Lenovo has just launched its flagship ThinkPad product, the X1 in India. The thinnest ThinkPad ever,the product builds upon the legacy of the ThinkPad range and incorporates a host of new features in a slim form factor. Of course, it also packs in the traditional features that you see with every ThinkPad out there. While the ThinkPads of the yesteryears were sublime, targeted business machines, the X1 takes a markedly different approach.
This machine does not aim to be machine that is just drooled over by the upwardly mobile professional. In fact, Lenovo has targeted this new product as a device that is equally adept at handling your multimedia requirements which makes it a device that will double up as your secure, durable workhorse and at the same time be a entertainer for you and your family when you are at home and not dealing with powerpoint presentations.
The laptop is quite compact a device with a 13.3 inch display. It tips the scales at just 1.72 kg. While certainly not the slimmest notebook around, it certainly is small enough to fit in to the smallest of handbags. The design of the ThinkPad has suddenly gone from industrial to svelte and sexy. The contours and the curves you see on the X1 makes it quite different from the older ThinkPads. It is also the first notebook that comes with a virtually unscratchable Gorilla Glass display. Yeah, the same glass used on the iPhone 4. The product also boasts of a roll cage inside apart from the magnesium alloy chasis that makes it one tough nut to crack. In fact, at the launch event, the notebook was dropped a couple of times and it continued working as if nothing had happened.
The X1 range uses the full fledged, standard voltage second generation Core processors and would come in Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 versions. The ThinkPad X1 also features what Lenovo calls the Lenovo RapidCharge battery – which as you might have guessed does exactly what you understand by the name. It is able to charge upto 80% of its capacity in just 30 minutes. This, after offering a battery life of10 hours is great! That said, we would love to see how long the laptop lasts during normal usage once we manage to review this machine. The battery is also rated for 1000 charging cycles which Lenovo claims to be the most for any laptop battery out there. The laptop would be available with both HDD and SSD storage options.
Multimedia features include support for Dolby Home Theater V4, an HDMI port and an HD webcam at the front. Other notable bits include the Instant Resume feature that allows users to keep the laptop connected to a network even when its in sleep mode and something called the Lenovo Enhanced Experience For Windows 7. This feature claims to shorten boot up times considerably and is claimed to be 20 seconds faster than your average Windows 7 laptop.
The X1 is without doubt a premium product and it is not surprising that the pricing for these devices start at a cool Rs.85,000. That might be too expensive for a laptop, but what you do get for that price is amazing durability, the legendary spill proof keyboard and of course, the joy of owning a ThinkPad.
Lenovo already claims to be leading the charts when it comes to selling notebooks for large scale enterprises in India. With the launch of the X1, the company intends to increase its lead further. It remains to be seen how successful Lenovo will eventually turn out to be in doing that.
