Lenovo CES 2019

[amardeep]

Strictly speaking it's too early for this thread, as I haven't seen any rumours about the 2019 Thinkpads, but since I made the Lenovo CES 2018 thread I thought I'd get in early and do it anyway. If anyone's seen / heard anything feel free to post.

The best I can do is to point out that there is an empty T490 psref page at https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T490 - yes, exclusive news, the new 14" T-series will (probably) be called T490

As usual, I would love a T26 / T490s Classic / something with the new old keyboard with worldwide availability. Expectations of something turning up with this - pretty much 0%. An X390 to compete with the Dell XPS13 would be nice. I suppose the latest CPUs will turn up in much the same range ?

[Ibthink]

I suppose the latest CPUs will turn up in much the same range ?

Yes. In fact, the next ThinkPad generation will use "Whiskey-Lake", which is a very small update of the Kaby-Lake-Refresh chips in current models. With the 2019 ThinkPads, the interesting changes are anything but the CPU.

Speaking of the upcoming ThinkPads: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Th ... 676.0.html E series is likely to be out first (as usual).

[amardeep]

Firmly in the speculative category of rumours, but fwiw

The source reported that Samsung has successfully developed a notebook OLED panel with a 4K resolution. They will be available the following sizes of 13.3 inches, 14 inches, and 15.6 inches. Samsung is actively negotiating with HP, Dell, and Lenovo to supply these panels. Of course, it will launch its own notebook as well.

The report said that the new products developed by Samsung Display have a high resolution, low blue light, wide viewing angle, and thin thickness. Industry insiders predict that there will be many notebook computers using this (and not only) high-resolution OLED panels in 2019.

https://www.gizchina.com/2018/12/03/sam ... -ces-2019/

[Dekks]

Didn't laptop use of OLED suffer from hi energy usage and screen burn? enough that most vendors dropped it.

[Ibthink]

It is true that OLED has some technical disadvantages compared with IPS LCD screens, but it wasn't dropped because of these small problems. It was dropped because Samsung stopped making the screens.

[Puppy]

No, there won't be any T26.

There were more issues, probably due to a wrong Lenovo implementation. You can read tons of posts X1 Yoga OLED has pixelated black screen. I have two Microsoft mobile phones with OLED displays and none of them exhibits a single issue (unlike Huawei P20, Pixel 2 XL and so on). That's why Windows 10 introduced the 'dark mode', to resolve OLED power consumption issues.

But decent quality LCD still has its advantages, unfortunately you can't expect it from Lenovo, regardless of the high price tag.

[amardeep]

No, there won't be any T26.

It does seem strange to develop the keyboard and never use it again, but I'm not surprised given Lenovo's lack of enthusiasm (even the T25 seemed to get done reluctantly, god knows which individuals managed to get that into production).

[Puppy]

Lenovo made 5000 boxes total of the T25 (625 for Europe only ). The project http://blog.lenovo.com/tag/retro+thinkpad was driven by David Hill, the former Chief Lenovo Designer. The original idea was to design a true 25th anniversary ThinkPad again (no 16:9, 7-row keyboard, display lid latches, ThinkLight, LED status etc) but it ended up as T470 with 7-row keyboard only. And yes, the company hated it so much because they want to produce tons of generic junk machines only using the cheapest components available, not a niche product for professionals.

[MikalE]

I still want to know what Lenovo is going to name the T series in 2020.

[Puppy]

to name the T series in 2020.

Tx00 ?

[TPFanatic]

Now that two-digit names have returned a la T25, P40, P50, P70, I anticipate that is where the names will go to.

X20

T40
T50

L30
L40
L50

E40
E50

And so forth.

How they'll reconcile that with the X1, P1 oddities is beyond me.

[dr_st]

Lenovo made 5000 boxes total of the T25 (625 for Europe only ).

I don't believe it. This was probably only the initial run; however, I have no conclusive evidence.

And yes, the company hated it so much because they want to produce tons of generic junk machines only using the cheapest components available, not a niche product for professionals.

This I do believe. Then again, can you blame them? They have no competition and the world is full of morons anyways.

[Puppy]

They have no competition and the world is full of morons anyways.

Theh had no competition. Now is it just generic laptop with a lot of issues as other brands have, or even worse.

[dr_st]

Now is it just generic laptop with a lot of issues as other brands have, or even worse.

I disagree with that as well.

The relative qualities of Thinkpads vs other brands has not really changed for as far as I can remember. Ever since I joined this forum, people have always been saying that "Thinkpads are getting worse". In some ways they did, in others they got better.

The only deal-breaker for me now is still the keyboard, and even their 6-row (which is not good enough for me) is much better on a Thinkpad that on any other laptop, so in that sense at least, Lenovo still has no competition.

[Puppy]

The relative qualities of Thinkpads vs other brands has not really changed for as far as I can remember.

Read this forum https://old.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/ from time to time.

There are endless recurring issues, especially with top models like P or X1 Extreme:

• Changing some BIOS settings bricks the motherboard (the issue affects several models for at least 6 months and Lenovo completely ignores it)

• Build quality like broken touchpad and so on ... you paid $2000+

• High temperatures and loud fan - repasting (or undervolting) usually helps because it was done poorly in the factory

The keyboard mechanics is still good but in selected models only. The ThinkPad branding in general won't guarantee it any longer, for instance ThinkPad 13 one is terrible.

EU pricing of top workstation models like X1 Extreme is insane (first UHD configuration starts at 4200 Euro over here and there are no discounts) compared to HP and Dell (1660 Euro) competition having similar specs.

[dr_st]

a. It does not necessarily mean that there were no "endless issues" 10 years ago; maybe it's just that there was no Reddit community to talk about them to death.
b. Even if there are more issues than before, it still does not make Thinkpads 'generic' laptops. They have unique and useful features still.

[Puppy]

They have unique and useful features still.

The last one is trackpoint. Touchpad is getting more bigger and trackpoint has been transformed into the low profile version because number of corporate customers who prefer it is close to zero. So we can expect it to disappear soon or later.

Good message for me is, I no longer need any laptop as a main machine so I don't care. It is just sad, that all current laptops are crap by either removed features or quality control decline. I still watch 3:2 ones but rather for fun than a need.