Lenovo Launches New Small Business Line, Enhances R, X, and T Series

Today, Lenovo announced the release of its new small business-friendly SL series. The SL300, SL400, and SL500 come in 13, 14.1, and 15.4-inch screen sizes and provide some new, stylish tweaks to the traditional Thinkpad aesthetic. So what’s different?

• A glossy black lid
• Slanted edges
• Different, cooler placement of indicator lights
• A red “terminator eye” light in the Thinkpad logo on the back of the lid.

Beyond the slick new look is a package of features designed for professionals who need mobility, power, value, and entertainment in the same system. The SLs are the first Thinkpads available with glossy screens and Blu-ray drives so mobile workers can use them to watch movies or even play games when they’re not powering through spreadsheets and presentations. To keep businesses mobile, there’s an intregated WWAN option (if you want AT&T to be your mobile broadband carrier) and an enhanced service option for the SL series called ThinkPlus Secure Business. The latter is designed for companies with no IT department and offers drop protection, on-site service, and other support enhancements. We had a chance to test the SL400, the 14.1-inch SL series, over the weekend and we were largely impressed, but left with a few reservations. Check out our full review of the SL400 and the hands-on video below.

More New Thinkpads In addition to the SL series, Lenovo announced six other Centrino 2-based notebooks: the R400, R500, T400, W500, and X200. Our own Jeffrey Wilson has reviewed the X200, a successor to the popular X61 ultraportable that’s even smaller and lighter than the famous X300. The T series will offer a switchable graphics option to help users save battery life.