New Models L410, L510

I was looking for new ThinkPad software updates and I found these new models under the updated Bluetooth software driver.

I don't know if it's been reported or not but it lists some newer models:

Supported ThinkPad systems:
- L410, L510
- SL300, SL400, SL400c, SL410, SL500, SL500c, SL510

Version 5.5.0.7600

* (New) Added support for ThinkPad L410, L510, SL410, SL510.
* (Fix) Fixed an issue where a balloon popped up from the task tray even after disabled in the registry.

Anyone know anything about this new L series?

 

Nice find! I wonder where they will fit in...

 

This is getting confusing...what niche is missing?

Except of course the 13inch screen size.

 

I see this same bit of news being reported in numerous Chinese forums since yesterday. So far no one knows anything.

 

Is no one excited about this? It's probably going to be a low-end or lite notebook ala the SL series. How it differs from the SL series is what I want to know. This new series could have been Lenovo's ThinkPad "netbook" but judging by the numbering schemes it looks to be a 14 and 15 in. laptop.

Anyone care to speculate? I wonder if this will pick up where the R series left off with greater differences from the T series?

 

No one’s excited about it because there is little information on it—and what information has been disclosed is old news already.

Will these have an option for the new i7 mobile chips? That might be exciting. Will Lenovo ship these with better quality screens? That would excite me. Will Lenovo’s keyboard become legendary again like the one in my T40? That might excite some. Until we know more, there’s little to be excited about.

 

According to the thousand-times posted Lenovo roadmap, the SL410 and SL510 are the refreshes for the current SL400 and SL500. The SL410c and SL510c are the updates, when Calpella releases, of the SL410 and SL510.

These SLx10 series were due to this time of the year, so it is no surprise. No pics whatsoever?

 

I'm not sure if people should be too thrilled. If the L series is cheaper than the SL then look out, I don't think the SL series are true Thinkpad's anyway. I can't imagine a Thinkpad being built any cheaper than the SL series and still be called a Thinkpad. Maybe I'm a bit of a purist, but that is just me. The SL series is no where near as robust as the T,R, W, and X series. If the L series is even lower in quality then I think it may be giving people a product they feel should be superior but really is not.

 

Wait is it just a refresh of the SL? Or is there also a new L series...I see SLx10 and Lx10.

 

Perhaps a new series?
Strange that nobody noticed on that roadmap...

But the SLx10 were due to August, and nothing, finally they are coming. But I am looking forward for W510 with Intel Calpella and a 5000HD based professional GPU.

 

The SLx10 refresh is still Montevina... and Serg, if you looked at the roadmap closer, you would see that the SLx10 series wasn't finalized then, so there are no hard set dates. Honestly I don't even see a point to it. All the Calpella stuff will be Q1 2010 and I bet it will only have HD 4xxx in it.

 

The new models will probably come with Windows 7 pre-installed as the main change.

 

Pardon me, but isnt the SLx10 right under the august line? Yes, those are estimated dates, I think we all know that, but what I am saying is that supposedly it was for august, and we are half way in september, and no official words of this AFAIK...

 

Perhaps L line will be something like 3000 series, but with ThinkPad logo, matte screen, more resolution options?

 

More like end of August into early September. I really hope that Arrandale Calpella notebooks debut in January.

 

SL410 has 16:9 LCD format

 

How can you tell??

 

http://translate.google.com/transla...11087140.shtml&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&history_state0=

read the sneak peak review of the SL410, to the where it says LCD read 16:9. The picture of the laptop LCD also looks to 16:9 in proportion.

 

wow that bezel is huge!!!
I wonder what the model is besides the SL410 in the first pic.
Design speaking, looks more like the T400s rather than the common Xx00...I wonder if this are going to be the new design for the Xx10 Thinkpads...

 

the price for the SL series probably would drop, since the official price in the chinese release looks cheaper than the SLx00 series that it replaced. The 16:9 screen probably had lower the production costs, but since the SL series are the budget multimedia series, i don't think people will care all that much about screens proportions, but more about the keen pricing.

Hopefully the other thinkpads can retain 16:10 proportions.

 

Just in case someone stumbles across this thread like I did, the 'L' Series is a replacement for the 'R' Series which has been Discontinued. It is NOT a refresh of the SL Series, which is the cheap 'Budget' Series.

In my honest opinion, Lenovo should have kept the 'R' Series. The (Australian) Department of Education has supplied leases to Teachers with 'R' Series Thinkpads for just over 10 years now, and in my experience, the 'R' Series was a lot sturdier than these new 'L' Series ones.

 

i concur with your opinion regarding the R series. The L series can not be seen as a serious replacement for the R series.

The new T510 is sort of a replacement for the R500... R400 was always a sale cannibalizer for the T400, since they used so much similar parts.

However, this was bound to happen, since Thinkpad biggest market was USA, and the price between the R series and T series are pretty much within 10% price difference. Basically the R series took away a lot of sales from the R series, and the cost of producing the R series were not much lower than the T series. So i guess Lenovo finally decided to remove the product duplication and internal sale cannibalization.

Basically, the R series and T series are like '3' and Vodaphone brand of VHA, and one of them had to go (yes '3' will no longer exist in 2 years).

 

Do you mean the R series took away a lot of the sales from the T series?

 

In certain countries yes..... there is extensive consumer demographic overlap between the R series and T series in the later years. So some people could have got the T series, got the R series instead.

Lenovo probably earn a smaller profit margin on the R series as compared to the T series, as the cost of parts and production for the T series is not much more than that of the R series.

 

Yeah...like me, for example. I got a brand new R400 for a steal, which if I had not, I would have gone ahead and bought the T400. My original plan was for a T400 in the first instance and I had actually booked one (buying in India is a bit different than elsewhere I think. I had to go to a Lenovo shop to make the booking. Web-based transactions are not as common as they are elsewhere). It would have cost a bit more (well, quite a bit more) but would have sported somewhat similar specs.

 

You could probably consider the T410i the successor to the R series.

 

Is the L series, specifically the L512, the best option for someone looking to buy a laptop for under $900? I configured one with an i5, 4GB DDR3, and a 320GB 7200RPM HDD which seem to be the best specs I can fit in with any brand for this low price point but after reading this thread it doesn't seem like too many people like the L512, thoughts?

 

I think the T510 was the successor more and less. Given that the T510 and W510 started using the thicker base with the ultrabay enhanced drive slot.

The T410 still has the ultrabay slim.

But price wise the T series did drop by few hundred dollars in Australia.

 

The T410i is now the least expensive "real ThinkPad", which in my opinion makes it the successor to the R series.

 

Anybody?! Sorry for the annoyance, but I'd like to purchase this this week.

 

But what about the R400 which are available in some markets, especially in Asia? Are these just machines which were produced and not sold (in other words, excess stock)? I am asking this because the replacement R400 that I recently received bore a manufacturing date of Feb 2010.

Edit: Nopes! I stand corrected - I think the R series has been or is being phased out even in India.