The popular X201 laptop has been updated to the new Lenovo ThinkPad X220 series of laptops.

The long running ultra-mobile champion, Thinkpad X201, successor to the almighty X200 (which was successor to the X61) launched on Thursday night, March 4th, 2010 with the most notable change being the upgrade to the Intel Core i5 or i7 and an OPTIONAL touchpad.

The X201s' Core i7 processor maxes out as 25watts, which is 10 watts more efficient than the Core i7 in the X200 (35 watts max). The X201s will therefor be a little slower (at least on paper), but that's the tradeoff to squeeze out the extra battery life.

The Thinkpad X series is the epitome of stripped down mobile utility and performance. Available with an ultra dense resolution of 1440x900 (WXGA+), no optical drive, SSD option, ultra low voltage processors and extra capacity battery, some have yielded over 10 hours of battery life on the predecessor machine (X200) and the specs of the X201 indicate it should be at least as efficient.