Lenovo Sandy Bridge roadmap questions

Any idea when new models are coming out? Is there any info on upcoming models, official statements, rumors, etc.?

I'm especially interested in any successor to the x201 and t series notebooks. I believe Sandy Bridge is coming to notebooks in 2011 Q1, and with it, I suspect Lenovo will introduce new models, but this is just a guess.

Please fill me in!

 

Historically, Lenovo releases new models coinciding with new Intel platforms, so do expect a refresh for Sandy Bridge.

T-series and W510 models will likely only have internal hardware changes, with little if any change to the overall design. The only potential possibility (although I also think it's unlikely) is the T410 switching over to the 16:9 screen form factor.

The X-series may receive a complete revamp, as it only got a minor refresh with the Calpella platform. I wouldn't be surprised if the W701 also got a compete refresh, as its chassis design has not changed since the previous Intel platform as well.

Of course, this is completely educated-guess speculation - haven't seen many Thinkpad leaks in the past, so don't count on any more solid information being leaked until the official press releases along with Intel's Sandy Bridge announcements.

 

thanks! i like when manufacturers release models that are designed around a new platform.. instead of using models designed for previous platforms and then sticking in the new platform

since sb should produce less heat, i hope it will allow for smaller, quieter laptops

 

That part about smaller laptops would be quite interesting, since, as you can see, 12" is smallest size that can house full sized ThinkPad keyboard.
Look at x100e, its 11.6 inch and i hope they wont make x210 as small with the same resolution and the same limited keyboard.

 

i Think the X2xx laptop is the perfect size and weight. The keyboard is a real improvement on the X6x, as it is now a full sized keyboard.

 

how often does Intel release a new platform? I am really interested on the next x-series tablet.

 

The next one is coming in Q1 2011. You can expect new Lenovo laptops shortly after that.

<<< There are rumours that Intel might introduce Sandy Bridge even sooner - by the end of 2010.

 

When Intel tosses an EXTRA half a billion dollars in capital spending to increase the ramp for a new processor, they're pretty confident the product will take the market by storm.

From what I've read, the main changes will be:
- New microcode, which will take awhile to adopt
- Improved memory control
- Improved shared memory for GPU, GPU pipeline & GPU silicon shrink.

Intel claims improved battery life with 20% more speed.

If Lenovo will require new accessories due to next gen SATA(?) & USB 3, it may make sense to delay purchase if at all possible.

Although it's supposed to be a new architecture, it looks closer to the core i3/i5/i7 line than their "product shrink" of the dual core CPUs.

 

Well, i can wait for Sandy Bridge, but then again, it will take around year for prices to reach reasonable levels for select TP models leaving me laptopless for another year.
So now im torn between never Coire i systems with more heat and less battery life but supposedly more power and Core 2 Duo with low heat, excellent battery life and probably not that much performance difference between Ci and C2D.
Hard call
I just hope SB will improve on heat and battery life compared to Ci CPU's, otherwise there is no use of so much power and such short battery life.

 

Buy a cheap C2D model to justify your will for a new laptop and you can wait for SB models to drop price

 

Good advice, second that.

 

I think you guys are speculating about SB desktop and server CPUs. Intel will certainly take more time to get the mobile platform done, they can also delay/time it as they want to give calpella enough room, and then it'll take another year to get the SB shrink. So I wouldn't really hold my breath.

 

Intel is in a rush actually, and will most likely release SB desktop platform in Q4 2010. Mobile SB will follow shortly after.
Intel would love to give more room to calpella but AMD is almost here with their new platform

 

no Thinkpad leaks that I know of (I keep up with Engadget nearly every 10 minutes I'm near a computer, and a Thinkpad leak would almost surely be on Engadget in a few hours or less ).

Now speculations : Bread and butter T4xx, T5xx, and W5xx will probably be the first refreshed notebooks. I guess they'll be called the T420, T520, and W520. You might see a proper W7xx and/or X2xx refresh, might be the W710 and/or X210.

I think I read that USB 3.0 won't be integrated into Sandy Bridge, unfortunately, and no word of Light Peak or how that is developing (no Light Peak standard announced yet either) so I'll guess that you won't see Light Peak until well into 2011. USB 3.0 might remain a feature exclusive to the W series, but cheaper USB 3 chips might mean it'll filter down into lower models. Oh also, SATA 3 is mentioned as being integrated into Sandy Bridge so look for SATA 3 in the refreshed models and SATA 3 HDDs and SSDs.

I can't find the Sandy Bridge slides but they're somewhere on Engadget (unless they've been taken down, no idea).

 

Lenovo is refreshing their thinkpads way too fast now... it is almost like T40, T41, T42, T43 product release.

 

whaat?! They can never refresh Thinkpads too fast! Wasn't there no refresh between August 2008 and January 2010? Seems like they try to update every year but they had a a couple extra months duration with the last one.

 

that would mean when i get the T410 and W510 by the end of the year, it would be already outdated by the start of the next year.

 

SATA 3 update may be a big deal because it changes the ultrabay, along with the CD/DVD & HD cradles. Didn't Lenvo change all the docking stations when they went from SATA 1 to SATA 2?

I expect GPU integration with the memory in the CPU core will offer a big bang per mW for improved performance with reduced power draw.

 

T400, T500, R400, R500 were the first generation Thinkpad to use the SATA 2 mode for ultrabay device and hdd. But the dock remained the same as the one for the T6x, R6x thinkpads.

 

well you have like 3 dozen Thinkpads, some of us are only lucky enough to have one

 

the docking stations were the same. i think the drives were the only difference, it's still the Ultrabay slim between the T6x generation and the T4xx and T5xx. But SATA 3 will probably be for the hard drive/SSD only and the Ultrabay will most likely stick with SATA 2. Afterall, SSDs are now fast enough to take advantage of SATA 3 while optical drives barely take advantage of SATA 2.

 

Hi Brawn and Veer,

So what do you think you will do meanwhile? I am caught in the same situation. I have saved up the money for a once in 10 years event, to buy myself a really expensive Thinkpad (I have never had a brand new laptop before) that I really need for my freelance business, and now I have stopped dead. I think a W510 will be a like a slow, fat, old fire-breathing dinosaur compared to the Sandy Bridge machines.

I think I will have to try to buy something like a 2nd hand T61 to tide me over until the Sandy Bridge comes out. Anything as cheap as possible to reduce the loss when I resell.

- avi

 

This industry is the epitome of planned obsolescence. I guarantee once you buy something, something better will be out in a year—and the early adopters are always the ones who pay the highest premiums. Your best bet, if you can live without the latest whiz-bang, buy something reasonable that’s affordable now—and then do the same thing every year (if you want).

 

I would like the T510 FHD, but in my country only the W510 comes with an FHD. I read about overheating problems with the W510, and anyway its GPU is more than I would ever need.

I just get the impression that the W510 doesn't work so well. I have to pay a lot more money for a lot more heat.

Actually, I get the impression that the whole of the latest crop of i7 laptop models were rushed to market too fast, and none of them work so well.

And who says that if I wait until 2011 for Sandy Bridge, it will actually work...?

 

I wonder if this new Sandy Bridge platform will be enough performance over my current T8300 Penryn processor to validate a reason to upgrade ??

 

There is nothing wrong with the i7 or the W510. The quadcore i7 simply have a higher TDP than the mobile i3, i5 or C2D. So if you run some cpuburn you really burn through significantly more power.

As for Sandy Bridge: high-end mobile workstations like the W510 will then still have CPUs with 35 or 45W TDP to pack maximum power. That's what they're made for.

 

Well I have a T61p which would look downright pathetic compared to a W510, but to me, it is beyond blindingly fast (with Windows 7 at least, Vista was a different story). So if you need a new laptop now, there's really no reason to delay it just for Sandy Bridge. From generation to generation, CPUs pretty much average around 10%-25% faster. If you need it now, then the 10% better performance won't make a difference. If you can wait, then I say go for it, but then again some might say wait until the next generation beyond Sandy Bridge and beyond that and beyond ad infinitum

 

Your laptop has a discrete graphics card. Integrated graphics have been pathetic. Based on the X200 vs X201 reviews, the GPU improvement was ~ 100% performance increase, a substantial improvement. By shrinking the GPU more than the rest of the CPU and integrating it with the CPU cache memory, I expect another substantial integrated graphics improvement.

How long does it usually take Lenovo to release a product refresh after a new CPU architecture gets released? Intel's ramp plans are very aggressive because they want to capture the mobile market before AMD stumbles its way through its mobile CPU release.

 

Lenovo has been going through a product revamp every 1.5 years or so.

 

If you own laptop already, then you could wait and see what brings SB to the market.
If you dont own laptop and need one then simply buy one now.

What I intend to do is to wait some month or two and then buy X201i i3-370m.

 

Take a look at this arcticle:

​

How Intel and AMD will make 2011 the year of the laptop

It says:

"Intel's Mooley Eden has claimed that Sandy Bridge will bring greater than a 4x boost to performance, all at once. As with all claims about unreleased hardware, this is to be taken with a grain of salt, but the fact that Eden is even willing to put these claims out there is indicative of the impact that will come from having all of those components under one roof."

"Between Llano and Sandy Bridge, 2011 will be a great year for laptops, so if you can hold out until then, you'll be rewarded with a major upgrade over whatever you're carrying now."
​

 

They always claim that. Then when the product arrives, it's usually 10-15% faster in most applications. Most of the time they claim it's 4x faster but only in a few limited applications (for instance, multicore applications).

 

hum Intel is using the same marketing promotion as Apple when it comes to talking about the CPU speed comparision. Like 4 x faster... etc...

 

hehe. well Intel rarely talks about future products. Usually people on forums say "wait till next year! It'll be 25 billion times faster!!"

Apple is usually like " this is the bestest laptop evar!!" but of course they make most decisions based on aesthetics and not function so you end up with gimped laptops with half the features of a Thinkpad

 

Graphics performance isn't very important to me. It is nice that integrated GPU performance is getting better, but I would probably assume that if you're buying an X200 or X201, graphics performance won't be too important for you (you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't associate ultraportables with graphics performance).

(but then again, Thinkpads in general don't have that great GPUs. You can't even get the FX1800M in the W510, which is available in its Dell and HP competitors, and that's really not even the best GPU for its class, I'd say the ATI 5730 or 5830 or some other ATI would be the best choice.)

 

>> Graphics performance isn't very important to me.
Actually graphics is also not the thing that I do most of the time.

But I am interested in a powerful laptop that runs cooler and has longer battery time. I definitely need to be able to sit with a laptop on my lap for a significant length of time.

 

oh ok. I think the current X200 and X201 would probably be more than up to the task then. But Sandy Bridge may be better at power management and heat, it's an an unknown at this point and I think information indicates that its TDP will probably remain the same.

 

Maybe I forgot to mention: I am a technical writer and software developer. So I need lots of real estate, so I am looking at the ~15.5" area with an FHD (if I can see the chars...) - and not an unusually heavy one (2.5 - 2.8 Kg is about ok). That, I think, is the sweet spot for me.

 

>> If you dont own laptop and need one then simply buy one now.

Well, I finally made my decision (I think...).

My situation is that my old 2nd hand laptop kept breaking down. So I now need a laptop - period. It should be powerful and reliable (note - RELIABLE), and a good investment for years. So for the first time ever (and I have been a freelance writer and programmer for 10 years) I decided to buy a NEW laptop (not a 2nd hand old model). I put aside a whole lot of money for the latest wizzbang ~15.5" ThinkPad ...

... and what do I find: in my country I can't buy a T510 with FHD. So that sends me up to the W510. But most of the time I don't do graphics, and never play games - so what do I need all the heat for? And the 0.8Kg cable+brick? Btw, talking of heat, something I need to do often is put my laptop my lap - literally (well what else would you expect…?).

I have been reading about lots of heat problems and general QA bugs caused by what seems to be "rush to market". I started asking myself: "Do these ThinkPads work…?".

And the retrograde step away from switchable graphics really freaked me out. And then there is the cutting of 120 pixels and a centimeter or two off the height of the screen. (But I don't think that that is ever going to change back.)

For my first time ever at buying a brand new top-of-the-heap laptop for $3000, I feel I deserve something that I feel optimistic about and really good about. But I just don’t feel good about the current new models.
But I really need a laptop. <sigh>

So…. I decided to go to the other end of the scale and get the cheapest laptop that can just about satisfy my needs until early 2011 (when SB laptops are supposed to come out - we hope), but will be some type of brand and model that my clients are not going to laugh at.

I first tried to find a 2nd hand T61p locally, I gave up. A T61p that still has warranty still take a hefty price. And I could also end up buying that T61p from that guy on this list whose NVIDIA keeps melting. LOL…

So I have made an about turn and I am looking at...

the cheapest model of the ThinkPad SL510

I think that can suit me for a while. A least it is something that has a little red joystick in the middle.

- avi