Lenovo's Macbook Air slayer

Ok may or may not be the MBA slayer, but I've been waiting for this. Is this the X1?

And under $1000? Please let it have a decent processor and screen this time.

Lenovo and competitors to release new ultra-thin laptops soon

 

hmm. I'll believe it when I see it. The thing is, all these manufacturers have had YEARS to come up with competent Air and MBP competitors, and for the most part they've failed. I don't have much hope that this time is any different.

 

Actually Sony Vaio X series had always been a pretty worthy competitor to the Macbook air, as well as the X30x series thinkpads.

Checkout

YouTube - Sony VAIO X Video Review

you will see them comparing the the vaio X and Mac air.

 

X300/X301 were never contenders against the MBA between the pathetic processor, monstrous price and what's probably the worst Thinkpad screen in history.

Vaio X isn't either with an Atom processor. Also no 13" screen which is what I'm after.

Really, if the Air had a thinkpad keyboard (trackpoint+non-chicklet thinkpad goodness) I'd own one by now.

I'm cautiously optimistic over what's probably the X1.

 

Well it depends on one's desired specs and how one considers a product as being worthy in the category of thin and light. This is different for different people. I suppose most important is like the name suggests, thin and light. And thin and light the vaio X is indeed, so on that perspective alone Id say they are a contender.

the x30x is indeed quite thick compared to others in its class but it includes an optical drive for consolation.

 

"...Avoiding the same fate as Dell's recently axed Adamo laptop."

That's certainly one way to put it!

 

Actually the adamo suffered the unfortunate problem of bad timing. they released it right when the economic slowdown occured. Meanwhile the adamo was marketed as a luxury item with a price to match. But thats never really a problem to the rich/wealthy, except that the design is actually kinda lackluster with the *hides* protruding back part that dell seems to be embracing a lot nowadays. So it didnt seem to work out so well. Perhaps if timing was better. I remember reading an interview with Dell's ceo or product development manager about this very issue and they said they'd plow ahead anyway even with the looming economic storm. Short of the protruding back part, it looks to be a decent machine though.

 

Agreed.

I actually kinda liked what little I read about the machine after it came out - except for it's price!

I wasn't necessarily commenting on the quality of the adamo or the foolishness of Dell at releasing the machine when they did. I was moreso commenting on what seemed to me to be a wry use of words is all.

 

Hey...I have the poor man's Adamo, the Latitude 13/Vostro V13. It's basically like a MBA only half the price.

Though what killed the Adamo was really that Dell logo. People didn't associate such a luxury item, or for that matter the Adamo XPS with Dell so it didn't really sell. Dell then selling it for 799 I bet made original Adamo owners pretty mad.

Sad to see it be under the IdeaPad line and not the ThinkPad line..

 

I was kinda curious to see that it was going to be placed in the IdeaPad line too ... I guess to help make it somehow more "accessible" to a non-business market or something?

 

Yea I'd like to see more thin and light notebooks too. I remember seeing I think either a panasonic or toshiba notebook like 10 years ago or something that was amazingly thin (even by today's standard) and had an extended battery that is like the X200 ultrabase and docks to the bottom with the same form factor and brings it to an amazing (at the time) 8-9 hr battery life or something.

I'd like to try the thin and light category as my main rig too but have always steared well away from them for performance reasons.

 

Hmm ... iirc weren't the x40's capable of 8-9 hours of battery life back then (with the extended battery)?

 

I dont know how good my guesses were on the 8-9 hours. Essentially it was a neat thin notebook back in the day (come to think of it, its definately more than 10 years ago) with an extended battery that fits the form factor of the notebook and docks onto it.

 

Apple achieves the crazy battery life by having a massive WHr battery, like 80-90+ but the downfall is long recharge times. Apple for the lower end MBP and MB line don't have discreet graphics, and the MBA has the ULV Core 2 Duos.

Dell has that Expresscharge where if you have a higher wattage AC adapter it would charge the battery faster.

The thing is with thin and light, the L13/V13 weren't built for battery life. The battery is like 3 mm thick and weighs about 4 ounces, thus only getting 30 WHr. My L13 gets maybe 4.5 hours idle, and 2.5-3 hours heavy use.

 

The hardest part to compete with the Macbook Air right now is price.

When the Macbook Air first came out, it's was a flagship (in terms of design) product with a premium price. Now the newer ones start from $999, that's price is hard to beat. Yes, for you and me, and people browsing this forum, would say how little ram that $999 11.6" MBA has and how small that SSD on it is. But you know what? A lot of people don't care about those spec, and the $999 MBA is selling like hotcake. I personally have quite a number of non-geeky friends went out and bought one.

The new Samsung 9-series is a worthy competitor, but Samsung says that they are going to put a premium price on it. Lenovo, Samsung, Dell, and HP, all these big manufacturers wouldn't have problem designing a worthy MBA competitor. But can they build and sell one at $999? That's hard. And for an average consumer to pick such a laptop over a $999 MBA, you need to lower the price even more and put a lot of extra convincing features on it.

Apple used to be a dominant player in the high end market. But these days their pricing strategies worked so well that they are penetrating the lower end (but not the lowest) as well. The success of the iPad is a clear example of this. Before it was launched, everyone had expected it to be a premium products starting at around $1000. And then, boom, $499 16GB wifi only model.

 

yea the new macbook air 11" looks really good and I agree the $999 price is pretty good considering you are getting SSD storage and a good quality screen. Its perfect for word processing and web surfing. Stuff most ordinary folks do.

If it was black in color (and I know colorwarepc can do it in black minus the touchpad and is more expensive) I can probably tolerate it.

 

With all this in mind I am curious to see what Lenovo will try to do with this new IdeaPad model....

 

Crap, I missed the Ideapad part. I can live with the Lenovo chicklet since the action is supposed to be good like Thinkpad keyboards, but does Ideapad automatically= no trackpoint? I might as well get an Air then. Why does Lenovo keep screwing us over with all these compromised products. And outsourced manufacturing on a product that's supposed to compete with Apple's flagship?

With an Atom processor the vaio x can't be anything more than a glorified netbook imo. Form is only part of a machine.

 

The macbook air, the current defacto standard of thin and light, their processors too are hardly impressive. Crappy performance just goes with the territory of the thin and light. Its unfair to give manufacturers a hard time about it though or being too critical here about performance as the customer obviously has to face the reality.

 

I predict it'll be a flop. Lenovo just doesn't have the "s*x appeal" or "cool factor" of anything Apple.

 

Though I dislike Sony, their Z series has always been 80% the performance of a 14-15" but in a 12-13" form factor. Albeit very expensive.

Uber thin and light has been, and always will be a niche market. Yes Apple has created a product for the masses, but 1000 still isn't cheap compared to how many 299 eMachines notebooks go out our doors.

Though it may not rake in the most profit, Lenovo has known to release SFF products, perhaps not to Sony or Apple's degree.