Will There Be An X201 Refresh At CES? (Should I cancel order?)

I piggybacked on those year of end coupons last week and ordered an i5 x201 with 4GB of memory and integrated camera and touchpad for just over $900.

Now I'm seeing early leaks from CES, but no mention of an X201 refresh yet.

Should I cancel my order on the chance they have a new X20(X) refresh with a new form factor and a better price? Or will I be perfectly happy with the X201, especially in terms of price?

 

Yes a replacement will be shown off this month or the next. I would cancel it because I think Sandy Bridge is a good leap over current Nehalem. The new X series will likely have a 12.5" screen, some type of enhancement for faster boots, support for DDR3-1333MHz ram, the new Intel HD graphics, and better battery life. All is worth waiting for to me.

 

Id cancel, 900$+ is IMO a bit steep for laptop that is reaching its end of life
Wait and see what new ThinkPads, beside Edge series, Lenovo brings to market.

I personally cant make up my mind what to do with all these uber refreshes both from Intel and AMD, I might as well sell my ThinkPad when new refreshed ones are going to be available on sale and get something new and exciting tech-wise.
Faster boot and operation, longer battery life(this is where first gen Core CPUs sucked compared to Core2Duo), better integrated 3D capabilities, slimmer and perhaps lighter laptops.
Something tells me that 11.6"/12.5" refreshes might kick current 11.6"/12.1" ThinkPads buts price-performance wise !

 

There will always be something faster/better/stronger around the corner. I just got my X201 (in sig for under 1K) and am loving it for what I bought it for.

Are we really going to see a major leap in performance with the next gen X201? I think unless this new tech is SO REVOLUTIONARY that it will blow your socks off I would keep the X201.
I usually get a new batch of notebooks every 4-6yrs and notice big increases in performance, but from yr to yr I don't notice enough to justify getting the latest model for maybe 1,000+ bones more. This successor to the X201 may be much more expensive with little improvements.

EDIT: There are other factors that may be important like design/style/build quality/etc... that may be too good to pass up though, I can't wait to see the new tech! Maybe I'll sell my collection of notebooks for a new one? Nah, not my style, I keep em' till they die (^_~).

EDIT #2: I guess we should ask you why you bought the X201, it has strengths and weaknesses.

 

Cancel your order. The next gen Thinkpads are around the corner, and it looks like there will be some good new features from Lenovo in addition to some pretty huge performance and battery life increases from Intel. The X-series will also get a complete design refresh similar to other current Thinkpad series are now plus likely more.

And like veer points out, next gen models will at the very least drive down current product prices.

 

Keep your order
New lenovos are always full price when they`re released. Unless your willing to pay close to $2000 and wait until March-April when they will be shipping... for a 20% gain in performance; don`t

For the price you got yours, I don`t think it`s worth paying so much more for a modest gain in performance.

Ordered mine (i7-640m) for 970$ and should get it anytime soon and I wouldn`t trade it for the latest gen at regular price

 

Ok, I'm officially torn.

I'm a full time blogger who just wants a rugged, light workhorse for travel, but I need it to be powerful and zippy enough to stream Hulu and the occasional last-gen PC game without choking.

So my only real concern with the refresh would be if:

1. The refresh is substantially sleeker and lighter.

2. The refresh is more powerful for about the same price I just paid.

2. The unit I just bought for $900 suddenly becomes $650 within a month.

Though I was tempted by the Sony Vaio Z, it was just too expensive for what I plan to use it for, and I like the tinker-friendly aspect of the 201 and the size...

 

Generally, I agree with you but this one might be different. Here's what AnandTech said in their test:

"never have we seen such a big jump in notebook performance between generations"

 

I would say cancel you order as well. There WILL be refreshes of all of the Thinkpad lineup in the next few weeks or so ( at a premium). If you want the latest and greatest, cancel your order, and hold on a while longer

 

If you can wait, I would definitely cancel. New Thinkpads won't be available until probably March/April and by then the previous generation should be less expensive so you can decide then whether to get an old model or a newer one at that time.

 

12.5"??!!
What is the impetus to go bigger?

BTW, I would cancel the order as well. The "return" or saving in 3 months might be significant. However, I always have a habit of waiting too long. Price drops and I still look for further drop.

 

Doesn't look like there is a X2xx refresh at CES. So pessimistically you'd have to wait several months for new models, a few more months for availability, and a few more for 'deals'.
(source: the W500->W510 transition we saw last year around this time)

 

If there's no refresh coming at CES, and any refresh that does appear is several months off with starting prices of $1500 or more, I'd rather hold on to the x201. People seem to love this thing, and I'm sure it will serve me well as a rugged travel pal.

 

The E220s and U260 both have 12.5" screens, so I guess the new X will too.

 

Here's a vote for keeping the X201. Despite all the hype that surrounds all new Intel CPU/platform releases in terms of performance and battery live, it never really pans out that way. If you bought a T40 years ago, what kind of battery life would you get with the six-cell? It'd be about 3-4 hours, which will be about the same as the new T series whenever it is released.

Most of the things people do with their notebooks don't really push the CPU that much. Whether it's a Core or Sandy Bridge will make little difference for typical usage. There certainly are exceptions, but for most it won't matter much. About the best thing Intel/Microsoft could do for performance issues on laptops is fix the bottlenecking of SSDs in low power mode.

Lastly, until further notice, there's no AFFS mod on the new X series. A gorgeous screen will offer a more tangible benefit to most users than the claimed battery life or performance increases.

 

What kind of resolution will that have? Is it 16:10 or 16:9?

 

16:9 sceen.

 

whats the likelihood of the new thinkpads having that new bios? i forget the name but there was news of it a few weeks back.

 

i would imagine price would drop a bit after the release of the new X series. But at 900 dollars it is not terribly expensive for a new X201.

 

Yeah and at that time, there will probably be announcement of something newer.

Otherwise, I mostly agree with what has already been said. I'd like to see an option for a better (matte) screen.

 

Yea, but $2000 for a X201s is.

 

I think you're referring to UEFI (Universal Extensible Firmware Interface) ( see here). To answer your question, probably very unlikely.

 

... We won't really know until someone reviews the new processors with integrated graphics. I hear people have compared their gamming potential with some current GPUs. Which ones I can't remember, but if you can find those articles then compare benchmarks with the games you will play. When I stream 720p/1080p Blue Rays to my X201 it has no problems, don't play games on it though.

... From the looks of the new Thinkpad Edge and x120e, we can say it will look sleek (personal opinion). Lighter though, ?.

... Not likely, unless you know someone at the factory who can slip one out the back door. We never know though, some manufactures have actually dropped prices with higher spec successors.

... Maybe 2-5 months, not one month (^_^).

... The Z is going for 13-1,400 now, still too expensive? I do hate how I have to do major surgery if I want to replace the SSDs on it. If I could do it over I'd get the HDD version and replace it for standard SSD. If the "Sandy Bridge" tech is really that hot and it equals the NVIDIA 330M performance wise then I'd cancel the X201 and get the new model. I feel it is better to get rid of the GPU if possible.

... This is outstanding news, but until I witness this I won't believe the hype, especially when it is easy to pay someone to say anything.

 

I read the Anandtech review. I believe it's this link: Intel?s Sandy Bridge: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

They reviewed some Compal laptop with Sandy bridge. The battery life seems great.

 

I have the X201 and love it... but...
Next refresh will likely have an hdmi port, but it might be in the dock. The big deal at CES this year I expect to be usb 3.0. I would think the next refresh may have usb 3.0, but I wouldn't expect it as early as CES.

 

AnandTech seems pretty reputable and credible (in my opinion).

I agree with you all that we've heard this hype before though

 

I take that statement back. 720p plays fine, 1080p choppy.

 

Lenovo announced they are using mPCIe SSDs in their next range. That offers a lot of flexibility for the X201 refresh. It could be ultrathin and compete with a 11.6" MBA, or it could use a mPCIe SSD + 9.5mm ultrabay/ODD storage setup. The HM65/QM67 chipset too may offer pci-e 3.0 specced expresscard/mPCIe slots for very impressive DIY ViDock performance.

I'd cancel my current X201 order knowing a major step up in CPU and chipset technology will be available for purchase very soon.

 

For the X-series mPCIe SSD support is a bigger deal than anything else since it doesn't have an ultrabay like bigger models to add a 2nd hdd (without the ultrabase). It'd allow users to have a reasonable size SSD for O/S and a large storage hdd in the normal location.

Between that and the Intel graphics improvements the X-series would be a bigger monster than it already is. I just wish they release another 13" version, but we know that won't happen.

I'm waiting to see what they do with the T410s line before getting one now.

 

Well I like the form factor (including thickness) of the current X-series models. The new ones will have a better CPU... for what it's worth. Unless you plan games or something similar, it will hardly make any difference. Then again, there are much better options for playing games on the laptop than X-series Thinkpads w/ the diy dock. There's also the question of what the price will be on these new models.

 

Thanks everyone for their insight!

I think I'll probably keep this x201 order (I have a ship date of the 18th).

It should be plenty fast enough for me, and there's something about the slightly chunky and rugged nature of the thing I really like. I can also throw in an SSD as prices fall and do the screen update if I find it lacking.

Any new x2 refreshes would likely be out of my price range initially anyway. I just hope the new models aren't too much better looking.

No announcement of any X-series refresh ahead of CES yet....maybe the announcement will come later in the year?

 

CES officially starts tomorrow, the refresh will be here within the week.

 

Technically it starts today for the press, but no x201 announcement so far....CES seems to have gone tablet crazy.

 

On a tangent for anyone. Is this a GPU issue? I thought streaming had to do with the processor.

 

My T400 does DXVA for 1080p fine on the integrated graphics. 5 Series chipset certainly shouldn't have an issue.

Maybe BugMan has a bandwidth issue.

 

I agree with the statement. Even with Core i5-430M (lowest of core i5) i still find it more than adequate for most apps. Never tried for game though.
Even for Office 2010, Core Duo (NOT Core 2 Duo) processor still can chew it easily.

 

I just noticed your questions about vid playback.

I was streaming 1080p vids through my Ethernet and wireless home network (EDIT: From a HDD in my house, not through the WWW) (VPCZ has no stutter with same connection), I even just tested playing off the SSD... still stutters a little. I don't know the FPS, it is not perfectly smooth, BUT very good playback for a GMA HD.

 

Confirmed here, the Series-6 chipset used in Sandy Bridge notebooks has pci-e 2.0 (5GT/s) mPCIe/expresscard and SATA-3 interfaces, plus 2 times faster IGP at ~G320M levels. All good reason to cancel the X201 order and wait for the SB refresh.

 

SATA 3?! In that case I should've bought the Crucial RealSSD instead of the OCZ Vertex II if I'd known earlier, so much for future proofing!

 

Did the refresh announcement of the x201 come or not?

 

No....though another thread has leaked photos....

 

Does this mean that there won't be a refresh for X201 this year?
Or Lenovo cares less about CES?

 

Well, X201 itself was announced in late February 2010 (and became available for ordering in March). So it wouldn't be the first time for Lenovo to announce ThinkPads post-CES.