Lenovo is set to launch a 25th-anniversary ThinkPad laptop with classic design elements later this year. But a recent leak suggests that while it may have a retro look, the new ThinkPad will have the horsepower of a modern PC.

German product testing and certification provider TÜVRheinland has posted a listing for an unannounced Lenovo PC called the ThinkPad T470 ThinkPad 25.

That sure make it sound like the upcoming 25th-anniversary laptop will be a version of the 14 inch laptop Lenovo introduced at the end of 2016.

Lenovo ThinkPad 25 concept (from 2015)

ThinkPad T470 models currently sell for about $880 and up, and feture support for up to an Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake processor, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 500GB of HDD or 1TB of solid state storage, up to a 1920 x 1080 pixl IPS display with an optional touchscreen, and a chassis that measures 0.8 inches thick and which weighs about 3.5 pounds.

Other features include Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 3.0 ports and a Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C port, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, 3.5mm audio jack, and optional smart card reader and micro SIM card slot on some configurations.

It’s likely that many of those features would carry over to a ThinkPad 25 edition model… but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a classic keyboard with 7 rows of raised keys. A colorful ThinkPad logo is almost certainly a given. And earlier this year Lenovo’s former chief design officer Dave Hill said the laptop would have “black rubberized coating, three TrackPoint caps, and a keyboard to die for.”

Lenovo’s only been making ThinkPad-branded laptops for about a dozen years, but that’s because the company only started using the name when it acquired IBM’s personal computer business in 2005. So the brand has a long history.

While recent models keep some classic style including a TrackPoint system with a pointing stick in the center of the keyboard and a black design (with a few red accents), Lenovo started using island-style keyboards a few years ago in a move that made the company’s laptops feel a bit more modern… but which annoyed some long-time users.

While Lenovo hasn’t released any official pictures of the upcoming computer yet, the image posted above is a concept that Lenovo’s Dave Hill shared in 2015, and a new picture uploaded to Chinese forum 51nb.com allegedly shows the logo and part of the keyboard.

via NotebookCheck and The Register

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10 replies on “Lenovo’s 25th anniversary ThinkPad may be a T470 variant”

  1. That looks like a horrible SHINY glare-magnet screen on that laptop! I doesn’t matter to me, I can’t use this laptop anyway. Lenovo will make sure the driver won’t work with Linux.

  2. The good old 7-row keyboard from the T60 was the best keyboard on a laptop ever, period. I bought it over later to my T400 (compatibility between models! Oh, how I miss those days!) which is still in use. I’m not on the market for a new notebook right now, but I’ll keep this modell in mind for the next few years.

    1. I loved the old Thinkpads for that reason, cross compatibility, and backwards compatibility.

      I had a T430, with a T420 keyboard, and it was such a nice combo.

      I’d like to get an older X230, but I’m trying to figure out a way to get a newer 802.11ac adapter in it (Lenovo’s adapter white-list is silly)

      1. Using an X220 with a generic (non-Lenovo) Intel 7260ac wi-fi card from eBay.
        You just need a modded bios, which removes the whitelist checking.

  3. What I wouldn’t give for a 4:3 screen. So much better for office work (save the odd multi-column spreadsheet) and writing. I would sacrifice media consumption for more overall screen real estate in a (IMO) more work-centric aspect ratio.
    Is the T60/T61 the last ThinkPad that had a 4:3 ratio?

    1. I think it’s much more likely to be a 16:10 screen, which would be an improvement over 16:9, at least.

      1. I hope you’re right about 16:10 with a nice matte exterior:) Fingers crossed on 3:2 though. 16:9 is a deal-breaker.

  4. I really hope it has the classic keyboard keycaps. Also, the picture shows a screen latch, that is one of the biggest features I miss from the older Thinkpads.

    I’m a huge fan of the classic Thinkpads (everything T430 and older, that was the last T-series with a screen latch).

    I will definitely buy one of these if it has the classic keyboard, and screen latch

    1. “up to 32GB of RAM, up to 500GB of RAM”

      It’s a caching arrangement. If you’re pulling data from the 32GB of RAM it’s super fast, but if it’s not cached you have to reach out to the 500GB of RAM… which is also super fast! 😛

Comments are closed.