Lenovo releases Windows 7 ThinkPad laptops

Lenovo announced two new additions to the business-oriented ThinkPad family, the 14-inch ThinkPad SL410 and 15.6-inch SL510, both of which come with Windows 7.

These new ThinkPads are designed with small-to-medium businesses in mind and feature higher-resolution webcams, clearer microphones, and a microphone mute button for voice and video conferencing. The higher-end configurations for the SL410 and SL510 feature built-in 3G broadband internet via AT&T mobile broadband, as well.

Both models are available in different configurations that range from $500 to $700, the lower-end model with a 160GB hard disk drive and an Intel Celeron T3000 1.8GHz processor and the higher-end with a 250GB hard disk drive and an Intel Core 2 Duo T5870 2.0GHz processor. All configurations have the same integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD chipset, Dual Layer 8x DVD Recordable optical drive, 4-cell battery, 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, HDMI and VGA output, and multitouch trackpad.

These models also fall under Lenovo's Windows 7 Enhanced Experience Certification, which is advertised as booting and shutting down up to 56% faster than other laptops on an identical un-optimised configuration.