The Best of Both Worlds: Lenovo Combines Thin and Light With Powerful Performance in Latest ThinkPad Laptop
Sydney, Australia – June 24, 2009: Lenovo today announced the ThinkPad T400s laptop, created to give business users a thin and light, yet powerful, feature-packed PC. Demonstrating Lenovo’s attention to detail, the T400s includes a series of significant enhancements designed to make the laptop more intuitive and easier to use, leading to an improved overall computing experience.
Thin and Light Design
Inspired by Lenovo’s thinnest and lightest full-function laptop, the featherweight ThinkPad X300, Lenovo engineered the ThinkPad T400s to be super-slim, at just 21 millimetres thin, and ultra-light starting at 1.77 kilograms[i]. The laptop achieves its skinny frame thanks to the Top Cover Roll Cage, which Lenovo first introduced in the ThinkPad X300 laptop, and the thin 14.1-inch LED screen and DVD burner. The roll cage’s monocoque carbon reinforced fibre, also used in bicycle frames and airplanes, helps keep the laptop extremely light yet surprisingly sturdy. With this design the laptop weighs nearly 20 percent less than its ThinkPad T400 predecessor, making it thinner and lighter than the Dell E6400 and HP 6930P laptops.
“Lenovo continues to raise the bar on innovation with its commitment to ultraportability, strong performance and usability,” said Chris Kelly, Product and Marketing Director, Lenovo ANZ. “The ThinkPad T400s is designed to balance the power and features of the ‘workhorse’ T-series with the mobility of thinner and lighter technology.”
Loaded for Performance
Lenovo’s ThinkPad T Series functions as the powerhouse series in its laptop line-up. The ThinkPad T400s laptop allows users to enjoy the best of both worlds – a thin and light design without sacrificing the powerful performance they need.
The laptop comes with:
· Choices of Intel® 2.4 or 2.53 GHz Core™2Duo processors (standard voltage, small form factor) and Intel® graphics
· Choices of solid state drive storage up to 256 GB or 250 GB hard drive storage
· 9.5 mm slim DVD burner or Blu-Ray player
· Ethernet, WiFi, WWAN[ii], Bluetooth and ultrawideband connectivity
· 34mm Express Card slot or 5-in-1 multimedia card reader
· Nearly six hours of battery life
· Supports up to two monitors via a Display Port and VGA connector
· Meets the Energy Star 5.0 criteria for energy efficiency
· Built-in USB/eSATA port
Lenovo is also introducing three new options for users who want to expand their work space by connecting to other peripherals such as mice and keyboards, monitors and printers. The ThinkPad Port Replicator Series 3, ThinkPad Mini-Dock Series 3 and ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus 3 feature new slim and sleek footprints, provide one-step “rip and go” docking and include a range of multi-monitor support while meeting a variety of needs including support for USB, Display Port and eSATA.
Design Matters
A comfortable, easy to use keyboard plays a big role in overall user satisfaction with their PC. Knowing this, Lenovo spends a lot of time perfecting the design of its keyboard.
- The average user hits the Delete and the Escape key 700 times a week; to help improve the typing experience, Lenovo has made these keys larger.
- To help protect the keyboard and lock crumbs out, Lenovo tightened the spaces between the keys.
- To keep the laptop thin, the touchpad lays flush with the palm rest.
- To make sure users know whether their fingers are on the trackpad, Lenovo developed a textured material to help them feel the trackpad’s location.
- And with multitouch technology on the trackpad, users can scroll, pinch and zoom through documents.
Because more people are using voice over IP (VoIP) for communicating at the office, at home or on the road, Lenovo optimised the T400s to make VoIP calls as simple as using the telephone. Lenovo has equipped the T400s with a two megapixel camera for better quality images in low lighting conditions. To optimise sound quality Lenovo pumped up the speaker volume to more than two times greater than audio levels on the ThinkPad T400 laptop. A simple toggle switch was also added at the top of the keyboard to easily increase and decrease volume; similar to the feature found on the steering wheel of sports cars.
Because the constant clicking of keys can be distracting when on a conference call, the T400s features dual digital microphones which help reduce ambient noise and improve speaker clarity. Separate speaker and microphone mute buttons with LED lights to indicate which button is on have also been added, so users know whether they are on or off mute. For an even faster VoIP experience, users can activate VoIP in one step by hitting the Function and F6 keys.
For even more convenience, Lenovo added the ability to power on the laptop with just the swipe of a finger on the finger print reader. And an always-on USB port keeps MP3 players, cameras and other peripherals charged when the laptop is in standby and hibernate.
Pricing and Availability
The ThinkPad T400s is available immediately through Lenovo business partners and www.lenovo.com.au. Models start at approximately $AUD2,899. The ThinkPad Port Replicator Series 3, Mini Dock Series 3 and Mini Dock Plus Series 3 are available immediately and start at $AUD199, $AUD279 and $AUD299 respectively. All prices quoted include GST.
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is dedicated to building exceptionally engineered personal computers. Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centres in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.au.
Prices do not include tax or shipping and are subject to change without notice and is tied to specific terms and conditions. Reseller prices may vary. Price does not include all advertised features. All offers subject to availability. Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice