Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2012

I don't think it's that they're brain dead, it's that the large institutional buyers who really drive the thinking behind the design don't care about better screens for the most part. They want lower cost and compatibility with their current systems.

 

Right. I think their priorities are elsewhere, unfortunately. On the other hand, this was said on their most recent blog entry.

While I don't think it will measure up to the Zenbook Prime, it will at least be above average. That in-depth Russian review thought highly of it.

 

Correct, I have already seen the various product order numbers, and there are i5 and i7 configurations in there with 256Gb SSD

 

Excellent, thanks for the confirmation!

Any idea on pricing or release dates? Where was this seen?

Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks for the info. Do you have any source for that? I mean, one you can share?

 

I am a reseller, and this has appeared in the part of my internal ordering system that contains info that I am allowed to share. No pricing or delivery dates yet. I also have access to other information but that unfortunately is under NDA. Since I am also keen on getting an X1 when it comes out, if and when I have info that I am allowed to share I will certainly do so.

 

Can you communicate the type of CPUs you see? Particularly, I am interested in whether there will be a standard voltage CPU option.

thx

 

I'll probably replace my old T60 with X1. So long 4:3 screens :-(

They should make X1 at least 16:10, it's made for business not for movies.

Was considering T430s/u, but those insanely large bezels are big turn-off...

 

Thanks again. I respect that. I hope there are some surprises we haven't seen yet, mostly in the display department.

 

All the machines that I currently can pre-order indicate the following:
i7-3667U or i5 3427U, all SSD types are SATA3, Intel wifi 6205S 2x2. Webcam, 4Gb RAM and no WWAN.

 

Speculative reasoning! If that was the case, why would they be "upgrading" the screen on the X1 Carbon? What's "wrong" with the X1 screen? Why not maintain "compatibility"?

 

Are you able to share info the battery life? It's nice feature to have the rapid charge available but that is all they mention. Even on Lenovo's website. For some reason I think they are staying mum about the battery life because I don't think it's good. Atleast not as good as the competitors out there. If these machines can at least give me 5hours of battery life with wifi surfing, I would love it!

 

On the Chinese websites, they are stating 5hr battery life (with integrated 4-cell) and that it'll be released sometime in August.

 

is that with normal usage or their claims?

 

I think he meant in general. The X1 Carbon is a bit of a niche product for them where they want to do more drastic changes. The changes they make with it will likely be an influence to their other tried and true models over time.

 

For one, the X1 not Carbon screen is 13 inches, compared to 14 inches for the X1C's.

As for the X1C. I think its because high quality screens are more useful in ultraportables. Ultraportables tend to be used away from desks, which means "just get an external monitor" isn't an option, and they might not always be used at an optimal angle.

Last generation, Lenovo decided to see if people wanted a good screen in ultraportables by putting a cheap IPS upgrade for the X220. I would say the experiment worked. Lenovo has decided to use a really nice, even if still TN, panel on their new ultraportable. Hopefully, we will see more fruits of their experiment in the T440s redesign.

 

Last year was the experiment. I doubt they met sales targets. If they did, the targets were too low.

This year the Ultrabook field will be crowded. Especially by the time we get to Christmas and all of the new slates will be on the market.

Lenovo can't afford to experiment with the X1 Carbon. They need it to be a runaway hit and I predict it will be extremely popular in corporate America. I'm sure globally, too.

Price will be a key driver for adoption, but considering the price of the competition, I think they will have plenty of wiggle room.

 

The battery life was under "specifications." So the answer to your question: claimed.

 

I didn't mean to imply that it's an experiment. Going off their own designer's quote, I was referring to how they are listening to customer feedback and applying these things to a new product.

 

It's good they are innovating. We all benefit.

 

It's very easy to see why. X1 is a new model.

 

Sure, sure. Bigger size, a bit higher pixel-density, good enough, no? Leave the contrast, brightness and viewing angles at the same levels that will maintain compatibility and keep the institutional buyers satisfied, no?

Amusing.

 

The new screen will be as bright with more contrast and wider viewing angels.

 

While we are still on screens, it still puzzles me why Lenovo would make two 14" Ultrabook Thinkpads. I mean who would get the X1C when the T430u costs hundreds less, is user upgradable, most likely has better battery life, and has discrete graphics as an option?

So far from the info that Lenovo has given us is that the X1C has 1600x900, whereas the T430u uses 1366x768... But why put a 1366x768 screen into a 14" notebook (a la the original X1 failure/issue, from which they supposidly learned from) in this day and age of "Retina" displays? It'll make the T430u look like it came from 2000. But if they offer 1600x900, then why get the X1C? See my drift?

Lenovo is so weird. They already have a crowed 14" lineup and a nonexistent 13" one.

 

The X1 Carbon is their 13" Ultrabook. Even with the 14" screen, it has a 13" chassis (slim bezel design). It is smaller and more portable than the T430u.

Lenovos 13" ThinkPad-linup is not really as big, this is right. But beside the X1 Carbon they have also the L330 in their pipeline. So they have a better 13" lineup than last year (last year they had only the X1, and even this came with a 14" chassis).

Yes, this is a bit weird.

 

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The X1 Carbon is Lenovo's Air, meant to be sleek, light, and I suppose sexy. The T430u is meant to be more of a business professional laptop. Though I don't think 1366x768 is a desktop conducive to work so hopefully that won't be it's only choice, if so fail.

 

Lenovo designs can't be weird. They always reflect the wish of the customers and the drive of the institutional buyers. No?

 

For all we know, they will offer both screens on both models. 1366x768 for the penny pinching procurement managers. 1600x900 for people with some sense in their head.

If that ends up being true, then the next thing people will crow about is not having access to the higher quality 1600x900 screen for a T430 or T430S.

I hope Lenovo has a plan that makes sense. Four different 14" machines seems odd.

 

Lenovo really doesn't seem to like 13 inch laptops. Look what happened to the X30x series and original X1.

Anyways, ignoring screen size, Lenovo's lineup sorta manages to make sense. Sort of maybe. They have a thin/light (T430), a ultraportable (T430s), a premium ultrabook (X1C), and a low end ultrabook (T430u). It would make perfect sense if I didn't mention the fact that they were all 14 inch machines.

You really don't seem to get the idea. They have some odd design decisions specifically because the large institutional buyers don't seem to really care about a lot of important stuff.

 

Ha, you inhaled the Lenovo PR strategy very well
Actually, both chassis are about the same size, aren't they?
The point is that they finally managed again to minimize the bezel, i.e. superfluous size of the machine, as in the (*sigh*) good ole days of the T41 era.

 

No.
X1 Carbon: 329mm x 226mm x 16-22mm (1,36kg)
Original X1: 337mm x 231 mm x 16,5 - 21,3 (1,7kg)

 

OK, the X1c is smaller.
And the original X1 is closer to the T420s (343mm x 230mm x 24-27mm)
than to the X1c.

Still I find the terms 14" chassis or 13" chassis misleading. Screen size is an absolute measure as long as the aspect ratio is fixed, but you can build chassis of a broad range of sizes around them. I would consider the minimum chassis for a given screen the optimum. And I would consider a chassis to be 13" if a 14" screen is physically bigger than its lid. Otherwise we have to deal with fuzzy terms like 'ususal', 'common' and the like. Nothing to base a comparison upon.

 

Yes, this is right. But with this terms I wanted to say that the original X1 had a chassis as big as the T420s chassis and used a 13" screen, which was a way to small for this chassis, so you had big bezels, while the X1 Carbon has a slightly smaller chassis with a bigger screen.

 

true. And, this might be forgotten in our rant on bad screens: The slim bezel is something we asked for a zillion times, and finally got it. So, there is the audience participation! And I am both glad and thankful for this step by Lenovo.
(The IPS scren on my X220 is a similar issue, we are moving towards my dream machine. Slow, but not still)

 

Nice laptop. May "downgrade" do this from my 5lb HP Envy15 (i7 quad, 12gb ram pc10666, intel 160gb ssd x 2 (dual), 15.6" 1920x1080 matte screen).

The only reason I see for downgrading are the rapid-charge (hopefully this x1 has a good battery life to begin with), lightweight/small, and probably more durable than my HP (plus the touchpoint!).

Don't know if losing what I have to gain the above is worth an $800 upgrade though. (if I can sell Envy15 for $800 and buy this for about $1600)

What would make the decision much easier for me is if the x1 had a really good battery life, 256gb option (which i think it will), good viewing angels (even if not IPS), RAM upgradable to 12gb (at least), and all that (w/o uprgraded RAM), for about $1600. Quad core would be nice too but I think that's definitely a no considering the "ultrabook" status.

Wishful thinking I know.

Just checked out the new Vaio Z for the first time (online), i7/8gb ram/256gb/optionalbatteryslice with a nice 13.1" screen (plus lighter and small than the x1 carbon because the Vaio does, after all, have a smaller screen)....but $2000!?!?!

 

It's hard to stay patient for this. I've been so tempted to jump on the Zenbook Prime or Samsung Series 9 13" but there are things holding me back from both. I wish we'd at least see some review units (besides the few we've seen) pop up by now if we're going to see an August release. I hope the display on it lives up. That's my biggest concern. I'm glad it's going to at least be an above average TN. But how much will it lack compared to the Series 9, Zenbook Prime, and Vaio Z?

 

It will probably be on par with the SS9 and zenbook prime in terms of everything except for the screen. Vaio Z is supposed to be more powerful though in every aspect except for build quality and price, lol

 

You can obviously wait to find out. If you were down you would have already tossed a coin.

My biggest concern for some of these machines is the long term support. Who has the best support?

In my case, I have an Apple store 3 miles from my house. Lenovo offers onsite, depot, etc. What does Samsung and ASUS have? Squaretrade?

 

Of course. At this point I am just being patient. If by release, the Lenovo doesn't live up, hopefully I can find a small discount on the others. Though it's still a bit early.

I really hope the X1C display is a good one.

 

My experience with Asus warranty service has not been very good. I should have just thrown my unit away initially, which is what I wound up doing anyway. That was my last Asus anything. I don't care how good the specs are, if they won't honor their warranty, it's not worth it. I've had good experiences with HP, Acer, Lenovo and Dell in the past. My current Acer 3820TG as a 3 year depot warranty that still has a year to go and my HP slate still has 5 months to go on its 2 year total care package. I tend to get extended warranties and keep my units for a long time. I have no experience with samsung, my daughter's 11.6" series 3 I3UM notebook has performed flawlessly for the year she's owned it. So, I'm no help there.

 

News on sweat and the body of interest, lads:

Developers on the X1 Carbon - Mechanical Engineering - Design - Lenovo Blogs

cheers
Hecke

 

thanks Hecke,

This got me all excited again. These series of posts/interviews from Lenovo really show the passion from the team involved. Can't wait for release / full spec news.

Wishing away July

 

I love reading their blog entries about the X1 too. As a huge F1 fan, I found it pretty interesting that the X1C uses higher grade carbon materials than even F1 cars! My concern still remains in the screen, so I hope we see more review units popping up soon if they're looking at an August release.

 

All of the talk about premium carbon and design is leading up to what?

wait for it...

wait for it...

STICKER SHOCK

 

Meaning, you're afraid of the cost? I saw that the Microsoft Store originally had the X1 for $1800, so I'm assuming the X1 Carbon will be the same. To today's standards, I think it should be priced somewhere around $1300-1500 to compete. On the other hand, it's made of more expensive materials so could be tough.

Fortunately, I should be able to get a nice discount. But again, if the display doesn't live up, I'll look at the Zenbook Prime or Samsung Series 9 again.

 

According to the translation of the nomobile.ru review...

"If X1 is thinner and will, it is clearly soon. So kopim currency and waiting for the summer: Carbon sales in the United States will begin in June and July, but in Russia ultrabuk come closer to the fall."

NOMOBILE.RU - Îáçîð 14-äþéìîâîãî óëüòðàáóêà Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

That would be great if it were accurate. Nothing ever said August except for the UK site which was then pulled. Now they all just say Summer 2012. Could we see it this month?

Update: Lenovo says no lol.

 

The Lenovo USA site also states it will be release some time in August. Not sure about July but the sooner the better.

I'm just waiting for the reviews on the battery life. It should at least have a 5 hour battery life with wifi on and looping through a video in the battery drain run-down tests. According "The Verge" the Samsung Series 9 currently holds the title of the longest battery life @ 7:09 hours in ultrabooks beating even the MB Airs. I think in this current time, battery life cannot be compromised.

 

I didn't see that. Thanks! Early reviews from that Russian review put it at 4-5 hours which is a bit low. But this was months ago and we're still about a month away from release apparently. I'm sure they have done some tuning since then. Also, the Samsung Series 9 has a non-removable battery which helps it likely fit a bigger battery in. The shorter X1C battery life could be due to it possibly being removable and/or be a compromise of the 30min charging attribute it has.

But we won't know details until we get closer to release. I just wish we had more info.

 

Also, on a side note, I noticed that Thinkpad production will be returning to Japan. Of course that does not include the full line of thinkpad products but I wonder if the X1c will be part of that line that does.

Imagine a thinkpad x1c made in japan? wishful thinking on my part!

Here's the link if your interested: Lenovo to restart ThinkPad production in Japan - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

 

Well, judging by their latest blog entries, it looks like several of their designers and engineers are Japanese. So I wouldn't be surprised. Also, in the article you posted, it says..

"The technology was initially developed by IBM's Yamato research laboratory in Kanagawa Prefecture."

The Lenovo blog posts are by "Yamato Labs". So it makes sense.