Thinkpad X300

If we have this who will need Apple Macbook air:

http://gizmodo.com/346797/ultralight-lenovo-x300-series-thinkpad-leaked

spec in short:

13.3 led with 1440x900
Merom LV dual core
All the wireless feature
SSD 64GB
Built in DVD
318x231x18.6 - 23.4 in mm
1.13 kg / 2.5 lbs - 1.44 kg / 3.17 lbs

 

I just saw this!..looks cool except for SSD only...hope thats wrong..

 

I wish its true but it looks fake to me

 

I wont say a word...

 

I think it will and should have hd options.

As for fakeness, I think Gizmodo usually quite good with this type of things.

 

Now that's what I call ultrathin, ultraportable, ultralight, without compromises.

 

The unprofessional quality of the accompanying slides makes me think its fake.

Please let me be wrong!

The picture definitely looks real though. But... but.. PLASTIC HINGES?!! You gotta be kidding me.

 

The price is gonna be over $2,500 with those specs...

 

Is it me or does the logo on the right buttum of screen(where you would see T61) it doesnt look like 300?..why would they go from x61/t61 to x300?

 

That's just how the new names are. There were already rumors of an x200 in previous threads, if I remember correctly.

If this notebook is legit, then its pretty much almost perfect along with a port replicator.

ThinkLight not supported? Must be fake...

 

wow that just made my day, i was going to mac air, but now X300 all the way if its true

 

the design of red lines on left/right buttons make me think its a fake. I doubt thinkpad would go back to this "IBM" design.

 

It's listed in both the supported column and the unsupported column.

 

The 1440x900 resolution on a 13.3" LED-backlit screen is what makes me think it's fake.

 

If you keep up with lenovoblogs you know that they had a poll a while back on whether they should bring them back and most people voted yes.

 

It's been clearly stated in the corporate Lenovo blogs that there will be a return to the traditional design on the clickers.

The specs seem believable. But still, the air of fake is still about.

 

Hmm, I didn't see that. Very odd.

 

Interesting...

 

While that is a good point, you will recall that Lenovo was first out the door with a 22" 1920x1200 display in the L220x.

In other words, you never know.

 

if its true , its a kinda bold move. dell and hp don't have 13.3s for their business lines.

 

it is the same notebook seen a short while ago, here

http://www.51nb.com/forum/thread-625281-1-1.html

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=54801

 

kevin just pied his pants...

 

an official reply @ http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=133

 

So instead of keeping it a secret like most companies...they're gonna let us play the guessing game??

How funny.

 

At first glance I got really excited, but there are a few major differences that I don't like between this X300 and the current x-series:

- only 4 hour battery (but maybe there is an extended battery?)
- trackpad takes up space needlessly (just leave the trackpoint!)
- integrated optical drive takes up space needlessly (although it appears that this can be used for an extended battery?)
- with a 13.3" widescreen, the overall form factor will increase significantly
- no firewire

I'm also worried that with some of the new features this notebook will be out of many buyer's price range...

 

This is a nice step but I hope this is more a home consumer design. I hope they don't switch from the 12" X60 / x60s to a 13.3". Maybe this is just the model that will be in between the 14" Ts and Rs and the Xs. I also find it weird that they would decide to just offer it with a 64GB SSD. They must be offering it with standard SATA drives. That 64GB SSD would take on about $1000 to the price.

 

I guess there will be few options. E.g. x300 with SSD and maybe this x200 with HDD?

I noticed one more inconsitency in the tables. One of them says that PCexpress card is supported, the other - that it is not. Maybe it was a typo and they do not support PCexpress 56.

 

thats what i thought right away, this thing is worse than the current x61 in just about every way, and it will be more expensive too?
the x61 has awesome battery life, a perfectly adequate 12" screen (i play games and watch dvd's on it), good cpu, lots of ram, a decent video card, a sexy design and a good price, the x300 looks to me like more a step back, and WHY would it have a built in dvd drive, that makes no sense if their trying to make a light notebook, no X ever had a built in drive for a reason - it takes up valuable space, adds weight and is largely unnecessary if you have the ultrabase at home

p.s.: SSD an exclusive option? SSD is NOT ready for that in technological terms as well as in prices

just my thoughts, maybe im biased because i worship my x61

 

The product is not ready to sell yet, but they are trying to prevent Apple (and others) from leaching sales away from them. Kinda convenient that the info leaked out the same week the Macbook Air was announced. I don't believe it was coincidental at all.

I like the X300 and I may get one eventually then I realize what a pain in the a$$ Lenovo has been when new machines are released. Their track record speaks for itself over the past couple of years. The X300 will be officially announced then everyone who orders one will wait 2-3 months for it to arrive as the estimated ship date gets revised over and over. Possibly you will finally get fed up, cancel, and move on. Then one day a mysterious package will show up at your door and you'll be short several thousand $$ in your account.

 

if this ever does get released..i'll be more than willing to wait 2 months for it!

 

I'd much rather have a T-series with the forthcoming new chipset made a bit thinner/brighter via LED backlight than this... I'm just not a huge ultraportable fan, and I'm alarmed at the (apparent) loss of the rock-solid hinge from previous models.

But it's interesting and innovative, and I'm interested to see what the $$ will be. Sky high with the SSD I'm sure, but still no apple premium.

 

The 4 hour battery is most likely the 3 cell, this laptop has a special cpu that uses low voltage and a LED screen which uses less as well, with a 6 or 9 cell ull get way more than that..

This laptop is supposed to counter the macbook air!!!!..duhh..why you think its thin and 13.3in..they showing off that they can make one about same weight with 10x the features including dvd drive

 

no more steel hinges? thats not good. I guess we'll have to wait till it comes out.

Asus is making some sweet laptops now a days, and the fact that they come with laptop bags makes them soooo tempting!

Everyone that I know that owns an apple has quality problems after 6 months that will not be addressed by apple(all of my buddies that own the laptops actually use them as laptops....i know some other guys disagree with that, but chances are that they treat them like fine china)

 

I know an IBM employee who closely works with Lenovo on thinkpad designs still....and he says he has never heard of this...probably a fake...or a model designed for a certain geographical location only.

 

Why are there so many people saying, "no metal hinges?!"

Is it just because the photo has black hinges, so we are assuming that they are PLASTIC?

Even the cheapest notebooks (i.e., my old Averatec) use steel hinges - they are just *covered* in plastic. I'm not aware of any notebooks that actually use plastic hinges. Feel free to correct me if I'm out to lunch on this.

I'm confident that either the hinges are painted black steel or they are steel hinges with a plastic shell over top.

 

I agree that the 4-hour battery mentioned is the "smallest" (3-cell?) battery - what's up for debate is what other battery options exist. We can deduce from the leaked info that there is at least an option for an ultrabay battery...but the diagram does not make it clear at all where the regular system battery attaches to the notebook! With all the system ports on the back of the notebook, it appears that the battery cannot possibly attach on the back side like the current x-series battery does. This is problematic for an extended battery - where would it protrude if not on the back side?

It is highly possible that the only extended battery option is an ultrabay battery. I believe the current ultrabay batteries are 3-cell and provide similar battery life to the regular 3-cell system batteries. This could indicate that an ultrabay battery would double the battery life - offering a total of 8 hours (4 hours x 2 3-cell batteries) of unplugged time. This sounds plausible considering the LED backlit screen, new processors, and SSD drive. Further, the current 3-cell ultrabay batteries weigh in at 0.5 lbs - this agrees with a max system weight for the X300 listed at ~2.5lbs + 0.5 lbs ultrabay battery = just over 3lbs...

Anyone else care to speculate about the battery situation?

 

Widescreen X series with an optical drive, very nice....will it be as affordable as the base X61 is right now, or will it be another $2000 machine?

 

Sorry for misleading, but that isn't actually what I said. I too have to assume the hinges are metal, whether colored black or covered by some part of a bezel. I was merely commenting on their appearance... they do not look as wide/strong as the hinges on my (elderly but solid) T42. I may well be incorrect, which is why I inserted "apparent."

Overall build quality is still the most important factor when I purchase a laptop, so this is only something I'm watching - not something I'm claiming a conspiracy against when I obviously don't know yet...

 

@k3davis: I wasn't making my comment directly at you There have been a number of comments (on this board and elsewhere) suggesting that the hinges are not made of metal...

 

I know its all speculation at this point, but i had a few questions:

Assuming integrated graphics, do you think the X300 will have enough power to run an external 24" lcd?

What is USB docking? Does that mean I will still have to plug in a seperate cable for power? video?

The processor is a 2.0 ghz Santa Rosa LV -does the Low Voltage also mean that its not as fast as a standard 2.0 ghz Santa Rosa? If yes, how much of a difference? 20%

Are we looking at 5-6 months before we can buy it?

 

Ye, I think this is designed in Beijing design centre, as I can't imagine if it's been designed in Durham or Yamato design centres this won't leak so early. Also, there is no fundemental change to the design (I know it's just a black box, but there are huge design difference between T43 T60 and T61), so I think it's not surprising the person you know doesn't know anything about this.

BTW, I am not saying this is not fake, but it's just too many evidence show that this is not fake.

the graphic is fine, as Macbook uses the same.

I am not sure what USB docking is either, maybe docking station uses USB? Then that might be quite inconvienent for people who actually uses docking station

LV doesn't mean slower, just uses less power, I think the standard voltage uses 35w of energy, medium voltage (currently not yet available in SR) uses 25w of energy and low voltage uses 17w of energy, ultra low voltage uses 10w of energy.

 

Damn, no docking port? Only USB replicator??? Does that make sense?

 

Hi All,

Just to confirm that this is real. I met with my Lenovo Outside Sales Rep and he showed me a presentation about this laptop. The DVD burner is a factory option, that bay can either be empty, with a battery or with a dvd burner (not user replaceable). At this point, only SSD hard drive.

 

I recently came across this:

http://www.belkin.com/highspeeddock/

With optical spdif, I would prefer this dock over any Lenovo dock even if one was available for the x300. Thats as long as it has an express card reader.

 

Thanks for the post

Your claim that the DVD burner option is not user replaceable (i.e., not an ultrabay) is shocking. I can't believe that one must chose once and live with that choice regarding whether he wants a) an extra battery b) an optical drive c)weight savings. I am actually doubtful that this is actually the case.

This machine would be soooo versatile if it was an ultrabay and one could just swap out whatever one needs...

Any chance you could get a copy of the presentation from your Lenovo buddy and post it here for us?

 

I wish I could but the very first slide is a non-disclosure agreement...

 

From Tpuser's website indicates that the bay is interchangeable, from battery or dvd drive, but they're not supported Hot-swap.

 

Why on earth would they not offer a hdd? doesn't ssd price most people out of the market? btw, can a hdd be swapped with the ssd?

 

From what I recall when I got a chance to see it, the ultrabay is not hot swappable like a regular ThinkPad, but it is swappable. No worries.

 

awesome...so you got to see it? was the lcd quality any better with the LED backlights? Thanks