Lenovo Roll cage?

Hi, I'll be buying my first thinkpad and I'm wondering what the "rollcage" is? Also which of the new thinkpads have the roll cage design?

Sorry if this is a newb question or has been posted before, but the search doesn't seem to work too well.

thanks a lot for your replies!

 

Roll cage is basically Lenovo's approach to offer greater structure strength and stability. It helps, for example if you drop it, spread out the impact to the entire machine, therefore reducing the damage done. Its made out of magnesium.

Roll cage is in all thinkpads. (I believe)

 

The Roll Cage can be found the T, X and W series ThinkPads. It used to support to monitor as well, but I believe they are transitioning to fiberglass reinforcement.

 

The roll cage is a magnesium alloy skeleton under the plastic paneling that adds a lot of strength and durability to the chassis. It's present on R and T-series laptops, and maybe the 12" X-series (unsure, they might use a different design). Z-series probably had it too.

-T61, 14" R61, T400, T500, and R400 had a magnesium alloy roll cage both in the main body and in the lid.
-T/R60 (first Thinkpads with the roll cage) only had it in the body.
-T400s and after (T410, T420, etc.) only had the magnesium alloy one in the body. The lid roll cage got replaced with a "next-gen rollcage", which is basically a carbon fiber/fiberglass shell.

Not true. Edge, SL, L, and x100e/x120e lack any sort of roll cage.

 

They are not in the Edge, L, and SL series. Basically it is a strong cage-like structure on that protected the most critical part of the laptop.

 

^^thanks for the insightful replies.
PS. Just to clarify the roll cage design is on the current T420(s), T520/W520 laptops. And possibly on the X220?

So, I'm looking at the L and T series. The T series seems to be quite a bit more expensive than the L series with the same specs. Is this due to the roll cage?

 

Yeah, a big part of it is. Another reason is the options that are available for the T series that is not available on the L series, such as the higher resolution. T series are also thinner and lighter than the L series.

 

Okay. Obviously the rollcage provides a much sturdier laptop, but how's the build quality on the thinkpads without the roll cage design?

 

If you are not going to drop the L series, they should last just as long as the T series (of course this is just personal option and this only applies to their newest revision with the metal hinges).

 

The only X series chassis with a "roll cage" (i.e. a magnesium endoskeleton) was the X300/X301 chassis.

Other X series chassis designs do not have an endoskeleton, but instead (traditionally) have a lower chassis assembly made of magnesium alloy.