ThinkPad T431s / X230s Leaked

Are you kidding? You just have to look at the T431s and you will instantly see a black MacBook. I always thought people had been waiting for another black MacBook.

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention this unimportant point.

Have you tried the new buttons yet?

As I said, this is an Ultrabook. If you want these things, look at the ThinkPads which are standard Notebooks. There is no room at all for these things. It is fact that most people today don´t need an optical drive, so thats why Lenovo dropped it.

Not true at all.

Thats not going to happen at all. I bet T440s will be just an T431s with Haswell, and T440 will be thinner and lighter than the T430 (so T440 will be the successor of the T430s).

Hmmmmm.......NO. Not a bit.

 

No, have you? But I heard the cliking noise from videos and I already don't like it

correct me if I'm wrong but T430s it's an ultrabook, it's thinkpad and have all this things.

I just hope you are wrong, so that will mean we are really going backward.

 

BTW forgot to mention the backward in terms of battery, the model I link has 3 cell battery, so now that windows 8 consume less battery they give us less battery capacity to have same battery life.

Are they selling 6 or 9 cells models also?

 

Sounds pompous, but if it's true, 1.8kg T440 will be great.

T430s doesn't use ULV processor so it's not belong to ultrabook category, just a slimmer notebook.

 

ibmthink is taking these boxes so personal it's beyond funny.

 

No, but I have read some impressions from people who have tried them, and they say that it is a good experience.

No, as andrick said, the T430s isn´t an Ultrabook. It is too thick and heavy.

No, but the 3-cell battery used within the T431s has a bigger capacity than the 4-cell battery used in the T430s. And the T431s uses a ULV processor, which consumes less power than the Standard-Voltage CPU used within the T430s.

 

People tend to express detached reservation when they mention third-hand information from random sources.

For fun, okay. For serious discussion, hmm...

 

So sorry about that, but it would be useless to post the original post here, because it is in German. But, if you ask for it: Thinkpad Helix: Erster Eindruck (mit Bildern)

He is a long-time TrackPoint user, and he says that it is a good experience. Sorry, but there is no good review about the new TrackPad in English yet.

Edit: I can try to give you a translation of the part about the new TrackPad:

 

I know a sufficient amount of people who absolutely hate the new keyboard, so there will be people who hate the newly designed touchpad as well. And these people I'm talking about don't just hate it for no good reason whatsoever, they hate because of its horrible layout and tactile feeling. They should call it a spongeboard. Since I have tested it myself I can relate to them.

I'm 100% certain there will be people who just won't like the new Trackpoint button because of whatever reasons. (to loud etc.)

 

No big deal these days...

 

If you need a proper human translation, contact me.

 

For those whom might be interested, here are some personal comments on the new trackpoint layout.

I tried the Helix with docking last week in a computer mall in Hong Kong. For those who live in Hong Kong, I tried it in the Wanchai Computer Mall. There is only one shop that had a Helix on display.

The new built in buttons on the trackpack feels 'different' and on first impression I would say I don't like it and I would need some time to get used to it.

Basic usage such as left click / right click and scrolling is instantly, without much of a learning curve. However pressing to hold and drag does seems a bit strange. Here I guess would need getting used to.

I have always be a trackpoint ONLY user and always disable the trackpad on all my Thinkpads so I would say I am not that happy with the new layout.

I have no idea if the trackpad can be disabled except for the buttons as I did not try to go into settings. However maybe there might be a case of increased productivity of using them both? Anyone can enlighten me?

Back to the Helix, well.. I was very much interested in it before, but without the SD Card slot, it's a no go for me since in my line of work, I need to constantly upload photos from my digital cam on to my Thinkpad using the SD Card slot. One surprise was that I did not rate the screen very highly. For an IPS display I would have expected more and somehow I felt disappointed. It just did not have the same sharpness, brightness and colors when compared to the MacBook Pro, but maybe it was the brightness setting?

As always, hoping that the 2nd generation will fix the problems and at least include an SD card slot. But my personal experience is that I would usually avoid the 1st generation of all Thinkpads as they always seem to leave out something or have other problems such as poor battery life, etc.

One thing I do wish to bring out about the keyboard is that I used to use a T420s but for the last 6 months, I switched to an X121e due to a smaller package and a much better battery life. However last week when I tried the T420s again, it is clear that while I can get used to the new keyboard, but the old style keyboard definitely feels nicer to type on and I do miss the 7th row and the additional buttons.

I am very interested in the X230s, especially if it can have a plus 5 hour battery life (Web browsing, Excel, Word and Office Tasks) and having tried the Helix keyboard, I might be able to convince myself that it's still a proper trackpoint. However if Lenovo screws the trackpoint up, then it's bye bye. I can live with a worse (or to put it nicely, different keyboard) but I can't live without a proper trackpoint.

 

Noted.

Indeed.

 

Thanks for your impressions about the new TrackPad design (and the Helix in general)!

Well, the TouchPad can be turned off in the driver:

The TrackPoint-Buttons will remain activated. But I don´t know what happens if you deactivate the TouchPad in the BIOS.

Personally, I use both TrackPoint and ClickPad on my T430u. The ClickPad is very useful for some things like tipple-Click (click with 3 fingers), which emulates the middle button of a normal mouse (very useful to open hyperlinks in a new Tab) and for Two-Finger Scrolling.

About the screen: I guess it was mis-calibrated as most Notebook-screens when they come from factory. My T430u´s HD screen looks much better with a good calibration.

 

IPS displays are generally not as "mis-calibrated" as TN screens which is why many people who don't know any better praise IPS displays above all other screens. In fact, I am yet to see an IPS display that needs its colors to be calibrated. What I'm trying to say is, a calibration won't help the Helix, from what I have seen the display simply isn't able to reproduce anything close to sRGB, thus causing colors to appear extremely muted and washed out, just like my X220 IPS.

MacBooks however, do achieve the sRGB standard, allowing colors to really pop out.

 

Well, my Eizo PVA display was very mis-calibrated when I got it...just being a PVA/IPS display does not mean that the manufacturer will give it a proper calibration. sRGB standard is very important for doing photo-editing, but for a normal user this shouldn´t be a big problem at all.

 

Whether or not a screen can display the sRGB standard not translates into a huge difference. Like I said, it makes colors pop out. That's something a normal user will easily spot.

http://imageshack.us/a/img854/7563/img1567w.jpg

Guess which one covers sRGB.

(in case your were wondering, that thing on the left is the X220 IPS)

BTW, PVA and IPS seem to be very different. I have already encountered some horrible AFFS screens. I haven't seen any IPS displays that need calibration. Even though they are technically of lower quality.

 

Right. IPS does not automatically mean "great."

X220 and X230 "Premium" screens are cases in point.

 

Would you guys recommended me getting a t431s, i had a w520 but i sold it because i did not use it and walking to school and back it was really heavy.My processing needs are basically programming and using engineering simulation tools. I really dont need that much processing power because my home desktop has a 3960X, so anytime i need to do anything taxing i can just use that.

I was looking at getting the t431 because it has everything I "need" its lightweight, decent processor and i can add more ram and a msata drive. I am using my moms old macbook now so its not urgent to get a computer. Should I go ahead and get the t431 or wait until Haswell laptops.

 

I'd call and haggle over the price of it. Though considering it's brand-new, it might be cheaper to get a T430/T430s/T430u right now (if you're sticking to Thinkpads).

 

Yes i would like to stick with thinkpads, and i really dont know any other options. The other option i was looking at was getting t430s with the ultrabay battery, which is only about a pound heavier.

 

A T430s is relatively light as well, still a huge difference compared to the W520. The biggest advantage the T430s has to over over the T431s is its full voltage processor.

 

T431s Review by Laptopmag: Lenovo ThinkPad T431s Review | Business Notebook Reviews

 

Thanks for the review link.

The ThinkPad T431s' 14-inch screen comes standard with a 1600 x 900 resolution screen . . . . Unfortunately, the screen's mediocre color quality and viewing angles leave much to be desired.

. . . colors appeared white-washed and undersaturated. Iron Man's candy red armor took on a light orange shade while the normally deep red of Thor's cape, green of the Hulk's skin and blue of Captain America's costume all seemed dull.​

Noted. Not surprising.

(But then again, the reviewer may have defective eyes. Let's wait for more reviews. Or, maybe, a professional calibration job is all that is required to fix the "minor" problems. We never know.)

 

This the history of 14" ThinkPads screens since they started making them, they're average. The X1 Carbon is the best I've see to date. I'm surprised people don't know this yet.

 

Well, generally, the 14" segment lacks good screens, there are really not much screen in 14" that I would describe as "above average".

Sure, as ZaZ noted, thats a long history with the 14" ThinkPads, but at least the reviewer says nothing about the screen-door effect, that plagued the former T420s/T430s. Colors are not a big problem, they can be calibrated, the only thing that can´t be resolved at the end are the narrow viewing angles...

 

That one is not completely off the hook yet.

As I said, the reviewer may have defective eyes.

Move your head.

 

Colors can NOT always be calibrated. The T410 for example can't be calibrated to show acceptable colors. And even if it is possible, if it doesn't cover sRGB it will still appear dull. Bad black levels will still take effect and make them appear washed out.

I only know of 2 laptops that have good 14" 16:9 screens: The X1C and Alienware M14x R2.

 

I don't often see reviewers call out the screen door effect, usually that's discovered by forum users who tend to be more picky and look for such things, so I'd wait for someone here or another forum to get the T431s and report back.

This line has me the most concerned:

"Its built-in buttons responded accurately to our touches, but required more force to press than the old dedicated ones; our finger had to push down the entire touchpad rather than just one small button."

It's hard to write about how a touchpad feels, but that doesn't sound good, I'm so used to using the scroll button and the amount of force needed and feedback it requires that having to push harder to register that sounds like it could be an annoying change.

 

A lot of reviewers don't call out the cons with a machine for fear they won't receive review units in the future. They tend to call out the new features and end up being an extension of the marketing collateral.

Real reviews measure stuff in a consistent way so you can gauge and compare with empirical data. Notebookcheck is a site that comes immediately to mind.

 

Exactly, especially when you see this on the bottom of the same page as Laptop Mag's T431s review

 

welp, ill guess ill just stick with tis macbook and wait for haswell, dont really really need a laptop until then.

 

I've noticed that on the Air and some other Ultrabooks, the top third of the touch pad is much stiffer than the rest, which effectively shrinks the touch pad. The best one I've used so far would be the X1 Carbon. I'm not sure if there's physical reason for this, but it'll be interesting to see how Lenovo gets around this if they do.

 

That shouldn´t be the case with the new TrackPad implementation, since the mechanism underneath look like this:

 

I did see somewhere that Lenovo had a better implementation of the big touch pad, which made it less stiff than the Air at the top, but of course, the devil's always in the details and I don't think we're going to know much about it until some units or reviews are released. The Helix is the way, but I've not seen anything how the buttonless trackpoint has fared on the Helix.

 

More details on X230s:
Lenovo ThinkPad X230s unveiled in China: a thinner and lighter 12-incher

Just 1.28 kg, thats a nice weight. The lightest ThinkPad Notebook to date.

Pictures:

 

FYI, the extended warranties are now in the CTO lenovo.com site for the T431s. A T431s with the i5, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Smartcard reader, and 3yr. Depot warranty comes to about $1200 delivered to my door. That's about $500 more than I would pay.

 

The X60s weighed 1.22Kg with the flush 4c battery.

 

Hehe, maybe you should doublecheck the facts. The PSREF is saying: "with Enh 4-cell: 3.00 lb (1.36kg)" for the X60s.
http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/ltwbook.pdf

 

I'm wondering if those are pictures of the X230s. There are rooms on both sides of the keyboard (which is the case for the T431s). The X201, X220 and X230 keyboards all run to the left and right edges.

And I picked this up:

Update: We're going to hazard a guess that the resolution is 1,366 x 768, based on the January leak.​

Heh heh, those holding their breath for a higher resolution may resume normal breathing now.

 

The X230s keyboard is smaller, that's why there's a big border surrounding the keyboard.

@ibmthink

OK then, how about the X40 with 1.23Kg?

 

OK, you are right, are you happy now? Its funny how hard you are trying to proof me wrong...

Good point, this is something I figured out back in January: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/704109-thinkpad-t431s-x230s-leaked-8.html#post9047672

Well, the X230s appears to have a slightly smaller sized keyboard. It has no "Ins" key (which is replaced by a key combo).​

​

​

 

Low res is killing such a great machine...... also the crippled trackpoint ((

 

Form factor is amazing, keyboard/trackpoint buttons are terrible, screen is still (possibly) terrible. Nothing new to see here.

 

You received one?

 

If the screen on X230s is the same as that on x220, it's pretty good. Just wonder how is the battery life.

 

Nope! Pure speculation Based on having an X1 Carbon at work, the build of the x230s should be awesome since the Carbon's is fairly awesome and they look similar. I can also confirm that the new keyboard is terrible, and the new trackpoint buttons are terrible. Admittedly I can't confirm that the new no-button trackpoint buttons are terrible since I haven't tried it, but considering the reason I dislike the Carbon's is that they are too flat I can't imagine them being any better.

 

I figured you were full of speculation.

 

Have no fear, when I get an x230s I will confirm the terribleness in a non-speculative way.