It was conceived as a laptop "for the business executive working on a budget - a road warrior with an office network whose out-of-office work rarely goes beyond running PowerPoint shows or demonstrating spreadsheets".

Despite having a cheaper build when compared to the higher end T series of its time, it still received favorable reviews.

In a review on the ThinkPad R40, CNET gave the laptop a score of 8.2,[4] writing in their summary statement that "Good performance, along with great design and battery life, make the ThinkPad R40 a trusted friend for the traveler and the desk jockey".

In 2017, it was brought back and continued as a more premium version of the ThinkPad E Series, in China only, with premium features already optioned such as aluminium lids and finger print readers.

It was, along with the A30, the first ThinkPad to use the design features of a bevel on the left back corner of the laptop and exposed metal hinges, a feature that would be present on most subsequent ThinkPads released.

The ThinkPad R31 came in 2 display options: an XGA 13.3" or 14.1" and is a minor internal hardware revision bringing socketed processors, a new chipset which meant a new CPU generation, and the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem to the R series.

Although the dimensions were the same, with these new additions, the weight of the laptop was increased by about 0.1 kg(0.2 lb).

These revisions include: using Mobile Pentium 4-M CPUs instead of Mobile Pentium 3-M, Using DDR-266 RAM instead of PC-133 SDR RAM, and a reworked motherboard with rearranged components along with the addition of battery terminals for an UltraBay battery.

It was also unable to be optioned with Bluetooth, a 15" screen, Pentium M processors, or trackpad.

This was released as an indirect successor for the Axxp series of ThinkPads as there was no 15" version of the T40 or 41 to create a 15" Txxp model at this time.

A new number in the middle meant a redesign with this design being based on the T60 released two months prior.

The R60i came in 4 display options: either a XGA or an SXGA+ TN panel for both 14.1 and 15" and was only offered in the Chinese market.

This generation of ThinkPad also received the magnesium rollcage similar to the one on the T series.

It was a budget configuration of the R61, being practically the same laptop, just without some high end options such as a discrete GPU or WWAN.

The R series was then discontinued and had a 7-year hiatus until 2017 when it was brought back only in China as a more premium E480.

It and every subsequent model is the same as the E Series equivalent except for having been optioned with higher end features.

This was only offered in China and uses Whiskey Lake Intel U series processors.

It shares essentially the same design as the first generation but updates the internals to 11th gen Intel and to include a second m.2 PCIe slot in exchange for the 2.5" SATA along with Thunderbolt 4 in place of the USB-C 3.0 and USB-A 3.0 port.