We were very fortunate to find the leaked ThinkPad roadmap with Whiskey Lake for 2019. You can find the source at the bottom of the article. There has been a lot of silence surrounding the release date. We were already aware that new models might be delayed until summer, but we now finally have confirmation.
Please, take the roadmap with a grain of salt. This article is partially based on speculations based on past knowledge of the brand.
If you are looking to purchase an already released ThinkPad with discounts, you may expect to continue to do so all the way until the end of April for the stock clearance sales. We expect that Intel will greatly adjust the turbo clocks of the new processor generation to compete with AMD.
| L380 [L380 Yoga](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-l380-yoga/) | L390 L390 Yoga | January 2019 |
| [X280](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-x280/) [T480](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-t480-t580/) [T480s](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-t480s/) [T580](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-t480-t580/) | X390 T490 T490s T590 | April 2019 |
| Yoga X380 | Yoga X390 | May 2019 |
| A485 A285 [L480](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-l480-l580/) [L580](/blog/2018/01/07/ces-2018-thinkpad-l480-l580/) | T495 T495s X395 L490 L590 | June 2019 |
| [X1 Carbon Gen 6](/blog/2018/01/09/ces-2018-x1-carbon-gen-6/) [X1 Yoga Gen 3](/blog/2018/01/09/ces-2018-thinkpad-x1-yoga-gen-3/) | [X1 Carbon Gen 7](/blog/2019/01/07/ces-2019-thinkpad-x1-carbon/) [X1 Yoga Gen 4](/blog/2019/01/07/ces-2019-thinkpad-x1-yoga/) | July 2019 |
| [X1 Extreme](/blog/2018/09/03/ifa-2018-thinkpad-x1-extreme/) | X1 Extreme Gen 2 | August 2019 |
Windows 7 is no longer supported
Windows 7 is no longer supported from this point on. The almost 10-year old operating system doesn’t get to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.
The workstation P-series were already able to be configured up to 128 GB RAM. So you may still continue to use Windows 7 through virtualization if you may be required to do so.
Renaming A-series
Lenovo has finally renamed the A-series to their Intel counterparts. The A485 uses the chassis of the T480 and the A285 uses the chassis of the X280. Unfortunately this didn’t make any sense as Lenovo also has AMD-based ThinkPads in the E-series, the E485 and E585. For consumers it would be too confusing to decide what they need without deep diving into the datasheets at PSREF.
From now on, if the last digit is ‘5’ in a ThinkPad, it will indicate a AMD model, while a ‘0’ is for Intel. However, maybe we should be hoping for a naming convention that’s easier to understand. We could use a lowercase a-suffix and i-suffix depending on whether it’s AMD or Intel based. The downside to this is that previously in 2013, the i-suffix stood for integrated graphics in the T430i, or at least, being some kind or an ultrabook redux version of the T430.
Also remarkable is the introduction of the T495s, which is most likely based on the T490s. Nothing is known about this ThinkPad yet, but it does show confidence for Lenovo to offer more AMD-based ThinkPads.
X1 Carbon vs X390
Given the X1 Carbon closely matching the X1 Yoga and the X390 in the 2019 lineup. We expect that either the X1 Carbon or the X390 will get axed permanently. The X390 may in fact still be a 12.5” ultrabook, but due to the smaller bezels, is considered to have a larger screen to body ratio.
Regardless, the X1 Carbon has significantly shrunk in size towards 13”. Since the X1 Yoga offers more, while overall it’s very similar to the X1 Carbon. The X1 Carbon thereby has not much more to offer.
It is clear however, that Lenovo is considering the X1-series and P1-series a flagship line of machines, with cutting edge specifications. It doesn’t avoid the fact that there are too many different ThinkPad series.
E-series and L-series
The E-series and L-series are available earlier, because they are mostly small processor upgrades. The highest configuration will come with an Intel Core i7-8565U with a turbo clock of 4.6GHZ, which is an increase of 600 MHz compared to the Intel Core i7-8550U with a maximum turbo clock of 4.0 GHz.
The E-series and L-series are the only series that will not receive a clean sheet design.
