X201

[khtse]

Having seen the leaked 2010 roadmap of Lenovo, I had been looking forward to upgrade to X210 once it is released. Yet CES 2010 had come and gone, with no sign of X200 successors...

So I spent some time yesterday searching through a few Chinese Thinkpad forums (usually the source of leaked images), to see if there is any sign of X210 or not.

First of all, it turns out that a prototype of X200t successor did appear at CES, just no one covered it:

http://www.51nb.com/forum/viewthread.ph ... 201&page=1
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfM ... C09920.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfM ... C09921.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfN ... C09922.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfN ... C09925.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfN ... C09927.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfN ... C09930.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfO ... C09933.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfO ... C09935.jpg

It has a touchpad, and is equipped with Core i7! It is clearly a prototype, since the label on it still said X200t, and none of those keyboard improvements nor eSATA+USB port can be found on it. I don't expect X200 series will be equipped with Core i7 though... given the size of the machine, Core i5 will be more likely, afterall they can't fit Core i7 onto T410s either...

A regular X200 with touch pad can also be found here:

http://www.51nb.com/forum/viewthread.ph ... light=x201
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfO ... D%9B_1.jpg

Instead of being called X210 series, it seems that it will be called X201 series instead, see the roadmap here

http://www.51nb.com/forum/viewthread.ph ... light=x201
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wQM8gmNZb8A/S1yfO ... %26amp.jpg

Some discussions on a Taiwanese forum mentioned that some insiders claim that the name X210 is reserved for something to be released later in the year, so these Calpella equipped X200 will be called X201. Why don't they just call them X210 and call that something to be released later X220? I don't know, perhaps X201 will be released without those improvements Lenovo made on the all the "10" machines (larger delete key, eSATA+USB combo port, large Esc/Del keys, lighted mic mute switch etc.)? Just like those leaked photos above?

[Vempele]

I don't expect X200 series will be equipped with Core i7 though...

Why not? The i7-620UM/640UM seem like a perfect fit, and there's no i5 equivalent.

Intel: complexifying processor naming since June 2004 (guess which one is faster: Pentium 4 HT 530 or Pentium 4 HT 620?)

[khtse]

Why not? The i7-620UM/640UM seem like a perfect fit, and there's no i5 equivalent.

Intel: complexifying processor naming since June 2004 (guess which one is faster: Pentium 4 HT 530 or Pentium 4 HT 620?)

Right, I forgot Intel has these ridiculously named Core i7's...

[frankausmtank]

Nice find! Interesting to see they stuck with the 'old' keybord and x301-like trackpoint buttons.. we'll see how the final models turn out. The lack of a touchpad in the past sure kept many potential buyers away from the x series (I personally don't mind), so I was half expecting to see it incorporated sooner or later.

[khtse]

Nice find! Interesting to see they stuck with the 'old' keybord and x301-like trackpoint buttons.. we'll see how the final models turn out. The lack of a touchpad in the past sure kept many potential buyers away from the x series (I personally don't mind), so I was half expecting to see it incorporated sooner or later.

I am not really a big fan of touch pad either. Always hated using it on other people's laptop, until I tried my brother's macbook. Multi-touch gesture is what makes a touch pad really useful (two-finger scrolling and three-finger flip forward/back are the two I really enjoy using). I can live without a touch pad though. However, I can't live with a laptop without a track point these days.

[rookworm]

wow! this looks like my next tp...... I wonder if there will be a non-tablet version?