We reckon 2013 is going to be the year when touchscreen laptops hit the mainstream, and Lenovo has shown its keenness to get in on the action with the release of a new pair of touchscreen ThinkPads, the Edge E431 and E531.
The E431 comes with a 14-inch touchscreen supporting a 1600 x 900 resolution HD+ display in either gloss or matte and weighs 4.7 pounds, while its bigger brother, the E531, rocks a matte-only 15-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) anti-glare display and weighs in at 5.5-pounds.
Both pack third-generation Intel Core i7 processors and can be configured with up-to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and promise eight hours of battery life. There’s also Dolby Advanced Audio V2 onboard and both machines have been specially designed to support voice recognition.
Coinciding with the launch is the announcement of Lenovo’s new OneLink technology which will début in Lenovo’s new ThinkPad OneLink Dock. Promising “superior lag-free graphics and audio performance,” the $99 (£61) dock comes with dedicated HDMI, audio, Ethernet, HDMI, AND VGA ports, along with four USB ports.
Both the E431 and E531 can hook up to the dock via one port, so the system is rather similar to Apple’s Thunderbolt technology.
Pricing for the new Windows 8-optimised laptops is keen, with the red, black or silver ThinkPad Edge E431 and E531 machines starting at $539 (£335.407). Shipping is due to start in May.
[Via]
