ThinkPad X1 is Lenovo's thinnest to date

Lenovo will roll out its thinnest ever ThinkPad on Tuesday which is just 16.5mm thick at its leading edge and 21.3mm at its thickest point.

The 337x231.1x16.5-21.3mm ThinkPad X1 has a 13.1in screen, uses Intel's second-generation Sandy Bridge i3, i5 and i7 processors, and comes with up to 8GB of RAM and a 160GB solid state drive.

It weighs 1.7kg and has a battery life of over five hours, or 10 hours with the extended battery pack.

The chassis has passed eight military toughness tests, and the 1,366x768 display, which runs at 350 nits, is protected by Gorilla Glass for durability and scratch resistance. It also has a 2-megapixel camera for videoconferencing.

"We've got magnesium covers on the top and bottom of the unit to toughen it up further," Richard LaBennett, worldwide product manager for the X1, told V3.co.uk.

"You can stand on this system and it won't break, in fact we've been demonstrating that with customers to show how tough it is. That said, we don't advise it."

Cooling is traditionally a problem with ultrathin laptops and Lenovo has used fan technology dubbed 'Owl Wing' to produce enough air without fan noise becoming an issue. Dual air vents increase heat dissipation.

Lenovo has also included new RapidCharge battery technology, which enables the X1 to be recharged to 80 per cent within 30 minutes. The X1 also uses a custom version of Windows designed for rapid boot times, and takes around 20 seconds to get up and running, the company claims.

The keyboard has been slightly redesigned, with some little-used keys replaced by function keys for multimedia use, and is backlit for low light environments.