Lenovo, with its new ThinkPad X1 notebook and ThinkCentre 91z all-in-one, is bringing slicker design and more niceties to its traditionally solid business devices.
NEW YORK - News of the super-thin Lenovo ThinkPad X1 notebook may have
leaked
weeks ago, but that didn't stop the company from giving a proper,
enthusiastic welcome to the notebook it's calling one of its most interesting
products ever.
At
a dinner here for members of the press May 11, Lenovo executives showed off the
X1-arguably its answer to
the
Apple MacBook Air-as well as a new Apple iMac competitor, the ThinkCentre
Edge 91z all-in-one desktop. In both cases, Lenovo-whose secure,
enterprise-geared and surprisingly rugged devices have never been accused of
being sexy-paid a little more attention to the beyond-business design details
and added features that make for more well-rounded machines.
"When
we set out to design the X1, we wanted to create the thinnest ThinkPad we'd
ever created," Dilip Bhatia, vice president of Lenovo's Think Product
Group, told those assembled at the event, adding that what they were seeing was
the culmination of 15 months of work. "We wanted to set a trend, a new
direction, that business notebooks don't have to be boring."
For
the first time on a business notebook, Lenovo included Dolby Home Theater v4
sound and other small niceties like a backlit keyboard. The business traveler
can only send so many emails, Bhatia said. "At the end of the day, I want
to watch a movie."
Another
perk for the traveler: Starting weight for the X1 is 3.7 pounds. It also
features a scratch-resistant 13.3-inch Superbright Infinity LCD display with
Corning Gorilla Glass (to emphasize that first point, Bhatia dragged a key
across the display, to no effect), and users have a choice of 2
nd-Generation
Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors running at 2.5GHz-normally only an option
in 14- and 15-inch Lenovo laptops.
"This
engineering allows the ThinkPad X1 laptop to double the CPU performance and
quadruple the graphics performance of the ThinkPad X301, Lenovo's previous
flagship 13-inch laptop," the company said in a May 17 statement.
The
X1 runs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, and includes RapidCharge technology,
which enables the battery to charge up to 80 percent in 30 minutes. It also
offers Intel Wireless Display technology, which lets users wirelessly stream
1080p video to a TV or projector, and secure features like Intel vPro
technology and a fingerprint reader. Optional features include an external
battery slice that doubles battery life to 10 hours; integrated 3G mobile
broadband connectivity; and a 720p camera, high-definition microphones and
advanced calling modes for conferencing over VOIP (voice over IP).
Also
shiny, slim and black, Lenovo has nicknamed the all-in-one ThinkCentre Edge 91z
its "Do Machine." It features a 21.5-inch high-definition LED
Infinity screen, up to an Intel i7 Quad-Core processor, 8GB of DDR3 (double
data rate type 3) memory and an 80GB solid-state drive, or a 1TB hard drive and
optional 1GB of ATI discreet graphics.
With
the Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0 for Windows 7, the 91z boots 30 percent
faster than other models, and RapidDrive technology on the optional solid-state
drive can take 20 seconds off the boot time.
There's
an optional, island-style wireless keyboard, a 2-megapixel Webcam and-as on the
X1-a spill-proof keyboard. It measures 21.46 by 16.31 by 3.18 inches, and can
be used on a desktop or hung on a wall. Additional options include support for
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), a Blu-ray DVD drive and
streaming-video capabilities via WiFi.
The
thin-and-light trend, as one Lenovo executive at the dinner noted, "is certainly
here to stay."
The
ThinkPad X1 will be available May 17 starting at $1,399, and the ThinkCentre
91z will follow in July, starting at $699.
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