Lenovo image shows the Retro Thinkpad design

A Reddit user by the name of Liskni_si found an image of what appears to be the upcoming Retro Thinkpad tucked away in Lenovo’s website. Since their post on Reddit, the image has been removed from the source, which adds weight to the claim that it was a genuine leak which Lenovo wasn't ready to reveal. The Thinkpad line of laptops is approaching its 25th anniversary this year, making it the longest running laptop product line in the world. The Lenovo ThinkPad is popular with business users, and they often score highly in our reviews, especially in the keyboard department.

However, it was the original IBM ThinkPads that have become legendary now for their tank-like construction, and unique 7-row non-chiclet keyboard that improves productivity in word processing and coding based activities. Back in June Lenovo confirmed that they were officially working on a retro edition of the ThinkPad, and in early September a product certification on TÜVRheinland confirmed that it is based on the ThinkPad T470 chassis — which we awarded a score of 91 percent, “Very Good.”

Based on this new image, and earlier information we have collected, we can predict:

• Classic multi-colored ThinkPad logo.
• Traditional IBM Blue enter key.
• 14-inch display which can fold flat, probably 1080p.
• Fingerprint Sensor.
• Additional panel near the webcam which could be sensors for Windows Hello, or might be a return of the 'Think Light' in lieu of keyboard backlighting
• Branding showing "Anniversary Edition"

It is widely anticipated that the release date will be in October since the original IBM ThinkPad announcement was in October 1992. There has been no indication of internal specifications or price, but it wouldn’t be too surprising if the specs were similar to the ThinkPad T470, possibly with a Coffee Lake upgrade.

For those who want a real IBM ThinkPad with more modern internals, there is a group of enthusiasts who have been updating the IBM ThinkPad X61 with a 5th Gen. Broadwell CPU, higher resolution screen, more RAM, SSD, USB3.0 and so forth. This modernization is dubbed the X62, and Notebook check reviewed it here.

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