Lenovo's business laptops get a security boost at MWC 2019
Reflecting growing privacy concerns, Lenovo puts a physical cover on the webcam of every business laptop.
- Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
There's no shortage of reasons to be paranoid in 2019, and Lenovo's refreshed lineup of ThinkPad business laptops , announced Sunday at MWC 2019, reflects our anxiety.
After updating its premium ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga business laptops at CES in January, the company has now installed some premium security features across the remainder of its ThinkPad portfolio. In addition to standard enterprise fundamentals like eighth-gen Intel processors and Gigabit connectivity, every model in the ThinkPad T and X series now comes with a combination of low-tech and advanced security options. These include:
- ThinkShutter, a physical cover for the laptop's webcam to protect against being recorded without your consent
- Match-on-chip technology, which ensures that your biometric information remains encrypted on the laptop
- Privacy Guard, a special treatment that makes a display more difficult to read from peripheral angles and therefore more snoop-proof
Close the shutter on the webcam to avoid being recorded.
In addition to those security features, all of the new ThinkPad T and X laptops now support the new Wi-Fi 6 protocol, which means they use less power to get online and deliver faster and more secure connections.
The new ThinkPad X390 is the smallest ThinkPad in the lineup. It starts at $1,100 but can be configured with heavy-duty enterprise-level specs including a 1TB SSD. Lenovo says it gets nearly 18 hours of battery life.
Flip the X390 Yoga's display to move between laptop and tablet modes.
Its convertible counterpart is the X390 Yoga, which has a rotating display that can be used in both laptop and tablet modes. Lenovo says it's 12 percent thinner and, at less than 3 pounds (1.3 kg), 5 percent lighter than its predecessor. It starts at $1,360.
The ThinkPad T490s comes in black and silver.
Lenovo's T series is the company's best-selling ThinkPad line. The flagship T490 starts at $1,000 but can be configured with some high-end components, including an Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU. The streamlined ThinkPad T490s offers most of the same configuration options but in a lighter-weight, 2.8-pound package that Lenovo says will get up to 20 hours of battery life. It starts at $1,280.
Add a second display to your laptop with the ThinkVision M14.
Lenovo is also showing off its new ThinkVision M14 -- a portable 14-inch display that can be used to share content with customers or colleagues or as a second screen for yourself. At 1.3 pounds, it weighs about as much as five sticks of butter, and costs $250.
Lenovo's first AMD-powered Chromebook, the $279 14e.
At CES , AMD announced that its A-series processors would run Chrome OS, starting with laptops from HO and Acer . Now, Lenovo is throwing in its lot with the Lenovo 14e, which features an AMD A6 CPU and some features you don't typically see on a laptop that starts at $280 -- a 14-inch touchscreen display and a spill-proof, backlit keyboard. Lenovo has also announced a Windows version of this laptop, the Lenovo 14w, which starts at $300.
