Thinkpad X300 Specs Leaked 372
Kyokushi writes "Gizmodo reports that some specifications of a new ultralight Lenovo X300 have been leaked. 'It appears that Lenovo have themselves a new ultralight X300 series Thinkpad — and outside of the price and release date, we have all of the specs that you need to know. At a glance, some of the major features include: a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen, an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor, and Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ), a 64 GB SSD, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, and 4 hours of battery life.' If this is true, then Lenovo looks to have some heavy competition for the Macbook Air." Update: 01/20 22:55 GMT by S : Corrected Gizmondo->Gizmodo.
Gizmondo is a failed handheld (Score:5, Informative)
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Light? (Score:2, Insightful)
Behold! (Score:4, Informative)
Black Air.
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OS X Intel does not work all that well on Thinkpads if you actually want to use them as a laptop. It installs just fine and some people actually use theirs that way. However, sleep mode doesn't work due to an incompatibility between OS X and the Thinkpad's ACPI implementation regarding power states S1 vs. S3; the computer will fail to wake up and give a BIOS error message that the system configuration has been tampered with, after which you need to go into BIOS setup, go out again and
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I hope not.
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Need video and wireless specs (Score:5, Insightful)
This sounds really interesting, but I'm waiting to hear more about video and wireless card. Thinkpads have been very good for me in running Linux, but Linux on laptops these days often comes down to the video card, modem, and the wireless card. Modems are usually winmodems, which are hard to support - but I haven't used a modem in years. Anyone have other details to point to?
Re:Need video and wireless specs (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Need video and wireless specs (Score:5, Informative)
Card readers and express card slots went the way of the floppy and serial port.
Re:Need video and wireless specs (Score:4, Insightful)
- Add a(nother) GigE port.
- Add a discrete GPU and a second monitor port.
- Add an external disk interface with enough bandwidth to run a RAID array.
There are probably a few others I haven't thought of.Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Is there a tablet version? (Score:4, Interesting)
Light is nice but Steve Jobs seems to have a bit of a Clive Sinclair complex. He just pushes the envelope one bit too far. Sinclair did it on cheap (microdrive not a floppy), Jobs does it on practicality (no exchangable batteries).
The Lenovo looks like it is slightly less cool but a lot more practical. I bet you can swap out the battery. In fact I bet that nobody even thought of not allowing the user to swap it out.
Looks to me like this is a deliberate, sanctioned leak in response to the Air. Looks like solid state drives are becomming mainstream. Getting rid of the mechanical components from the board is going to make it much easier to do thin.
I suspect that the actual battery life is 3 hours and 6 with the extended battery pack, my T43 still does that reliably with two year old battery packs.
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I like the specs better (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I like the specs better (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:I like the specs better (Score:5, Insightful)
Catch up, indeed.
Re:I like the specs better (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows API/ABI at least is stable. Apple's new OS is less so. I wander how long it will take for 10.0 apps to be unusable. The only "problem" with 64-bit Vista is you can't run Windows 3.1 apps anymore.
I know you can argue that manifests are nasty and all that, but at least the overall situation with manifests is a little better than the old DLL-hell we used to experience. Apple has a better solution from user standpoint, though it has its shortcoming (ie. app bundles).
But if you are speaking from a programming world (as someone that writes software for all 3 OS - OS X, windows and Linux), Linux's userland is way ahead in the programmer friendliness. Stuff just works. Tools just work. Automation just works. In this light and my experience, both X and Windows are light-years behind.
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It's not GUI polish that's the issue.
It's little things like Time Machine and a search facility (Spotlight) which actually works.
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I have a gigabit ethernet in my 4 year old Thinkpad X40, where can you connect that to your Air? 10MB/s isn't really state of the art transfer speed these days...
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If someone made a decent battery-operated router, I'd be even happier.
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It depends a lot. The idea is nice, but also has a lot of disadvantages:
* You'll have to find a power plug for this thing (yes, also for the laptop, but finding one power plug is easier than finding two)
* The companies security policy has to allow you to install a wireless device into the network
* The wireless device has to be able to authenticate properly to the customers network - support a variety of 802.1x/EAP authentication schemes
* I would probably lose the device in a week
Especially #2 wou
FunctionForm (Score:5, Insightful)
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To me, the Thinkpad looks like a better laptop than the Macbook Air, because it's got an optical drive, three USB ports instead of one, built-in ethernet, and a faster processor. But why even compare these two laptops, instead of comparing a Macbook or Macbook Pro to whatever model
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It's easy.
The Air isn't a notebook; it's a wireless portable screen & keyboard for your network (& limited stand-alone use). You walk in, sit down, open it up, and work on files stored on the network. It's not aiming at a market segment; it's aiming at a paradigm.
It's a bold and interesting idea. And it's not quite there yet; at the very least Apple needs to put some work into VPN, automount, & sync support in OS X bef
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Thickness is kind of a concern. I can slip my MBP into a bag and it fits quite well, leaving room for books and things. My old Hitachi notebook didn't leave much room for anything else. My father's Dell even less.
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Missing features... (Score:2, Funny)
why are thinkpads so ugly? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:why are thinkpads so ugly? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ugly?
Some of us think the black boxy design is incredibly sexy. The design behind the Thinkpad is based of the elegant design of the Japanese Bento Box [quickspice.com]. One of think Thinkpads is even on permanent display at New York Museum of Modern Art!
The day these machines stop being black and boxy is the day many of us stop buying them.
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My Macbook Pro's keyboard does all that I need in both OS X and Windows, and doesn't have all of the extra keys and extra writing on them that the Thinpads do.
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I'd only trade my Thinkpad for another, newer Thinkpad. It's simple, lightweight, elegant and extremely reliable.
Re:why are thinkpads so ugly? (Score:4, Informative)
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/10/richard_sapper/index_01.htm [businessweek.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad [wikipedia.org]
It's a nicely detailed design. His most famous design would be the Tizio lamp, as seen in flash offices in movies from the 80's:
http://land.liquid-light.org/tizio/tizio-treff.jpg [liquid-light.org]
You can kinda see the same aesthetic carrying over: simple, straight lines, technical, precise.
Sapper is an interesting guy - no industrial design training, just picked it up and got world famous.
Since then, IBM/Lenovo seem to have diluted the original design intent until now all you've got is the fact that it's black and boxy. I don't think they really understood the design language they inherited, and most of the stuff in the ThinkPad line is just darn hideous. Lines and edges all over the place, arbitrarily mixed with curves (NO curves in the original). The fact they claim lineage in that he 'influences' their current design doesn't convince me he actually creates it.
mod (-1): pretentious - go ahead...
Damn right. (Score:3, Interesting)
Also I love the 'nipple' pointer. So much nicer to use than a trackpad (although mysteriously I find myself in a greater minority on this every day). If I want to move the cursor across the screen, it's easier/faster and doesn't leave me pawing away like a cat at a window.
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Some of us think the black boxy design is incredibly sexy.
I don't think the ugliness I see comes from the black boxy design of the outside, which isn't too bad. It's kind of nice all closed up, except for that stupid multi-colored logo on top. But when you open it up the damn thing is full of various holes, marks and different colored buttons that make it look almost like they forgot to put the final case on it. Personally when I opened the linked article the first thought that came to mind was, "How do they manage to make these things so damn ugly?!" with the ne
Re:why are thinkpads so ugly? (Score:4, Insightful)
My laptop is about a year old and only travels occasionally. It looks great except for all the scratches, discolouration, chips etc. Unless you always store your laptop in a padded laptop bag, in a separate compartment from the power adaptor and other accessories it will only stay pretty a few months.
You can just throw a Lenovo in the boot every day and a couple years later it will come out looking the same - see your comment above
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Generally, yes, but that's not entirely correct. The color/finish of the keys reflects light to the point of glare when using the built-in light thingy, and keyboard wear is more noticeable because the lettering is white against black. Moreover, lint, dust, dead skin, and in my ca
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MacBook and ThinkPad not really competing (Score:5, Informative)
The guy on the Gizmondo blog that compared it with Volvo vs Porche got it right (a car analogy always helps
The rest of the bloggers aso got it right, they focused on how ugly, boring, old fashioned, and conservative the Thinkpad looked (it looked like every other Thinkpad), which is exactly what the Thinkpad market wants. They don't want something looking flimsy and flashy as they would consider the MacBook Air to look.
No pricing, no game (Score:2)
If this is true, then Lenovo looks to have some heavy competition for the Macbook Air.
It can't be a competitor until Lenovo releases pricing, and I doubt Lenovo considers the very niche-market Macbook Air to be a competitor. Also, Apple's shipping units in a week or two, and Lenovo hasn't officially announced their product yet (and they missed doing so at CES, not a good sign.)
I know it's hard to resist the comparison, but just because they're both ultralight doesn't mean they're competitors. Success
Ultralight 2.5 pound (Score:2, Funny)
Good it's not one of those ultraheavy 2.5 pound laptops.
Is it actually a Thinkpad? (Score:5, Interesting)
A quick glance at the picture suggests it could be either way- it has the keyboard light that most thinkpad users come to love and adore yet the screen hinge looks plastic instead of the heavy duty metal hinges that give thinkpads that smooth and secure feel while adjusting the screen you just don't see with most other laptops.
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According to TFA the top is carbon fibre, the base is magnesium alloy. That is the same as regular Thinkpads. Its a functional choice.
I suspect that they have other models comming out, they just decided to leak the
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Please get rid of the stupid window keys
Says you. The Windows key is indispensable in Windows and is very useful in Linux. I find myself wishing my old Thinkpad keyboards had them. If you're upset over the smaller Ctrl or Alt, just remap the Windows key to one of them.
and useless finger print readers
What's your problem with the fingerprint readers? They cost like 10 dollars extra and you don't have to use them.
don't ... get rid of the 14.1 (non widescreen) XGA format.
It's not the aspect ratio but the display quality that matters to most people. I personally have no idea why anyone whose vision is not seriously impaired would use a
Target Market (Score:3, Insightful)
lenovo already has ultralight... (Score:5, Informative)
Lenovo already has a computer in the ultralight space, the X61. The X61 has almost identical specs to the macboook air, at a much lower price and significantly higher clockspeed.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3765 [notebookreview.com]
Looking at this new machine, I really like that they've lowered the weight more and slightly increased the screen size; however, I have to wonder what the point of a 1440X900 resolution is at 13' inches.
I also have to ask what the point of including a touch pad is, when you have one of those "keyboard nipple" trackpoints. The trackpoints are so ridiculously and unambiguously superior to a touch pad, that it just seems like a waste of space.
The third issue with the new spec, is that it is still VGA output instead of DVI output. Pretty much all modern monitors have DVI inputs, so I don't see the point of going with the old standard.
Finally, I'm not convinced of the benefits of a flash harddrive. If they are saving weight, that's nice (although I'm not sure they are lighter). However, it's a pretty small drive, and it is a myth that flash drives are faster. Flash drives have better random access, but slower sequential access, and most accesses are sequential. Things are going to seem *slower* moving to flash, not faster.
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I agree on the flash drive, they're mostly hype with respect to weight, power and heat. Where a flash drive is beneficial is if it's dropped, the flash is more likely to stay.\
I'm not that convinced of the "wear l
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Is there something to know to effectively use those things?
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My current laptop is a Macbook Pro, and I use the multitouch scrolling and context-sensitive click capabilities of i
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How many fingers do you have? I have at least two (Score:2)
I've used the windows laptop nipples before, and Apple's trackpad implementation is far superior eve when you can only use it for two finger scrolling and panning - never mind the additional gesture controls Apple added to the Air. If you want superior how about instead
Re:lenovo already has ultralight... (Score:5, Funny)
So *that's* why geeks have such a hard time getting laid...
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Having to take your fingers off the keyboard to use the mouse on a laptop is not ergonomic.
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You have now met me. The benefit of not moving your hands from the keyboard to move the mouse is excellent for saving hand stress and time. Oh, and the GP of course.
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Comptetion for the Air? (Score:2)
For those looking for OS X in a similar form factor won't be buying the Thinkpad. I thought that to be obvious.
Dual Core CPU 2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ? (Score:5, Funny)
looks lopsided to me = O o
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on multi-core processors, each core runs at the same clock speed. unless one of the cores burns out, in which case its clock speed becomes 0.
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Re:Dual Core CPU 2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ? (Score:5, Informative)
The S-IPS T series holds that title. (Score:2)
Now you might as well just extend the warranty on an IPS T42p, R50p(unless you've done 1900x1200 screen work), or T60p. The models where you could get quality that you wanted seem not to exist thanks to them.
This is just another distraction.
Non MS-Windows option needed (Score:3, Insightful)
MS-Windows can be preinstalled but licensed separately, meaning there only has to be a single packaging, model, inventory, etc. They could even choose a free, redistributable Linux distro and install that too and the user can have a working machine in minutes, even if they opt to not spend money on Vista. Initialization of the machine can automatically remove the space consumed by either, based on the user's choice.
I kinda doubt Microsoft would allow such competition, though... but it seems a reasonable objective to combat such restrictions based on an anti-trust lawsuit.
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I don't really want to spend money on a commercial SuSE Linux (or Redhat Linux), since that isn't the Linux I would use
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Hrmph. For the record, the BSDs work great with Thinkpads. And believe it or not, there's lots of BSD users, and lots of BSD users who use BSD exclusively on Thinkpads and elsewhere.
Did I mention BSD?
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LOL!
Well, that is why I support a "no OS" or "free Linux" option, so that users can install whatever they want, including BSD, without being financially penalized. I would rather see a commercial Linux than no Linux or no "no OS" option at all, but I think complete freedom is better.
Footprint vs. Thickness (Score:4, Insightful)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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hmmm (Score:2)
What you've all missed so far... (Score:3, Insightful)
Is that it has both GPS and WIMAX on board. That is what makes it a more interesting and forward looking design than Mac Air. Physically, it's boring. The cornucopia of ports is boring. Laptops have these things. It looks so like every other Lenovo laptop that there's nothing 'must have' about the appearance. But I am convinced that the next killer application will be location sensitive and require ubiquitous mobile connectivity. WiFi doesn't have it and 3G isn't very fast.
Steve Jobs isn't going to lie awake tonight kicking himself because Lenovo have brought out yet another dull black corporate laptop. He's going to be kicking himself about the GPS and the WIMAX.
Who oh why still no DVI? (Score:2)
Maybe the dock will have it (like the ones for the T-series). And by the way: what about eSata? /g.
ps: never had a notebook which wasn't a thinkpad
I want something cheaper! (Score:3, Insightful)
Firefox
Watch Movies
Skype
Urban Terror
Audacity
Thunderbird
Abiword
Civilization 2
Burn CDs
Play mp3s
That system is overkill. Don't get me wrong, extra horse power is always a good thing, but aside from burning a cd, a EEE will do everything I want and (I'm sure) is much cheaper and smaller, and easy to carry. I'd like to see more competition in the ultra cheap department, once I can get something of EEE functionality for $150, I'll be considering lots of extra fun little projects.
I mean, other than running Vista (why would you do that to yourself, anyway?), is there a point to spending more for that much horse power? Ubuntu runs well on a pentium 3 and does 99% of what most people need!!!
Optical Drive? (Score:3)
SSD not ideal (Score:3, Informative)
It's not that I'm against SSDs, but I'd prefer to have both flash and regular hard disk, or a hybrid disk. I've been experimenting with fast thumb drives and CF cards up to 166x, which is rated just like a CD-ROM drive: 1x = 150kb/second, so 166x is 24 MiB/sec. You can go higher form more $$$, maybe 40 MiB/s? Not shabby for flash, but orders of magnitude below a cheap hard drive.
I'm considering going with a SSD for booting and most static data, a nice hunk of RAM with 64 bit linux to avoid much swapping, then a very modest hard disk for thing where there's a writing, including swap space. Why wear out your flash drive to experience frustration.
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Which is the whole problem with spending >$4000 on a laptop. With something that expensive, who wants to risk carrying it around with them? It might get dropped or stolen.
They already have that model. (Score:2)
Since they've axed IPS, that's about it.
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You got that exactly backwards (Score:2)
Unless you fly in the cargo hold, you are completely wrong. The TSA is wanting people with lithium batteries to CARRY THEM ON. You know, the bit of the airplane where you normally sit.
Re:This thing is huge! (Score:4, Interesting)
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