Lenovo unveils the sturdy ThinkPad X131e Chromebook for students

Lenovo has announced in a press release the introduction of its latest laptop, dubbed X131e. The new addition to the ThinkPad Series of portable computers is based on Google’s Chrome operating system and is reportedly aimed at students and their teachers. The manufacturer further claims users will have access to educational resources, thousands of apps and storage.

Featuring a rugged design with strengthened hinges, corners and a “rubber bumper around the top cover”, the X131 will be available on February 26th carrying a $429 price-tag.

Jerry Paradise, who is the Executive Director of Product Marketing at ThinkPad Product Group was quoted as saying: “The ThinkPad X131e has proven to be very successful in education environments,” … “With the rugged features we added to the X131e, we’ve seen reduced failure rates in the field. This is a huge benefit to schools and students.”

According to the official product page, Lenovo’s forthcoming Chromebook is driven by an unspecified Intel Celeron central processing unit (possibly the same one that is powering the Acer C7 model) and sports an 11.6-inch LED-backlit anti-glare widescreen display of 1366-by-768 pixels native resolution. In addition, the laptop is equipped with one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, an HD web camera for video calls, VGA output, an HDMI interface for hooking up the system to an HDTV or a projector, Wireless LAN 802.11 a/g/b/n and Ethernet LAN modules.

The ThinkPad X131e measures 1.3-inch at its thickest point and weighs in at 1.8kg (3.9lbs) with the built-in battery that presumably lasts “for the entire school day” (read: up to 6.5 hours).

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