ThinkPad X1, X230, X230t, T430, T430s, T530, W530, L430, L530 Official

Chill out ZaZ. I haven't trashed anything yet. I am just asking the question right now. It's important to me. Just because it isn't important to you, doesn't mean it isn't important to other people.

 

Perhaps trash was a poor choice of words, but I think the gist of my point remains. I think to call something disappointing that you've only seen in a few pictures is premature. There are any number of reasons that could make the photo look lackluster, just like you shouldn't buy a TV based on how it looks in the store. I think the fact Andrew has seen it and said it's good, though not IPS, would carry more weight for me. Nobody said IPS wasn't important. I think a good screen is of importance for most users.

 

fs@Zaz - I see you have your hands on a X230. Can you advise:

If Lenovo are reading, would you consider making a division like Lenovo- R that specialises in providing tuning and customisations, much like the M-Sport BMW division does for cars? That's for those that want to pay the premium for cutting edge customisations like higher/retina panels, carbon fibre chassis, smaller AC adapters, specialist cooling to handle quad-cores, etc. Such innovations likely making their way in successor mainstream production versions.

I believe Sony created the Z to demo cutting technology so maybe Lenovo could do something similar?

 

Oh very good link! Thank you. Should have searched harder, so what I predicted is correct (based on what Engadget said) at least..

 

Lenovo only wants a volume seller, anything that doesn't clock up to 50,000 units in sale gets culled.

I think if people want customised mode, they have to do it aftermarket, so some person from Stanford or Menlo Park could figure out a way to make it a profitable.

 

According to Andrew, you have a review unit. Do you? If so, can you provide some facts?

 

I will be getting the X230 on Tuesday if all goes according to plan. If Andrew does have the X1 I'd guess he'll be doing the review himself cause that's what I'd do.

 

ZaZ wanna send the X230 this way East for evaluation.

 

Or a bit further south . . . I'll be able to give answers to my earlier questions.

 

That would be also be enough to bring me back to Lenovo.

 

I seem to fall somewhere between the new X1 and the T430s... While I don't want to give up the dvd-rom and msata (maybe) spindles of the T430s the size and screen of the X1 are very enticing.

Anyone know why the T430s gained 0.3 lbs on the T420s?

 

Lenovo listed the weight without an optical drive or battery in the Ultrabay, I believe. With the optical drive, a hair under four pounds is about right.

 

Both weights come from Lenovo's US website, directly from their pages located here and here. I'm not sure why Lenovo would report the weights differently on their own site... leads me to believe their was some weight gain...

 

Does anyone know or think that existing T520 could use the upcoming chick-let style keyboard? Is chick-let style keyboard something that existing T520 owners could request from Lenovo once it's available?

 

This may be of interest.

 

In short, until someone flips one over and checks the keyboard mounting hole locations, we don't know. In fact, that's all it really takes (though checking the ribbon cable length and connector location is also needed).

That's kind of been the issue throughout the speculation process- can we go back to a traditional keyboard if we get a specific combination of parts? Sometimes the mounting holes are different- the screws pass through a hole on the motherboard which you can't just drill out. That was the case on the T400s vs the T400; which is why you can't install a stiffer (read: NMB from a T60/T61) keyboard on ThinkPads based on the T400s design (i.e. every T/W series since). Otherwise I would have done it already.

Apparently ZaZ is getting a demo X230 (he stated this a while ago here); that might be able to shed some light on the situation- but it's not a T530 which is what you (and a lot of other people) want to know.

Personally, I'd like to try one out; but the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) still stands.

The other thing I wonder about is the reasoning for the fact that if the switch design is still the same, why can't the normal keyboard cannot be made with transparent lettering to let the light shine through? We shall soon see, I suppose.

 

I suppose the BIOS (key mappings) must be updated.

 

erik's posts indicates you need a modified BIOS to deal with the 7 row keyboards in the new _X30 series ThinkPads.

 

Yeah, he's already got one, and I guess we'll be seeing the review in another two weeks.

Looking forward. The other dude, Andrew, says he has no problem with the new board (see above link). Personally I like having a big delete key/the classic look and prefer the feel of this keyboard (I'm on an X220) rather than the Apple-chiclet ones in general - in particular I like the amount of resistance of the ThinkPad keyboard. Not having it is a shame but as Andrew says, not a disaster.

 

One of the major points being made about Lenovo's chiclet is that it is close to the typing of a conventional Lenovo keyboard... which is the anti-Apple typing experience.

 

Right, but a lot of that, IMHO, is the resistance, which is apparently not there. maybe I'm wrong, but anyway this doesn't bother me that much

 

This is important that the keyboard is not like apple's .....

 

As I understand it, if the apple keyboard was a 1 and the original lenovo keyboard was a 10. The keyboards in the new units are closer to the 10. What's subjective is whether you assign a 5.5 or an 8, either way it's better than the short stroke and low resistance Apple version. I can't wait to type on this thing and eliminate the guesswork. LOL!

 

https://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/t-series/t430/T430-datasheet.pdf

this link finally works for the T430 (the only one I care about)

The X230 doesn't work just yet. Will probably be updated soon

EDIT: Hmm, this sheet says "1 GB NVIDIA® OptimusTM Graphics
Technology" typo?

EDIT AGAIN: they did indeed change it from 2GB to 1GB but it is still the 5400M. That's all I care about.. haha

 

I really hope Lenovo gets their heads out of their butts and offers a higher res mat display option on the X230 (1440 or 1600) instead of 1366x768.

 

Does anybody know whether or not the existing ThinkPad Series 3 docks (non-USB 3.0) will work with the new T- and X-series ThinkPads?

I don't have any USB 3.0 peripherals, so the dock support for the spec doesn't really interest me right now, and I'd really rather not replace my three perfectly acceptable docks.

 

I'm pretty sure they aren't offering a 1600x900 matte option because it doesn't exist. No 12.5 inch laptop is 1600x900. The only 12 inch laptops that are 1600x900 (Panasonic SX/NX) are 12.1 inch I believe.

 

...but if Sony can do 1920x1080 in a very nice 13" then it's certainly possible...

 

Yea, but Sony is losing money hand over fist.

 

Odd, i figured they would offer a quad CPU given a 35W option is there. Maybe next generation....

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/g5da12ww.txt

I wonder why they are offering both the 5200 and 5400, would make sense to keep your parts as consistant as possible. Just waiting on a confirmation that it is a 28nm part which OEM's should be getting..

 

Cost. I would imagine there is a price difference in the two from NVIDIA so this is passed along the line to a lower cost option like the T430i.

 

Comparing Sony Corp to Lenovo is apples and oranges... If you have numbers specifically for the PC business is different but that would be essential for a fair comparison... But, my point was simply that it is possible... Besides the folks here that want it have admitted willingness to pay the passed on cost... We understand that the lower the volume on such an option the more expensive it would be... Give the option though...

 

Sony can do it because there is a panel available with those specs. AFAIK there is no 1600x900 12.5" panel that would work in the X230.

Lenovo doesn't have a good history with custom LCD panels. They did that for the X30x and the result was... not great. (And then there's the money-pit that was IDTech... great screens, but not a great business venture...)

 

If Apple really pushes HiDPI in their coming update, and many signs point to that, other manufactures will start following the suit too, with decent resolutions coming back to laptops again.

Doubt that Lenovo will react fast though. Probably we'll have to wait till W/X/Tx40 series for decent screens.

 

Both my thoughts exactly.. maybe they couldn't justify the price for a quad core for business users. They are just as powerful as the last generation quad cores.. also I bet they don't want to take away from the W530's light.. it being a workstation and all. Why not just buy a T430 for a lower price with the same CPU? see what I'm saying.. just my guess

 

In the last generation, it was possible to buy T520 with the same CPU as W520. But since it was an upgrade, the result was usually more expensive than similarly configured W520.

 

Thinking about the future, the X240(?) with Haswell and a slimmer chasis, plus quad core will be hot.

 

I prefer my CPUs and laptops cool.

 

oh noes....

According to the X230 page on the Lenovo site the X230 will only have 2nd Gen i7 and be limited to 8GB RAM?

Both of those is a deal breaker for me. I need minimum of 16GB (already own the 2x 8GB sticks) and a quad core Gen3 (Ivy Bridge) i7. Could *maybe* pass with a dual core Ivy but I would need to give it some thought.

I'm assuming/hoping they have just made errors on the page, I can't see why they wouldn't accept 8GB sticks or why they couldn't fit a quad core Ivy Bridge.

I think at least two people have demo units of the X230 or X230T (andrew?) - are you under NDA and cannot talk about it yet or are you able to confirm processor/max RAM?

If it doesn't then I need to look elsewhere?

 

I find it hard to believe they'll be introducing the new version w/o the Ivy Bridge processor. This leaked info here give the processors by name: Lenovo ThinkPad X230 & X230t (Ivy Bridge) Specs,Photo Leaked | Techzek - Android, Apple, Windows, BlackBerry News

While it's certainly unconfirmed internet rumor, I just don't see them rolling out new product and not using the newest processor. That said, maybe the first wave will be sold w/the Sandy Bridge processors simply based on availability.

As far as RAM, the X220 is also listed as "8GB max", and it supports 16GB just fine. I don't see them taking a step back in that regard either. So, while there are no guarantees, I think you'll be able to get what you want.

 

Those are mistakes. The X220 is capable of using 16GB or RAM. We have quite a few people with 16GB X220's. The X230 should be the same.

 

35W quadcore should run with decent temps. The only review I've seen so far was the Elitebook and it seemed to work as designed.

 

so what kind of SSD they will be offering ... hopefully this time is a SATA 3

 

Implies then that Sandy Bridge CPUs can be used with the Series-7 chipset. Gives hope to bios hacks being developed to allow the Series-6 chipset to run an Ivy Bridge CPU. That's for systems with socketted CPUs (T420, T520/W520) where a CPU swap doesn't involve costly BGA soldering.

 

Why? You only buy storage devices as part of the original PO?

 

I'm disappointed that the new T430's battery isn't compatible with the T420/T410 batteries. I want to upgrade, but don't want to buy batteries all over again.

The T430 uses 70+ or 28++ slice battery
The T420/T410 uses 55+ or 27++ slice battery

 

There's most certainly 1600x900 13" screens. Just look at what Samsung and Asus are using. Now look at the big wide bezel on the X230. Any light bulbs go off yet?

It's precisely for this lack of innovation that PC manufacturers are pushing people in droves to Apple.

Its 2012. People wont continue paying over $1k for a notebook with a lousy 1366 netbook class screen resolution from 2009.

Somehow Lenovo got the screen idea right on the X1 by fitting a 14" hi res screen in 13" footprint but offer no docking solution. The X230 has a docking solution but only a low res screen. Why can't these guys get it right ?

 

They might be compatible even though they are different capacities. This is what I was thinking of when I go to Purchase my T430 June 5th, should I get a 6cell or a 9cell? can I get a 6 cell and swap out my T420 battery.. ah so many mysteries.

Edit: looking at the pictures, it is probably the same battery

 

Looking at the screen when the bezel is off, I would doubt that there is enough space in there to fit a 13 inch panel like you suggest. The 12.5 inch panel is already pretty much a perfect fit width wise.

So yes, lightbulbs went off, but then reality struck back.

The big 3 business notebook makers are betting that they do.

 

Asus Zenbook is on my radar too... FHD in a 13.1" package with a metal casing... Seems quite promising... Likely cheap too!