First look: The new Lenovo ThinkPad 10

At its TechWorld event in Beijing today, PC giant Lenovo has taken the wraps off the latest member of its ThinkPad family, the new ThinkPad 10. Aiming to straddle the line between traditional notebooks and highly portable tablets, the ThinkPad 10 is a capable Windows 10 slate with an array of accessories to boost productivity.

We've had the opportunity to spend a short time with the new, second-generation ThinkPad 10 in China, and you'll find our hands-on photo gallery and first impressions after the break.

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As we've come to expect from the ThinkPad line, there's nothing too ostentatious happening on the outside. The ThinkPad 10 packs its 10.1-inch Full HD panel into an unassuming form factor with rounded top corners. It's powered by an Intel Atom (Cherry Trail) CPU — Z8500 with 2 or 4GB of RAM, or Z8700 with 4GB.

It's neither the thinnest nor the lightest tablet around, however Lenovo promises a capacious 32 watt-hour battery capable of delivering up to 10 hours of real-world productivity.

While the ThinkPad 10 is a tablet at heart, it's augmented by a vast array of accessories — including a folio cover with a flip-out section to allow quick camera access, and as before, a ThinkPad keyboard dock complete with trackpad.

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But Lenovo is also positioning this as a business-centric tablet, for buyers who might want the power of a fully-featured Windows machine alongside the portability of a tablet. It might not replace your regular workstation for high-powered tasks, but Lenovo is aiming to pack in enough enterprise functionality to make the ThinkPad 10 a serious contender. As such, the manufacturer has included its ActivePen technology for stylus input, working in tandem with its WRITEit feature, which lets users draw or write directly into any text field. In addition, there's also optional Smart Card and NFC functionality.

We'll need to spend longer with the Lenovo ThinkPad 10 before we come to any firm conclusions. Nevertheless, this interesting modular design could turn a few heads in the coming months. Look for the ThinkPad 10 to launch alongside Windows 10 this August.

Alex Dobie

54 Comments

I want... Would love to move up from the DVP8 to this as a companion device for my ThinkPad. If only there was a Think branded Windows Phone.
How can this be 'high end' with so shitty internals ????
Have you used a Surface 3? The Atom x7 is no slouch. It won't win any benchmark contests in gaming or video editing, but for 80% of users out there, it is plenty fast.
Ignorance, or what? I use an ASUS T100TA as my daily driver. Granted, my work is mostly office document and web based (site development and management), but like teoami said, this will be plenty for most people. If you're a gamer, video editor, or need to do RAM or CPU intensive tasks then you won't buy something like this. For everyone else, this will be more than capable.
Hardware is okay, but the design is not so much..
Eh, ThinkPads by their nature are pretty conservative. My X1 Carbon is not nearly as "sexy" as my Dell XPS 13. I still reach for X1 every time though due to functionality. Don't forget, ThinkPad line is for business users, not so much a consumer-class device.
Eh what? Did you just say that my razor thin ultra sexy X1 Carbon is not nearly as sexy as the XPS13? Take your pills Daniel, take your pills. You are obviously dreaming again.
I was thinking the same thing. The X1 is the sexiest notebook I have seen
Honest question, as someone with neither. What functionality does the X1 provide that the XPS13 does not?
He's right though. Business machines are generally quite ugly. Rubino does not lie.
Battery life on the TP 10 is much better than on the laptops Lenovo announced the other day.
Because that isn't getting really old and tired by this point...
And. There's a lot about Lenovo and the Chinese based company that should concern people. China hasn't been a trust worthy partner. And to think they'd change is laughable. Their government has much say in their daily goings on. What a fool the West is.
You do realise even some Lumia phones are made in China, right?
You're being borderline racist now. So kindly stop.
I agree I don't think you are or were being racist, however your comment did kind of group all people in China as untrustworthy. You didn't say "I can't trust people there", instead you said "you can't..." as if to inply that no one can trust them.
If you see what he writes further down he is waaay beyond the racist line
Do you realize that many companies outsource the programming of software to Chinese companies? Chances are high that a name brand Blu-ray player is going to be made in China with firmware programmed by Chinese employees. Apple, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Sony, etc. could very well rely on Chinese programmers when compiling their codes, finding bugs, testing, etc. Your paranoia is truly astounding, I think your meds are wearing off and you need to get rid of your tinfoil hat becasue it's obviously messing with your mind. Now, you go on to say "You can't trust China or people there." What about Chinese people who come to the U.S. for higher education (graduate school, I know that might be hard for you to fathom) or for careers? Can they not be trusted either? I (don't) hate to tell you but there are many Chinese people currently working in the U.S. who are conducting research, with the U.S. government no less, helping to make your drinking water cleaner. They are conducting research so that you won't get cancer from long-term consumption of disinfection byproducts in your tap water, they are conducting research so that we can better recycle our products and rely less on oil companies when manufacturing plastic goods, they are conducting all sorts of research. Some of those Chinese people have plans to go back to their home country, others don't. You might as well stay locked in your basement with newspapers covering the windows, your tinfoild hat, and your mason jars filled with urine.
Add apple too
If the Chinese government tried to alter blueprints, specs, or software on a Lumia, MS could find out pretty damned easy. There is no such assurance with a Chinese government owned company.
Richard, there is a difference with Lenovo, though -- it's a Chinese-owned company. Designs are approved in China. Profits feed the Chinese communist government, instead of a capitalist, entrepreneurial company in the West or South Korea that just has the manufacturing done in China. That doesn't necessarily mean that the products are any less trustworthy than others manufactured in China for Western companies, but it's definitely a big difference. I'm writing this on a company-provided Lenovo, by the way. :-)
you cannot seriously compare china contractors with china companies. lumia phones are made in china, as well as iphones, and plenty of android phones, but they are still different with chinese phone companies. The status of chinese factory in making lumia is just being a contractor. they are just providing factories and workers and they still have to play by microsoft (previously nokia) rules. a project owner can dictate what the contractor needs to do, what materials the contractor needs to use, and all that, it's different with chinese companies making phones. chinese companies can put any spyware/adware anytime they want. chinese factories cannot put adware in lumia/iphone because microsoft/apple would find out when they QC-ing the manufacturing process. and btw, Lenovo has been degrading the quality of thinkpads the past few years. their durability is no longer top notch, read this page if you dont believe me: http://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/37o6xx/5_thinkpads_4_repairs_w... what make it worse, they make it harder for users to replace parts in their laptops. it used to be easy to replace hdd in thinkpad x version few years ago, not anymore. I was a big fan of thinkpad but i know my next laptop wont be a thinkpad anymore. Lenovo has sacrificed thinkpads biggest features for no obvious reason.
Lenovo has a manufacturing plant in North Carolina. They do a large amount of assembly in Mexico as well as China.
Product assembly to the U.S., most of the pieces of hardware in Apple systems (like the iMac they are making here) are still manufactured in China.
Rly??? Umm, most of apple's products such as IPAD, IPOD, and IPHONE are made in the foxconn factory in china, which has the highest suicide and riot rate of any factory in the region. Apple doesn't give a shit.
Almost all things are made in China,another,China and you have enemy?and you ever been to China?you have any qualification said the world factory ?I'm using MSN translator talk to you
No, I don't think we'll ever get over superfish grande.
Lenovo is a hardware company smart guy. Superfish is the spyware company...that's based in the United States (Palo Alto).
Wow. No. Having the Chinese company Lenovo working with anything is a terrible idea. Until the Chinese government can back away from it's censorship, intellectual property theft and economic espionage it'd be a terrible mistake to collaborate anything with the Chinese based company.
...
People let profits cloud their judgment far to often. When your intellectual property is stolen you'll have no one to blame but yourself Microsoft.
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And if they go ahead with Cortana, I'm shutting mine off.
Wow. No. Having a U.S. company working with anything is a terrible idea. Until the U.S. government can back away from its capitalist, spying, and warmongering it'd be a terrible mistake to collaborate anything with a U.S. based company. Yeah, we all know the Chinese government isn't perfect but, really, what country's government is? The U.S. can be just as bad and has done worse in the past. Our politicians are clouded by greed and our government is no longer "for the people, by the people." Sure, I have the freedom to type this out without repercussions but having free speech and actually having freedom are two separate things. Right now the U.S. is run by a government that is more focused feeding profits than it is about taking care of its citizens. So why should any other business/country work with the U.S. when they can be just as bad, if not worse, in some areas?
Ummm... are these new? How are they different from the current ThinkPad 10. We just bought 3 of these babies about a month ago. Very nice.
Yup. 2nd gen model.
I wish more PC makers would adopt designs that made it easier to use their tablets in portrait orientation. I mean it doesn't matter if it is Windows or Android running the device is weird to use in portrait because it's too long.
16:10 isn't all that bad in portrait mode, especially on 10" and smaller devices.
It's not too bad but I prefer 3:2 as that seems like the perfect balance between getting work done in portrait orientation and watching widescreen videos.
Looks and sounds very much like the current TP10, maybe a small processor bump and better battery life (which was an issue with the current model IIRC).
I have the 1st gen TP10 with all the accessores. This looks like the same thing. Lenovo's drivers are always late and really "rough". Far between updates as well I might add.
Please learn if that pen is using EMR or AES, that's a big deal.
10 inch tablet keyboards are too cramped!
Omg they took away the TrackPoint. :-o
No TrackPoint; not a ThinkPad.
And why haven't they included one? It's way better than using that tiny trackpad.
What's with the baytrail and cherrytrail shit. They are good for kids and students but surely not for work purpose. At least i3 or any quad core of amd would do.
If your work is office and internet, atom is more than fine. U less you're working with excel files that we gigs in size this is plenty of computing power. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
That's one beautifull wallpaper, too bad I can't find it on the net... Anyone better luck?
How much in AUD? I'm looking for a windows tablet. Instead of buy a laptop for gaming I will seperate it. A performance desktop and a tablet for office. I would love to pay foe windows tablet instead of iPad or Samsung tabs.
Too bad Lenovo makes this. It's probably loaded with Chinese government spyware. Many U.S. businesses forbid use of Lenovo products on their networks for this very reason.
I want that desktop wallpaper
Looking at the keyboard option there is no trackpoint. That little red button is why I love and buy ThinkPads. I loathe touchpads.
I say ditch both if it is a touch screen :).
Did they integrate the stylus! I can't read too good... :-) Stylus integrated in detachable keyboard. I'm sure this makes sense for the majority of people, I prefer my stylus integrated in body of tablet. I'm a minority. Have the last thinkpad with stylus in body of tablet, and though I rarely use it, that's the place it should be, the compromises to size and weight are worth it. A tablet should be fully functioning without the detachable keyboard, with a great onscreen typing experience and a stylus for sketching, handwriting, text markup, and "mousing" functions. This is the use case scenario that will continue to distinguish Windows tablets from thier iPad ilk. It's a shame when businesses don't recognize and build on the differentiators.
$750 for atom... I understand that atom is an OK performer, but this is still horribly overpriced. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Price?
The capacitive start button looks ill placed. That tends to be frustrating to anyone using a pen input. Unless it can be rotated to the top?

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