New ThinkPad Information and Pictures!

Yeah, if the currently released info on the forthcoming models is accurate, there will be no T300.

An X300 with a faster processor and a price around $2000 would be very tempting. We will see what happens when the X300 gets updated to Montevina (X310 ?), but presumeably this will lag the other models somewhat.

 

Well, imagine the SL300 vs X3000.......

 

It saddens me that we're still talking of the non existence of the T300 - biggest mistake they've made in awhile.

 

14" screen is perfect for me. i just want the T400... like now.

 

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w21/ryengineer/47059ff8.png

was that posted already?

 

very long time ago

 

So the SL Series will not have the rollcage? Why the h*** would they do that?

 

The SL is supposedly their "budget" or small biz line, similar to dell's vostro line. IMO it doesn't deserve to be called a ThinkPad...

 

wasn't 14th of july the release date? where are the new thinkpads ?

 

Intel announced the new centrino 2 platform and Lenovo announced the new thinkpad lineups, but the wont be available for a little while yet. There are rumors that the new thinkpads will be available to purchase on August 5th, lets hope that they are correct.

 

The SL is a 3000 masquerading as a real thinkpad.

 

Does anyone know if they still have the FN key on the far left bottom corner on the new T400? I think that is so annoying especially when playing games that use the CTRL key.

 

You get used to the position of the Fn key after a while. I initially thought it was such an annoying placement too.

The T400 is shaping up to be one power packed machine. Too bad it's missing a DisplayPort, something it's bigger brother the T500 is sporting.

 

ok, forgive me if I am a little bit ignorant...but the displayport is useful because.....

And I'm not beign sarcastic, i reeeeeeeally wanna know

 

DisplayPort is useful for outputting video and audio, in digital format, just like an HDMI port. Many newer projectors for instance use it, and it will supposedly migrate into HDTVs as well. You can also use an adapter to go to HDMI.

I'm not sure of all the technical details and advantages it has (or doesn't have) over HDMI, but you can find more info here.

 

thanx! now I know why T400 should have displayport. Does it have HDMI?

 

No...........

 

Please advise: What's wrong with the 3000 even if it's not a "real Thinkpad"? I guess I'm missing the point, is it quality or bells & whistles that makes the 3000 less desirable? I'm looking for a quality notebook without a lot of bells & whistles that will last several years, and I'm looking at the SL thinking it has good features. If quality is the main issue with the SL, then I'll look at other models.

 

The "ThinkPad" SL seris is MISSING a ton of features synonymous with the Thinkpad product line. Some main features missing are: Screen latch, Metal screen hinges, thinkvantage software, typical TP keyboard...

 

The latch and metal screen hinges appear to me as a way to reduce production costs. But the latch and metal screen hinges are a concern to me as I keep my stuff a long time. I would think that the tension spring, torsion bar or whatever is used to keep the screen open and closed is not as reliable as a simple latch. And using plastic rather than metal for a hinge is definitely a concern. I'm not familiar with Thinkvantage software or the typical TP keyboard so that wouldn't be an issue for me. Well, I guess I'll wait a couple of weeks for the R500 series. Hopefully, it will have better construction than the SL. Thanks for the input.

 

Ive been thinking for a while about this now, I am gonna stick to my R61i and maybe upgrade the CPU.

The headphones socket on the front is what kills it for me... While it may not seem like a big deal, it is for me as I either have my headphones or amp plugged in 24/7, and on my old Toshiba it really got annoying having the cable in the way all the time.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but the datasheet for SL400 and SL500 says that it does have ThinkVantage software:

Copied from the PDF datasheet page 3:

ThinkVantage® Active Protection System™ and
ThinkPad Shock-Mounted Hard Drive
Standard
ThinkVantage® Client Security Solution
Standard

Included software (preloaded)
Adobe Reader
Microsoft: Windows Live™ Toolbar & Search
DVD playback codec
McAfee® VirusScan® Plus with 30 days of virus
definitions
ThinkPad Utilities
(Power Manager and Presentation Director)
ThinkVantage Access Connections™
ThinkVantage Fingerprint Software
ThinkVantage Productivity Center with Away Manager
ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery™
ThinkVantage System Update (downloadable)

 

On the other hand, slbook says Lenovo Care Tools is preloaded with a comment that it supports ThinkVantage Technologies. And on the third hand, the Service and Support manuals and Drivers and Downloads site refer to both Lenovo Care and ThinkVantage. Not sure what all that boils down to, but in the past, the *books and download pages have been more accurate than all of the web site marketing information.

 

that's very sad. =( yeah, it's really not a thinkpad big time.

 

you cant plug usb drives into it because of the angled sides...i saw pictures somewhere do a search for a review in google

 

That may have been in gottabemobile's InkShow where they showed that.

 

I think it was in PCmag's review.

 

I know this has been posted a while ago but just for the record, I've been googling quite a bit about the comparative performance of both cards and I have not seen a single site where it says the 8600GT was a better overall performer. All sites I found said the HD 3650 was better, albeit not by a big margin. If a recall correctly, there may be one or two games where the 8600GT was faster but in general, the HD 3650 wins.

 

Maybe here? http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/thinkpad-sl400.aspx

 

You can check this reiview: http://www.it.com.cn/f/notebook/084/17/577365_3.htm where the result pictures are in English.
The review actually compares HD3650 and 9500M GS (the new name of 8600MGT), and says 9500M GS outperforms HD3650 a little. Because the difference is very little, HD3650 and 9500MGS are in the same performance level. Moreever, I think, 9600MGS and 9600MGT are also in the same level, although they have little higher frequencies.

 

The 9500M GS GDDR2 outperforms the 8600M GT GDDR3. There were some threads talking about this on NBR floating around somewhere.. The HD3650 is between the two.

 

Actually no, 9500GS is a newer card, however it uses GDDR2, so it performs worse than the 8600GT GDDR3. Those two are not the same.

Yes and no, the HD 3650 in that test is the GDDR2 version, the GDDR3 version performs better than both.

Benchmark??? Proof????
The 9500GS performance is close to the 8600GT, but not outperforms it.

 

In the review, both HD3650 and NV 9500MGS use GDDR2. Thus it's fair. When they change to GDDR3, both will get higher scores.

The NV 9000 series is the new generation. However, 9500MGS, 9500MGT, 9600MGS, 9600MGT and 9650MGS have almost the same specs with 8600MGT except the frecencies. They perform almost the same in the same frequency. When someone overclocks the 8600MGT in the notebook (like xps 1530) to the frequency of 9600MGT, he will also get the 3dmark06 score as high as 6000.

 

Based on the game benches I saw, 9500M GS performs better than the 8600M GT, even though, they share some common specs.

 

I agree they should put the socket on the side. I think there are USB adapters though that you could use so your speaker wire won't be in the way. Probably not ideal for when you are mobile with headphones to have a USB adapter sticking out, but on a desk with speakers might be okay.

 

Has anyone else noticed that the T400, the 14.1" model has a WXGA+ W/LED Backlight (1680x1050, 129dpi, 200+ nit) display option, but the only LED option on the T500 15.4" is WXGA w/LED Backlight (1280x800, 98dpi, 185+ nit)?

Call me crazy, but i hope that is a typo on the data sheet, because I would hate to believe the better laptop offers the lower resolution screen. Can anyone confirm if the T500 will have a 1680x1050 LED option?

info taken from data sheet on Lenovo's site

 

That data sheet is f'd up. It lists WXGA+ as 1680x1050 for the t400, but that's WSXGA+, then it doesn't even list WXGA+ (1440x900) as an option for the T500.

 

Who knows! It might be accurate. That would be crazy tho!

 

Does anyone know the HD3650 in T500 is GDDR2 type or GDDR3 type? I can't find the information from the datasheet.
If GDDR3, Wow, the T500 is just the notebook I want.