Lenovo Announces New ThinkPad T, X, and S series Ultrabooks
by Jarred Walton on September 3, 2013 5:03 PM EST
Today in the pre-IFA excitement in Berlin, Germany, Lenovo announced updates to their T, X, and S series Ultrabooks, with thinner form factors, a variety of panel options, larger trackpads, and improve battery life. As expected, Intel’s Haswell processors (4th Generation Intel Core Processors) make an appearance, and the new ThinkPad Ultrabooks will be able to offer as much as 17 hours of battery life – with an optional external battery. Here’s a quick overview of the various new products announced today.
ThinkPad T440/T440s
The T440 and T440s are both 14-inch laptops, but the T440s is slightly lighter and has more compact dimensions and is available with a slightly faster CPU and GPU. The T440s also uses a carbon fiber to keep the weight down without compromising on durability. Both notebooks also feature NFC (Near Field Communication) capability, up to 17 hours of battery life with a high capacity battery, and optional touchscreens. Models with the GeForce GT 720M/730M apparently won’t be available in North America but will be in other regions of the world. The T440s is obviously the more potent and exciting of the two, but cost will be higher. Availability is scheduled for the end of October, with the T440s starting at $1149 and the T440 starting at $889.
| ThinkPad T440 and T440s Specifications | ||
| Model | T440 | T440s |
| CPU | Up to 4th Generation Core i5 | Up to 4th Generation Core i7 |
| GPU |
Intel HD 4400 Optional GeForce GT 720M |
Intel HD 4400 Optional GeForce GT 730M |
| LCD |
14” HD 14” HD+ Touchscreen |
14” HD+ 14” Full HD 14” Full HD Touchscreen |
| Storage | Up to 1TB HDD or 512GB SSD | Up to 1TB HDD or 512GB SSD |
| RAM | Up to 12GB DDR3L | Up to 12GB DDR3L |
| Connectivity |
Mini-DisplayPort VGA 2 x USB 3.0 (one powered) SD card reader |
Mini-DisplayPort VGA 3 x USB 3.0 (one powered) SD card reader |
| Networking |
Intel WP2 + Bluetooth 4G LTE and 3G WWAN Gigabit Ethernet |
Intel WP2 + Bluetooth 4G LTE and 3G WWAN Gigabit Ethernet |
| Battery |
3-cell 23.5Wh 6-cell 48Wh 6-cell 72Wh Up to 17 Hours |
3-cell 23.5Wh 6-cell 48Wh 6-cell 72Wh Up to 17 Hours |
| Weight | 4.0 lbs. (1.82kg) | 3.5 lbs. (1.59kg) |
| Dimensions |
13.35”x9.15”x0.83” (339mm x 232.5mm x 21mm) |
13.03”x8.90”x0.81” (331mm x 226mm x 20.45mm) |
| Extras |
Up to 5-year warranty 2x larger touchpad HD webcam Optional smart card reader |
Up to 5-year warranty HD webcam |
| Pricing | Starting at $899 | Starting at $1149 |
| Availability | Late October, 2013 | Late October, 2013 |
ThinkPad X240
The X240 is a 12.5-inch laptop designed to be the ultimate road warrior. Like the T440/T440s, it includes NFC capability and optional touchscreens. It loses out on a few extras relative to the 14-inch models but it comes in a more portable and lighter package. The X240 also features Lenovo’s new Power Bridge functionality, which allows users to swap out the removable battery for the 6-cell travel battery without powering down. (It appears some models will have an optional 3-cell internal battery with the standard “travel battery” being user replaceable/swappable to support this.) Availability is scheduled for the end of October, with the X240 starting at $1099.
| ThinkPad X240 Specifications | |
| Model | X240 |
| CPU | Up to 4th Generation Core i7 |
| GPU | Intel HD 4400 |
| LCD |
12.5” HD 12.5” HD Widescreen 12.5” HD Widescreen Touchscreen 12.5” Full HD 12.5” Full HD Touchscreen |
| Storage | Up to 1TB HDD; SSDs available |
| RAM | Up to 8GB single SO-DIMM |
| Connectivity |
HDMI VGA 2 x USB 3.0 SD/MMC card reader |
| Networking |
WiFi + Bluetooth 4G LTE and 3G WWAN Gigabit Ethernet |
| Battery |
3-cell internal (optional) 3-cell travel 6-cell travel Up to 10+ Hours |
| Weight | 2.94 lbs. (1.34kg) |
| Dimensions |
12.0”x8.21”x0.79” (305.5mm x 208.8mm x 20.3mm) |
| Extras |
Up to 5-year warranty HD webcam |
| Pricing | Starting at $1149 |
| Availability | Late October, 2013 |
ThinkPad S440/S540
The S440/S540 will be available in select markets, which does not include North America. The S440 is a 14-inch laptop while the S540 is a 15.6” design; both support up to Core i7 CPUs with optional HD 8670M graphics from AMD (presumably Enduro enabled). The S series is designed for “business or pleasure”, with more multimedia friendly features like voice control, and they support Lenovo’s OneLink technology to allow docking of sorts with USB 3.0, video, power, and Gigabit Ethernet over a single cable. Availability is scheduled for September on the S440 and October for the S540 in Europe, with the S440 starting at €699 and the S540 starting at €649.
| ThinkPad S440 and S540 Specifications | ||
| Model | S440 | S540 |
| CPU | Up to 4th Generation Core i5 | Up to 4th Generation Core i7 |
| GPU |
Intel HD 4400 Optional Radeon HD 8670M |
Intel HD 4400 Optional Radeon HD 8670M |
| LCD |
14” Up to HD+ Anti-Glare Optional Touchscreen |
15.6” Up to Full HD Anti-Glare Optional Touchscreen |
| Storage | Up to 500GB HDD or 256GB SSD | Up to 1TB HDD or 256GB SSD |
| RAM | Up to 8GB (1 x SO-DIMM) | Up to 16GB (2 x SO-DIMM) |
| Connectivity |
OneLink 2 x USB 3.0 (one powered) SD card reader |
Mini-DisplayPort VGA 3 x USB 3.0 (one powered) SD card reader |
| Networking |
WiFi + Bluetooth Gigabit Ethernet |
WiFi + Bluetooth Gigabit Ethernet Optional 4G LTE and 3G WWAN |
| Battery | Up to 6 Hours | Up to 9 Hours |
| Weight |
3.92 lbs. (1.78kg) 4.23 lbs. (1.92kg) Touch |
4.65 lbs. (2.11kg) 5.2 lbs. (2.36kg) Touch |
| Dimensions |
13.11”x8.85”x0.80” (0.88” Touch) (333mm x 225mm x 20.5mm, 22.5mm Touch) |
14.9”x9.96”x0.81” Touch (379mm x 253mm x 20.7mm Touch) |
| Extras | HD webcam | HD webcam |
| Pricing | Starting at €699 | Starting at €649 |
| Availability | September, 2013 | October, 2013 |
Source: Lenovo PR
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tuxRoller - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
Thanks!So, still awful resolutions.
The x series will have been stuck with 1366x768 for far too many years. I was really hoping for upgrades.
tabell - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
Why can't the old thinkpad keyboard at least be an option?defter - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
"10 years is pushing it"Long time ago I used IBM T60 that was released in 2006 (or earlier) and had 1600x1200 resolution, so that's 7-8 years :)
About the DPI scaling, it works good enough for me in Windows 7, so I don't see a big issue here.
If 13" 1920x1080 panel costs $120-$150 (it's probably less since 32" 1920x1080 panels costs below $100), then there is no reason why they can't be used it in $600 laptops.
About the connections, I don't care about ultimate thinness, and my current 11.6" laptop has three USBs ports, two DIMM slots and ethernet port, so this definitely can be done in a small laptop.
"Your Edge 11 has a lousy quality display, no SSD, and an old CULV processor that's less than half the performance of modern budget laptops."
I have 17W i3. While it's significantly slower than Haswell, it's not less than half performance compared to Haswell 17W i3s. And most of modern budget laptops are still based on Ivy Bridge. I doubt that the display is much lousier than for example last years >$1000 X230 (same 1366x768 resolution).
I actually don't care much about SSDs in default configurations since they are often too small or slow. I rather buy a suitable $100-$150 SSD myself. My dream laptop would have large enough (80mm?) M.2 slot for SSD and a space for 2.5" HDD. This way one could have both the speed of SSD and a large storage capacity.
I agree that prices for the CPUs in the same class have not decreased, but prices for other components, especially display have decreased a lot. That's why I don't understand why it's so difficult to make $600 laptop, that has equivalent components to 3-year old $600 laptop (naturally with a modern processor, etc.) and a better (higher resolution) display!? I'm not asking for i7 or 512GB SSD, or some other exotic components.
noeldillabough - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
You'll always pay more for the new shiny, especially when mostly business customers are buying (they get some crazy per unit deals so a higher "retail" price makes the deals look better).ruthan - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Mini displayport sucks, HDMI would be much better, and where is screen resolution info?jsbush - Tuesday, September 24, 2013 - link
Any word on official release date?