Lenovo Develops New “Green” Desktop

Lenovo has reworked its ThinkCentre business desktop line to offer two new smaller options.

The two systems, announced this week, and starting at $399 (£290), will be available in the beginning of April in the US. UK pricing and availability were not available at time of writing.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre A58 is aimed at small businesses. Included are Lenovo Think Care tools, which address data recovery, password resets, asset management and more — common issues that can affect worker productivity and put unnecessary demands on small IT teams.

The ThinkCentre M58e, intended for large and midmarket companies, combines all the technologies of the A58 with “green” features that meet Energy Star 5.0 specifications, which go into effect on 1 July.

Select EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) Gold-rated M58e models offer improved energy efficiency, which in large deployments can offer accumulating savings. Combined with a ThinkVision L1940pW monitor, the new system can save businesses about $40 (£29) a year over other Lenovo desktop and monitor offerings, the company said.

Both the A58 and 58e are GreenGuard air-quality certified, and so have been tested to ensure they’re free of up to 2,000 various chemical emissions.

Both desktops additionally feature the Lenovo Rescue and Recovery tool — which aids in recovering and restoring lost files — as well as the Lenovo Online Data Backup service, which customers can try free for 90 days with up to 5 GB of storage.

According to Gartner research, only 13 to 16 percent of the total lifetime cost of a PC is the initial hardware cost — the majority is associated with software and ongoing management. With its new desktops, Lenovo is looking to ease IT burdens and lower the overall TCO of each desktop.

“Customers are feeling the pinch of the challenging economic times and are demanding PCs that give them the most value for their dollar,” executive director Dilip Bhatia said in a prepared statement.