Lenovo Partners Cheer Release Of Premium ThinkPad Notebooks For Businesses

Lenovo on Wednesday unveiled a slew of new Windows-10-powered convertible notebooks designed for the commercial segment.

Partners applauded the innovations in design and attention to the enterprise, particularly SMBs, in the Chinese company's new ThinkPad Yoga convertible notebooks and ThinkPad PCs.

"Lenovo is addressing our clients' needs ... they want a thin, light and powerful laptop," said David Felton, founder of Canaan Technology, a Lenovo partner based in Norwalk, Conn. "At the top of our customers' minds right now is quality. We've been selling a lot of premium products with great thin, light features and good battery life."

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Among the bevy of new products unleashed by Lenovo on Wednesday were the 12.5-inch ThinkPad Yoga 260 and 14-inch ThinkPad Yoga 460 premium convertible notebooks.

These notebooks contain thin and rugged convertible designs, as well as a ThinkPad Pen Pro and adaptability to WiGig, Intel's wireless docking technology that enables high-speed wireless connections to docking stations.

"Lenovo has been innovative in their detachable screens and the concept of a convertible laptop," said Grant Nadell, managing director of technology at DynTek Services, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based Lenovo partner. "I have definitely seen companies interested in the flexibility and style offered by these products."

In addition, the ThinkPad Yoga 260 and 460 notebooks, which will be available in the fall for $949 and $1,049, respectively, are compatible with Intel's new sixth-generation Skylake Core processors and Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 10.

A Lenovo spokesperson did not reply to an email asking if the new ThinkPad Yoga products were available for the commercial channel.

But Felton, whose company currently sells Lenovo's high-end ThinkPad Carbon and Yoga Pro ultrabooks to SMBs, said, if given the opportunity, he would be interested in reselling the new devices.

In addition to the ThinkPad Yoga convertible notebooks, Lenovo also announced new ThinkPad portable notebooks for SMB customers.

These slim, powerful notebooks include the 14-inch ThinkPad E460 and 15.6-inch ThinkPad E560 notebooks running on Intel Core processors, as well as the 14-inch ThinkPad E465 and 15.6-inch ThinkPad E565 running on AMD processors.

Lenovo has integrated several enterprise features into these new devices, including an optional fingerprint security tool to facilitate PC access through fingerprint recognition. The ThinkPad E560 also features an optional Intel RealSense Technology camera, which enables 3-D applications like facial-recognition security.

"For Lenovo to be able to maintain their pace of innovation while remaining as devoted to the channel as Lenovo is, makes partners like Xylotek happy to remain aligned with the technology juggernaut," said Douglas Grosfield, president and CEO of Xylotek, a Cambridge, Ontario-based Lenovo partner, in an email.

"Increased battery life, solid state storage, multiple connection ports, and optional Intel RealSense 3D camera technology bring enhanced abilities for supporting mobile use, efficient computing, collaboration, and adoption of security technologies, such as facial recognition to a broader audience in the SMB space," he said.

The ThinkPad E460 and E465 will be available for $549 and $449, respectively, while the E560 and E565 will be priced at $549 and $479, respectively.

All of the new ThinkPad E-series products will be released in November, according to Lenovo.

Lenovo also announced a mix of other new devices across the board, Wednesday, including the 12-inch IdeaPad MIIX 700, a 2-in-1 tablet with a dual watchband hinge kickstand, IdeaPad 300 and 500 laptops, and a small form-factor desktop, ThinkCentre M900 Tiny.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 2, 2015