Lenovo Teases New ThinkPad Lineup Ahead of CES

Lenovo pulled the curtain back on its latest lineup of ThinkPad mobile devices, giving consumers a sneak peak of what to expect from the company at CES next week. Although it couldn’t reveal full specifications ahead of the annual tradeshow, we can get a pretty good idea of what Lenovo’s offerings for early 2017 will look like.

ThinkPad X270

The ThinkPad X270 is described as a “business road warrior” by Lenovo, and it’s optimized for battery life with a dual configurable battery architecture. It features a three-cell 23Wh battery in the front, with another three-cell 23Wh, six-cell 48Wh, or six-cell 72Wh battery in the back, offering up to 21.4 hours of runtime with the maximum configuration. It also features up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM, in addition to featuring the latest Intel processors, up to 2TB HDDs, and 512GB PCIe NVMe SSDs.

The 12.5-inch IPS display comes in HD (1366 x 768) TN and IPS or FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS touchscreen varieties, with the HD TN model featuring a 220 nit brightness and the HD IPS panel offering 300 nits of brightness. The FHD IPS touchscreen offers 300 nits. The USB Type-C port supports power, data (Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1 Gen 2), and video output. The ThinkPad X270 measures 12.02 x 8.2 x 0.79 inches and weighs in at 2.9 lbs. We can expect to see it on the market this coming March, starting at $909.

ThinkPad Yoga 370

The new ThinkPad Yoga 370 2-in-1 laptop features “the latest Core i processors” (can you guess which ones?) with integrated graphics, and it can be equipped with up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD. It supports Thunderbolt 3 technology with a Type-C interface, and its 13.3-inch touchscreen features an anti-reflective, anti-smudge finish and a 360-degree hinge. It also comes with an integrated pen stylus.

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The Yoga 370 measures 12.34 x 8.66 x 0.70 inches and starts at 3.17 lbs, and the six-cell 51Wh battery offers up to 10 hours of untethered runtime. The ThinkPad Yoga 370 starts at $1,264 and will be available in March, 2017, in black and silver finishes.

ThinkPad T-Series

The new Lenovo ThinkPad T-series notebooks all feature the latest Intel CPUs, along with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and a dual-battery system, similar to the ThinkPad X270. The T series is, again, aimed at “road warriors” looking for power over battery life, with discrete graphics options and robust memory configurations.

The T470 and T470p feature a 14-inch display, and the T570 has a 15.6-inch screen. The T470 features a 1920 x 1080 IPS touchscreen display, but the T470p offers a standard FHD IPS, FHD touchscreen, and WQHD screen. The T570 can be equipped with a 1920 x 1080 touchscreen or a non-touch 3840 x 2160 display.

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The T470, T470p, and T570 feature similar memory, graphics, and storage options, with up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce 940MX 2GB GDDR5 graphics card. These three models also offer an Intel Optane (3D Xpoint) memory option up to 16GB.

The ThinkPad T470s is an ultrabook, and as such, it doesn’t offer a dedicated GPU or Intel Optane memory options. However, the 14-inch IPS display comes in FHD (1920 x 1080), FHD touch, and WQHD (2560 x 1440) varieties, and the T470s can be configured with up to 24GB of DDR4 RAM (one SO-DIMM, 8GB onboard) and a 1TB PCIe SSD. It measures 13.03 x 8.92 x 0.74 inches and weighs 2.9 lbs., with its dual three-cell 49.8Wh batteries offering up to 10.5 hours of operation.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T470, T470s, T470p, and T570 will ring up starting at $914, $1,099, $1,049, and $909, respectively. The T470 and T470s will arrive in February, and the T570 and T470p will appear sometime in March 2017.

ThinkPad L-Series

The ThinkPad L-series is poised to be Lenovo’s mainstream business “value” system, and it comes in two different models, the Thinkpad L470 and L570. Both feature the latest Intel processors, up to 32GB memory, and up to a 1TB HDD. The 14-inch L470 limits is maximum SSD capacity to 256GB, and the 15.6-inch L570 offers up to a 512GB SSD. The ThinkPad L-series also offers Intel Optane memory configurations up to 16GB. The L570 offers only integrated graphics, but the L470 features switchable AMD Radeon R5 M430 2GB DDR3 graphics.

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The L470's and L570's displays come in HD (1366 x 768) and FHD (1920 x 1080) varieties, and they are somewhat larger and heavier than the previously-detailed ThinkPads. The L470 weighs 4.23 lbs. and measures 13.34 x 9.25 x 0.94 inches, and the L570 is 14.84 x 9.75 x 1.08 inches and weighs 5.25 lbs.

The ThinkPad L-series notebooks are due to arrive in March, and will start at $779 (L470) and $809 (L570).

(Yet Another) ThinkPad 13

The ThinkPad 13 is aimed at budget-oriented small business owners and students, and it comes loaded with the latest Intel processors and integrated graphics, up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and up to a 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD. The 13.3-inch display is said to be “up to (1920 x 1080) FHD IPS touch,” meaning at the most, you get a 1080p display with a touchscreen. Whether the lower configurations are lower in resolution or simply strip the touch element of the display (or both) isn’t yet known.

The ThinkPad 13 measures in at 12.67 x 8.77 x 0.75 inches and starts at 3.17 lbs. It’s also the earliest-arriving ThinkPad in the bunch, arriving in January and starting at $674.

The Cat That’s Out Of The Bag, But Still In the Bag, Somehow

It’s no secret at this point that Intel is planning to officially debut its Kaby Lake processors in the very near future, and we’d be ignorant to neglect the fact the currently available specifications for these new ThinkPads are obviously (and painfully, at that) missing the CPU specifications. We can only (officially) presume that we’ll know more in Vegas, and we’re hopeful we can all stop pretending that something doesn’t exist when its sitting right in front of us, glaring and biding its time while it teases us with whispers of its arrival once the smoke (and mirrors) of CES clears.

We’ll obviously update this article as more information on the new Lenovo ThinkPad lineup becomes available.