What is the ThinkPad 25?

Lenovo officially announced the ThinkPad 25 on October 5th and Lenovo's marketing department advertised it with the following phrases:

The ThinkPad 25 retains several key aesthetics from the original model, such as the 7-row classic keyboard (now with backlighting) and the blue Enter key with blue accents on the sub-keys. A special edition ThinkPad 25 logo completes the retro look, along with special packaging.

Lenovo is certainly not wrong, because the first thing you will notice on product pictures is the classic keyboard without the chiclet design as well as the colored ThinkPad logo. However, the chassis is familiar, since it is the one we know from the current ThinkPad T470. The latter got a completely new case this year and we were impressed by it in our review. It closed the gap to the slimmer ThinkPad T470s, but still offers a more affordable option in the T-series range. This anniversary edition is also closer to the T470s thanks to additional rubberized surfaces. It feels a bit more premium than the regular T470, but it is not the best case you can get from Lenovo. The current ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2017, for example, is on another level in terms of quality and portability.

The keyboard is the undisputed highlight. Lenovo basically took the input device from old ThinkPad T420 and put it into the chassis of the T470 while adding additional background illumination. It is a very comfortable input as we stated in our review and will be a revelation for die-hard Thinkpad enthusiasts complaining about the chiclet design. The Touchpad is smaller in return because the 7-row input just needs more space. The dedicated TrackPoint buttons unfortunately suffer from a spongy feedback.