Lenovo Turns the Lights Down Low with Power Manager on New ThinkCentre PC

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lenovo today announced its greenest, most secure and most manageable ThinkCentre desktop PC yet, the M58/M58p, with Power Manager¹, a ThinkVantage technology that allows PC users to control their electricity consumption remotely, and available for the first time ever on a ThinkCentre PC.

“Bryant is proud to be a partner in innovative technology with Lenovo, the recognized leader in exceptionally engineered PCs”

Power Manager allows customers to save energy and lower electricity costs by enabling system administrators to monitor and remotely control the amount of electricity used by all Power Manager enabled desktops in a PC fleet. For example, PCs can be programmed to shut down evenings or weekends. Through the use of Power Manager and Intel®vPro™technologies, the ThinkCentre M58p provides the user with the lowest total cost of ownership of any ThinkCentre.

Bryant University in Rhode Island, a long time ThinkCentre customer, will be one of the first organizations to purchase the ThinkCentre M58/M58 for its fleet. “Bryant is proud to be a partner in innovative technology with Lenovo, the recognized leader in exceptionally engineered PCs,” said Art Gloster, vice president of information services at Bryant University. “The ThinkCentre M58 desktop will allow Bryant to support more secure and more energy efficient operations and enable faster information processing.”

Further solidifying the ThinkCentre M58/M58p as one of the industry’s leading “green” computing solutions is the gold status achieved from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool organization, or EPEAT. Lenovo has a total of 24 ThinkCentre desktops that have become EPEAT Gold certified. EPEAT was created to provide a green standard for electronics purchases. The M58/M58p has also passed the stringent testing of GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, which probed for the presence of up to 2,000 potentially harmful contaminants, in addition to receiving the GREENGUARD Certification for Children & Schools, which takes into account children’s higher sensitivity to pollutants.

The ThinkCentre M58/M58p is also the first ThinkCentre PC to support Hardware Password Manager, which allows for oversight of user, supervisory, BIOS and HDD passwords. HPM is available in April, 2009 and requires a separate software purchase. Previous ThinkCentre versions of a password manager only allowed for password management at the software level. Additionally, the user can disable/enable USB and PS2 ports for complete “security” peace of mind.

“The ThinkCentre M58/M58p was designed specifically for the rigorous demands of large enterprises in the business and education world. The design goal for the M58/M58p was to be the greenest, most secure, most manageable and quietest ThinkCentre ever," said Dilip Bhatia, executive director, global desktop marketing, Lenovo. “Our customers will benefit from our advanced technologies such as Power Manager, support for Hardware Password Manager and other features.”

Available in three form factors – Tower, Small Form Factor and Ultra Small Form Factor – the ThinkCentre M58p offers top performance with Intel® vPro™processing technology: Intel® Core™2 Duo E8x00 or Core™2 Quad Q9xx0. The ThinkCentre M58 offers the Intel® Q45 chipset with ICH10-DO. The ThinkCentre M5/M58p is also quieter and cooler than any previous ThinkCentre: across all form factors, it is up to six decibels quieter than the ThinkCentre M57/M57p and the hard drive and the processor power module run six and eleven percent cooler, respectively, than the M57/M57p. Embracing new technology, the M58/M58p is the first ThinkCentre with onboard Displayport².

The ThinkCentre M58/M58p comes with a limited, three-year onsite warranty with next business day service³. End of life disposal solutions round out Lenovo’s commitment to green computing and preserving the environment. Customers can take advantage of Lenovo’s Asset Recovery Service and benefit from a convenient process to recover maximum value and dispose of retired assets. By doing so, customers may be able to receive cash back to offset the costs of future PC purchases, further lowering their total cost of ownership.

Lenovo’s new ThinkCentre M58/M58P is being showcased at Educause, one of America’s largest, IT focused education conferences, October 28-30. For a demo and more information at the show, visit Lenovo at Educause booth 1133.

Pricing and Availability

The ThinkCentre M58 and M58p desktops start at $499 and $899 respectively. The ThinkCentre M58/M58p is available immediately in Tower and Small Form factor versions, while the Eco Ultra Small Form Factor will be available in December, 2008. All products will be available on Lenovo.com and through business partners. Monitor is sold separately.

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is dedicated to building exceptionally engineered personal computers. Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.

¹ Power Manager software is preloaded on all models of M58/M58p. Microsoft Windows XP versions of Power Manager are available 1/15/09

² DP to VGA dongle will be available in the first quarter of 2009

³ Next business day service is not available in all parts of Hawaii and Alaska