New Lenovo ThinkPads Get Down to Business with AMD

AMD has been making a big splash of late with its Ryzen processors such as the Threadripper, a hulking desktop chip. Meanwhile, laptop users have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the company to show mobile users a little love. Sadly, the wait for continues. Instead, Lenovo has unveiled two new laptops from its ThinkPad line: the 14-inch A475 and the 12.5-inch A275 -- both of which feature AMD Pro processors.

Attempting to get into more business laptops, AMD has teamed with Lenovo to create its A Series notebooks (A as in AMD, get it?) which will target large enterprise, government agencies and education. Although pricing and launch dates have yet to be released, we do know a couple of details. Both systems will feature either last year's AMD Bristol Ridge Pro Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or the company's older Carrizo Pro APU with up to an integrated AMD Radeon R7 UMA Graphics. The laptops will also feature AMD's Dash Manageability software, which is similar to Intel vPro, a remote management software primarily used by IT departments.

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There are a few key differences aside from the notebook's overall size. For instance while the A275 can be configured with up to 16GB of RAM, the A475 can support 32GB. And while both notebooks have a future-proofing USB-Type C port, the A475 also sports a bottom-mounted module in case you want to attach the laptop to a docking station. The A475 also has three USB 3.0 ports to the smaller A275's two.

While this is not Lenovo's first rodeo with AMD-laden ThinkPads, this marks the first time that AMD is trying to engage enterprise users. Although Bristol Bridge is an older AMD processor, I'm looking forward to pitting the A475 and A275 against similarly priced and sized competition when the time comes.

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