Lenovo made a lot of noise at CES last year, only to disappoint when the company scuttled the Skylight smartbook and delayed the Ideapad U1 hybrid tablet/laptop. But Lenovo’s back again with some new goodies to share. The embargo lifted today on the latest products in the ThinkPad line. The ThinkPad E220 and E420 run with display sizes of 12.5 inches and 14 inches respectively, boast “infinity screens,” and weigh in at around three and four pounds each. Lenovo is also adding in some enhanced features including embedded video conferencing software, faster boot-up times, VGA and HDMI ports, optional WiMAX connectivity, and CPU and GPU improvements. Due out in April, the laptops will arrive with upcoming Intel Core i3, i5 and i6 processors, and the E420 will ship – in some markets – with optional AMD Radeon graphics for what Lenovo claims is double the graphics performance. Prices start at around $750.
Also being announced today is Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X120e. This one’s more exciting to me, given my preference for portability. It’s not as small as my 10-inch netbook, but with a screen size of 11.6 inches, it’s reasonably close. The X120e includes GPU and CPU on the same chip, and Lenovo says it’s the first with AMD FUSION technology. The company claims the X120e gets 65% faster graphics performance and 30% longer battery life over the X100e. It’s also got an HDMI port, and expands up to 4GB of RAM. It’s set to ship in April, starting at under $400.
As always, we reserve judgment until we can get hands on, and until we see the products actually ship. But Lenovo’s got another impressive line-up this year. And I’ve always loved that little trademark nub for navigation (aka Trackpoint) in the center of the keyboard. Maybe when my current Asus netbook goes south, I’ll check out a Lenovo.
We’ve had ThinkPads at work for years and at home for the past few years. I have always liked their design and general reliability.
My wife currently has the X100e and she really likes it. It’s not tiny like a netbook, but it’s more portable than a 14″ or 15″ laptop. I am excited to see the newer x120e when it comes out.
I am concerned, though, with the Lenovo product quality of late. The x100e has had more problems than I’d like, and my new work laptop, a W510, has also been more unreliable than I’d like. I really hope they’re exceptions to the rule, as I’d like to stay a ThinkPad customer for the long term.
Hopefully the New X120e will have a slot for a “Intel® Solid-State Drive 310 Series”