Your Lenovo notebook wishlist

there is no X220s

 

Well, if there is no error and those are x220 with i3 ULV's, then it "might" be considered as successor to x201s, sure x220 and x220s would only have differences in name and CPU type and thats where differences will end, but that would be just like in case of x220 vs x220i.
Plus, there are couple of ULV x220 available, Erik has one, right ?

Lets ask him a quesiton - Erik, do you consider your x220 to be regular x220 or x220s judging by CPU difference ?

 

You can get X201 with ULV CPU, the s designation on the X20xs designate a slimmer model of the X20x, which these X220 with ULV are not.

 

with an i5-2537M, 4-cell (making it just as slim as an X200s/X201s), and slim/lightweight profile (26mm/1.02", 1.3kg/2.85lbs), the only 's' element it lacks is a high-res display option.   since not all X200s/X201s models were sold with high-res displays and no X60s/X61s models had higher than 1024x768, i'd say a ULV IPS X220 is as close as one can get to an modern-day X220s.

it's not an X220s by marketing definition but could easily be considered one by heritage and design.   however, it's an "X220" without question.

 

I seriously doubt it. The chip, drive, etc., in fact all the important (read as: pricey and electronic) parts where microminiaturization has had to be applied with concomitant high R&D are made by third parties. The case, etc. are just smaller parts made in the same way as the X220 chassis, surely with the same sort of manufacturing processes.

Yes. I thought we'd addressed that. People always want more for their money.

In any event this particular argument is academic. Lenovo is perfectly within their rights to make customers pay more for more value, whether or not it could have been mass-produced at cost savings or not.

That keeps being restated, but without any support. Does anyone have sale statistics on just how many consumers buy ThinkPads these days? There are whole lines of them now targeted at consumers.

 

idk but here at UBC, thinkpads almost outnumber macbooks

 

Im at NC State and Thinkpads (from my experience) outnumber Macbooks.

 

The Lenovo brand has really taken off in the U.S. in recent years, thanks to heavy marketing of Lenovo products to consumers. This includes ThinkPads.

ETA:

"CCI MacBook Pro and Lenovo Thinkpad sales tied"
http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2011/08/mac_lenovo_0823

"Lenovo Black Friday Sale Slashes ThinkPad, ThinkCentre Prices"
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373238,00.asp

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2010/gb2010024_825876.htm
"Marketing to Consumers
Lenovo is still trying. Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research in Singapore for market-research firm IDC, credits the company with launching more consumer-friendly computers at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, where Lenovo showed off new laptops in white and red. "Back in the old IBM days, you could get a ThinkPad in whatever color you wanted, as long as it was black," says Ma, who also likes the way Lenovo is focusing more on its consumer laptop brand, the IdeaPad. When it comes to marketing, "Lenovo is making strides," he says."

 

Ok then, I know that its not "real" S model, but its still as real as "i" model is
Can you confirm that there are x220 ULV i3/i5 models available, since I couldnt find any in Tabook?

 

no ULV i3 options are offered in the X220.   the only one is a i3-2310M at standard voltage with 35W TDP.

the only ULV options are the i5-2537M, celeron 847, and pentium 957—none of which were ever officially slated for the US market.   this is why you won't find them in the thinkpad PSREF sheets.

my mom has a celeron 847 in hers and it came labeled as an X220i.

 

erik- How does someone get an ULV x220? I know I spoke to you about seeing the i5-2537 on the DOS page, and you said it wouldn't have gone through. Is there a way to get one by speaking to someone or emailing them? Even the DOS page no longer has ULV options.

 

ULV is not offered as an option in the US, if you need one of these you probably would need to source it from countries where it is sold. Maybe Japan?

 

~350: you could try calling sales to ask if one could be special ordered.   i have no idea if they'd have ULV options as a manual CTO config though.   it never hurts to ask.

 

You might be able to find sales numbers, but Lenovo's not going to bust that information out. That was just my impression from knowing and speaking to people who work at and with Lenovo. I think you're right in that the consumer side of the business is growing, but we're taking about the traditional ThinkPads here - T, W and X, where consumers i.e. the people who use coupons have little sway. Perhaps that will change down the road.

You have to understand manufacturers are under enormous cost pressure. Gone are the days when institutional buyers will drop $2k on a notebook and why you get notebooks like the X120e. As soon as they raise prices $25 it costs them sales. That's why IBM got out of the business.

 

... but ThinkPads, like other notebooks, are offered with a range of options. Despite what you and others keep saying, that Lenovo only offers the dirt-cheapest options to satisfy the big corporate buyers, they offer a range of options for all of their models.

So despite all corporations everywhere theoretically buying the lowest-priced laptops, and Lenovo only developing the lowest-priced options on that basis, we have screen upgrades and all types of other ones too. It's just true that Lenovo lags behind the competition in some ways, for instance in screen quality.

I really don't think it's true that consumer sales are a drop in the bucket for Lenovo, to the point that they only care about corporate orders and needs. Nor do I think that there is no room for improvement at Lenovo in the design department. I just can't wrap my head around why some people here assume that Lenovo is doing the best job possible with their laptop offerings. They're doing a good job, but not a perfect one; there's room for improvement.

I also just don't buy the rationale that Lenovo can't offer better screens due to the need to (gasp) keep extra parts on hand for years to come, and do a little R&D! They pass those costs on to the customer. Nor do I buy the 15,000 advance order necessity, which is obviously false.

But in the end the biggest thing I just can't understand is this negative attitude towards a suggestion that Lenovo improve in areas of weakness.

 

if i add a third mic from the headphone/mic combo jack i would like an option to use all three mics at once for background noise reduction

 

I don't think it's negativity you're seeing, but being realistic about what Lenovo can and cannot do. The people at Lenovo are pretty smart and Lenovo has been in notebook business for almost 20 years. I'm sure if they could find a way to build every machine with an IPS screen(or pick whatever feature you want) and make money on the deal, they'd do it, but it's not as easy as flipping a switch. I personally would be very interested in something like a T420 with an IPS screen. I don't need a ton of mobility and having the option to put a platter drive in the modular bay is very appealing to me, but we're not there yet. It's my hope as Lenovo figures out how to do this with the X220, they'll bring it to other machines, but good things sometimes take time.

 

No. They have not.

The iPad and iPhone 4 have IPS screens, as do some of their desktop monitors. But none of Apple's laptops have IPS panels.

 

I think Lenovo probably considered the premium hd in the X220 due to the X200 screen mod. And those people whom modded their system showed Lenovo that people are really willing to folk out the extra 200 odd dollars for better quality LCD, so it was a no brainer for Lenovo to just pick up from where the mod community left off. There was a clear demand and Lenovo just find the right supply to make it available to the customer base.

If Lenovo could find a cheap source of the 14 inch or 15 inch IPS then i think they would have jumped at the chance of offering such screen to the end consumers.

But the IPS on the X220 is amazing compares to my X200 with the regular TN LCD.


@Erik, how much extra battery you can get from the ULV model compare to the regular Voltage model on a 4 cells or 9 cells?

 

comparing the i5-2520M and i5-2537M each with 4-cell batteries over the last six weeks, ULV gives ~30-45 additional minutes of runtime depending on activity.   total runtime on the 4-cell is ~4-4.5 hours with 8GB and an intel 320-series SSD.   i can add another ~15 minutes dropping to a single 4GB module.   with wireless disabled and low brightness, one could potentially push 5+ hours on a flight.   i've not tested that yet.

 

that is considerable power saving. So does it feel sluggish with the AutoCAD or Photoshop?

 

not really.   it's easy for the GPU to handle somewhat complex CAD models at 1366x768.   photoshop runs like a champ for anything i'd need to do while mobile.

rendering and ray tracing are an absolute chore though.   but, i wouldn't give this task to anything short of a quad core.   not long ago i read one instance of someone claiming to render on an i7 X220 and had to ask myself how painfully slow that must have been.