Better to buy thinkpad now or in August / September

[questo]

Hi,

I am thinking of buying a Thinkpad, but I am not sure as to which one and when. I am based in Europe.

In particular, I am looking for a reasonably portable and powerful notebook. For me, this means ideally, (1) 8GB RAM, (2) I7-26XX processor, and (3) at least 160 GB SSD harddrive. (What I do for a living is relatively computation intensive).

I am unsure between getting a T420s, X220, or X1. (The W series seems to be too heavy, as I do need to carry the notebook around quite often).

Obviously, some of these notebooks above do not meet all the specs. E.g. X1 is currently not available with I7 processor.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to which model to get? Also, I would really like to have an I7 processor and a 320 GB SSD. However, these do not seem to be available in most of the Thinkpads yet. As I am indifferent between buying now or a few months later, should I just wait until some better specs are available? Is there any chance the X1 will be available with I7 processor and 320 SSD in, say, August?

Thanks for any thoughts on these.

[tmx]

I'm not too qualified for advice since I'm looking to buy my first thinkpad too, but I've been researching a bit and these are some reviews I came across:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/advsear ... &f1=Lenovo
http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews/d ... ?brandID=9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69V1XkZ-FeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYL4Qs_cHac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVeNdSN41Tg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKAeXgCZP94

You should customize your Thinkpad from shop.lenovo.com to get the most options. You can get i7 with the X1 now, but I guess 320gb SSD is going to be quite expensive if available and bought from lenovo, I rather buy separately an SSD and install it myself. They wants $450 extra for 8gb ram on the X1 which is insane.

The X220 has an option for IPS display which should be a consideration (lenovo called it "Premium").

Personally I would just buy now because the second gen Intel Core cpus "Sandy Bridge" has arrived. Just make sure you don't buy one that has last gen cpu. Also when you are in the Cart view, look for the ecoupon link on the right.

[pianowizard]

Welcome to the forum!

One quick question: Do you care about screen resolution at all? Both the X220 and X1 have only 1366x768, which seriously reduces productivity IMO. My HP netbook has this resolution and even though I do very basic things on it, I still feel crippled. The T420s has 1600x900.

[ssd_thinkpad]

If your work is computer intensive, take a very good ssd. The slc ones from intel are good.

[questo]

Thanks very much for all your posts.

I'm not sure about the screen resolution issue; I am not that picky. But one of the posts mentioned the "Premium" version on the X220; wouldn't that be OK?

Also, would I be able to put in a 160GB SSD now, say in the X1, and then exchange it to a bigger drive later (e.g., next year)?

[ssd_thinkpad]

The x220 premium panel is an ips panel. There are three kinds of display panels: tn, ips and va. IPS and VA are very good. Usually all lenovo display panels are tn which is rather bad.

Take care which ssds lenovo sells. 160 gb does not tell you how fast it is. You should go with a fast ssd. It is more cost effective to take the cheapest hdd and then buy a ssd for yourself. It may also the only way to have a very fast ssd - I don't know which ssds lenovo uses.

[ZaZ]

With the X220 you can do two drives with the msata drive. That's the way I'd lean unless you want the WXGA+ on the T420s.

[penartur]

With the X220 you can do two drives with the msata drive. That's the way I'd lean unless you want the WXGA+ on the T420s.

Doesn't T420s support mSATA?

[ZaZ]

I think they all do.