Leaked manuals show off redesigns of the Lenovo ThinkPad T431 and X230

By Anna Washenko January 21, 2013

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Lenovo has started the new year running. From a new touch-screen monitor to its first Chromebook, the company has been busy announcing new projects all around the computing sphere. The latest news from Lenovo isn’t an official announcement, but a sneak peak at a pair of familiar gadgets. The user manuals for two revamped ThinkPad computers – the T431 and X230 – were leaked and posted to Lenovo’s Chinese website. The manuals for the ThinkPad T431 and ThinkPad X230 are still online if you want to get a look at the illustrations yourself. Be prepared, though; all the text is in Chinese.

Unfortunately, there’s no information available yet about the technical specs, but thanks to the manuals, we now know some of the design changes for the T431 and X230 laptops. According to Engadget, both machines have removed the dedicated TrackPoint buttons and integrated them into a larger trackpad. It’s a design similar to the upcoming Lenovo ThinkPad Helix and Edge notebooks. The function keys also harken back to the Helix, with those buttons now serving as the secondary use of hotkeys for controlling brightness and audio.

The leaked images also show alterations to the hinges of both models. Again, they are falling in line with the rest of Lenovo’s upcoming launches with the use of hinges that will set the screen panel behind the body of the computer when it is open. This is a change from the 2012 versions of the T431 and X230, but looks similar to the Helix as well as the X1 Carbon. The screen sizes and basic resolutions for both computers appear unchanged; the X230 still has a 12.5-inch 1,366 x 768 resolution panel, and the T431 has 1,600 x 900 resolution for its 14-inch screen.

There are no formal release dates yet for either of the laptops, but, according to Electronista, Lenovo is expected to launch the new models in late spring or summer. In the meantime, we’ll be waiting for the official word from the company with the hardware rundown.

Image via Acid Pix

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Anna is a professional writer living in Chicago. She covers everything from social media to digital entertainment, from tech…

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