Lenovo is updating its budget business laptop line with the latest Intel processors. The company revealed the ThinkPad L390 and ThinkPad L390 Yoga today, a few weeks in advance of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where companies will show off their gadgets for the new year.
The new models will be available in silver and black when they launch later this month. The L390 will start at $659 while the base model of the L390 Yoga will go for $889. Lenovo will bundle a garaged Active Pen stylus with the Yoga for taking notes and drawing in tablet mode.
When they become available, the duo will be the first ThinkPads armed with the latest 8th Gen Intel Whiskey Lake processors. These new chips should give the L390 and L390 Yoga a solid performance boost over their predecessors, the ThinkPad L380 and L380 Yoga.
Both devices will come with an FHD (1080p) display and can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Graphics are limited to integrated Intel HD Graphics on the L390 and Intel UHD 620 GPU on the convertible model.
Following the example of their predecessors, the ThinkPad L390 and L390 Yoga are slimmer and lighter than most business laptops. At 0.7 inches and 3.2 pounds, the clamshell L390 is a hair slimmer than last year's L380. The 3.5-pound and 0.7-inch thick Yoga L390 is similarly portable, but its flexible design adds a bit of weight.
Lenovo rates the battery life of the ThinkPad L390 at 14 hours, while the touch screen convertible is expected to last 12 hours on a charge. We'll get a better idea of real-world runtime once we bring these machines into our lab.
Positioned below the T-series and X-series in Lenovo's business laptop tier, L-series laptops are geared toward business professionals who want enterprise features at a reasonable price. To that end, the Mil-Spec tested L390 and L390 Yoga feature IR cameras for Windows Hello facial recognition login, fingerprint sensors, dTPM 2.0 chips, and a Kensington lock. You also get a wide range of connections you'd expect from an enterprise machine, including two USB-C ports, two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI, a microSD card and Lenovo's mini Ethernet input.
We expect to see more from Lenovo and other laptop makers when CES kicks off on January 8 in Las Vegas.
