Retro (IBM style) Lenovo Thinkpad confirmed for October 2017

Well I bought my P51 direct from Lenovo USA from a Third World country, no 'upcharge' required.

 

Lenovo's thinking is that most won't ever pay full retail. For example, in the US, it's $1900 list, but was launched with a 20% off 25th anniversary sale, making the price around $1500, not too far off from a similarly configured T470. Given them telling me this at the launch event, I suspect, like several other ThinkPads, that some sort of discount will be running on their site for much of the time it's offered.

 

For those people who don't know how to order online and get it shipped to them.

 

I was interested for a while, then I realized that the keyboard could not be swapped (at least easily) to t470 or even older machines.
That damn power button.

If it were interchangeable for example to my t450s... oh my...

 

You know it's not exactly the old keyboard right, it's a new unit that has backlit keys and shorter in height.

 

@KLF
See this video I posted previously from Lenovo, they go over the keyboard and how it's not going to fit previous / current models, it's a "one off". See @ 18:00 for retro component interchange question answer.

Lenovo Unboxed: ThinkPad Anniversary Edition 25
Official Lenovo Channel

 

I just liked the old layout better. If only Fn and Ctrl buttons were physically switchable.

Yea, it was also obvious from the pictures once I compared then more closely.

 

One of the "features" of the ThinkPad keyboard that I still see as weird on my X1 Carbon.



I really wonder what's the reasoning to swap the FN and CTRL keys.

 

With Fn on the left, you could blindly press top right and bottom left to activate Thinklight in the old models.

That's the only excuse I've ever heard.

 

But then again you can make the FN key wildly contoured (ie: trackpad nub) from the rest of the keyboard so there's a physical feel.

Just 2cents :|

 

If I had that certain IBM engineer whose idea it was in front of me, I would have asked...

"If user could press power button in total darkness, wouldn't display then produce enough light to find and hit the Fn button even if it wasn't the left most on the keyboard?"

I guess they invented a "feature" but they never bothered to test how useful it actually was, vs. the troubles it brings when using literally everything else in the world with a keyboard

 

Good point.

 

I'm so on the fence about this laptop. I like the limited edition, retro keyboard and dedicated graphics (Yeah I know MX150 is better but 940MX is still better than the regular integrated that you get on T470), but the fact that Lenovo doesn't let you use any of the regular discount codes with it is annoying.. they force you to buy it at full price and I've never bought a ThinkPad at full retail price before. Blah. Yeah and corporate perks don't offer this ThinkPad either.

 

It's on the EPP perks website a week ago iirc. Not it's still listed there but not available to buy.


There's no guarantee on the availability due to being a "limited edition." There's only 5k units worldwide and with all the BS about order cancellation on the TP25 I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

 

No cancellation happened. ******** yes, https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/75pir6/info_on_canceled_orders_insider/do86iux/ but nothin' more

 

oh look, there's not enough sales of tp25 because people don't like it

lets mess with the current buyers so that they double order and potentially buy two

ggwp no re

 

Don't think this is true. its already sold out on lenovo site. The reason its so 'hated' is because retro thinkpad owners think its not retro enough and it comes late in the refresh cycle for new thinkpad buyers. People were looking for a laptop with 8th gen quad cpus and mx150 but Lenovo has not refreshed their lineup yet and is not due to until next year. That makes this laptop a little disappointing to everyone sure, but it has its merits. If you configure a current T470 to the same specs (including mobile broadband) then the TP25 is just $300 more - which you are paying for a 940MX and a keyboard upgrade. That could be worth it. After all, Apple upcharges $300 for a touchbar and 2 more T3 ports and MS upcharges about the same for the dGPU on the SurfaceBook.

 

I know, was just a joke

 

It might have been cheaper for Lenovo (and better for us) if the design team had instead just plonked the old Thinkpad keyboard into a P51 chassis with its plethora of options available. Charging $1800 for the base model quad core version would have chafed less in my humble opinion.

 

The Thinkpad P51 is a great laptop and probably the most well featured, but overall I think the T series still sells quite a bit more and I believe the P51 is both a little more expensive and quite a bit heavier (by 2lbs I think) compared to the T470. I know, I wish there was multiple versions of the TP25, like an X series version and P series version as well.

 

Oh, I see your point. I forgot about the weight.

On another note, I thought Loius Rossman's critique of the TP25 was interesting to watch on YouTube.

 

I had a feeling whatever Lenovo came up with it wouldn't be enough to satisfy him. He called the 1080 IPS display on the TP25 "something from 10 years ago" which is hard to believe.. my 10 year old laptop had resolutions of 1024x768 and 1280x800... he was going to find something to nitpick about it no matter what... (all his youtube videos are basically complaining about something)

 

@xitongzou well, it's too dim and has PWM, on the other hand.

 

Hmm its definitely not as good as my X1 Yoga but its comparable to the X240's display I had before. The brightness is merely adequate (considering its a matte display). Here's my youtube review:

 

16:9. Blithering idiots. Major disappointment. Hope, someday Lenovo goes to hell.

 

Why did they conduct all those polls if they decided to ignore all of it.....I don't understand. IBM please buy back your Thinkpad division ASAP....

 

They didn´t ignore the polls. Lenovo literally did everything according to the polls but 16:10, which they didn´t do for costs reasons.

IBM has absolutely no interest in the PC market. They have nearly gotten rid of all their hardware.

 

Actually everything in the polls was done except for: 4:3 display (explained that it was cost prohibitive to custom order that), and Thinklight (the display lid is now too slim to have those LEDs anymore)

 

My original statement is not what I meant to say I guess, doesn't express my disappointment clearly enough.

True the keyboard layout is classic, but it is not the same as the travel is shorter, there is no thinklight, no display latches, absolutely piss poor display, and an anemic CPU that can't hold turbo clockspeeds to top it all off. I could have dealt with 16:9 if they had at least given us a display that could do 100% sRGB.

Not at all worth the absurd $2000 they asked for.

 

this should be a universal law imo

not achieving 100% SRGB in 2017 is just penny pinching pathetic

 

I don't believe I've ever owned a 100% sRGB display, yet somehow I've made it this far in life.

 

Those features didn´t get clear majorities in the surveys. If they did, maybe Lenovo would have gone the extra mile.

The T470 and thus also the ThinkPad 25 use the 25 W TDPup, so it should hold the Turbo-clockspeed rather well. Notebookcheck confirms it: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-25-Anniversary-Edition-Laptop-Review.253454.0.html

 

Congrats on your new computer, and thanks for your review! It looks awesome. Ignore us naysayers.

 

Try it out once and you'll never want to look at a sub 100% sRGB panel again. The RGBLED screens in the M17x R2 and W701/DS are pretty much the most beautiful screens in existence (exceed adobeRGB) barring OLED equipped laptops and have been spoiled rotten by them.

 

My i5 7300U can't sustain 3.5GHz under 25w.

X1 Carbon G5 and the temps are under 70c (after liquid metal) + AC assisted cooling pad.

 

I just want to say that color reproduction has never really been a concern for business users (the Thinkpad's target market and exempting the P series which have a color sensor). Key for business users is reliability, a good keyboard and trackpad/trackpoint, long warranty, connectivity and upgradeability. If you care about the screen, speakers and other consumer level stuff then I can suggest the new MacBook Pros...

 

That's the extreme end of the (retardation) spectrum though