ThinkPad X1

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 shows up online, looks freakishly thin -- Engadget

 

If past history holds, there's always one huge gotcha when it comes to having an ultra thin laptop. It's not like ultra thin laptops are new, it's just they've all flopped in the past because of some major sacrifice you make such as a laughably under powered processor, terrible battery life or lack of useful ports. Compromises also have to be made with the keyboard too, key travel is usually shortened. But who knows, maybe the X1 will overcome all of these challenges. My money would still be on the X220 as a better option for most though.

 

I'm intrigued.

The X220 was on my shopping list, but I'd definitely consider this instead if there are additional runtime possibilities.

That is, unless Sony gets their finger out first...

 

Runtime possibilities? What does that mean?

Sony finger? Huh?

 

engadget is saying $2,920 as a price. Even if that's the highest of the high-end configuration, that's NUTS.

 

Lenovo will put it on "sale" on the first day and knock it down to $1899. I guess the real question is how bad they want to compete with the MacBook Air or Samsung Series 9.

 

We'll see about the new Z... but in any case, the new Z should have thunderbolt and that leaves the door wide open for DIY ViDocks, etc (not to mention their own external GPU/ODD solution).

Is anyone else disturbed by the large bezel here? I mean... that turns this 13.3" into a 14" laptop... except you dont get the extra screen size... what a rip (reminds me of the Vaio SB/SA)

 

i hope this has ips so i can buy the panel and put it into my acer 3820tg

 

I can't get over the price they have this listed for. They should really be more agressive on pricing to compete with MacBook air.

 

Looking at the leaked pictures and black bezel under the glass, it sure appears there's enough room to have gone to a 14". And I really question the edge-to-edge glossy move along with a 13" 1366x768 res screen. It should be 1600x900 at least.

Oh wait, I don't know squat.

 

I like it! But yeah,

High resolution screen
Where
Lenovo
Wher

 

After looking at the pictures on Engadget.com, I starting to worry about the battery life.

 

Apparently a 5 hour battery, with an 80% charge in 30 minutes.

 

The second generation of these will be my next laptop.
Ivy Bridge and 1440x900 res is all I want.

edit: oh and make it 14" please.

 

Is it an non-replaceable battery like on the Edge E220? Because that would be a problem if it's 5 hours (3.5-4 hrs real world use) and starts degrading in about a year.

 

Warning –Rant ON
I do not know what Lenovo's deal is with all this odd ball Res config’s these days and 7mm drives. That killed it for me on the X220 "almost". honestly there was no reason for it either. I would say my X61 is about as thin as the X220 and it fits a 9.5 HD fine. Its like their using these as engineering statements just to say look at what we can do !! but screwing us on the backend by using non standard parts like "7mm HD" Now gorilla glass on the X1? I mean really? Its not a tablet, so what in the hell am I going to use that for other than blind me. I got all excited about this X1until I read it had a glossy screen and res under 1400. Its like Lenovo is going backwards WTH. I have X300, actually 2 of them. When I got one of them new it was 3000 plus and I was fine paying that because I’m still using it to this day. Its my main laptop. It fits everything that I do. But why in the world are they coming up with all this none standard crap I just don't get it. This thing doesn’t even have a bay CD built in. Frankly they should have just done a X320, taken the X300 series slapped todays CPU’s In it and I would have bought a bunch of them for my team. As I stated its like their design team is going backwards. I do not have a problem dropping 3 grand per unit on a laptop for myself and my guys but for gods sake make them with standard parts so if a HD dies one of my field techs can go to Microcenter and buy a HD and get back up and running the same day or swap out to a SSD or his choice. As far as the screen goes the X300/301 comes with 1400/900 why in the world would you go BACKWARDS just makes no sense when in a day things are suppose to get better as the years go by not worse.
RANT-Off

ym

 

The battery life they use are rated at 1000 charges, in addition it is fairly easy to service a Thinkpad.

 

Clearly you are the target market.

I totally agree with you about the standard parts, especially drives. Look what happened to 1.8" drives.

 

English, you no has it - although 'pull' is more typically used than 'get'.

 

Ya I paid something close to 480 something to put a 256 gig SSD drive in my X300 and then I had to hunt down the bios hack to get the Sata 3 speeds. now it SCREEMSSS.

ym

 

OT, but if that is true, I completely don't see the point of it. Why not have a desktop? The reason you'd want a reasonably potent GPU in there is so that you can have it on the move. Being tied to one location on a notebook when you want a 'full-fat' GPU is moronic. Vidocks are a dumb 'worst of both worlds'.

 

Confusing where it may be positioned, if the $3000 is to be believed. Afterall that's almost 4 times more than X220! ($780)

For one, the battery is questionable - fast charge may be the next big thing, but the early adaptor almost always pay disproportionate premium & early tech setbacks.

My point is the 'internal' battery is one step forward, two back. I would be willing to trade swapable battery for fixed one, if only its sufficiently large. Alarm was ringing at 38.4 wh figure. Having fully fledged 25w CPU is great for targeted power users - but Sandy Bridge really could eat power quickly on load. In which case it may not last longer than 1.5 hour. Further more it's not swappable, and I could see that becoming a problem.

With its thick brezel, you might as well compare it with T420 - which holds more battery juice, is cheaper and has gone through many series of refinements.

Quick charge sounds like a gimmick given the relatively small battery. Only there to compensate the lowly 38.4 Wh it hold. Not sure if I'm correct, but got impression its still difficult making high capacity rapid charging battery, that is durable - this is Lenovo compromising things, to get this tech out quickly - Call me old fashioned, but I'd much rather getting a X220 with 9cell (maybe even the battery base). Don't mind if take longer getting charged, as long as it is storing enough juice, for me not having to worry about frequent charges. Life is busy enough without more liability - paying alot of money for more liability hardly seems logical. Beside next year most of their product line is certain to be equipped with quickcharge.

That brings out another factor, its cost. At this price it has little practical benefits over X220 - you may argue X1 is more portable, but thats not necessarily true, take into account the thick brezel, and X220's smaller screen/frame. Which brings us back to cost. X220 got nice reviews from packing latest components into what is ultraportable body at reasonable cost; but multiplying the cost by 4, squeeze in a smaller battery, see how it turns out.

It's probably naive of me to see expensive ultraportable as more niche - with netbooks flooding the low end, tablets coming in - it suddenly seems disorienting to see such price tag again.

Sony seeming have divided their ultraportable Z series, into two; the lower cost SA/SB laptop, and are holding off higher model into the summer. I think that is the way to go, as Z genuinely does pack nice extras, and you could feel its competitiveness (Quad ssd, bluray, etc) - while I could see myself picking X220 over SA/SB, for thinkpad quality; at higher price, I'd struggle to see many benefits of X1 to sway me from a well loaded Z series, let alone X220 or Samsung 9.

 

^^^ Yeah, If the battery life on the X1 is only gonna last five hours, then I might as well get a refurb Sony Vaio Z with the i7 and super high res screen.

 

As light as possible yet still fast for work on the road, game at home.

As for dumb and moronic...I would say that is a lot like assuming you speak for everyone and presume to know what is good for them.

 

This is not how TDP wattage measurements work. They're the maximum power that the chipset will draw and are used to estimate how much heat a laptop needs to dissipate in order to function.

For example, the x220's CPU has a TDP of 35W. But that doesn't mean it gets 2 hours of battery life on its 63WHr battery (it gets 8).

For everyone who's comparing specs and trying to determine the X1's price to performance ratio, that's not what this thing is for. It's for specialized form factor and a status symbol, just like all ultra thin laptops have been.

 

Let me guess — no rollcage? It looks to thin to have one. I won't believe it's a true ThinkPad (like in the old ads, being drove over with a truck, and recovered from the burning house) until I see it.

Until now, I can't see it being positioned as a business class notebook, especially with that price. It would go with the Edge line much better.


M.

 

That poster did say "on load", which refers to having the processor maxed out. The Macbook Pro gets under 1 hour of battery life at load.

 

At that price, I'm sure it has a mag alloy/glass fiber exo-cage. My X61s doesn't have a roll cage either, but the mag alloy on the shell does its job well. I wouldn't worry about build quality too much, I'm sure they have that covered.

 

that depends on what you need to use it for.

vidock will soon become a main stream product with the introduction of the thunderbolt connection, i think Apple will soon introduce something similar to vidock for their MBP.

Some people may only need to do some document processing and web surfing on the road, so they don't really need a really powerful graphics card. But when they get home and dock their laptop, they may need to use more graphic and CPU intensive applications. So things like vidock can accommodate for such purposes. But obviously not everyone needs to use their laptop in such manner, but there is definitely a market for such a product.

One could also look at the alienware 17 inch laptop in a similar manner as the vidock, not very practical and yet people flock to it.
------------------------------------------

X1 product looks very interesting from these newly released pictures.

But unfortunately it is not a revolutionary product but more of a reactionary product.

 

Ok, let's compare it to the T420s, then. It's a smaller screen, and lower resolution. Yes, I'm sure we'd all love a 1600x900 option, but let's not harp on that too much on a first gen product. The thing is much, much thinner than the T420s, and is pretty clearly targeted at people who float from location to location. This hypothetical user would plug in quite often, but have the stretches of 2-3 hours where it's not possible. If you need more, then use the slice battery which doubles the battery life, and if it also uses the new battery tech, probably knocks it up to the T420s thickness and starting weight. Yes, with the slice battery it's still only 3.8lbs.

It seems likely that they're setting the price prohibitively high to initially limit the possible impact of problems with their shiny new battery tech. It's also an extreme in the proof of concept category, hopefully giving us a taste of what to expect in the future of the T400s and X200 lines. I wish they would have offered the X220s with this new battery making room for a 9.5mm hard drive, but it makes me hopeful for the next generation.

 

To quicklite, You Said "Confusing where it may be positioned, if the $3000 is to be believed. Afterall that's almost 4 times more than X220! ($780)"

So you are going to compare the bottom basement config of a X220 with Coupons!!! to a 3000 dollar ultralight laptop. WTH are you trying to accomplish with is? other than mislead everyone. A true decked out X220 is around 2200 dollars and thats before we start with warranty additions so at that price point these two lappys are not that far off. nor were the X200/X201's vs the X300/301's when they were offered. Which put these in the same price point. So you either get ultra portable like a X300 "X1" but now its a striped down worthless cousin that got lost somewhere in Africa for a year without a arm "CD drive" and a face lift "glossy screen" is now coming to us and somehow we are supposed to think this new X1 is a great deal. "Rolls eyes". I am TRULY disappointed in this laptop as I said in my rant. Now the X220 is looking to be a home run and could only have been made better by using a reg 9.5mm HD and lets say a 1400/900 screen.
Which with the 12.5 screen would probably would be about the max res one would want I think on a screen that size. Maybe more for others with better eyes I guess.

Since we are the target market for this "type" of laptop since the X300/301 line to us and my firm was just well filled with greatness I was really looking forward to the X1. However like I said I don't mind dropping 3 grand on a lappy IF it feels the need. Now that the details are out X1 = a massive FAIL.

I wouldn't even pay 500 for it. So please Lenovo just do a X320 refresh so with full fledged i5 and i7 CPU's and 8 gigs and RAM so we can get on with placing orders. Cause with this you have done nothing but copy cat the others out there.

ym

 

For ~$400+, one can actually buy a slick X120e (same resolution with a matte screen, a little thicker).
I've just realized it. X1's really confusing...

 

ya i know right !! There was even a X120e refab in the outlet for 368 last night.
I almost jumped on it for one of my sister kids but it didn't have something that I know they couldnt have lived without so I passed but there are a tone of the X120e's in the outlet right now CHEAP if thats your game. But good call menos and you know they almost look the same.


ym

 

You wouldn't spend $500 on a machine with an i5, 8GB, 160GB SSD, is truly ultra thin and light, and is loaded with a rapid charge battery, finger print reader, and camera. And you'd rather spend $368 on a refurb, Fusion based, plastic econo-pad?

The X1 isn't exactly what I want either, but come on man. That's insane. If these specs for the X1 are accurate, then nobody has come close to its specs in a machine this thin. Yes, it's going to cost more, but I guarantee it won't cost as much as that preorder is for. Look at how much less the CTO X220's cost than the preorders at Cost Central and Provantage.

 

There's not practical and there's practically useless. And Apple's inclusion of Thunderbolt isn't for external vidock devices - I don't expect it to become an Apple offering. I think they also realise what I know - that vidocks may work indeed for the sort of person who's looking at an Alienware - i.e. they're enthusiasts who can't quite make up their mind what they want or who have very niche needs - but it'll not work for mainstream machines like the MBP series, or indeed a machine that is aimed at the upper-end mainstream business market like the Z.

I wouldn't think of it as reactionary - after all, machines like this have been around for many years before the Apple 'we did it first' trollface-bendyfest.

I've inhabited this area since the late 90's - e.g. the Sony Z600 was an optical-less ultraportable (we're talking back then, so 4lbs) around 2000. And I've always expected to carry around a machine like this.

For some bizarre reason, what's happened since the Air was released (and it may coincide with the '08 meltdown) is that everyone seems to have shrunk back to the netbook on steroids as their ultraportable flagships and the area I'd hitherto inhabited has become rather barren.

And those which have made an entrance have been oddly subdued or flawed, and basically faded away. Dell made a total misstep with their Adamo series, getting some core features wrong, Sony's TT was a QC and styling disaster, the short-lived Envy 133 delivered on looks but not what's under the hood. Maybe they also suffered due to the Apple-added comparisons of the tech press and wildly biased, inexperienced articles by engadget et al - "the new poor" in terms of reviewers.

And perhaps the more reactionary aspects of the designs as of late (such as in the case of the 9) has been influenced by uninformed yet opinionated 'culture of me' consumers who flock to the opinions of such publications and hold them up as the arbiter of public taste because the writers are their peers - and it becomes a circlejerk which directly affects the PR operations of non-Apple tech corporates and their decisions.

And as the comments above shows, there are plenty of people who can't tell the difference and who go (without any knowledge of the differences involved whatsoever) 'I can buy this cost-reduced, slightly junky machine for x less than what Vogelbung usually buys'. Since these people don't know what they're buying, the only way to 'attack the problem' is by style and some sort of implied superiority of quality by a cynical manipulation of 'layman's common sense' - as expertly done in the case of Apple (regardless of the actual practical merit of the product). Which is why the me-too, 'we're not copying Apple, honest' derivative snoozefest that is the Samsung 9 is getting plenty of interest from such buyers.

But I'd like to think there are still many people left who would actually buy the same things as me as I've tried buying some of the current crop of uber-netbooks and they are just not what I want to use on a daily basis.

I welcome the intro of another high-end machine engineered for real use, and regardless of whether I end up picking the X1 or something else, I'd like to see the kind of choice I had back in the mid-2000's again.

 

That's a straight conversion from the Swiss price, and prices of electronics in Switzerland are insane compared to the U.S.

 

Yeah - things are very expensive despite the lower VAT. I'd say about $1800 is likely as the entry price in the US.

 

Actually the practicability of having external graphics card solution depends on software support and how the product is marketed. Whether Apple is going to introduce an external graphics solution only time will tell, but i think they will.

 

Funny how we side tracked goto mac discussion.

 

According to this nice Lenovo's ad, the x120e is targeted a bit higher (limos, yachts, etc.) than I think you suppose to suggest...(*)

Bingo!

True, we should have referred the X1's price to the X120's one first.

Like it or not. Try ask your search engine for 'Thinkpad X300 MacBook Air manila envelope'.

--
(*) OK, this guy travels economy class

 

What I don't understand is the inclusion of gorilla glass in an ultraslim, high-end laptop like this. 350 nits, IPS matt display I can understand, but gorilla glass? Is this designed to be a construction site notebook? Not at $2K+ it isn't. That's a job for a Panasonic toughbook or an X220 (X220T?).

This is clearly an executive device. HD+ would have been a much better design decision than gorrilla glass. What does it add to the design?

Nevertheless, I do like it. My Acer 3820TG really does what I need it to do most of the time and I travel with my HP Slate 500 anyway (1.5 lbs > 3.8 lbs ). I like the idea of waiting a bit for Ivybridge and hope that Lenovo adds HD+ resolution.

Still, this is a beautiful device and my wife uses my Acer more and more. Rather than get her a 3830T, I would give her mine and replace my notebook. If that happens, the X1 would be in the running. I'll be interested to see how initial reviewers like it.

The HP Elitebook refresh looks underwhelming. The only thing that the new SB Elitebooks have going for them is the 12.5" tablet's 16:10 profile. Anything similar coming from HP?

Bronsky

 

it adds strength and scratch resistance to the thin (and gutted) display that polycarbonate simply cannot match.   from an engineering standpoint it makes a lot of sense.

 

In a slightly different spin to what erik referred to, it should be noted you can get Gorilla Glass in different thicknesses.

If you want ultimate durability, you're going to choose a thicker panel. But if what you're trying to do is to engineer an ultraportable, you're going to employ Gorilla Glass so you can use less of it than 'regular' treated glass.

Using a certain material isn't just about what you use, it's how much of it you use. I just would hope they don't get it wrong like Cowon did with their first Gorilla Glass'd PMP (glass was too thin).

 

eirk, Vogelbung,
Interesting observations. There is however still a problem for engineers how to make a thin cover sufficiently protecting the display, isn't it?
I remember it has been a part of the Notebookreview's review routine to press the lid and check whether a 'rainbow' appears on LCD.

 

I was joking Maybe I should have put marks to say so my falt. i guess i so wanted this x1 to be a x320 that Im just pissing on it for no good reason? maybe so but there just so many things bad about it its hard not to

just stone it to death. then run a car runs over it on a sea side road; which then a few kids use it as a Frisbee for a bit; and finally when then this poor poor thing thinks its over a seagull comes and grabs it since its all nice a flashy with its cuts showing; it fyies off to show his dad. When he gets there his father just looks at him and says "Waldo that aint fish that atrocity is made by Lenovo go chuck that in the ocean. this ends our story travels of the x1 ...... or does it..

ym

Memos.that's a good point when one of the so called reviewers goes to test the screen by twisting and pushing it from the back. if for some reason they don't know it has that glass in it "would be kinda hard to miss" would it just pop out of would it crack Humm.

 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 confirmed, faster-charging integrated battery detailed -- Engadget

Haha X1 may just be real.

 

But will it cure cancer and solve world peace?

 

About the price:
I was looking on the Switzerland - lenovo site; and a T520 qith this specs:

-Intel® Core™ i5-2520M Processor ( 2.50GHz 1333MHz )
-4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz
-Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
-15.6" HD+ AntiGlare 1600x900

costs 2048 USD.

And a T520 with similar specs costs 1348 USD on US Lenovo site; with no discounts or coupons.

So, my take on the price point would be that the X1 price is set for Switzerland, where the thinkpads have higher prices than USA.

Hope this works for a comparison.

 

wait, so if it's the same battery technology as Apple (lithium polymer, 1000 cycles), 13 inch size, and it's thicker by a couple millimeters than the 13 inch Air (~22 for the X1, 17 for the MBA), why does the X1 have such a low capacity compared to the Air? (claimed 38.4 WH versus 50 WH in the 13 inch Air). That means you have 2 similar laptops, but the Air has 30% more battery capacity over the X1.

But on the other hand, (based on the rumored specs), they're packing so much tech into the X1 compared to the Air, they might have run out of room to put more battery cells.

So I guess the trade off between this and the Air (13 inch) is as follows:
13 inch Air:
better battery life (at least 1 hour more battery life, slightly under 2 more hours typical)
thinner by 5 mm
Higher resolution screen, 16:10 aspect ratio
Magsafe? (depends if that's a benefit for you)
OSX ? (depends if that's a benefit for you)
Discrete graphics

X1 benefits:
Much much more powerful processor
Rapid charge
3G
Gigabit ethernet built in
4 in one reader
8 GB of RAM (at most, 4 in the Air)
IPS screen
USB 3.0
eSATA
Slice battery?
(I hope it'll have a docking port but it's unlikely)
backlit keyboard (older Airs had it but they took it out of the current generation)

So compared to the Air, the X1 looks great. Some tradeoffs in thickness and battery life, but the X1 is still awesome.

 

If I want to get an Macbook Air like device the battery would have to be on par or better than the air. From the looks of it it Lenovo might use the 17 watt i5, the battery life would still be alot lower than the Air. Overall I would choose the Air over the X1 and X220 over the Air.