Lenovo Readies New ThinkBook Family of Laptops
by Anton Shilov on May 3, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Lenovo
- Notebooks
- Whiskey Lake
- ThinkBook
Lenovo is gearing up to launch a new series of notebooks aimed at mainstream users. The new ThinkBook laptops were recently showcased at a trade show in China and are currently listed by at least two European retailers. Meanwhile, based on model numbers, it looks like that when they launch in the coming weeks, the new ThinkBooks will succeed certain IdeaPad models within Lenovo's laptop product stack.
First demonstrated at CITE 2019 in Shenzhen, China, the new Lenovo ThinkBook S laptops come in machined aluminum chassis and feature a rather strict business-style designs that somewhat resemble Lenovo's IdeaPad 500-series mobile PCs. The manufacturer showcased two models at the trade show — the ThinkBook S540-13-IWL and the ThinkBook S540-14-IWL — featuring 13.3-inch and 14.1-inch Full-HD IPS displays respectively.
Image Source: Notebook Italia
The flagship Lenovo ThinkBook S models are based on Intel’s Core i7-8565U (Whiskey Lake) processors and are paired with 16 GB of RAM as well as a 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD. Select models will also come with a discrete AMD Radeon 540X GPU, but expect this one to be available only inside premium SKUs. In fact, based on Lenovo’s usual approach, expect to see the Lenovo to release the ThinkBook S in a wide variety of configurations in order to cover several market segments.
Both demonstrated ThinkBook S models will also be outfitted with Lenovo’s Accutype keyboard, a rather large touchpad, a 720p webcam with IR sensors for Windows Hello, stereo speakers with Harman badge, a microphone array, three USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port, an HDMI output, and a 3.5-mm audio jack for headsets. As for dimensions and weight, the 13.3 and 14.1-inch machines feature 15.9 and 16.5-mm z-heights and weigh 1.34 and 1.5 kilograms respectively.
Image Source: Notebook Italia
At present, Ennebi Computers from Italy and Dateks from Latvia list ThinkBook S 13-inch laptops featuring unknown configurations. The former lists the PC for €963, whereas the latter says that the notebook will be available on May 25.
Lenovo yet has to formally confirm the plan to replace certain IdeaPad models with ThinkBooks, but based on the fact that the company officially showcased the machines at a trade show and two retailers are already listing them, it's clear that their launch is imminent. What remains to be seen is how exactly the company intends to clearly distinguish between ThinkBooks aimed at consumers and ThinkPads engineered for business and corporate users.
Related Reading:
- Lenovo at CES 2019: ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gets Thinner Aluminum Body, 4K HDR LCD
- Lenovo Re-Engineers ThinkPad X1 Tablet: 13-inch LCD, Quad-Core i7, TB3, 9.5 Hrs
- Lenovo Reveals Yoga C930 Convertible: 13.9-Inch LCD with Dolby Vision, 8th Gen Core i7
- Lenovo Launches Yoga 920 Convertible: 13.9” 4K LCD, 8th Gen Core i7, TB3, 3 Pounds
- Lenovo’s Yoga Book Convertible Scraps Physical Keyboard in Favor of Touch-Sensitive Surface
Sources: Notebook Italia, Liliputing
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notashill - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
How wide are you expecting them to make a laptop?MamiyaOtaru - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link
if they make it taller without making it thinner (easy, just get rid of the chin), you can have two documents side by side and be able to see more of them both without scrolling! Sacrificing vertical screen size for no reason is dumbnicolaim - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
Those bottom bezels are ridiculously huge! What a waste.Still a bunch of old-school USB-A ports, and I'll bet no charging over USB-C.
Lord of the Bored - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link
What's wrong with having USB A ports? They serve only to increase utility.I mean, you CAN festoon a machine with a bunch of USB-C ports, but almost nothing can connect to them, so it isn't a practical decision. You can ALSO put just a single port on it and require users to leave a hub attached at all times, but... that's also impractical.
OR you can install a few instances of the port that almost everything released for the last two decades is designed to plug into.
And USB-C charging is great... when you don't actually have room for a real power connector.
zmatt - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
Current ThinkPads are using usb-c for charging so I would assume these new consumer models would as well due to the greater supply chain efficiency.But usb-c isn't all that widely adopted yet so usb-a will have a place for a long time to come. The only things I regularly see using it are chargers and newer smartphones. The phones more often than not come with usb-c to usb-a cables anyways. I know review sites love to talk about all of the cool stuff that can usb-c but I have yet to see much of it in the real world. Its all in stores or on websites.
sharath.naik - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
LG gram is still the laptop to beat. They have managed to add a ram slot(I wish they have both channels as slotted) and 2 NVME drive slots. all in a sub 1KG weight for 14 inch. With ICE lake the need for discrete graphics will be even lower.Pneumothorax - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
In 2019 they should be offering a HiDPI screen option. HD doesn't cut it anymore....mode_13h - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link
Why do you need > 1920 in a 13" screen? I first got 1920x1200 in a 15.4" screen and thought the pixels were tiny...sorten - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
Images are too low res for me to tell, but it almost looks like they've fixed their keyboard layout and have the Ctrl key in the correct location. Can anyone confirm?zmatt - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
This seems like diluting the Think brand to me. The Think systems, ThinkPad and ThinkCentre have always been the business class devices. You get nice to haves that simply aren't in the consumer models like metal roll cages, CRFP bodies, liquid drain holes, upgradeability and repairability. etc etc. Calling the Ideapad a ThinkBook sounds like what my grandma would call a laptop because she can't differentiate between Apple and Lenovo products.