T series refresh

The later comment there sure. But if the one dollar more cost for rubberised palmrest is gonna break Lenovo, then surely they need to close up shop and go home!

 

Yes, there is. Long term support (and I don't mean warranty), and workhorse models that are available for the duration of a company's staged rollout.

 

That and to be honest, business-class notebooks seem to be much better engineered and far more durable than most consumer notebooks I've seen. My GF's HP DV9000 looks like it has been mauled by a bear... any of the abused ThinkPads I've seen hadn't had issues like chunks missing out of the palmrests. I attribute this to the more thorough engineering that these notebooks undergo, and the fact that the general design stays pretty much the same.

Lenovo isn't trying to follow the likes of Apple or HP in notebook design. They're not trying to outdo everyone else on flash and glitz. Hardware powerful enough to get the job done and the durability to be relied on just about anywhere are what they're known for.

 

It costs little more than one dollar.....

A sport suspension in a BMW costs only xx dollars more than the regular suspension, yet they charge couple of thousands as a upgrade...... but anyway..... regarding the rubberised finish, there is probably more complex things going on, like product positioning and stuffs. Only Lenovo would know the exact reason why they don't roll out the rubberished finished palmrests on all the products.

 

True. I've been issued business-class HPs, Dells and ThinkPads from the assorted companies that I've worked for, and while my personal preference is for the ThinkPads, the business lines from all three have been very similar. Not a lot of flash. Just durability over the long-haul of a 3-4 year lifecycle.

 

I don't think a T500 built to the X series standards will be as expensive. What makes the X series more expensive is not just build quality, the smaller components and design/engineering inherently cost more. that and the fact that customers in this segment are willing to pay the premium.

Lenovo should create a luxury/enthusiast Thinkpad line.

Yes, Thinkpad is primarily a business tool but why not offer something the employee/employer would buy for his personal use? A Thinkpad with better build and component choices than the rest of the series is what i really wish for. There are plenty of cost-effective Thinkpads right now for businesses to choose from.

 

I actually wouldn't want the rubberized finish on my palmrests. My reason being is that I am a ginger and gingers have oily skin. I leave fingerprints and crap on the lid of my T400 all the time. Not only that I find the rubberized finish tends to scratch easily and cannot be repaired. Whereas the platic does not leave permanment marks and is easily cleaned.

 

From most people's perspective, that would be the Thinkpad T400s and X301.

I imagine few companies will actually pay the price premium for those - most companies I have seen seem to buy X200's or T400's for executives and either T400's or R400's for the main work force.

Those Thinkpads are the more expensive "luxury" lines, that look nicer, are thinner, and have better construction.

 

The question is what kind of work do you do? I am a road warrior that uses my ThinkPads for Web stuff, Office apps and the occassional burning DVDs from the docking station. I multitask and have +10 windows open at any time, but anything I throw at my machines will not break a sweat on any of my current ThinkPads.

So having a more powerful graphics card I can understand from a mental perspective, but unless you work with graphics intensive stuff, don't worry about it. The T500 with its current specs, integrated or dedicated GPU will do just fine for now and far into the future. If it is for gaming that's a different story, but I don't assume you game for work? If so, I'd like to switch jobs with you...

 

Actually, Laptop manufacturers (Dell, HP and Lenovo) make very little money out of their business line laptops, the profit level is very low.

Nothing is expensive, but nothing is for free either. Given the fact that how much money the T series is been sold and what sort of price people pay under IBM, i think the quality of the T series is not that bad at all.

The fact is you can't have everything for nothing, and at the current market price of Thinkpads, Lenovo have done a fine job of maintaining the overall quality of the thinkpads and their service support.

 

I agree. And, as Midnightsun has said, if you want a premium/slightly better built laptop, get an X301, or T400s. They are both built VERY well, with Lenovo's latest "premium" design. However, they cost $500+ more then the average T500. Also, if you think about it, the premium Thinkpads (X301, T400s) cost about as much as a base model T series several years back.

 

But the X301 and T400s actually have lower performance for the sake of mobility. Again, what i wish for is a "premium" T series (same size, display sizes) with better performance/components and better build/materials.

Haha, now that would cool. I'm in real estate/property management so i don't really need a better GPU for work. I also don't play games that much. So the video card is not really a necessity. It is just that the latest generations usually come with improvements other than pure gaming performance like power consumption/management, improving videos and offloading some work of the CPU, even rendering videos. It is also a way of future proofing, believe me, even simple flash websites/videos will use the GPU in the future and i do keep my laptops for a long, long time. And yes it is mental perspective too! i like the latest components (not really latest in this case as the 4XXX series has been out for ages) .

 

the t400s does not have lower performance for the sake of mobility
unless you count graphics card, which is ridiculous anyway because t400 isn't a gaming machine to begin with

 

Yes it does. the T400s made 3 compromises (that i know of) in order to make the T400 thinner and lighter It is only available with 25 TDP max processors, no discrete GPU and 1.8" HDD. video cards are not just for gaming you know. why do you think the T400 had a discrete GPU?

 

If those are your concerns, the Radeon 3650 will be plenty.
Regarding power consumption: That is true, however, you have integrated graphics to switch to, so I would think it's pretty much a non-issue.
Regarding improving videos: The 4500MHD can even handle 1080p video, and Radeon 3650 will handle it with ease, and will probably handle any higher resolutions for years and years to come.
Regarding offloading work from CPU: The Radeon 3650 is capable of doing so, and will handle the video tasks assigned to it easily.
Regarding rendering websites/flash: Even the 4500MHD is much, much more than capable of handling any web/flash content at the moment. The Radeon 3650 will handle it well into the foreseeable future.

If it's just a mental block about wanting the very latest components, well, that's a whole different story