A couple years ago, Lenovo announced its plans to build a "retro" ThinkPad that would resurrect design elements of ThinkPads past as an homage to the brand's long history.

That ThinkPad is now real. Check out the ThinkPad 25, sold to commemorate 25 years of ThinkPads.

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo

Shortly after that initial announcement two years ago, Lenovo asked the vocal community of ThinkPad fans (I'm one of them) which features they wanted in their retro ThinkPad. Some parts were uncontentious: the seven-row keyboard layout was a near-unanimous request. Others had the community a little more divided. Classic ThinkPads had the "ThinkLight," a downward-facing light in the rim of the screen that (dimly) illuminated the keyboard. Should a retro ThinkPad resurrect the ThinkLight, or should it use the modern (and superior) alternative, a keyboard backlight?

I think overall, Lenovo has opted to err on the side of modernity. So we have a keyboard backlight, and no ThinkLight. Some of this is due to economic pressure; although many wanted a 4:3, 16:10, or even 3:2 screen, this is a short run machine, and as such, Lenovo has stuck with the more affordable, more readily available 16:9 aspect ratio with a 1920×1080 resolution. But overall, the machine looks the part: it's black, it's rubberized, it has a red TrackPoint nub, and it has the critically important seven-row keyboard with its dedicated media keys and the purple-blue enter key.

The logo is also a blend of old and new: the classic logo on color ThinkPads had a red-green-blue IBM logo, paired with the silver ThinkPad name. Lenovo can't exactly slap the IBM name onto their systems, so we have a hybrid: the ThinkPad logo is now half silver, half IBM's red-green-blue.

The ThinkPad 25 is built around the frame of a T470, and its internals are pretty modern: a 7th-generation Kaby Lake i7-7500U processor, 16GB RAM, GeForce 940MX graphics, 512GB PCIe SSD, Thunderbolt 3, LTE, integrated gigabit Ethernet, and three USB 3.1 gen 1 ports. It also has both facial recognition and a fingerprint reader. The price is $1,899, and availability will be limited.

I received a ThinkPad 25 a couple of days ago, and we'll have a full review soon.