New Thinkpad Line up

Just dreaming here but I would love to see a W450s Thinkpad with the following specs.

- Dedicated Nvidia graphics, and no loss of docking port
- 14 inch touch screen
- Quad Core i7 Broadwell
- dual memory slots for up to 16 GB or maybe even 32 GB of RAM
- M.2 PCIe for faster ~900+ Mbps SSD performance (maybe even two of these M.2 slots for dual hard drive support)
- Less than 4 lbs.

There is no reason why Lenovo couldn't deliver this in 2015. Come on....DO IT!

 

I would buy this too although I think they would have to invent some kind of new cooling mechanism... I don't mind about graphics but the rest would be awesome for running a bunch of VMs. The Macbook Pro outperforms nearly all other laptops due to the PCIe SSD performance so would take that over the 32GB RAM, however both would be really nice!! The Dell M3800 kind of chassis in 14" without a massive bevel and I'm sold.

Don't ask for much do I?

 

Thnkpad Yoga with detachable battery and weights less than 3 LB.

 

Images of the new X250 (via reddit):

ThinkPad X250 - Imgur

Images of the new ThinkPad X250 surface online - trackpoint buttons return : thinkpad

 

If they are going to stick with the crappy chiclet keyboard, the least they can do is make the buttons bigger. They have space on the left and right side. My x220 goes to the edge. I have big hands so bigger keys makes it easier to type.

 

Spoken like someone who's never laid a finger on the keyboard...

I went to an X230 from an X220, and the key tops--you know, the part you actually touch--are bigger than on the old style keyboard. They're both wider and taller. Sorry, but this is misinformed whining just for the sake of whining.

The tackpoint buttons are back, which should make a lot of people happy. Personally I didn't have a problem w/the integrated trackpoint buttons on my Helix, although the scroll would sometimes miss-so I guess it's an improvement.

 

Will there be a way to swap the crappy trackpad on the X240 with the new X250 trackpad? Hoping badly!

 

Yes, let's thank Lenovo for this huge favor! For bringing back what users liked! That's pure inovation...

 

Thanks for sharing, the original source of those pictures are 51nb.com, a very popular Chinese website for Lenovo fans (and there are a lot of them in that country). For a (very) rough translation you can use Google translate to see what's being said there:

Google Translate

 

I'm fine with the chiclet keyboard. I'm just waiting for the Blue Enter / Return key to come back. Really miss that guy.

 

I don´t think this will ever come back - the blue enter key was introduced by IBM to connect ThinkPads to the "big blue" logo-color, and because of the three colored IBM ThinkPad Logo - cause with the red TrackPoint, the green status LEDs and the blue enter key, you have all three colors on ThinkPads - since Lenovo wants more cleaner designs, and since ThinkPads are owned by Lenovo for some time now, they have decided to go back to the "old design" used up until the T23 (T30 was the first model with the blue enter key).

The last model to feature the blue enter key was the 20th anniversary X1 Carbon model back in 2012 8http://www.51nb.com/viewnews-82320-page-5.html). But that was a very limited release China and Japan only.

 

Further reading about the X250 is here -- ÐÂÒ»´úThinkPad¼´½«ÉÁÁÁµÇ³¡£¬X250ÔÙ¸ø´ó¼Ò͸͸µ× - רÃÅÍø

Well, good news is: dedicated Trackpoint buttons are back, yet they are sticking with the one DIMM slot, which means 8GB RAM is still the maximum we can get. But I am going to take, what I can get and be happy about the fact, that trackpoint ded. buttons are back. Which means now i can finally replace my trusted companion, the X300, and get the X250. I was contemplating on getting the T550S, when it arrives, but I'm thinking that the 12,5" inch screen with the 1080p display will suffice for me. 14 inches is too big for carrying around, 12.5 seems optimal and it will be my work-on-the-go pc, so i won't need a big screen. All in all, I am pleased

 

It looks like basically it's the exact same laptop with only the CPU and the clickpad swapped out.

Identical casing is probably good news for X240 owners since they can swap out the palmrest/clickpad for the new one, as long as the connector on the motherboard didn't change.

 

They tend to keep chassis/casing designs for a two or three generations. But I really hope the trackpad can be swapped out, that would be a dream come true for almost all T440s/X240 owners.

 

I have heard that the ClickPad is hinged, at least on the Helix 2, not one big button that can be clicked - which means the ClickPad itself should be more stable as well.

 

I wish they'd put 2 sodimm slots on the X240, it's ridiculous that we only get 8GB, since we got 16GB on X230//220. Oh well, of course I also wish they'd go back to -M processors. Newer Thinkpads kind of are a bittersweet deal and I just can't make myself buy other products.

 

Same here. I've mentioned this before but I have 8GB of RAM in my X201, and I had originally bought it with 2GB. I intend on buying something that I can use for 4-5 years, so a single slot likely isn't going to cut it for me (I'm guessing the X250 will support 16GB DIMMs, but still). Not to mention the graphics performance sacrifice with single-channel memory. My sister might upgrade from her X200, but I don't know if I'll replace my X201 just yet.

 

Am I the only one who prefer for the touchpad to also have dedicated buttons like the trackpoints ?

touching with one finger, and having dedicated buttons to perform click at the same time is much more productive in my experience than that trackpoints.

 

i VERY MUCH want dedicated touchpad buttons.

 

Thinkpad t440s and t440p prices have vanished from Lenovo site atleast here on Finland. Expect to see them soon to be replaced.

 

Chinese sources tip on T450 ´îÔØBroadwell£¬ThinkPad T450ÇÀÏÈÐÀÉÍ - רÃÅÍø

...and X1 Carbon 3rd Gen ÐÂÒ»´úThinkPad X1 CarbonÆعâ ÅäÖÃPCle SSDʵÌå¼ü»Ø¹é - רÃÅÍø which was already spilled a bit in the subject thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/thi...433-thinkpad-x1-carbon-3rd-gen-broadwell.html

More great news are coming!

 

T450 with CPU 7-5600u/i5-5300u ... well, my 2.5 years old x230 still beats all the new those UVL cpus.

 

Hello.
I must buy new laptop. And I don't know what to do
Wait for new T450p or buy T440p. This is the key question.
For 95% time I am using mouse, so "infamous" touchpad is not problem for me. But I don't buy new laptop very often (I have had R61 since 2008)...

 

ULV processors and no touchpad buttons.... Thinkpad is dead I guess. Oh well, I'll buy another brand.

THINKPAD - FOR THOSE WHO <s>DO</s> [lazilly browse facebook]

 

Face it: Standard Voltage Dual-Core CPUs are DEAD - the U CPUs are the new standard. There will be no Broadwell/Skylake M CPUs. And even the faster Broadwell HQ Quad-Core CPUs are not coming out until mid 2015.

If you get another brand (HP/Dell) for example, most of their machines are built with ULV CPUs now as well - for example all Elitebooks.

And TouchPad buttons; For what do you need TouchPad buttons? If you don`t want to use the ClickPad mechanism to click, you can use the TrackPoint buttons.

 

There are always ill-starred people like me who never tap the same area twice. Agree, its my fault, but this is an argument to machines to serve human needs, not vice versa. And my need it to position with trackpoint/touchpad and then click on physical button, not the tap area. Otherwise there are mistaps occured and clicks in the wrong place and, as a result, myself being completely pissed off.

Using a mouse is not an argument too: (1) I'm a frequent traveller and there is no extra room in trains/plains and (2) I'm a typist who hates to take his palm out of the keyboard -- trackpoint is my primary pointing device with touch-screen/pad being a secondary one, no mouse in the list.

That's the explanation why me personally (any many other people on techie forums) were complaining when Lenovo killed physical buttons -- it's just an act of anti-humanity and counter-productivity. And I will not face it: I switched off Lenovo onto Dell couple of years ago and now, with those buttons getting back, considering a comeback to the ThinkPad family.

 

Yes, I understand, but the complaint was that Lenovo will not bring back the Touchpad buttons (not TrackPoint) - but they are unneccesary, because if you are using the TouchPad and want a physical button to click on, you can always use the TrackPoint buttons too - there is no need for two sets of physical buttons, which would only result in a smaller TouchPad. Thats was my point.

As a TrackPoint user, I am ok with either physical buttons or integrated buttons - it seems physical buttons for the TrackPoint win, because many people prefer them, and I am ok with that.

 

Yes, I understood this complaint and believe it is valid -- just try to use your touchpad for a one single day, 9 to 5, and click on the trackpoint buttons. This is completely weird experience! One-hand experience look like you're pointing with your thumb finger because your index/middle finger will be clicking buttons. Two-hand experience getting even weirder: your palms are crossed and jostling. What would be the natual way of using touchpad for me? One-hand navigation when the index/middle finger is pointing and my thumb clicking. That's it!

Agree, buttons are eating the real estate of touchpad but that's the trade-off (actually, not, this is a must) for better usability for some of us. At least, this would be a better justification for a 6-row keyboards: "in the pursue to make the touchpad bigger, we were opting between killing 7th row or touchpad buttons -- now enjoy the new 6-row keyboard, bigger touchpad and those lovely physical buttons!". But that was not the case. Instead, Lenovo simply killed signature features from IBM legacy: great 7-row keyboards, physical buttons, thinklights, color coding of special keys, ultrabays... And for what reason? Make touchpads bugger and manufacturing cheaper?! I'm a prosumer and I'm paying premium to a manufacturer who cares about me, not about their market shares and declining profits on shrinking markets...

 

No they are not. It IS true that more "consumer" laptops are using ULVs. However, gaming laptops and "professional/business" laptops use normal voltage and MQs. This is exactly my point. I will have to buy a Dell Precision, or a ridiculous "gaming" laptop. I would have preferred buying a Thinkpad.

This is terrible.

If the CPUs were good I'd probably learn to use the TrackPoint! However, "no-button" touchpads are awful, unless one is just lazily dragging his cheetoh-encrusted paw around Tumblr. It is no good for actual work.

 

Is there a good source for bench mark comparisons of these new ULV CPUs against older i5/i7 CPUs?

 

Sigh...thats not the point. Of course there are still some niche models with M and MQ CPUs - there are also still ThinkPads with M and MQ CPUs (T440p, T540p, W540/W541, L440, L540). This niche is getting smaller and smaller, the majority of all Notebooks, wheter it are Business or Consumer models, are based on the U CPUs as of today. and thats what defines the standard, isn`t it? 3 years ago when most laptops were based on the M/MQ CPUs, these were standard...but no more.

Broadwell is coming out as Y (Core M), U and HQ (35 W Quad-Core, soldered to the board only) - not as M or MQ, and the HQ CPUs won`t be released until summer. At the moment, only Core M is on the market, U comes in January.

And don`t think Broadwell is the exception: As of today, Skylake, successor to Broadwell, will be available in Y, U and HQ based on the leaked roadmaps - not M and MQ. So these CPUs are dead as Intel discontinues them in future releases, even if some of todays models are still based on M/MQ. I imagine in the future these models will be based on HQ instead, which is Quad-Core only.

It is as it is: All of HPs Elitebooks are based on the U-CPUs (they will even release a Core M based Elitebook 1020 => Even less power). Nearly all of Dell Latitudes are based on the U-CPUs, and the majority of ThinkPads is also based on the U CPUs - they are the standard now.

Not yet - for that we will have to wait a few more weeks.

 

Hey, Orange Robot, to be fair ibmthink is right: how would you buy a laptop with Broadwell iCore M processor if Intel has not even annouced them yet?! If you would like to buy an actual ThinkPad with M processor right now then go for T440p/T540p/W540 -- they do have an option of 37W Haswell M. If you're looking for the Broadwell M then at the moment they are kind of discontinued: there is no mention of them, neither official nor unofficial.

These are all officially annouced Broadwells: Products (Formerly Broadwell) -- as of Dec 25th 2014 there are only Core M, which are Broadwell Y series indeed

These are unofficial tips onto Broadwell U processors 處理器型號多達 13 款，Intel 14nm Broadwell-U 確定在 CES 2015 發表 - VR-Zone 中文版

Could you please tell me any name from Broadwell M family? I'm really curious to know. I was googling a lot and found nothing.

PS: Please don't think I'm offensive. But I'm just discouraged how would you blame Lenovo for something that does NOT exists! Are there any other laptops sporting Broadwell M? Up to my mind, no, there are nothing!

 

You say the touchpad buttons are unnecessary ?


1. With the buttons, you can rest all your hand, and only have your thumb hanging over the 2 buttons, while your index finger over the touchpad, and be able to do everything without moving anything other than 2 fingers.

2. you can easily do, right-click and drag, or left-click and drag, all while your hand is in a fixed position, with 2 fingers only.

3. for applications that require quick precise movements and right/left clicks, like for example some image processing applications or games, where you you need to move the mouse quickly while doing left/right click and drag, .. you can do all that without moving anything other than 2 fingers.

4. with the new click pad there is the problem of requiring a very specific pressure power, do any more and there is a big chance of doing an accidental click.

5. with the new click pad, how do you do right click and drag ? ... requiring multiple fingers on the touchpad to do some of those gestures for right click is hard to do with the same speed and precision as before.

6a. the big touchpad is useless, since going around all the edges require moving more than 1 finger, you need to move all your palm/hand to reach it, which is counter productive.

6b. Just look at any touchpad that was heavilly used, you will notice that the wear-out is mostly done in a relativelly small area of the touchpad, usually the middle or slightly to the left or right to it, the rest is usually unused except for dragging for longer distances, and in that rare cases, there are software features that help with border dragging (continue dragging when you reach the border of touchpad, called "edge-motion" on some synaptics drivers)


The one point I might agree with is the ability to use the trackpoints new buttons with the touchpad, then the remaining are 2 problems, getting used to the unnatural movement to click ABOVE the touchpad, and the accidental clicking when tapping.

it may work if i could get used to resting my middle and ring finger on the top buttons while touching with the index finger, and leave the thumb idle, and find a way to disable the click mechanism of the clickpad.

 

Try searching geekbench for the CPUs you're finding relevant.

This is Intel Core i5-5300U based FUJITSU LIFEBOOK U745 - Geekbench Browser and this is a comparison versus i5-4300U based ThinkPad T440 LENOVO 20B7000MLM vs FUJITSU LIFEBOOK U745 - Geekbench Browser -- Broadwell looks reasonably faster than its Haswell predecessor but please pay your attention to a different base clock: 2.3 on Broadwell and 1.9 on Haswell -- this could be the biggest determinant for obtained results!

 

Thanks to Bloody Nokia, I have googled i5 5200u and come up with this page.
Release dates of mobile microprocessors (2015)

Seems like there are still going to be >2 GHz CPU. It just that Intel rename them all to U (ultrabook) series.
Rather bold confidence from Intel or just marketing stuff?
Still no idea about the quad core though.


For comparison,
i7-5600U with 2.6-3.2GHz rated just 15 watt, contrast to
i5-4300M with 2.6-3.3GHz rated more than twice at 37 watt
If they are not just marketing numbers then broadwell will really worth the wait.


On the other news, good bye to upgradeable notebook then? Or is it ultrabook?

 

The i7-4600U is 2.1-3.3GHz @ 15W. So not as big of a difference. It can be deceptive to compare the 15W and 37W parts. The 37W part will be able to spend much more time at the turbo clock, whereas the 15W part will get throttled when it gets too hot.

 

That i7 should cost more than that i5 when it was released, not a fair comparison.

However, It should give a nice battery time improvement, unless Lenovo decided to slim down the battery significantly.

 

I've dig some old threads and found this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/737769-t440-t440s-what-s-difference.html#post9457325

It seems like the move to ultrabook (which is BGA only ULV CPU) is already envisioned by Intel much earlier before and Thinkpad p series will be quad core only. So T4x0p and up will have to wait for Broadwell K? Since there seems to be no socketed dual core in plan and also Skylake will only come in desktop this year, if it come at all.


On the side note, since the ultrabook has become main model I really wish that Lenovo would return to old hinge design. It just looks nicer with the bonus of added back port. Referring to the beautiful X301.

 

So everything I researched so far shows my 3 year old i5-2520m has better processing performance than any of the Intel Core M CPUs which we will likely be limited to with the Helix/Yoga line. Quite the bummer.

 

They are in a different tier altogether. Core M is 4,5W so don't expect much processing power. Core U is 15W which is expected to be inside of T and X models.

 

Lenovo introduces new additions to its ThinkPad fleet

Lenovo introduces new additions to its ThinkPad fleet | News | TechRadar

The writer doesn't seem to know the whole scope of what each machine will offer but at least this confirms what machines will be released at CES.

 

If the Thinkpads were released at the CES, How long after that before they are available to buy from computer shops or sites like Amazon and Newegg ?

 

It's too bad they only put 2 USB ports in the X250... That's not its biggest flaw of course (the single RAM slot would probably take that honour), but still disappointing. I'll be skipping this cycle.

 

PCPer had more information, but they pulled the page. Anyways, Google Cache to the rescue:

--
For the road warrior that finds the 14" X1 Carbon too unwieldy, the new ThinkPad X250 is a slightly lighter (starting at 2.88 lbs) PC with a much smaller footprint. The X250 features full HD (1080p) displays with optional touchscreens, backlit keys, the latest clickpad, and updated internal hardware. Lenovo is using Intel's 5th Generation Core i processor, HDD, SSHD, and SSD options, up to 8GB DDR3 memory, and its Power Bridge dual battery technology for a speedy portable with respectable battery life.
--

So, we'll be stuck at 8GB and contrary to the TechRadar page, it seems HDD will be the norm with SSD as optional.

I wonder if there'll only be a FHD or FHD touch option. Perhaps they have dropped the old 1366x768 by now?

 

Regarding prices and availability, Lenovo says:


Lenovo Notebooks Starting Price Availability
ThinkPad X1 Carbon $1,249 January
ThinkPad X250 $1,149 February
ThinkPad T450s $1,099 February
ThinkPad T450 $849 February
ThinkPad T550 $999 February
ThinkPad E550 $599 February
ThinkPad E450 $599 February
ThinkPad L450 $699 February

 

Where’d you find this?

 

Appears this link is dead, but it has been reproduced at CES 2015: Lenovo introduces new additions to its ThinkPad fleet | King World News.

 

They were leaked by PCPer. Still available in Google Cache:

CES 2015: Lenovo Think Release for Business Customers | PC Perspective

TechRadar, PCPer and a few other sites seems to have published this information before they were allowed to. I can imagine Lenovo being a bit pissed. The information should probably not have been published until tomorrow (Monday) at the CES.

 

I noted that the TechRadar article did not mention an ethernet-port. I fear the worst.

Also, the 8GB limit is bullocks. There ARE 16GB SO-DIMMs available, that even fits in the X240. But for some reason Lenovo/Intel will not make the BIOS update required to support it. It's strange because they often make BIOS updates.

 

The article is pretty light on details. I imagine you’ll have GigE on-board or, at worst and like the X1, a dongle for this.