Lenovo.com Thinkpad Pricing: Dynamic?

I am interested in a Thinkpad ultra portable (either X201 or T410s) with good battery life, mobility and performance potential (maybe some gaming). As a student, I like to multi-task amongst programs such as Matlab, ppt, acrobat, latex editors, internet explorer, inkscape...and possibly watch movies or some gaming.

The intrigue of the impending Sandy Bridge release kept me from buying right around Christmas, at which time there were some pretty awesome deals on the x201 (now stating from memory):

core i7 620M
4 GB Ram (1 DIMM)
128 GB SSD
9-Cell battery
webcam/touchpad
bluetooth

~1200 with Student discount and 10% Lenovo coupon (I also remember this being a "web special" laptop)

Now, if I attempt to re-customize this laptop, it comes out to something like 1600!

As a first time Lenovo customer, my question is this: How does Lenovo pricing fluctuate with respect to laptop specials? Was the x201 price I found a one time deal that I missed? Does Lenovo rotate through models to be hosted as "web special", and if so, how frequently do they switch? It seems like available options change (such as no i7 for T410s now) when attempting to customize a model?

The Lenovo outlet does not look viable, as the pricing is not much better compared to the shop, and I do not want a refurbished laptop (with the fear of having to deal with warranty service). I am still holding out hope of getting a Sandy Bridge x2x0 refresh, however, will be disappointed if the release is after March and incredibly expensive.

Thanks

 

The pricing is pretty difficult to predict, as there are intermittent sales and other coupons. Personally, I wouldn't rule out the Outlet - most of the time, there's not too many great deals there, but every once in a while a really well-configured laptop will be listed for a really low price (and many times, it's not refurbished, just redistributed - meaning it was returned, non-open-box). The warranty is a standard one-year depot warranty identical to the base warranty of new Thinkpads - only difference is that you cannot upgrade it to a longer/on-site warranty.

 

Unless you're pushing the CPU frequently, most mobile users don't, the better CPU will have little marginal value.

 

I thank both of you for your answers. At this point, the best plan seems to be to wait for the CES portable Thinkpad announcements/release timeline (such as x201 or T420s?), and decide from there. As many other threads have discussed, waiting for till the new release will be contingent on:

1) Significant design refresh.
2) Obvious battery life improvement.
3) Additional port inclusions (mainly HDMI).
4) Improvement in multi-media performance (ie maybe better battery life when watching movie, play a game like starcraft2)
5) Better specs on hardware such as: SSD (maybe new hybrid?), USB 3.0, nicer screen, faster memory etc.

In the meantime, I'll check out the outlet and the promotions to see if any killer deals come up (in retrospect, I sort of wish I would have bought the $1200 fully loaded x201).

I agree about the lack of performance dependency on the CPU, however I'd like to have something that will last a long time, and it seems the new mobile Sandy Bridge architecture may have the additional features (4 core, on-die GPU => smaller motherboard, better turbo boost, better power management) to make a 3 month wait worthwhile. Of course I am no computer engineer and am probably just buying into some of the hype...

 

Rarely is anything a one time deal. Markets factors effect price. Right before Christmas there were a ton of "deals" because it's that time of year when everyone is competing for consumer spending.

Now, you are seeing announcements for new machines. Guess what? That means clearing inventory of old models. Model closeout can create some good deals. For instance, when the X301 was finally cleared out there were some pretty good deals.

The key here is patience and a study of the market, features and prices. You'll notice close to the end of the quarter many OEMs will discount machines to make a volume quota.

So research what you want (model), decide on a price you are willing to live with, and buy when you see the price. Don't look back or you'll go crazy.