ThinkPad Helix

thinkpad helix has been released for a few days but there is barely any mention of it in this forum. Strange.

 

For the Helix, there is a big thread in the sister-forum: ThinkPad Helix looks promising

 

Convertible Ultrabook Laptop & Tablet PC | ThinkPad Helix | 11.6" with Windows 8 (US) might have something to do with that.

 

I wouldn't really say it's been "released" yet considering you still can't buy it from Lenovo...

 

A few users in Europe seem to have their hands on one, but it isn't yet available for sale in the U.S. I'm definitely excited to see some reviews.

 

There's a couple of guys in the US in Lenovo's forum who have received theirs, but at least one of them is an employee of a university and ordered it that way.

 

One of the people who got theirs on Lenovo's forums is reporting that both him and his wife can see what appears to be a screen-door effect in these screens. I guess lenovo has no interest in using their profits to procure better screens for their customers.

 

Screen door effect on a 11.6" 1920x1080 screen...? I would think that using the Helix as a laptop, even the pixels would be barely visible at that pixel density.

 

Yeah, I'm following both the TPCR and Lenovo Forum threads, and there were also people saying that the screen was excellent. So either they have a number of pretty disparate FRUs on the screen, or it just varies person to person... as most of these things go.

 

There is just one screen FRU, so I think it "varies person to person". In our German forum, one of the users also got his hands on a Helix, and he says that the screen is excellent.

 

another new owner reports excellent battery life in the lenovo forum (page 14)

"Easily sits in the 8 hour range and for me personally I've been able to push it into the 9 hour w/ screen brightness at 85%"

 

Ahhh just let me buy it already Lenovo; I'm hella peeved that they've delayed it for so long now.

 

It appears those that ordered and received in the U.S. got it from PC Connection, this configuration in particular:

Buy Lenovo TopSeller ThinkPad Helix Core i7-3667U 2.0GHz 8GB 180G Notebooks - Convertible 36984RU today at PC Connection

$2,039 before any taxes. Gulp. I guess you can't put a price on being the very earliest of the early adopters though. Hopefully this means the Lenovo.com release is imminent and more configurations will be available.

 

That is crazy expensive.

 

Yah, maybe Lenovo wants to get into "boutique" territory. Heh heh, ask Ron Johnson about it.

 

I'm just not that interested in spending that kind of money on any piece of electronics. I'll keep my X220i thank you very much.

 

Everyone wants high-quality/high-end devices, but no one wants to pay for them ^^

 

Anyone that enters the slate market at $2000 should be fired. That is beyond stupid.

 

Well, thats just one model: Buy Lenovo TopSeller ThinkPad Helix Core i5-3427U 1.8GHz 4GB 180GB Notebooks - Convertible 36984MU today at PC Connection The cheapest model here in Europe costs 1500 : http://www.ok1.de/ThinkPad-Helix-N3Z6DGE-3698-6DG--640.html

Competitors systems are not really cheaper, for example the HP Elitebook Revolve, which has less features than the Helix, will enter the market at 1700 €.

 

The fact that the resellers are only selling the high-spec models is exactly why I'm frustrated that Lenovo isn't selling it directly yet. The Helix already has a bunch of non-optional price-raising features that I don't want/need, but I am willing to eat those for the 1080p screen and the smaller (than x220t/x230t) form factor. I'm definitely not willing to pay even more for an optional i7 or a 256GB SSD that I'm never going to utilize, though.

 

I would describe my X220i as high quality at 1/3 the price.

 

I agree x220 is high quality at very affordable price. But the touch screen with the stylus on helix is very tempting.

 

$2000 is a little extreme for what they're offering

2 months late
no wintab driver for digitizer
16:9 display for a tablet

 

$2000 is expensive. Hope there will be a coupon soon.

"2 months late. " There is rumor that it will be in BestBuy this Sunday.

"no wintab driver for digitizer" Hopefully the drives will be released in a late date.

"16:9 display for a tablet". I didn't even notice it when my company gave me a Dell notebook with 16:9 display.

 

I never thought I'd really care about aspect ratios until after having the surface pro for 3 weeks.

16:9 makes the whole thing look really stupid in portrait mode


At $2000 this thing is a no-go for me considering rMBP + iPad would do a better job for the money IMO.

OneNote and Photoshop is cool but not that cool. Especially considering pressure sensitivity is not even supported.

 

Not for the earliest of early adopters, the ones that simply must own "the latest and the greatest"...and Lenovo knew how to play them, like a fine violin.

Of course there will be, but a lot will depend on how one defines "soon".

I believe this delay was put in place on purpose. Building a momentum for the final release of the machine that Lenovo wants us to believe will be "all things to all people". A smart move on their end in my opinion.

An oversized iPad with detachable keyboard sporting a funny red button in the middle for $2K? Good luck with their customer base...

Well, Lenovo messed that one up, and royally so. If one is selling a top-shelf item with an according price tag, such failures are downright inexcusable.

Apart from that particular episode, I think that their marketing strategy for Helix is a very well-designed one though, at least in my book.

 

From my understanding the Wintab issue affects all W8 tablets with Wacom digitizers at the moment, so at least that I don't think is necessarily Lenovo's fault. As for the delays, I have read that there are "big corporations" placing "big orders", but I think they are just trolling us as usual

 

While you're most likely correct with the statement above, had I bought a $2K+ machine and discovered that type of dis-functionality (presuming it were important for me in the first place), I'd be upset with Lenovo, not with anyone else...

Nah...that's marketing 101 nowadays...unfortunately.

 

I had a Surface Pro with a 16:9 FHD display. I now have a Fuji Q552 with a WXGA 16:10 and I far prefer the Fuji display. A 16:9 display is virtually unusable in portrait mode. Even in Landscape, I like the 16:10 better. I'm hoping that there are more 16:10 displays in the next batch of hybrids.

 

Back then, people used to complain about the 3000$ price tag on the X301. Today, everyone wants the X301 back. Srsly?

The Helix is a premium product. If you don't wan't to pay that much for its features, get the TPT2. (basically, get an X200 instead of the X300)

 

There is no formal announcement on the pricing from lenovo yet. But the $2000 is for the i7/8GB/256SSD model. Not sure what is the price for i5/8GB/186SSD model.

 

What confuses me is that Helix costs $2000 yet won't have Haswell (the spec sheet indicates 3rd generation processors). If Lenovo was going to release the lastest and greatest, they really should have waited for Haswell's huge battery life, performance, and graphics boost.

I personally am not excited at all about the Helix (nor was I with the Carbon Touch.) The T431s will however be... new. I'm wondering what they will do with the "classic" line ups, the 2013 X1, or the Tablet 3.

 

In a video review, the guy said he paid 2000$ for his i7 Helix. In Germany, you can buy the Helix right now: ThinkPad Helix N3Z6CGE / 3698-6CG

The i5 will cost 275€ less: ThinkPad Helix N3Z6DGE / 3698-6DG

 

it has a 16:9 display instead of 16:10 or 3:2
it has 1920 px width instead of 2560
it doesn't have working wintab drivers
it has a palm rest/frame made of plastic
it doesn't have a backlit or blank option
it still uses a cheap sticker logo for the thinkpad badge
it looks unbalanced in laptop mode because of the two secondary fans
it doesn't have the fine crafted feel of the X1C or rMBP

and it runs a half-assed touch-centric OS without many good touch apps


the helix is a mid-high end device not a premium device and I would not pay more than 1500 for it so close to haswell
two months ago sure but not now, not when I can get a similarly specced rMBP for 1500

 

@AndromedaB,
have you ever tried it? I think your opinion is unfounded. It seems the owners are really happy until now.

Do you need 2560p on 11.6"? You would only get crazy-small screen elements.

Not Lenovos fault, blame Microsoft and Wacom. I guess that Wintab driver will come in some weeks or months.

Whats bad about that? And how do you know the feeling of the device if you havn´t tried it yourself? The slate itself is actually made of magnesium.

Windows 8 is perfect for a device like the Helix, and there are many good touch apps.

Haswell is still 1/2 year away.

 

I am yet to see what difference a 1440p screen would make on 11". Especially compared to the already very dense 1080p of the Helix.

The X1C and rMBP have just as many "faults". The X1C has a low resolution, small battery, soldered RAM etc. The rMPB is made of aluminum (not very robust), has a piece of glass if front of the screen, the keyboard isn't spill-resistant etc.

Yet both models are tagged premium. I just don't get why the Helix shouldn't be a premium product as well.

 

In the helix thread in the levono forum there are many initial impressions, all of which seem very positive. Only one guy claims to see something like a screen door effect but he said it is much better than that on X1 C. And the battery life is the longest among those in the ultrabooks.

I don't buy the palm-rest-is-plastic complaint. For one thing, it's much cooler than that on the mac air and I like the plastic palm-rest on my x220.

 

The Helix is much better device than the X1 Carbon Touch.

 

I don't understand it ... They think 1920x1080p is too small for the 12.5" X230T but then they go ahead and slap it on a 11.6" screen? I don't know what they are thinking sometimes.

 

Yeah, ideally I would have rather just preferred an incrementally thinner/lighter x240t with a 1080p, but since they apparently aren't going to make that, I have to suck it up and get the Helix. I would much rather have a premium product based on the old form factor (and yes, I am implying that x220t and x230t aren't premium - they are much less so than the vanilla version), rather than one based on this "rip and flip" rubbish. But hey, beggars can't be choosers, I guess...

 

At first, I thought it was "suckers can't be choosers."

Seriously, though, the Helix can be very interesting. I might be a sucker.

 

Well, I like to think the suckers are the ones buying the overpriced i7 models from resellers right now... but yeah, I might be one too

 

I've been putting off getting a new laptop for a while and have been leaning toward a combo setup like the Helix.

While it is mostly for work, I also get to use it for my stuff too and I have one "geek" question that only someone who already received one can answer...

I have a "Comixology" account and want to know if you can download your comics to the SSD??
They allow downloads to tablets but the Helix is one of the few with enough storage capacity for a collection.

 

If the service allows you to do it, there's no reason you should not be able to.

 

X1 helix is a very interesting product, which i guess is based on the U1 concept they released all those years ago at CES. But i think it is slightly underpowered, and the lack of upgradability somewhat sucks (although that is the trend for most of these ultrapremium/ultraportable devices). Helix gives the Surface pro a run for their money.

 

The helix looks interesting indeed! It looks to me that Lenovo has hit its mark on this model. I had a surface for a month and absolutely loved it. The I5 in the Surface has plenty of power and for the month I had it, I almost never even heard the fans turn on. The Hybrid design is not for everybody. I have been using a combination of light notebook for serious productivity in the office and a tablet/folio combination for field work and travel. I decided to return the Surface at the end of the trial period for two reasons: I needed more battery life and HP has not yet propagated W8 printer drivers for my office equipment. Because of that, I decided to get a refurbished Q552 in the interim and wait for Haswell.

The Helix is serious competition for the Surface Pro. The clamshell KB has some clear advantages over the stand/keyboard cover combo of the Surface. The Surface has a much slimmer profile, however, when you're toting the KB around, which I typically do all the time. I don't like the fact that either has a 16:9 display so the Kupa has kept my attention as well and I'll be curious to see how well the Germans have executed their Kupa tablet. The replaceable battery is also a big plus. The lack of matt display on the Surface detracted from its appeal to me as well. This Fuji that I have, with its incredible Matt/400 nits display can be used under most conditions outdoors (not quite a Panasonic, but not bad). The digitizer silo is a great feature on the Helix. Wish they had a mSD card on the Helix as well. Looking forward to see some tweaking when the Helix gets a Haswell upgrade.

 

Just got my Helix today. i7 model. It is a really great machine! I only wish it had a backlit keyboard. I can confirm that it DOES have WiDi and the drivers will update from the Lenovo server as soon as you connect to the Internet. The display is gorgeous and crisp like youd expect an IPS to be. 1080p is a little on the squinting side when it comes to seeing text but I manage. It was purchased from a Lenovo Authorized Reseller on eBay. $2199 with free overnight shipping. Not bad considering these are quickly becoming impossible to get. If you have any questions let me know and Ill try to answer them

 

how is the battery life?

 

do you think that there will be a discount on the price before next school year?

 

Apparently, it is very good:

thinkpad Helix User review - Page 2, post #14

Edit: Whoops, didn't notice you were asking another Helix owner? More info about battery life from multiple users is always helpful.