Lenovo’s 25th anniversary ThinkPad is coming soon, and we’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect thanks to a few recent leaks.
But German site WinFuture is filling in the blanks with more than a dozen pictures of the upcoming 14 inch laptop. WinFuture’s Roland Quandt also confirms that the notebook is basically a special version of Lenovo’s ThinkPad T470 with a custom case and keyboard.
Update: It’s official. Lenovo has launched the ThinkPad Anniversary Edition 25 laptop for $1899.
The new notebook sports a 14 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS display, up to an Intel Core i7-7500U processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive.
It has a Thunderbolt 3 port and an infrared camera for Windows Hello face recognition, as well as a fingerprint scanner to the right of the keyboard. It also has NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader.
The notebook is reasonably compact, measuring about 0.8 inches thick and weighing about 3.5 pounds.
All told, it has everything you’d expect from a modern Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. But here are the retro features:
- Classic ThinkPad 7-row keyboard with a blue enter key and backlit keys
- Colorful classic ThinkPad logo
- Removable 48 Wh battery
That’s… about it. If you were hoping for a 4:3 screen, a Lenovo ThinkLight system, or a classic ThinkPad lid latch, you’ll probably be disappointed.
But if you’ve been holding out for a modern laptop that doesn’t have an island-style keyboard layout or non-replaceable battery, this may be one of the few options available when it launches later this year.
Or, you know, you could just build your own retro ThinkPad by replacing the guts of an old model with modern hardware.
You can find more pictures at WinFuture.
Frankly, if the keyboard is the only retro feature, they might well have just brought back the old-style external Thinkpad keyboad with the same layout. I regret not picking up an extra couple when I bought mine, but even in its battered, worn out state, it’s still the best keyboard I have ever used. I’ve seen them used on ebay for over $200, which is insane for an external keyboard, but it’s no surprise.
Would have preferred a 1920×1200 or better display, a Thinklight and an X series but beggars can’t be picky. It has the important things; it is a Thinkpad with a real Thinkpad keyboard. So long as a variant without the NVidia graphics is available I’m in.
16:10 is almost completely dead. I wouldn’t hold my breath
A 3:2 ratio screen would have been perfect.
I’m sorry but you can’t have perfect with Lenovo. Ever.
Price… because as of right now it looks like those X62 or T70 are mighty drool worthy alts.
I think it will be priced in the neighbourhood of: rip-off and insultingly expensive.
Yeah looks like it because the T470P it’s based off are still at anywhere between $1.3k – 1.4k give or take the usual duties etc here in my country Malaysia. Top this off with the so called retro keys’ mod and retro Thinkpad + Anniversary Edition 25 logos I’d be looking to punch a Lenovo sales rep in the nuts if it hits 2 grand easy.
The X62 certainly is very drool worthy, but in my mind it can’t be compared to this laptop.
The X62 is only going to appeal to people who are willing to spend $700-900 on a laptop with no warranty.
Yep that’s the “several pipe problem” as Sherlock Holmes would say. As a “one off” (because this is clearly shaping up to be one), probably Lenovo sees this as an opportunity for a special high RRP sticker situation. It’d be somewhat serviceable if there’s actually other models planned to mitigate that.
Plus this specs??? If it was me at last shove, screw the keys then might as well score a marked down T470P instead.
Bah, the Nvidia graphics ruins it for me. Would much prefer something that plays nicely with open source drivers available on OpenBSD/Linux.
You’re going to have a hard time finding something that fits your needs. Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU is a very popular formula for laptops in this segment.
That’s of interest to me, I hope there’s an extended battery available later. Last remaining puzzle piece is the price tag.
I think this is really nice. I think it is great that it has a ‘eraser head’ mouse controller. I look forward to checking it out.