Lenovo Announces New ThinkPad X1 Hybrid, ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook

Lenovo Thursday unveiled two new additions to its notebook lineup, the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid notebook and the ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook, ahead of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

Lenovo says both new ThinkPads, which will be featured at CES next week, will feature a sleek form factor without sacrificing performance or battery life.

The new ThinkPad X1 Hybrid offers up to 10 hours of battery life, which is double that of its predecessor, the X1. The boost comes from the Hybrid’s battery-stretching Instant Media Mode (IMM). According to Lenovo, IMM essentially serves as a "second PC" and is powered by a separate Qualcomm dual core processor and up to 16 GB of memory. Users can switch from the Hybrid’s main Windows 7 OS to IMM's custom Linux OS to preserve battery life when watching videos, viewing photos, listening to music, or browsing the web.

The Hybrid touts a width of only 0.6-inches and weighs less than four pounds. Despite its slimmed-down frame, Lenovo claims the 13-inch Hybrid delivers double the CPU performance and quadruple the graphics performance of any previous Lenovo 13-inch laptop. Users can choose between an Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processor.

The new ThinkPad T430u is Lenovo's debut enterprise-focused Ultrabook, optimized for the corporate user. Boasting the super-chic, light-weight form factor coined by Intel back in May, the T430u Ultrabook is less than 0.8 inches wide, weighs in at under four pounds, and measures 14-inches in length.

According to Dilip Bhatia, vice president of Lenovo's ThinkPad business unit. the T430u ultrabook meets the growing need for business users to get things done on-the-fly.

"What we’re seeing is that work doesn’t happen in offices anymore," said Bhatia. "You can work from anywhere at any time. So there is a great need for these mobile devices; Ultrabooks are the next phase of mobile notebook computing."

The Ultrabook sports Lenovo’s new minimalist "island-style" keyboard, delivers up to six hours of battery life, and comes equipped with a choice of Intel core processors and Intel integrated or Nvidia GPUs.

The ThinkPad X1 Hybrid will be available in the second quarter of 2012, with pricing models starting at $1,599. The ThinkPad T430u ultrabook will be available starting in the third quarter of 2012, and will start at $849.

Lenovo also announced Thursday a revamped portfolio of SMB-focused laptops, including an updated ThinkPad Edge S Series, ThinkPad Edge E Series, and entry-level notebooks in its ThinkPad Edge B Series. The Edge E and B series will first become available in April, while the Edge S series will launch in June.