Desktops and Notebooks: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook Is Ready for Its Close-Up

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook officially debuted May 15, perhaps indicating that—despite jokes to the press about being the world's second-largest PC maker but having little brand-name recognition in the United States—it's ready for some attention. The carbon fiber–crafted X1 Carbon, at 3 pounds, is the industry's lightest 14-inch Ultrabook, according to Lenovo. It's also beauty, brains and a bit of brawn: There are third-generation Intel Core processors, Intel vPro technology for better enterprise security and management, a RapidCharge option that gets the battery to 80 percent in 30 minutes, user-friendly perks like Dolby Home Theater v4 audio, and a roll cage that helps the travel-ready notebook to exceed some military specifications. From a conference in Las Vegas, Lenovo also showed off updates to its T, X, L and W Series ThinkPad laptops—models that vary from emphasizing portability to workstation intensity. The new ThinkPads follow Lenovo's May 8 introduction of still more PCs—ThinkCentres and Edge Series machines—likewise running Intel's Ivy Bridge Processors. The new ThinkPads will arrive in early June, minus the X1 Carbon, which is slated, more vaguely, for sometime this summer.