Sydney, Australia – December 14, 2011: Lenovo today announced that its new ThinkPad X130e laptop will be deployed to over 60,000 students throughout New South Wales Department of Education and Communities schools in 2012. The ThinkPad X130e was developed in cooperation with the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities (NSW DEC) to meet the unique requirements of the education market.
Based on feedback provided by NSW DEC, the ThinkPad X130e has been designed with the ruggedised features and advanced technology expected in an educational laptop. The ThinkPad X130e features the latest generation Intel Celeron or i3 processors, fast, integrated graphics, as well as advanced wireless connectivity and multimedia tools for today’s digital learning. Designed to be handled by highly mobile and demanding students, the ThinkPad X130e has a reinforced and extra durable top cover, keyboard and hinges, as well as recessed ports and a ruggedised rubber bumper to protect it.
“It has been a pleasure to work directly with Lenovo throughout the development of this unique laptop. We are proud to be providing NSW students with cutting edge PC tools to help support their education,” said Dianne Marshall, NSW Department of Education and Communities. “The school environment requires highly durable and well performing laptops, with all-day battery life. Lenovo has combined these features in the specially designed ThinkPad X130e and tailored it to meet the needs of students and schools. The company even took into account the feedback provided on colour preferences.”
The ThinkPad X130e is also designed to maximise performance, reliability and customisable options including asset tags, BIOS modifications and custom imaging to help optimise the laptop for all-day use in schools. It is also available in a broad selection of custom colours to appeal to students1, including midnight black, heatwave red and white and silver models that NSW DEC will be deploying.
Designed to meet military specifications for durability, the X130e is the ideal worry-free and cost-effective option for today’s educational system, and will significantly reduce non-warranty repair requirements.
“Lenovo has worked closely with its customers in the education sector, and the ThinkPad X130e has been designed to directly reflect the feedback we have received,” said David Heyworth, Director, Commercial Products, Lenovo ANZ. “The highest priority feature, according to education customers, is ‘ruggedness’. While we’ve built tough products for years that pass many military-grade tests, we’ve made specific improvements required for a laptop to be successful in an education environment with the new ThinkPad X130e.”
Laptops with Serious Substance
The ThinkPad X130e laptop helps students get more out of their day. This 11.6-inch lightweight ultraportable, has the processing performance students need for assignments requiring multitasking, with Intel second generation Celeron or Core i3-2367M ULV processors. For multimedia-intensive lessons, the laptop’s Intel HD-powered graphics kick in to give students a rich visual experience.
Weighing less than 1.8 kg, students can easily carry the laptop between classes. The X130e also removes the need for students to carry the power cable, as the battery lasts the whole school day, and even long enough to start homework after school – up to 8.5 hours2. Throughout the course of a typical school day, students’ laptops are often subject to extreme wear and tear. To help school-proof them, the X130e has several heavy-duty features including:
· A top cover rubber bumper – absorbs impacts to the side of the laptop
· 33 percent stronger corners – reduces the chance of damage when dropped at an angle
· Stronger hinges – outlast even the most frequent PC user, tested to a minimum of 30,000 cycles
· Reinforced and recessed ports – decrease the effects of student ‘wear and tear’ and misuse
· Stronger Bezel – 1.2mm reinforced plastic to protect the LCD panel
· Renowned ThinkPad island-style keyboard – unparalleled quality with hard to remove keys, also designed for small hands
· Military Spec tested – the world’s first value notebook that passes mil spec tests for durability
The ThinkPad X130e laptop is the perfect tool for students in today’s digital learning environment. The ThinkPad X130e features multi-frequency support, to help students easily connect to school WiFi networks; students can also maintain their network connection while moving from class to class using Lenovo’s Instant Resume function. The ThinkPad X130e also features HDMI and VGA out and a low-light webcam, to help with presentations and inter-school communication.
Making Students and Schools More Efficient
Built-in self-help tools like Rescue and Recovery and Access Connections help decrease calls to school IT support, allowing students to recover damaged files and to store and connect easily to different WiFi networks.
Additionally, Lenovo offers a broad range of optional services for the ThinkPad X130e laptop, starting with custom colours. Lenovo’s image services help keep IT teams focused on enhancing learning, not chasing device drivers and loading images onto each PC manually. Asset tagging services help keep track of PCs left on the school bus or in a classroom, and Accidental Damage Protection services can help keep a check on repair budgets. And if the PC needs to be fixed, Lenovo’s optional Hard Drive Retention service protects students’ digital information.
Pricing and Availability
The ThinkPad X130e laptop is available now from Lenovo business partners. Standard pricing for Education models including 3 year warranty starts at AU$673.00 inc GST.
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