Lenovo ThinkPad T431s Ultrabook: refined exterior, widened trackpad, shipping in April for $949

Lenovo’s taking the wraps off of its newest ThinkPad here at Engadget Expand, but in fact, the T431s represents more than just a minor spec bump. It’s actually the first ThinkPad borne out of Lenovo’s latest “clean sheet” development initiative — an 18-month process that the company briefed me on here. Regarding the laptop at hand, the 14-incher boasts a slimmer, sexier and more understated design, all while remaining very much a ThinkPad. It’s being classified as an Ultrabook, yet it still meets the Mil-SPEC 8 standard for rigidity and durability. In other words, the weight loss isn’t coming at the expense of ruggedness.

As for specs, it’s rocking a 1,600 x 900 matte display with 250 nits of brightness, integrated Intel HD graphics, a 720p front-facing webcam, 4GB of RAM (with optional upgrades boosting it as high as 12GB), a 47WHr (three-cell) sealed battery, an optionally backlit keyboard, Bluetooth 4.0 and built-in support for both WiFi and WWAN connections. It measures in at 13.03 x 8.89 x 0.8 inches while weighing 3.6 pounds, and it’s easily one of the sturdiest Ultrabooks we’ve had the pleasure of wrapping our paws around.

Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad T431s hands-on