What's up with Ideapads?

Are they suppose to be Lenovo's lower end notebooks? or thinkpad replacements?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/Portals/HHO&ipromoID=hpa00174&

 

They're just another Lenovo product aimed for eye candy and multimedia. Not ThinkPad related.

 

Hi Ark,

I know there's a long tradtion with Thinkpads. But I've been looking at mine lately and it's awfully black and plain. I am not suggesting eye candy, but lenovo could add some aestehetics and it wouldn't detract from the product.
Clinging to a tradition for the sake of tradition, becomes outdated after a while. While I'm not advocating anything mainstream, I feel thinkpads could be made which would be a aesthetically pleasing system.

By the way, have you ever seen the Stanley Kubrick movie called, "2001"?

 

Hey Renee,

I agree with you somewhat. Personally, I love the all black finish of my ThinkPad. It's professional and sleek. All black was a good choice of color since black makes things looks smaller and slimmer. It also fits a professional environment very well.

But on the other hand, Lenovo would really benefit to have a separate but similar line to the ThinkPad and construct it with aesthetic focus.

Are you talking about A Space Odyssey? If so, I've never actually sat down and seen the whole film but I've seen enough to talk about it.

 

Are you familiar with "the Monolith" from Space Odessy?

 

it's another style of lenovo,and use some tech of Thinkpad also combination with some new tech,such as face idetify.

 

But as I mentioned in another thread, ThinkPad's build quality drops as Lenovo releases more consumer notebooks. We've already seen this when 3000 series came out. ThinkPads are no more ThinkPads nowadays.

 

I'm familar with it, what about it?

@visiom, I believe that ThinkPads are still ThinkPads. The build is still bar none and important features like the keyboard remain intact. The only questionable aspect is the Lenovo customer service.

 

My first laptop was a 3000. It was a really good machine. It's screen was not as nice, it didn't have the wide viewing angle and it's true, the hinges were plastic. But it was a very fine machine and having it induced me to buy a thinkpad. I'll always be glad that I bought that machine.

 

"I'm familar with it, what about it?"

I have an idea for a sublime cartoon.

In the space Odessy, the apes were standing around looking at the monolith. The cartoon would show a tiny insciption in the Monolith's Upper left hand corner. Close examination reveals:

"Thinkpad"

 

Ahaha! Priceless. I mean, the monolith is all black.

 

Renee,

I love the plain black look. it adds class and style to the notebook. eye candy is just eye candy....the black is what makes a thinkpad stick out

 

I know in my office, early in the morning, it tends to pull my eyes out.

 

Perhaps, rather than learning to kill (which they do in the movie), the apes at this point could engage in some other intellectual activity--building the first wheel, learning to ignite fire, writing and calculating . . . or using Thinkpads.

 

I share your sentiments. We still haven't learned not to kill.

 

I'm at least a bit glad the IdeaPad is built to compete (in style) with the Dell XPS M series in mind as well as the HP notebooks (those with inlay graphics on the shell). Imagine the horror if the IdeaPad is WHITE!!

Seem like A LOT of product these days are all white coz' of Ipods and MacBook and other Apple products.

MacBook and MacBook Pros only come in white, black and silver. All monotone color.

I've been eyeing a Thinkpad for years now and I'm glad I just bought one recently. The main reason is coz' of the all black casing, keyboard and built quality.

As I've never owned a prior IBM era Thinkpad, I find this Lenovo T61p built quality exceeding the Dell Inspiron 600m (3 year old) that I'm replacing it with. May not be a fair comparison, but the Dells, HPs, Sonys that I've the opportunity to *play* with, I dislike them for one reason or another. Perhaps coz' of my bias towards Thinkpad - or coz' it is black

 

I find that the thinkpad is the highest performing state of the art machine, although today I saw that Dell sells its top of the line mobile workstation will a duo core extreme.

On the other hand, I find that I get a little tired of "just black". On the other hand, Dell high end machines are brown and grey another yuck. I'm thinking that some forms or combinations of creame may be nice.

 

Creme would be nice for females. I myself prefer dark brown.

 

RIGHT !!!! There's a large message there about Thinkpads.

 

Even if people say thinkpad quality dropped it is still better quality than a dell, hp, sony, or toshiba (owned notebook brands). Plus Thinkpad are so damn cheap now comparing to the old days. They gotta cut cost some where for more people to afford it.

 

i cant wait til this thing is available, hopefully you can customize it on the site. i wish i knew wat time it was gonna be available, hopefully 12:01 or so, but probably more like 2 or 3 am or something.....

i just hope it has the option for a matte screen...

 

It's Lenovo now not IBM.

 

Thinkpad is Lenovo biggest selling point, look around the forum you can see that. They would and have to somehow maintain the quality of the thinkpad.

 

"They gotta cut cost some where for more people to afford it."

This is not at all the way corporations work. The object of the game is profit. The goal is to identify a product which has a price point that will maximize that profit. Who can afford it makes no difference. Who can't afford it makes no difference. Quality makes no difference unless what is being marketed is quality. Profit is the metric.

I am seriously wondering about the "quality" issues. When I was a little girl, everything except hula hoops and dolls were made of metal. When you used to buy a refrigerator or washing machine it was almost a lifelong purchase. Orange juice sqeezers were made out aluminum and many generations could squeeze orange juice off of one of those. Certainly it's almost a universal the quality is down from what it was in the sixties. That's not Lenovo, that's the entire world.

Now the world has shifted to plastic. Thinkpads are a part of that. Thinkpads are now made of a carbon fiber plastic. Why? Because that's what is available and that's what manufacturers are making. Does Lenovo profit off of that? No doubt. But they don't sit around and ask each other, "how can we reduce quality?" What they do ask is "How can we make the best machine with what we are making machines with and make a profit?"

 

I agree with you about the metric being profit, Renee. And also about the standard of laptops becoming plastic nowadays. I think the original ThinkPads had magnesium alloy lids if I'm thinking correctly, but they switched to plastic because it provides better wireless reception.

 

Not for all of us. I prefer basic black. Goes with everything.

 

Well, it does go with my shoes......

 

I think the ideapad looks nice. I've often thought that if I could change one thing about the look of my T61 it would be a glossy black. Yeah, I know... fingerprint magnet. However, this matte black finish can get rather grimy looking too.

Anyway, if Lenovo doesn't through quality to the wayside, this is a smart move for them. build quality + eye candy = a winner! We'll see.

 

I don't want a flashy red machine, nor Barbie hot pink, not Dell Brown and grey, Lamborghini yellow. I'd like something warm and not dead. Your glossy black would even be an improvement.

 

That's an important point.

I, on the other hand, can't wear cream, beige, camel, etc. I just disappear into it. ;-)

 

I just checked the full specs of the Ideapad, and although it does admittedly look nicer than the Thinkpad, is it true that it will only come in an integrated graphics card?

 

IdeaPad isn't intended to be better/nicer than a ThinkPad, it's a different class of machine. It probably will be limited to onboard video, but we'll have to wait and see. Most home/multimedia applications don't require workstation-like performance.

 

I must admit, I like the edgeless LCD screen idea

 

I agree. Though, I misunderstood the feature at first. I thought the screen would stretch from edge-to-edge without having any frame/bezels at edges.
That would be much more appealing and spectacular

I am sure it will come one day though. It seems Fujitsu are the ones who are closest to achieving this, with their very thin side bezels.

 

It may be spectacular but it would also not be durable.

 

Wow, the 15" Y510 only comes with "Up to Intel® Core™2 Duo T5550 (1.83 GHz, 2 MB, 667 MHz)".

Looks like you have to get the monster 17" Y710 to get a beefy processor "Up to Intel® Core™2 Duo T9300 (2.5 GHz, 6 MB, 800 MHz)".
Which looks pretty sweet!

I also just noticed that the screens are glossy. That doesn't bother me, I like them, but there are going to be a bunch of glossy/glare bashers that will hate it.

 

*raises hand**

i like my matte just fine, wish it came in matte, but i might have to deal with it....

both are available on tigerdirect, the y510 is in stock, while the y710 says "ships within 2-5 days", which most likely means they dont have it yet, cause it doesnt come out until the 10th. cant wait to see some reviews. im so ready to buy a new laptop right now....

 

Intel isn't making the Core™2 Duo T9300 processor available to the public until Jan 9 so that's why the Y710 can't be available any sooner.

 

hmm I think you gotta provide facts to back up your claim instead of saying (like a lot of people) that thinkpads are not what they used to be. It would be especially ridiculous if the only reason is that it's not IBM that makes them anymore (as I noticed in your sig). As far as I know, the 3000 series is aimed at consumers and not business users. I don't see how releasing new lines of laptops will affect the thinkpad line.

 

I have an N100 and the hinges are metal.

 

Exactly. When Lenovo bought the IBM PC Div, they bought all the whole thing...soup to nuts. They got the engineers, designers, sales, everything. Thinkpad is still designed by the same people, built in the same factory, etc. The only real change was the HQ & supply chain, which is much better under lenovo.

Ideapad is a consumer laptop. So it makes sense that it would have a glossy screen and might not have some of the rugged engineering and protection features that you pay for in Thinkpad.

I own a N100...and it's a great laptop. My wife has dropped it once, and lucky it survived without any effect. It doesn't look or feel like the T60p I use in the office, but my son and wife like it better than my Thinkpad.

I'm very interested in the Y710. My N100 has an nvidia graphics card, but he would love to have a bigger card and the 17" screen. He's already asking for one for Christmas '08.

 

Just to clarify my above post (cough cough airmcnair06).

I'm trying to say that Lenovo has the T9300 processors to build the laptops. They just aren't allowed to sell them to the public until after Jan. 9

 

hehe. i know. i thought you meant that its not possible for lenovo to have them in there yet since they only come out on the 9th. I was gonna say "thats crazy, manufacturers get stuff early all the time...

but yea, i misunderstood.

thanks for clearing it up cause the wording looks tricky, or maybe cause it was so late....