Speculative Only: Future Thinkpad Series?

Since purchasing my Sony Vaio S360 back in 2005, I've had many ups and downs with the Window's platform. However, I refuse to pay ridiculous (and expanding) premiums that Apple enforces, therefore Lenovo/Thinkpad would be the most viable option--as far as construction and product durability is concerned.

To get to the point of this thread, I'm curious about upcoming Thinkpad series (upgrades to the T, or new additions)...What can I expect in 2009?

I would ideally like to purchase a new computer for graduate school (in Education, nothing Engineering related). The primary functions would be light video editing, mild gaming, web browsing, word processing, etc...

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

This is all the info that's out on upcoming thinkpads. The first are supposed to come out ~mid July.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't read that you were talking about 09. The new Intel platforms will come out in 09 at which time the thinkpads will probably be refreshed again although I have no idea what that means other than new chipset, processor, ddr3ram for sure and possibly improvements in battery life.

 

There are a number of exiting things coming up next year.

The Intel Nehalem architecture for the mobile space will be released in 2009. This is arguably their biggest release since the Pentium Pro and will replace the Core architecture. It will be a performance-oriented "modular" processor and will offer a large leap in performance. Nehalem is something to get very excited about.

Intel will also release Larabee in 2009 which is a GPU platform that takes a very different approach to rendering. It will be a discrete platform and I expect it will trickle down to the mobile space next year.

2009 will be a fun year. I would expect Lenovo will use both of these technologies when they become available.

 

Thanks again folks, I now can look forward to an exciting gadget filled-year with a fabulous new gov't administration!

 

I also want to buy and I have found the future thinkpad lines
you can see here: www.batteries-wiki.org/?page_id=55

 

I just wish I could get something larger than 12" that doesn't include a touchpad like back in the day.

 

R61e? Available in EU...

 

what's the difference between lacking a touchpad and disabling the touchpad?

 

Aesthetic?

 

Aesthetics *and* the fact that touchpads are often dust catchers (around the edges on the recessed models). Plus you have three extra buttons there with no purpose.