Lenovo yesterday announced a realm of new ThinkPad laptops ahead of 2012 CES and one of them is the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid. The new notebook will feature cutting-edge technologies and is targeted very much at the business market. We have more on specs, release and price.

The ThinkPad X1 Hybrid weighs less than 4 pounds and Lenovo call this their thinnest ThinkPad to date. It will be shown at CES in Las Vegas next week and looks pretty identical to the ThinkPad X1 launched last year. The X1 Hybrid is expected to be available in some markets in the second quarter of this year with a starting price of US $1,599, according to PC World and one impressive-sounding feature is its fanless Instant Media Mode.

This can extend battery life by switching from Windows to a low-power mode and is possible because of a Qualcomm co-processor as well as the Intel processor and also an open-source OS. Hence the battery can offer 10 hours from one charge. Vice president of the ThinkPad business unit Dilap Bhatia explained, “You can switch between the Instant Media Mode and the Windows environment and during Instant Media Mode you can watch videos, pictures, listen to music, browse the Web in this low power mode.”

According to Dana Wollman over on Engadget the laptop also offers instant-on, booting in around two seconds. Other specs include a 13-inch Gorilla Glass display with 350 nit brightness, Core i3, i5 or i7 processors, 3G radio, up to 8GB of RAM and up to a 320GB HDD or 160GB SSD. It also features Lenovo’s Rapid Charge technology.

It will certainly be interesting to see impressions when the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid is shown at CES next week. What are your thoughts on this upcoming Lenovo laptop and are you impressed by the sound of the Instant Media Mode? Let us know with your comments.

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