Lenovo has fired its latest salvo in the race to garner the hearts, minds and wallets of ultrabook-seekers, by announcing what it has claimed is the world’s lightest ultrabook, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

 

The X1 14” ultrabook, which, as the name suggest, is made using carbon fibre, weighs in at below 1.3 kg. Strangely, the company is rather vague on its exact weight, only saying that it is “under 3 pounds,” which has become the de facto weight for ultrabooks such as Dell’s XPS 13.

 

The latter though, has a 13.3” screen crammed into a 12” chassis, whereas Lenovo’s lightest sports the aforementioned 14” high definition display that apparently offers up a delectable 1600 x 900 resolution and 300 nits of brightness.

 

Additionally, the X1 will offer 3G connectivity, a backlit keyboard, and Dolby Home Theatre sound, along with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot and a fingerprint reader as well, which suggests that is may be aimed at the security conscious business sector.

 

This the company has managed to cram into an ultrabook that is 18 mm at its thickest. Additionally, Lenovo has included its RapidCharge technology (as featured in the older ThinkPad X1 and the new U300s ultrabook), which it promises will attain a ‘near-full’ battery charge in 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, exact details and specifications are still sketchy at this point. All indications point towards the presence of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor though. What kind of battery life the ultrabook will offer exactly, and the amount of rands and cents it will command when it is launched in the second half of this year, has not yet been announced.

 

At the same time Lenovo announced the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the company also lifted the lid on its ThinkPad X230 Ultraportable. Billed as a ‘road warrior’s dream,’ the X230 sports a 12.5” display, and a backlit keyboard. Unfortunately, as with the X1 carbon, specifications of the notebook’s innards has not yet been released.

 

However, the two features that are most compelling are an apparent battery life of a massive 24 hours and the integrated capacity for 4G mobile broadband.