that is about 1.0 m. in length that gives you sufficient length to find a wall charger near you. In the picture I have wrapped up this part of the the cable with help of a velcro fastener, that is permanently attached to the cable. A simple detail like this velcro fastener shows that the Lenovo engineers have thought well about the details.
2. Dual charging cable – Simultaniously charge your Lenovo notebook and another device
The second hardware part in the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter case is the dual charging cable, that is shown in the picture above.
If you remove the light grey, 20V powertip for most Lenovo Thinkpad notebooks from DC Output Module (described in the previous section), you can snap the circular right part of the dual charging cable onto the DC Ouput Module to simultaniously charge your Lenovo notebook and a peripheral device !!
In the picture above you can see that the plug of the upper cable is marked with the notebook icon, so you can snap on the light grey, 20V powertip to charge your Lenovo Thinkpad notebook.
The bottom cable of the dual charging cable is marked with a small blue minus sign, and on this cable you can snap a Lenovo Powertip for almost any other device. In the picture above the L9 charging tip is attached to the cable, and has a generic usb port so I can easily attach a Gomadic straight USB cable to charge various Mobile devices.
3. Lenovo Powertips – Select a Lenovo Powertip for your peripheral device(s)
“Select from a wide range of optional peripheral charging tips to power Lenovo or older ThinkPad notebooks, your cell phone, MP3 player or other peripheral devices.”
The picture above shows you the L9 charging tip for the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter, however there are many more Lenovo Powertips for a wide rage op perpheral devices, like cellular phones from various brands, mp3 players or even the Amazon Kindle devices.
With this brilliant modular design you can save some room in you bag or suitecase when you travel, since you just need the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter and a few Lenovo Powertips.
On a special website www.lenovopowertips.com you can shop for additional Lenovo Powertips, either by tip or by device. I hope that Lenovo can expand the portfolio of Lenovo Powertips in the future, and standards like the micro USB port on cellular phones really help in this area !!
4. Lenovo Power Adapter – Very small and lightweight
The picture above shows you the fourth modular component of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter set, the very small and lightweight power adapter.
In the middle of the power adapter you can see ”the special port”, which is marked with the grey bullet just like the plug of the DC Output Module of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter. It is a no brainer that you can connect the two components, and remark the shape of this special port.
Furthermore the Lenovo Power Adapter is very thin and leightweight, especially when you compare this one to the standard power adapter of the Lenovo X60 tablet. A nice silver Lenovo logo is printed on the surface.
Finally I would like to emphasize one of the clever details of the Lenovo Power Adapter. The top and bottom surface of the Lenovo Power Adapter almost completely consist of cooling ribs to transport the heat of the Lenovo Power Adapter. If you look closely to the picture above, you can see the cooling ribs in the surface.
5. Wall charger cable – No modular design on International Plugs
In the privous section I have discussed the Power Adapter component of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Power Adapter. The picture shows the side of the Power Adapter where you can attach the DC Output Module.
On the opposite side of the Power Adapter of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Power Adapter you can attach a cable to connect with a wall charger, which is shown in the picture above.
While almost every component of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Power Adapter is characterized with a high degree of modularity, that is clearly not the case for the cable that connects with the wall charger. Honestly I’m slightly disappointed, since the overall design and engineering are so clever.
Let me illustrate with the example of the MaxiMobileShop 4-port USB Power Adapter Kit:
“[...] you directly notice that in addition to the main power charging unit you get 4 complimentary charging plugs as well. With help of these charging plugs you can charge your mobile devices across four “electrical-different” areas: United States of America, Great Brittain, Australia and Europe.”
The Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Power Adapter is a great travel solution, but you either need to order different wall charger cables as additional service parts, or you need to use the well known Swiss World Travel Adapters.
6. DC Input Cable – Charging in a plane or car
When I discussed the quick start guide for the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter in the “What is in the Box section, I already mentioned two other usage environments of the modern, travelling, mobile professional: (1) car, and (2) airplane. On the wide black part of the cable on the left, you can see the airplane- and car icons.
The picture above shows you the DC Input Cable that keeps your Lenovo notebook and peripheral device powered in your car or on an airplane. On the bottom of the wide black part of the cable on the left, you see the grey bullet just like on the plug of the DC Output Module and the Power Adapter of the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter.
In the car- or airplane scenario you simply connect the DC Input Cable with the DC Output Module (plus the Dual Charging Cable if you like).
UPDATE:
PhillipM, one of the MobilityMinded readers, asked an excellent question about the DC Input Cable:
“Do you know if the DC adapter will work on United Airlines planes with their EmPower® DC power ports?”
As you can see in the large pdf-version of the quick start guide for the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter, there are two ways to use the DC Input Cable, depending on the power outlets in the plane.
- Use the DC Input Cable as shown in the initial picture just above the heading of the paragraph;
- Remove the special plug from the DC Input Cable, so the EmPower® DC plug of the DC Input Cable becomes visible;
In both the pictures above you can see that the special plug can be removed, so you can charge your Lenovo notebook and a peripheral devices directly from the EmPower® DC power ports on a plane.
Final thoughts and overall conclusion
The Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter, is a brilliant masterpiece of engineering that is a must have for every mobile professional that owns a Lenovo notebook.
To Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter is very small and lightweight, and the clever modular design helps you in almost every situation while you travel. No matter if you are in an office, hotelroom, car or airplane, you always can keep your notebook and peripheral device charged.
In the picture above you can see that I charge the Lenovo X60 tablet and the HTC HD2 Windows Phone, which means I could leave the phone charger at home. With the Lenovo Powertips I could narrow down the number of chargers while travelling even more, since I can easily charge peripheral devices of my choice with different Lenovo Powertips.
The Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter is for 95% the perfect solution to suite every modern nomad. With such a brilliant engineering team I really do hope that Lenovo will design a modular wall charger cable as well, so I can easily switch between different international plugs. This would add the last 5% of to the perfect solution for travellers.
Finally I would like to speak out a great many thanks to the Bluelink team for their excellent technical advice on this brilliant accessoiry. I could really experience why Bluelink is an authorized Business Partner of IBM for more than 12 years!
If you own a Lenovo Thinkpad or Ideapad this is simply a clever must have accessoiry and the pricepoint of €92,- is worth every penny for the value you gain from the Lenovo 90W Ultraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter !!
