Lenovo today gave a first look at a whole bunch of new ThinkPads as part of its announcements for Mobile World congress. For the most part, these are spec refreshes, though some bring slight changes to their designs as well, including some new materials.
The changes are across Lenovo’s AMD focused Z series, its ThinkPad X13 and 13 Yoga, new T and L-series refreshes and the ThinkPad E-series aimed at small businesses.
The ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 Gen 2 are refreshes from last-year’s AMD-powered machine. This year, they’re coming with AMD Ryzen 7000-series processors (Lenovo hasn’t said which specific ones as of this writing). The Z13 will use integrated Radeon graphics, while the Z16 will have the option for a discrete AMD Radeon 6550M. Both will go up to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. Both laptops will have an option for a 1920 x 1200, 16:10 screen; the 13-inch will go up to a 2880 x 1800 OLED panel, while the 16-inch tops out at a 3840 x 2400 OLED touchscreen.
With the Z-series, Lenovo is debuting a new “woven flax” material bonded to the recycled aluminum top cover. It will maintain a lot of the features that made it differ from traditional ThinkPads, such as a haptic touchpad and TrackPoint Quick Menu, and continue with a 1080p webcam and Wi-Fi 6E.
This generation’s haptic touchpads are from a company called Sensei, which developed the touchpads in the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga and ThinkPad X1 Fold. Sensei’s tech wasn’t in the previous-gen Z series, so we’ll have to get some hands-on time to see if there’s a noticeable difference.
The Z13 will start at $1,249 and ship in July, with the Z16 following in August, starting at $1,749.
On the X series — the ThinkPad X13 Gen 5 and ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 5, Lenovo claims that it is shrinking down bezels for a higher-screen-to-body ratio. The speakers are now top-firing, which should make for better audio (though that could mean they face away in some uses on the 2-in-1 Yoga) and there’s an optional 5-megapixel camera with infrared. The clamshell version is also getting a 13.3-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED screen with Dolby Vision support.
The ThinkPad X13 Gen 4, a standard laptop, will have both 13th Gen Intel Core processors and AMD Ryzen 7000 series mobile processors. It will bring up to 32GB of LPDDR5 and up to 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. The 13.3-inch display will range from a 1920 x 1200 non-touch display (with a configurable touch option) all the way up to a high-res OLED panel. The Yoga version will only use Intel CPUs, but have the same memory and storage options. The 13.3-inch options will top out at a 1920 x 1200 touchscreen. Both will start with an FHD webcam with privacy shutter; the 5MP with IR is an upgrade.
The X13 and X13 Yoga will both ship in May 2023, with prices for the clamshell beginning at $1,099 and the 2-in-1 starting at $1,379.
Lenovo’s steadfast T series is getting what Lenovo is calling “incremental enhancements,” including sustainable materials and the optional 5 MP camera. The ThinkPad T14 Gen 5, T16 Gen 2 and T14s Gen 4 will all have the option for a 2880 x 1880 OLED panel. All three of these devices will come with either 13th Gen Intel Core processors with vPro, or Ryzen 7000 chips. These laptops will launch in May 2023, with the T14s starting at $1,479, the T14 at $1,239 and the T16 at $1,269.
The lower-cost L-series will add a new blue-light display configuration option for the L13 Gen 5 and L13 Yoga Gen 5, while the L14 Gen 4 and L15 Gen 4 will have higher capacity storage options than before at 2TB. These will launch in April, with the L13 and L13 Yoga starting at $869 and $1,099, respectively, while both the L14 and L15 are expected to start at $869.
Lenovo is positioning its E-series towards small and medium-sized businesses, alongside the ThinkBook series. The ThinkPad E15 Gen 5 is getting a refresh alongside a new, larger ThinkPad E16. The E series is moving to 16:10 for the first time with both Intel and AMD processors. The E14 Gen 5 is planned to launch for $739 in May, while the E16 Gen 1 will start at $759.