Lenovo Embraces Windows 10 And Intel Skylake With Refreshed ThinkPad E-Series Notebooks

Lenovo is beefing up its reliable ThinkPad E Series notebooks with a late summer/early fall refresh. The ThinkPad E Series is aimed at the bread and butter of the business notebook sector and is available in both 14-inch and 15.6-inch form-factors.

This time around, Lenovo has four base configurations for the E-Series, with the E460 (14-inch) and E560 (15.6-inch) models both featuring Intel power. Base configurations start with a Celeron 3855U processor, but businesses that have enough coin can spring for a speedy Core i7 6500U processor. There are also numerous graphics options to appease every budget from Intel HD Graphics to an AMD Radeon R5 M330 with 2GB of memory to a Radeon R7 M370 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. As for the display (anti-glare on all models), you’ll have the choice of a base 1366x768 screen resolution or optional 1920x1080 resolution in both the E460 and E560.

ThinkPad E460

Up to 16GB of system memory is supported and there are various storage options available ranging from SSDs to traditional HDDs to solid state hybrid hard drives. Other features include a fingerprint reader, Bluetooth 4.1 support, three USB 3.0 ports, Intel’s RealSense 3D camera (only on the E560) and support for Lenovo OneLink. Battery life for both models is listed at up to 9 hours.

When it comes to operating systems, Lenovo gives business these choice of either Windows 7 or Windows 10. Like the rest of us, Lenovo is trying to sweep Windows 8 under the rug.

ThinkPad E560

The E465 (14-inch) and E565 (15.6-inch) notebooks forgo Intel processor for AMD power. You’ll find an A6-8500P APU on base systems, while top-ranging systems can be had with an A10-8700P (E465) or FX-8800P (E565). Graphics duties are handled by Radeon R5 M330 2GB GPU, and given that these are AMD systems, you won’t find Intel RealSense 3D camera here.

However, most all other specs are shared with its Intel counterparts including the port selection, maximum support memory (16GB) and storage options. The only real big change is that battery life on the E465 and E565 is rated at up to 6.5 hours (versus 9 hours).

Although Lenovo is announced its the E460/E560 and E465/E565 today, the systems won’t actually start shipping to customers until November. Once they are available the 14-inch E460 and E465 will start at $549 and $449 respectively, while the 15.6-inch E560 and E565 will start at $549 and $479 respectively.