sheridan addiction: Lenovo's ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook hands-on

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Lenovo's ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook hands-on

Ultrabooks are all the rage this year's CES, so it only makes sense that Lenovo would want to get in on the action and bring the new, slim form factor to its lauded ThinkPad line. We swung by the company's trailer to get some hands-on with the T430u -- the first such machine that we've seen packing discrete graphics from NVIDIA. At only 21mm thick and under four pounds, the first ThinkPad Ultrabook is certainly svelte and falls on the more portable end of the spectrum for 14-inch PCs. Sadly there weren't any working models on hand, but we were able to get a good idea of what the aluminum chassis (covered in a soft-touch rubberized paint, of course) will look and feel like. The iconic red nub and unparalleled keyboard are in tow, as well as a large click pad. The demo unit was sporting a glossy screen, but when it ships early in the second half of the year it'll be packing an anti-glare panel. We were also impressed with the incredibly clean bottom panel which, while incredibly difficult to photograph, does hide the required pile of stickers and licensed keys that usually pollute the laptop's exterior. Check out the gallery below to see HDMI and SIM card slots that hide around the back and the usual cadre of SD slots, USB 3.0 and Ethernet ports that populate the sides.

Gallery: ThinkPad T430u hands-on