Thinkpad X230 and X230 Hybrid

Saw awhile ago that both laptops will be revealed at CES. Has anyone received any additional info about these?

Curious, since the X220 chassis only lasted one iteration. Seems like Lenovo will completely redesign the X2xx series.

 

Haven't heard of anything of the sort yet, and CES is almost over. Links?

 

90W Power adaptor, compatible with the X230, X230i, and X230 Hybrid. Plus Google shows plenty of batteries supposedly compatible with the X230.


2012 Thinkpads:

 

Or it'll be like the X1 Hybrid.

 

I've seen those, but those are hardly confirmatory evidence. 3rd party retailers put those up all the time (there's even merchandise for the X2). The image has a old T60 on it, not the X230.

 

I don't think we saw anything like that at CES. I wasn't expecting to see any traditional Thinkpads at CES either going from last year.

I would assume that Hybrid means like X1 Hybrid with an ARM coprocessor running Android or something. I don't think the X220 really needs that feature though since it gets more than enough battery life in standard Windows anyways. I'm a bit interested to see if Lenovo can do a hybrid between x86 Windows and ARM Windows with one really customized Windows install. That would be interesting and more useful than Windows + "Media Mode."

Also, I think that the X220 chassis will be used for the X230 even if Hybrid rumors are true. Its not like the X1 Hybrid has a significantly redesigned chassis compared to the X1 either.

 

Well, that X1 Hybrid uses the same chassis because it's still has "X1" in its name. The X230 nomenclature designates a chassis change. Otherwise Lenovo might go with X220 Hybrid or X221 Hybrid. Add the fact that the current "X230" batteries are only compatible with the X230, means that it'll be different that the current gen X220.

 

Why would it be the X221? The X120e has practically the same chassis as the X100e and it wasn't the X101e.


I don't really get the new Lenovo naming scheme at all, but there have only been two situations where we saw the last digit change, the X301 and the X201. Both of which were in the "#10" generation. From #10->#20, every single laptop was made a #20.

The battery thing is interesting, but I wouldn't trust that.

 

There was also the W701.
Their numbering scheme does suck though, no consistency to it.
There used to be consistency, internal upgrades would get a single digit bump, and new chassis changes would get a full 10, finishing with the *61 models. But that was pre-lenovo.

 

?

Last time I checked, Lenovo had been making Thinkpad long before the new numbering scheme.

 

They made what IBM told them to make ... without cutting corners.

 

They took over with the T60, and incidentally that was the last model to follow the somewhat consistent numbering scheme, with the T61 follow up. Then they switched over to the 3 digit models. Everything up to the T43 was designed by IBM, and from about 01-05 the numbering scheme was pretty consistent from the T20 to T43.

Could've/Should've/Would've been:

T400 = T70
T410 = T80
T420 = T81
T430 = if it's the same chassis which I imagine it would be since it's just an update from sandy to ivy, a T82, or if redesigned a T90.

I understand the need to break the model numbers though, they need to establish their own identity with the ThinkPad, but I just wish for some consistency. Seems as if every model just goes up to the next 4*0.

 

It is interesting to see how the names of the T4X0 series parallels the T4X series, but just with a 0 added to the end. Except for the senselessness in chassis design changes.

 

I, too, find that my hardware with an IBM logo always performs much better than hardware without it. I've considered applying one to my car as well, as I understand that IBM-branded cars have stronger frames and have a better "feel" on the road.

Kidding aside, I don't think that Lenovo's own models are "cutting corners" any more than IBMs were from the mid 90s onwards. IMHO it's mainly that people assume IBM == high quality and China == crap. It's amazing how often we find what we're looking for; I'm not innocent of this either.

 

I don't think that IBM would cut less corners that Lenovo. Price is more and more important now than ever and Lenovo wants to make sure companies are buying Thinkpads rather than EliteBooks and Latitudes. I'm sure IBM would like to do the same.

The same design and engineering teams from IBM design current Thinkpads. I don't see why Lenovo would cause them to make bad decisions that IBM wouldn't cause them to make. As for production, Lenovo was making Thinkpads long before they were designing them.

I don't see any obvious corner cutting with my X220. There are some design decisions I don't particularly like, but I don't think they were made to save money.