Lenovo announced a refresh of most of its ThinkPad lineup, which now includes the ThinkPad T570 laptop that boasts the ability to run Intel's secretive Optane memory.

Lenovo is launching Intel Optane caching drives on select ThinkPad models. Due to the small storage capacity, these initial Optane M.2 drives will be used for HDD caching on several ThinkPad models, including the ThinkPad T470p, L470, L570, T470, and T570.

Lenovo is also switching to the Microsoft Precision TouchPad drivers and a Windows 10 Signature Edition image.

On the hardware front, Lenovo is making a big push for USB-C and especially Thunderbolt 3. Lenovo is also supplementing the T470 and T570 with Windows Hello cameras, for facial recognition.

Let's see now some info about each updated model.

ThinkPad Yoga 370

The new ThinkPad Yoga 370 is a 13.3-inch FHD version of the ThinkPad Yoga lineup, which previously consisted of the 12.5-inch Yoga 260 and 14-inch Yoga 460. The ThinkPad Yoga 370 offers an integrated pen which docks inside the laptop, as well as Thunderbolt 3, and it will be offered in black or silver with availability in March 2017, starting from $1264.

ThinkPad T470

The ThinkPad T470 is one of the new models to feature an optional Intel Optane 16 GB cache drive, and it also will have a touch fingerprint reader and Windows Hello camera option. Thunderbolt 3 is also here on the 14-inch laptop, along with a GeForce 940MX GPU and up to 32 GB of DDR4. It features a split battery, with a 23 Wh in the front and a removable 48 Wh or 73 Wh battery in the rear. It will be available in February starting at $914.

ThinkPad T570

The 15.6-inch T series is similar to the T470 featuring Thunderbolt 3, fingerprint, IR camera, and Intel Optane caching, and it also keeps the dGPU with the GeForce 940MX. However, the larger model can also be had with a UHD display (3840x2160) in addition to the standard FHD (1920x1080) version. It will be available in March starting at $909.

ThinkPad T470s

The ThinkPad T470s is a 14-inch notebook that is under three pounds, with the latest version just 2.9 lbs. It can be had with up to 24 GB of memory, with 8 GB soldered on and a single DIMM available for another 16 GB. It still features Ethernet, along with Thunderbolt 3 and up to 1 TB of PCIe SSD. The thinner T series is also available in silver, with availability in February starting at $1099.

ThinkPad T470p

The ThinkPad T470p model is for performance, with 45-Watt CPUs instead of the U series found in the slimmer and lighter notebooks. This is combined with the GeForce 940MX, and up to 32 GB of DDR4. The T470p is also available with the 16 GB Intel Optane caching drive, and split batteries with up to 12 hours of battery life with the larger 72 Wh battery in the rear. The T470p will be available in March starting at $1049.

ThinkPad 13

The ThinkPad 13 will be available in January for a starting price of $674. For less than $700, it will feature Intel Kaby Lake processors, with up to 32 GB of DDR4 with 2 DIMM slots, and up to 512 GB of PCIe storage. The display is a FHD 1920x1080 touch version, and it features 3 USB 3.0 ports, USB-C which doubles as a charging port, dTPM 2.0, and a SD card reader. It's 19.1mm thick and weighs 3.17 lbs.

ThinkPad L470

The ThinkPad L470 is positioned as the mainstream business value lineup. It is a 14-inch FHD IPS model, and it also features optional Intel Optane caching, and 2 DIMMS for up to 32 GB of RAM. It keeps the split batteries as well, offering up to 95.5 Wh of battery capacity. In addition, it adds a discrete GPU in the Radeon R5 M430. It will be available in March starting from $799.

ThinkPad L570

This 15.6-inch laptop is a bit different than the similarly named L470. It doesn't have the split battery, or discrete graphics. It has a single 48 Wh battery, along with optional Intel Optane caching or SSD drives. The base model is a 1366x768 TN display, so be careful, although there is a FHD IPS offering as well. It features a dedicated number pad and optical drive, and it can be had with up to 32 GB of DDR4 with the 2 DIMM slots, and will be available in March starting at $809.

ThinkPad X270

This 12.5-inch ThinkPad gets USB-C for power, display, and data. RAM options are 4 to 16 GB of DDR4, and storage is up to 2 TB of HDD or 512 GB PCIe SSD. It offers the ThinkPad split battery with 23 Wh in the front and 48 or 72 Wh in the rear. With the largest battery, Lenovo claims up to 21.4 hours of battery life. It comes in at 2.9 lbs, with availability in March from $909.

New ThinkPad Accessories

Along with a refresh of the ThinkPad lineup, Lenovo is also offering several new accessories to compliment the new laptops.

Thunderbolt 3 offers up to 40 Gbps full duplex, which gives a lot more options for IO than ever before. It can natively support two DisplayPort 1.2 streams, for up to two UHD displays at 60 Hz each, and because it's done over USB-C, it can leverage the 100 Watts of power delivery from that port.

The Thunderbolt 3 dock offers two DisplayPort ports, HDMI, VGA, five USB 3.0 ports with one of these always powered, Gigabit Ethernet, headset jack, and a Thunderbolt 3 port over USB-C, meaning you won't lose your USB-C port when docking with this.

The dock ships with a 135-Watt AC Adapter, which provides up to 65W of power to the laptop, and the remainder for powering the accessories.

Tthis dock will drive up to three UHD displays, but in that scenario only one will be at 60 Hz, since both of the DisplayPort outputs are from a single DP 1.2 stream. The third display would be driven off the Thunderbolt 3 output. It can drive two UHD displays at 60 Hz though.

The Gigabit Ethernet port also supports PXE boot and Wake-On-LAN for select ThinkPad systems.

The ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock will be available in February for $279.99.

If your laptop has USB-C Gen 2 then this dock offers a subset of the Thunderbolt 3 versions features, due to the more limited bandwidth of USB 3.1 Gen 2. It still offers two DisplayPort outputs, along with VGA, and 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB Type-C port, Gigabit Ethernet, and a headset jack. This dock ships with a 90-Watt AC Adapter, offering up to 60W of power to charge the laptop.

The display options are much more limited than the Thunderbolt 3 option due to the limited bandwidth. A single UHD display can be driven but only at 30 Hz, or dual 1920x1080 displays at 60 Hz.

The Gigabit Ethernet port still offers PXE boot and Wake-On-LAN support for select ThinkPad systems.

The ThinkPad USB-C Dock will be available in January for $199.99.

Lenovo is also launching two new ThinkVision displays, which offer the same features in either a 23.8-inch or 27-inch model. These thin bezel IPS displays both offer QHD (2560x1440) resolution and factory-calibrated sRGB color gamut.

Both displays offer two HDMI inputs, DisplayPort input, DisplayPort output for daisychaining, and a USB-C offering for a single cable connection. There are also five USB 3.0 ports, with four down and one up, with the USB now on the edge of the display for easier access.

With the USB-C option, and four USB 3.0 ports, the display could be easily used as a single cable docking solution, and the display will offer up to 45W of power delivery to charge a laptop.

Both of these displays will be available in March 2017, with the P24h priced at $259 and the P27h priced at $329.