Thinkpad X200s now on Sale!!!!!

Thought I might share this with all you ThinkPad fanatics. Starting price is $1700, and that includes the LED option!!! add an additional $75.00 and you get the 1.86Ghz processor. Follow the link:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=27260E1983734A91A115802FE145A51A

 

The upgrade to 3gb DDR3 is 110 usd!
The 6-cell batt is a free upgrade.

Comes out to 1964.00 usd with 3gb, bt, 9-cell, fingerprint, sl9400. There is no discount for cpp yet. =/

 

Yes, I'm also wondering where is the option for WWAN?

 

I wish they would just stick the wxga+ LED option int he x200. I dont want a LV proc!

 

I'd vote for that, but they got to differentiate the S from the regular X200.

At just shy of $1800 shipped for me with 2GB of memory and the SL9400, it's too rich for me. While it'd be great to have, I don't need that kind of portability and my R60 still more than meets my needs. For those you get one, I'll still be jealous.

 

Does anyone think a transplant will work CCFL wxga -> LED wxga+? Or will the new casing be too different for a reasonably priced swap?

 

Technically a transplant ought to work, but such question better be discussed with a skilled Lenovo technician.

I think the X200s is the perfect notebook for me. Now I just have to haggle with Lenovo Switzerland about a reasonable price for students. How I love that...

 

Mr. Cameltoe:
Just wait two weeks or better a month, as I do, and get the educational/student version, should be much cheaper (just compare the different x61s models, up to 50% discount).

 

For Jackboot,

You asked "Why France". I don't know, but it seems the CCFL screen is indeed not an option for the USA X200s version, and you are obligated to go with the ultra-high resolution of 1440x900 LED screen.

 

50%? Is the education/student discount usually better than cpp?

 

I understand that you want to order directly from Lenovo because there is nothing like waiting 3-6 months for your order to arrive. Still, for those of us who prefer to get the X200s shipped immediately, there are places like Provantage who will compensate us with a 25% discount for the immediate shipment.

 

Things are slightly different here in Germany/Swiss/Europe. The common practices of the US don't apply here.
For example:
- No customized models
- No ordering directly from Lenovo (correct me if I'm wrong)
- CPP/EPP only with a valid business license AND Lenovo contract

However, we will get the X200s, at the earliest, in two weeks.

jmpak: Europe got no special education/student discount, Europe got a special model (one configuration), which is up to 50% cheaper.

 

I'm not so sure about that. I believe that the model for sale on Lenovo.com right now is a "topseller" model and as such has certain options which are not available. It's the same scenario as when the X200 first went on sale; for the first several weeks there was only a higher-priced, higher-specification base configuration that was available to customise.

As an aside, the model that is currently up for sale starts at $1679 with Vista Basic. After the regular 33% off (as all other models, including the X200 have), that price drops to $1125. The X200s is going to be a HOT seller once it has the same discount as the other notebooks!

 

First we've waited months for the X200s to start selling.... I'm not sure at this point I can wait another 2-3 months for the price to fall... I'm thinking about the $1500 Provantage deal...

 

I agree...the wait for the X200s has been excruciating! IMO the "sale" price will apply to the X200s within 3-4 weeks. If you are a gambler, you could order now and get a price adjustment within 30 days. That's what many people did with the X200.

Or, like you mentioned, the $1500 config from provantage is a good enough deal. You can save a few bucks (about $30) you could order from costcentral who also offers free shipping:

http://www.costcentral.com/proddeta...GB_121_WXGA_BT_FP_XPP/74663HU/T35290/froogle/

If you want it right away, check out Bottom Line Telecommunications who lists the X200s as arriving today:

http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop...1000100U0112_BT35290P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!

Personally, I'm sitting tight with my Aopen MiniPC (desktop) until I can get the X200s at the price I want. Hopefully I don't have to wait too long...

 

Just so I'm not leading anyone astray, I was incorrect in my math with this calculation. The X200 is currently at 20% off the MSRP, not 33%. This means that if the X200s gets the same treatment in several weeks or more that the base config with the WXGA+ display will be $1343.

Considering that the topseller model is available right now for as low as $1486 (better processor, hard drive, bluetooth, fingerprint reader, 2GB memory, Intel 5100, 6-cell battery) it is probably a good idea to just go with that unless you are set on configuring your own machine.

 

add CPP to that and i think it will give you 32 or 33%

 

Lenovo's new VIDEO piece on the X200s (and X200t):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz9ErmQg2eU

Interesting points from the video:
- Advertized battery specs only valid with LED screen AND SSD.
- Speaker has improved in bass and volume (3 decibel increase).
- Digital video output supported by ultrabase.

 

Great find - thanks for sharing

A few thoughts of mine:

I think the LED screen accounts for most of the battery savings since current SSDs have not shown to be significantly more battery efficient than HDDs.

The 3 decibel increase in real-world terms means that the speaker will be perceived as twice as loud as the X61 speaker (physics majors correct me if needed). I don't know why the presenter didn't put it this way (i.e., the X200 speaker is twice as loud as the X61).

Matt at Lenovo (the presenter) is a good example of why PCs are Anthropomorphised as John Hodgman in the Mac commercials. I'm sure Matt at Lenovo is a nice guy and is ideal for the Lenovo blog where he can respond to technical questions in an informed way, but for marketing a notebook, he just looks like a total geek. Lenovo really needs to get on the ball with their marketing efforts. They make the best PCs on the market but holy ****e they sure don't know how to market these machines to anybody but IT directors and enthusiasts!

 

While an increase of 3dB corresponds to a doubling of the volume, it does not correspond to perceived doubling by the human ear. Audio-dudes state that an increase of 3dB is actually not that easy to discern and that an increase of 10dB is required to perceive the increase as a doubling (it actually varies with the absolute sound level).

 

Actually, human hearing is not linear. In other words, doubling the power of an audio signal will not result in a perceived doubling of the sound that we hear. This is precisely the reason why sound is measured in dB, which is a logarithmic scale.

If you've ever wondered why a 200W speaker system will not sound that much louder than a 100W system, that is the reason

This is coming from an engineer

 

I just placed an order... estimated ship date is October 8, so two weeks. This is with the su9300, 64GB SSD, and 6-cell battery. I don't know if some other options might cause a longer turnaround.

It's certainly expensive... but I tried finding and configuring similar systems from other companies and they end up at the same price, but without a trackpoint or known-good keyboard; also the focus of this machine is just perfect for my needs: small, light, rugged, and very low power (for solar)... but still sufficient for serious software development.

Waiting a little while would certainly be more economical, but I need something very soon... before I lack a useful shipping address!

Thanks to this forum for banter, reviews, and shared knowledge which helped me hone in on the X200s! I probably would have ordered the X301 last week if I didn't hear about the new variations of X200.

 

I too will be getting an X200s with the first round of ~20% off discounts.

 

Is this the Provantage deal that people are talking about? Why does it say X200 and not X200s?

 

I guess it is.

From the cpu and screen resolution you can tell it is x200s, although the title only specifies as x200

I think the price is great if you don't wanna wait for the cpp discount show up.

I did a math using the x200 discount and the prices for optional upgrades.

It came out like around 14xx after 7% tax with 4G ram, but 80g hd. Provantage doesn't charge tax in my area so pretty much the same price.

 

Yes, I just noticed this post.

That's more or less exactly the spec that I want (5300 WiFi would be nice, as would 3GB RAM)...

Has anyone pulled the trigger on this yet, and if so, what is the shipping time?

 

If you can hold out on the memory for a few weeks to a couple months I think supply will catch up on DDR3 memory and it will sell for close to the same price as DDR2. In the meantime you could always buy a turbo memory card which will work very well in a notebook with just 1GB of RAM.

The 5100 and 5300 are nearly identical cards. The 5100 has a higher transfer rate but unless you are doing huge file transfers on a wired gigabit network you won't notice the difference. The 5300 also is supposed to have slightly better range but I'll believe that when I see a test showing that is actually the case.

Since the model in question at provantage is a topseller model you should get it fairly quickly - I'd say within 2-3 weeks but maybe even within a week. The topseller model was supposed to be in stock with suppliers yesterday from what I understand.

 

LOL what's going on with X200s pricing right now?

- downgrade to Vista Basic: ADD $100
- upgrade to Vista ultimate: ADD $249
- change from Vista Business 32 to Vista Business 64: ADD $179

On the X200, those OS options are -$63, +$56, and $0 respectively.

Also of note, it costs $10 to get the 5-in-1 card reader on the X200s and it is a $0 option on the X200. Weird stuff...

 

I think there are some monkeys loose in their system.

Last week the X301 had PC-DOS as an OS option for $-179, which I imagine used to be a valid option in days before the pressure to push Vista, but never in the age of the X301. Well I immediately filled in options to make an order, because PC-DOS is just as good as "no OS in my way"... I was giddy with glee until I added it to the shopping cart and it said there was an invalid entry. I even called them up, but they said no it must be a mistake in the web forms.

Oh well, at least I found out about the X200s because of that delay. And I like it so much I had to give in again... I hate paying MS for a product I don't want... it's not even a pleasure to blow away their system. The **** thing is going to be using some writes of my SSD drive.

 

I read in an article that assuming you write 5GB per day with current generation Samsung SSD, its average lifespan will be 60 years. I think it's safe to assume that somewhere between now and year 2068, you'll upgrade your SSD (or dare I say your X200s).