Lenovo ThinkPad L420 And L520 Entry-Level Notebooks Outed

Lenovo has outed its latest set of entry-level ThinkPad notebooks, the L Series, with pricing kicking off from $899. The Lenovo ThinkPad L420 and L520 pack a choice of Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors – up to the 2.7GHz Core i7-2620M – along with optional WiMAX/EVDO/HSPA, a 720p HD webcam and a choice of HDD or SSD storage.

The ThinkPad L420 has a 14-inch 1366 x 768 display with an anti-glare coating, four USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, an ExpressCard slot and a DisplayPort socket. The ThinkPad L520 keeps the same ports but boosts the display to 15.6-inches, either running at 1366 x 768 or at 1600 x 900 resolution.

Both have a choice of integrated Intel graphics or AMD Radeon HD 565v GPU, an optional DVD burner and a choice of 4-, 6- or 9-cell batteries. Both will arrive on March 29 2011.

Press Release:

Video Calling, Smart PC, & Battery Life Innovation Drive New ThinkPad Laptops

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – Feb. 22, 2011: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced six new ThinkPad laptops – the T420s, T420, T520, L420, L520 and W520 – that maximize performance and offer a higher level of productivity for today's mobile business professionals. These new laptops are built upon a platform of new Lenovo innovations that respond to key business needs including: video and voice calling, smart PC features for power and performance management, all-day battery life, enterprise management and an intuitive, easy-to-use computing experience.

The ultra-thin, sub four pound ThinkPad T420s speeds up boot time 30 percent with Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0; the T420 reaches new battery life benchmarks of up to 30 hours with an extended battery; the W520 mobile workstation offers twice the performance of previous models; and the L Series gives customers the recognized ThinkPad durable design at an exceptional value.

"Inspired by our customers, the 2011 ThinkPad laptops deliver the best technologies the industry has to offer, enabling users to do more with their computing experience," said Dilip Bhatia, vice president, ThinkPad Marketing, Lenovo. "We used customer feedback to help us create our latest ThinkPad laptops that provide strong improvements in key areas such as battery life, video and conferencing communications and performance. We've even made the ThinkPad laptops smarter by engineering self- aware technologies for unprecedented performance and power management capabilities."

Smart PC Power & Performance Management

The new laptops incorporate self-aware and adaptive technologies to sense where power is needed most to ensure priority components receive power for improved overall performance and battery life. With Lenovo Turbo Boost, the laptops increase processor speed during performance intensive tasks such as video editing, data analysis and 3D applications while simultaneously maintaining low thermal temperatures. With reduced power to non-essential hardware, the laptops achieve up to 30 percent longer battery life while playing multimedia so users can watch DVDs, listen to MP3s or stream web content longer.

All-Day Battery Life

With its standard 9-cell battery, the ThinkPad T420 delivers up to 15 hours of battery life, while the T420s, delivers up to 10 hours with its combined 6-cell and optional snap on 6-cell slice battery. For extreme battery life needs, the ThinkPad T420 with its standard 9-cell battery and optional 9-cell slice battery provides up to 30 hours of computing power. As the first business class laptops to feature NVIDIA® OptimusTM automatic graphic switching technology, T Series and W Series laptops provide 33 percent battery performance over previous models.

Video & Voice Calling

The laptops include a variety of technologies for enhanced video and voice conferencing. Private Chat and Conference Call microphone modes allow users to switch easily between modes with a single mouse click. Private Chat mode can also use noise cancelling technology to focus on a single voice, while Conference Call mode picks up the ambient sound in the room.

The laptops also include keyboard noise suppression technology to help eliminate the distracting keyboard clicking that often occurs while typing during PC-based voice calls. The laptops can also help users avoid embarrassing conference call mistakes with a dedicated LED-lit microphone mute key which indicates when the microphone is sending audio.

Designed for Enterprise

Built upon a platform of advanced industry technologies, including the performance and energy efficiency of the 2nd generation Intel® CoreTM and CoreTM vProTM processors, the new ThinkPad laptops offer enterprise IT managers high reliability and easy deployment and manageability. For example, the ThinkPad T, W and L Series share the same docking station to simplify deployment, reduce costs and allow hardware sharing among employees. The laptops also share common batteries for lower cost and easy component management.

For improved enterprise-class security, the new ThinkPad laptops offer multiple layers of security throughout the hardware, software, BIOS and options including encrypted hard drive technology with remote management support, integrated fingerprint reader with one touch swipe for power on and authentication, and Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT) – a laptop theft deterrence mechanism ensuring data cannot be accessed before disabling a laptop.

Intuitive, & Easy-to-Use

A new feature, Lenovo's Instant Resume, maintains users' wireless connection on the laptops during sleep mode for brief periods of time, eliminating the need to login and reconnect. For improved audio sound, the ThinkPad T420s is the first laptop to offer Dolby Home Theater v4, Dolby's latest audio technology with virtualized surround sound and dialog enhancement technology for clearer sound in movies, music and during video calls.

For quick and easy startup and shutdown, the laptops also feature Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0 for Windows 7 – an exclusive certification for Lenovo products that allows users to start their laptop on average 20 seconds faster than a typical Windows 7 computer1.

Pricing and Availability2

The ThinkPad T, L and W Series will be available starting in March from Lenovo business partners and www.lenovo.com. Pricing for the T420s, T420, T520, L420, L520 and W520 starts at approximately $1399, $1029, $999, $899, $899 and $1529 respectively.