Here are the first pictures of the all new ThinkPad X1 Carbon: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/15/leno ... x1-carbon/

I've seen photos elsewhere that make this look as if it will be a glossy screen (and the gorilla glass tends to make for not just glossy but annoying screens when not applied very carefully, eg, the first Asus Transformer with its high internal reflectivity.)

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/05/lenovo ... x1-carbon/

for a photo showing a worrisome screen.

for me --- COPYING STUFF ( eg thinderbolt etc) makes more 'TP DIE HARD USERS' more disspointed ! Gone are the days of DRIVING A CAR OVER A LAPTOP tuffness!

X1 carbon version - ones we tested ( part of beta testing) had HUGE HEAT issues - jsut like some of the 'current x220' ......................still trying to ;follow; Mac Pro !

I for one am glad my workplace has decided not to be Thinpad only laptop buyers!

Hey, they addressed nearly every point on my wishlist, 1080p and IPS would have been nice, but I do not want to complain, one thing at a time;-)

Does anyone know, whether it will be all-rubber like the original X1?
The Engadget pics looked like non-rubber plastic, which would be a downside...

As i heard, the screen will be optionally glossy or matte. Let's see!

Does the Carbon have an IPS screen or will that be a CTO option?

No one knows for sure yet. Photos of the prototype Lenovo showing so far indicate that it has a TN panel (poor viewing angle). Several sites quoted Lenovo representatives saying that the X1 Carbon will spot a wide viewing angle monitor, they did not claim it being IPS though. Honestly there isn't much official spec available from Lenovo for this Thinkpad right now. The original X1 was cool but with several flaws: glossy screen, poor TN panel, poor battery life, not really as thin as macbook air or other ultrabooks out there. Of course, it was relatively expensive too, but that's ok if it didn't have the above flaws as it would then stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Not battery life number or other specification info beside the format factor is available from Lenovo yet. I hope it does come with an IPS screen and some decent battery life.

There appeared some presentation about the X-lineup, which says something about the IPS panels and the X1 carbon:
http://www.notteb.com/html/pds_update/2 ... eries.pptx
unfortunately, the slides are greatly inconsistent, so we cannot rely on anything in it...

Some sites are saying that Lenovo representative also mentioned 1600x900 screens being available as an option for X230 too, but I can't find any official info on that. My bet is that supply is still an issue regarding various screen configurations and Lenovo can't really commit to them for now.

Sad to see that ASUS seems to have no problems in providing IPS panels of all sizes...
Looks like Lenovo is missing a trend here.
I still hope that it's not the case.

yips ...
we were for 100s of yrs a TRUE THINKPAD 'user company'...
and after spending long time trying to work with Lenovo on issues like....
- Ordered config = correctly done to ORDER ( ie we get what we order)
- Shipments on time etc
- Quality issues ( eg the crazy specs of 'switcable graphics' ; RAID etc) do actually work from factory !!!

So after 5+ yrs of 'working with KEY ACCOUNT MANAGERS was sad to see the company decided to STOP PUTTING ALL EGGS IN ONE BASKET ( so to speak!) We also aded ASUS and SONY( was users most requested mfg) ....

From last 18mths; stats; - seems most pple who 'got what they preferred' are very happy with their choice. I choose to try SONY's new new Z2 range( purely on specs and weight) ,,,, and still AM AMAZED at this machine! .... and screen(from previous post) ..... has FHD with full 1080P capable screen !! ,, wow and I have had IPS panel since its first release @IBM .....

So yes; SONY & ASUS might not have the WORLD WIDE WARRANTY ( like IBM;s - that LEnovo uses for its repairs world wide) but they are as soild as most CURRENT LENOVO machines.

we have had some ASUS IPS machines - looks GREAT in 13 inch & 15inch screens !

ASUS actually comes with DEFAULT 2 yr warranty - 'world wide exchange' to us. WHich is hard to fault , as if you away from home country and happen to be in ASIA ( ASUS main offices there) ..... you always get a NEWER MORE BETTER specs replacements for yours!!! and YOU get to keep your OLD HARD HARD / DATA for security etc and new laptops often come with newer SSDs etc ..............

Sorry for the blurbs..just not here to rubbish my Old IBM laptops but sad are the days ,,, for this die hard Thinkpad fan! but stating some obvious facts !

X1 Carbon review http://www.3dnews.ru/mobile/630595/ The link has been posted here http://blog.lenovo.com/design/developer ... qus_thread

The display is 14" 1600x900 TN panel

In a thread at NBR a member (tomacher) posted this video in which he suggests to pay attention around the 2:17 mark. Perhaps a few members here speak Russian or understand but the shots of the screen seem fairly impressive for a TN screen.

Thanks for linking that video tomacher

I listened to the video. He said nothing about the screen, but it is evident from the video that it's a TN panel, albeit by the looks of it a decent one and not a complete crap like on the X30x series for instance.

I don't understand Russian, but just by looking at the video it seems to be a good screen, still TN though. Lenovo will have a hard time selling this thing. Unless they are pricing it like the x230/220, it is facing a really tough crowd of competition. Rumors this week from some trusted source are saying Apple is launching a 13" MacBook pro with retina display. Judging by how the price differences between the regulat 15" MacBook pro and the retina display equipped 15" MacBook pro, the 13" will be priced fairly competitively. And remember that the MacBook Airs are not really that expensive nowadays.

So how will Lenovo position this X1 carbon? Does it have enough advantage to price more than the MacBook airs? If yes, it will be competiting directly with the 13" MacBook pro with retina display. And don't forget there are some other nice ultrabooks out there, in particular Asus with their 1080p screens.

Sorry, but what is a TN panel? Why is it so inferior to IPS, which everyone seems to want? I just want a bright hi-res display.

Twisted nematic or TN panels are the most commonly used screens. The benefit to them is they're cheaper to produce and use less power. However, they tend to be of the lowest quality. The are two parts that make for a good screen - contrast and viewing angles. Contrast is a measurement between the whitest white and the blackest black. The higher the contrast, the better the image quality. Viewing angles are the other part that makes for a good screen. Typically on a TN panel as you move off axis the colors will begin to shift. Push your laptop screen back and you'll see what I mean. There some TN panels that offer higher contrast ratios. Apple LCD and the FHD offered on the T530/W530 would be examples of this, but a limitation of the TN panels is they can't offer the viewing angles and it's the contrast in conjunction with the viewing angles that make for screen greatness. This is why people want IPS screens. They offer high contrast and wide viewing angles or in other words, great image quality. Anything that's image centric like photo editing or movies will benefit from having a better screen. If you're just surfing or editing Excel spreadsheets, then a TN panel probably is sufficient for your work.

Thanks for that explanation. I find my current T420s screen adequate, but when I move off angle I see what you mean.

I am trying to decide between the new X1 (specs unknown) and a T430s with an SSD. I am leaning to the X1 because I don't need an optical drive and I like the fact that the X1 is so light. But would a T430s have a better display?

Doubtful.

That's really hard to say right now as the X1 is an unknown at this point. Andrew, one of the moderators over on NBR, has see the X1. He said it was good, though not IPS. My guess would be it'll be similar to Apple displays. It'll have above average contrast, but you won't get the angles. If you click on the Air vs X220 review, about half way down there's some pics of the Air next to the X220 w/IPS LCD. While the Air has a TN LCD that's better than most, it can't match the quality of the IPS X220. I think the X1 display will be better than the T430s, but how much better is the question. Cost is another issue too. If the X1 is priced like the X300 few will probably buy it. If I'm in the market for portable laptop, I'm looking at the X220 or X230 if I don't need an optical. It's light, durable and will probably be more wallet friendly. You lose a bit of resolution, but get a much better screen, a fair trade off in my opinion.

I looked at a Vizio CT 14 at the Microsoft store yesterday. That is one nice little ultrabook, for under $1000. I am seriously thinking about getting one, and not continuing to wait for the X1. Quality seems high. Looks even better than a MacBook Air, in my opinion. Nice keyboard, and not the chiclet that Lenovo has adopted. Bright screen, but unfortunately glossy. Nice aluminum construction. Its not clear to me if the X1 case is carbon fiber, or if its plastic with a carbon fiber roll cage. Like I said, seriously thinking about getting my first non-ThinkPad PC laptop.

..umm.... think THAT REVIEW is the one done by someone who is "mod/user forum" user .....(juz being cheeky pls no flames )
INMHO......air has its OWN SPACE ( orginalator of that market and space - unltra-thin laptops....and everyone is is 'trying to copy or catching up.

demo version of X1 and X230 tablet and laptops were left @ our company some months ago ...... to see NONE of the techie guys even keen to get to it ( in past there would be a 'lottery draw' for these @ first few weeks of DROP OFF !!! sad sad for me personally as I am a die hard THINKPAD user....


There is are three MAC PRO being eval..... by these same pple !
from what I saw and played with in 1 day - runs Adobe CS6 @ sweetnst way and while doing Video Ren'ding and running CAD/CAM apps ( via network ) ... all this with Win7 X64 running on ............pure magic to eyes watching blurray thru exter player !

Cheers - happy 4th everyone !

I just found a site with high-res pictures of carbon insides along with CPU-Z screenshots and some benchmarks:
http://www.3dnews.ru/mobile/630595/

It's in Russian but the pictures speak for themselves.

Some people will be happy to see the grouping and spacing between F1-F12 keys.
One curious fact: In the disassembly photos, the WWAN card is a half-size mini PCIe card, but both the WLAN card and SSD are much narrower than mini PCIe cards, and use a smaller, although similar connector. Is it a new standard form factor for PCIe devices?

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who noticed this. I tried to google this but didn't really get anywhere.

Anyone knows? Is this proprietary?

Tsk, tsk... somebody's posting non-final hardware shots...

It does look good though. The only things I dislike design-wise are the rounded side profile and the hinges. Apart from that it's a very nice-looking ThinkPad.

@ThinkRob: In a thread on the X1c at notebookreview we are discussing how reliable the info of the russian review is, and I was referring to your post here. Now I was asked, whether you have any insider info, or if your post was just an educated guess. Can you help us?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thinkpa ... ost8734584

Actually, we are trying to estimate if the TN panel of the machine the above review saw is non-final or if the Dolby Site stating the X1c having an IPS display is wrong...

Any info on that?

thanks
Hecke

I don't have any inside info about the X1 Carbon. My comment was based on a number of tell-tale signs of the pictured unit being pre-production hardware.

Regarding the panel, I have no idea. In my (limited) experience what you see in units this far along in the development process is pretty close to what you get in the final product, but that's not to say that there couldn't be variants with a better screen somewhere. That said, if I saw a preview unit like this with a TN panel I wouldn't hold out too much hope for a last-minute addition of IPS.

But hey, I don't work for Lenovo, and I've only gotten my hands on a limited number of pre-production ThinkPads, so take all that with a grain of salt. A large one. Like... one that could kill an entire family of snails.

Thanks for the info, ThinkRob.
Great that you joined the other thread.

Can you enlighten me which aspects are typical for pre-production units?

thanks
Hecke

So... any update on when is the X1 Carbon coming out? We have heard nothing from Lenovo since this was announced several months ago.

It depends on where in the development process it is.

Early hardware sometimes has odd-colored or odd-finished chassis parts. An example of this would be the glossy finish on the body plastics of some of the laptops at this year's (and previous years') CES displays.

Another indicator is model designations. While the X1 in the shots don't display this, some of the protoypes that crop up on eBay and similar from time to time have either incomplete or otherwise-odd model names. An example of this was the X300 prototype that I found on eBay a while back: it had an S__ model (I can't recall what the actual string was, but it wasn't X300.)

The most common sign of non-final hardware is the label that you see on a lot of review units: "Not a customer ship-level system". That's pretty self-explanatory, although based on what I've seen the review units that you see that on are usually pretty close to final.

The X1 in the shot also lacks FCC IDs for all of its transmitting components, which means that it's *definitely* not ready for production or sale; the FCC tends to get more than a little irritated if you sell wireless devices without adhering to federal regulations. In fact, the underside is the best giveaway (assuming the photos aren't doctored). The factory ID is missing, the FCC IDs are missing, the text after "Lenovo" is a placeholder, and the model number is what appears to be a hardware revision identifier as opposed to the usual 4-3 model/type grouping. The sticker beneath the serial number sticker is also -- if my guess is correct -- an internal identifier, probably identifying the product, revision/development stage, and providing a unit identifier. (I'm guessing on this part based on what I know about other manufacturer's product development process.)

Oh, and a serial number that isn't publicly recognized by any of Lenovo or IBM's tools is also a good indication that something interesting is going on. Even review units often are recognized by most of the SN lookup tools -- so a system that doesn't exist according to them is at least moderately unusual.

Internal hardware that carries identification of the source of the part is also a sign, although probably less of one for Lenovo than, for say, Apple. (With Apple, internal hardware almost never carries corporate origin marks. The batteries, for example, will list Apple-specific information and a country of origin, but that's about it. Pre-production batteries, on the other hand, identify the manufacturer and/or cell information.) With the X1 in the shots, the WLAN card is notable; Lenovo's cards are semi-custom (Lenovo-specific ID and labels with the part + FRU info.) In the photo, the WLAN card doesn't have a normal label, but instead has the same label that the underside of the machine has. I'd assume this is because the proper labels aren't finalized yet.

In the X1 shot, the battery has part/FRU numbers... but they don't seem to exist anywhere: not on Lenovo's support pages, not in their (public) parts ordering system, and not anywhere on the web.

The power brick has got a "not for sale" badge, missing regulatory markings, and a build date. 'nough said. (Good to see that Delta's doing the power supply though!)

Speaking of obvious giveaways: the WWAN card has a "prototype", "not type approved" label. To my untrained eye that indicates it's a prototype.

So in summary: we have shots of a machine with a "nonexistant" serial number, no proper model designation, numerous odd ID stickers, a host of missing regulatory markings, labels with placeholders, and several components with missing or never-before-seen FRUs.

Yeah, it's pre-release hardware.