What you need to know
- Lenovo this week launched its Dial Assistant app on the Microsoft Store.
- The app lets you customize how the Surface Studio-like Yoga A940's integrated dial interacts with different apps.
- The Lenovo Yoga A940 is available now from Lenovo starting at $2,000.
Lenovo's Yoga A940 was revealed at CES 2019 as a very clear (and cheaper) competitor to Microsoft's own Surface Studio, complete with an integrated dial to give artists a tactile tool for the apps they work in. Now that the all-in-one is available, Lenovo has launched its Dial Assistant app on the Microsoft Store, giving buyers one place to customize the dial's controls across a variety of apps (via MSPU).
The dial has three specific points of interaction, including a button on top and two dials below. The app lets you define what each of these inputs will do depending on what app you're using at the time. In Photoshop, for example, you can set the button to show or hide the brush panel or layers, while the dials can adjust brush flow, brush opacity, and other settings on the fly.
Currently, Lenovo Dial Assistant supports customizing inputs for general Windows tasks, along with the following specific software:
- Photoshop
- Photoshop Elements
- Lightroom
- Illustrator
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- Word
- Autodesk Sketchbook
As for the Yoga A940 itself, the all-in-one is designed to be able to tilt the 27-inch screen forward, much like the Surface Studio, to give you a comfortable canvas to draw and sketch on. Inside, it's powered by an Intel Core i7-9700 processor and AMD Radeon RX 560 graphics. It's also much cheaper than the Surface Studio, starting at $2,000.
For more, check out our initial hands-on with th Yoga A940 from CES 2019. Meanwhile, those who already have their hands on one can grab the Dial Assistant app at Microsoft now.
Lenovo's Yoga A940 takes what makes the Surface Studio appealing and puts it in a cheaper, slightly smaller package. If you're a digital artist, then the Yoga A940 is worth a look.
