Lenovo introduced six new ThinkPad laptops Tuesday that are based on the new Intel dual-core Sandy Bridge processors that were unveiled last September. According to Intel, the new chip’s built-in graphics engine is able to share resources with the processor’s core, which boosts computing and graphics performance as well as energy efficiency.
By combining Intel’s new processors with its own engineering improvements, Lenovo expects business users to benefit from better video performance, battery life, and security. The company said benchmark tests of its new T420s have shown that the ultrathin laptop can run for 15 hours on a single charge of the machine’s standard battery.
“That’s an increase of about 30 percent” over the comparable ThinkPad model from last year, called the T410, “and with half of that coming from Intel and the other half coming from the technology that Lenovo has been able to add,” said Lenovo Worldwide Product Marketing Manager Preston Taylor. Moreover, an optional nine-cell battery can provide up to 30 hours of computing power, he added.
Speedier Graphics
The new ThinkPad T420s, T420, T520, L420, L520 and W520 portable workstations also benefit from Intel’s placement of the graphics processing unit (GPU) on the same die as the central processing unit (CPU). This makes the graphics performance on Lenovo’s new ThinkPads two times faster, Taylor observed.
From the business end-user perspective, this speeds up the laptop’s multimedia and communications tools for videoconferencing as well as preparing and editing presentations, Taylor explained. Users also will be able to watch high-definition movies and online videos with the help of integrated Intel HD Graphics.
Lenovo’s new ThinkPads also tap Intel’s Turbo Boost technology, which is designed to accelerate performance by automatically reallocating processor cores and graphics resources based on workload requirements. Additionally, corporate ThinkPad buyers will benefit from the improvements that Intel has…