Lenovo Upgrades ThinkPad And ThinkBook Lineup With Alder Lake, Ryzen Pro 6000 And RTX GPUs
Lenovo's bringing out the big fireworks this year to celebrate ThinkPad's 30th anniversary. At the 2022 Mobile World Congress, the company announced top-to-bottom refreshes of most of its laptop products, including ThinkPads, ThinkBooks, and IdeaPads. We'll have a gander at the IdeaPad models in a bit, but for now, let's check out the latest upgrades to Lenovo's Think- series models.
Lenovo refreshed its ThinkPad X1 family at CES, but those updates didn't include the X1 Extreme. Now in its fifth-generation incarnation, the revised ThinkPad X1 Extreme comes strapped with Intel's 12th-generation H-series processors. Those are the fastest and most powerful laptop chips that Intel sells, with a TDP of 45W and up to 14 CPU cores turboing up to 5.0 GHz. Lenovo specifically notes that the Extreme can be had with a Core i9, although it didn't specify if that includes the range-topping (and overclockable) Core i9-12900HK.
Graphics options on this potent portable start with the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and top out at the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. Your choice of graphics card powers your selection of 16-inch IPS displays all in 16:10 aspect ratio, including a 165 Hz 1920×1200 model, a 2560×1600 version, or either of a pair of HDR-capable 3840×2400 panels with or without touch capability.
The memory is expandable, and its two SO-DIMM slots can be filled with a pair of 32GB modules from the factory, giving you 64GB of DDR5 on the go. A pair of PCIe 4.0 M.2 sockets can each accept a 4TB NVMe SSD, maxing out your storage at 8TB. If you need even more storage, you can use one of the laptop's pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, or slap an SD Express card in the SD card slot.
Taken as a complete package, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme is aptly-named—an extremely high-performance laptop that makes no compromises, and should serve for just about any use case. It packs all this puissance into a package just ¾" thick and slightly over 4 pounds. Not bad for a laptop that packs real AAA-in-4K gaming prowess.
For those without the dosh (or desire) for such a machine, we move over to the meat-and-potatoes of Lenovo's ThinkPad lineup: the T-series. Lenovo says these are its most popular models, and it's not hard to see why. The T14 and slightly-slimmer T14s are getting refreshes, and the company is also introducing a bigger and badder T16 model. All can be had with your choice of Intel or AMD CPUs; just look for the little "i" at the end of the model number, which indicates an Intel-powered portable.
That gives us a total of six Thinkpad T models being refreshed or introduced (T14, T14i, T14s, T14si, T16, T16i), so we're not going to go over all of them in exhaustive detail. Overall, the ThinkPad T models are practical and pragmatic business laptops that come with your choice of low-power CPUs from 12th-gen Intel Core or AMD Ryzen 6000 PRO families. The Ryzen chips get LPDDR5-6400 memory to accelerate their integrated graphics, while Intel systems have the option of a discrete GeForce MX550 or RTX 2050.
All of these models accept a single M.2 SSD with PCIe 4.0 x4 connectivity; standard options top out at 2TB. These machines also have four Type-C ports, although on the Intel systems they're both Thunderbolt 4, while the AMD systems have to settle for USB 4.0. Wi-Fi 6E is standard, and 4G LTE is available on all models, but the slim T14s models also have a 5G WWAN upgrade available. Notably, the T16 has a massive 86-WHr battery option.
Lenovo's also revealing a couple of ThinkBook models that are getting spruced-up. The ultra-portable ThinkBook 13si is entering its 4th generation, gaining an update to Intel's 12th-gen CPU family and dual-channel LPDDR5 memory options up to 32GB. The CPU's integrated Iris Xe graphics will serve to drive the 13.3" display, which can be a Dolby Vision-certified IPS LCD in 1920×1200 or 2560×1600, with or without touch capability.
The name of the game with the ThinkBook 13si is "thinner and lighter," and this machine delivers on that promise to be sure. Barely over ½" thick when closed and coming in at under 3 pounds despite having an aluminum chassis, the ThinkBook 13si is small enough to come along anywhere. Despite its trim dimensions, it comes with a 56-WHr battery that Lenovo says will let it run for over 11 hours at a stretch.
Meanwhile, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop. The new version naturally steps up to Intel's latest and greatest, although this machine comes with DDR4 memory in SODIMM form rather than soldered-down DDR5. That's a bit of a bummer given its reliance on integrated graphics, but it should serve well enough for the FHD IPS touch display.
Aside from the 360º hinge, of course, the stand-out feature for the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is definitely its support for dual M.2 SSDs. Lenovo will sell you the machine with a pair of 1TB drives, although we'd expect you can pack more than that in with aftermarket upgrades. Lenovo says the 60-WHr battery will run the machine for "up to 8.6 hours."
A lot of us who work primarily on PCs prefer to use multiple monitors to extend our screen space. That's difficult to do with a laptop, but it becomes a lot easier with a portable display like the ThinkVision M14d mobile monitor. This 14" IPS display has a resolution of 2240×1400, and it gets its power and video connection from a single USB Type-C cable. More impressive is that it can pass-through USB and power to a second USB Type-C port.
All of this hardware will be out later this year. First up are the Thinkpad T16i and T14i in April, starting at $1399 and $1419 respectively. In May, we'll see the ThinkPad T14s, and then in June, the T14, T16, and T14si. Those will begin at $1399, $1299, $1299, and $1529. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme will also come along in June, starting at $2049. Finally, the ThinkVision M14d Mobile Monitor will mosey along in July for $299.
