X1C vs T470s vs T470 in Pictures

Happened to be at a Lenovo Tech Centre today where most of their laptops were on display. Took some comparison pics of the 3 models I was most interested before I decided on an X1C.

Hopefully these pictures will help someone.

https://imgur.com/a/6TnFs

 

Nice pictures!

Though I wouldn´t buy a new ThinkPad T or X unless you really can´t wait, because CES is coming up soon and new models will be introduced.

 

Any news?

 

They screwed up the X280. They made it basically the same as the X1 Carbon. I dont know why they would do that. The whole point is that its thicker than X1 Carbon, has more full ports and powerbridge feature. When you take that away it just becomes the X1 Carbon why even have it be a separate model?

 

There is a big price difference between X280 (starts at 999 $) and X1 Carbon (starts at 1709 $).

The problem is that the X270 was kind of a contradiction – small but much heavier & thicker than the X1 Carbon – it was even heavier than the T470s. The point of the X200-series was always portability and the X270 was worse at that compared with bigger models.

The real issue is of course that the old concept of the Subnotebook died with the rise of the Ultrabook-concept. The selling point of machines like the X220 was their portability, not only in size, but also in weight. However, with the Ultrabooks bigger devices became available that were equally as light or even lighter, while being much thinner. This kinda destroyed the main selling-point of the Subnotebooks, because while many people want a portable laptop, only few people actually like working on a 12.5" screen.

Thats why the X280 is now more or less just a budget-option of the X1 Carbon.

 

What you say is true for mainstream consumers, but not for business users.. mainstream consumers want bigger brighter displays, thinner and lighter notebooks, etc. The problem is this move sacrifices business features. The ThinkPad line to most hardcore ThinkPad users, has been slowly dying off, in favor of becoming more and more like consumer laptops. The X220 is a great example. The pinnacle of old school robustness and design. Old school 7 row keyboard, tons of ports, etc. The X1 Carbon on the other hand (introduced in 2011) is a computer that seems like its meant for mainstream users than for business users, then ever since Lenovo has been slowly transitioning ThinkPads to be more and more mainstream. Gone is the old keyboard replaced by a new chiclet style with less travel. Gone is the ThinkLight. Gone is the VGA port. All to make the chassis thinner. Now with the X280 they removed the PowerBridge feature, made the RAM soldered instead of slotted, removed the 2.5" slot for M.2 slot, removed full size Ethernet port for a dongle. I can't see how many business users would actually be pleased by this, just to get a thinner and lighter laptop.

 

I'd say that's true for a lot of users, not just the consumer side of things.

 

Exactly. The amount of people who really prefer a 12.5" screen is very small.

@ Gofishus,

There are three different groups:

- Consumers

- Enterprise Customers

- ThinkPad Fans / Prosumers

While its true that ThinkPad-Fans / Prosumers may not be happy with the changes to the X280, this group isn't important for Lenovo. Its a niche compared with Enterprise Customers who buy ThinkPads in bulk.

Lenovo (or Dell/HP for that matter) cater to the Enterprise and the Enterprise is also a mainstream market that is influenced by consumer trends. Dell & HP have dropped external, expendable batteries years ago and it apparently did not hurt their Latitude / Elitebook sales.

If the Enterprise requests thinner machines with bigger touchpads, Lenovo will deliver exactly that. They have no interest in building ThinkPads for the ThinkPad-fan niche. The rest of the world has moved on to Ultrabooks.