Conversation with designer of X60 at CES

[Skywing]

Hello all, I visited the lenovo room yesterday with the sole purpose of checking out the X60 and was suprised to find the designer of it standing right next to it answering questions. Wanting to take advantage of this my friend and I asked him just about every question one could possibly ask so ill start posting some of his answers that I can remember. If you have one for yourself, just post it and if we asked him that, we will post what he said.

The system itself is definatly a little bit thicker to accomidate for the 2.5" hard drive. The drives themselves are SATA and now use the rubber shock mounts that the T series uses. The hard drive was move towards the back of the unit with the mini-pci cards in the front right palm rest and the PCMCIA slots in the front left. The pre-production model he had with him was using a Intel Centrino Duo running at 1.83GHz. He finally put a 4 pin firewire port back on the unit stating that he was upset that the X40 didnt have it so he put it back. As for the color changes to the keyboard, it was nothing to get upset about. He said that in business research studies the colors stood out too much and the grey F keys were not necessary since they were already segregated from the rest of the keys enough. There will be models with Verizon BroadbandAccess (EVDO) built in which will add a small antennea to the right side of the monitor. They finally added an indicator light that specifically shows that the unit is plugged in instead of relying entirely on the battery indicator to do this. He also redesigned the planar board so that there is no longer any pre-soldered memory and both SODIMM slots are accessable from the bottom of the unit and it has a maximum memory capacity of 3.2GB.

As for looking into the future we asked if there was a higher resolution display in the works to which he stated that at least this year there are no plans to increase it since most business customers are uncomfortable with the higher DPI displays.

Finally, I asked the question that is probably on everyones mind:

"Is there a X60 tablet in the works?"

to which he replied "At this time I cannot confirm or deny that", I told him that I would take that as a "yes" and he simply reminded that I didnt hear anything from him. After speaking with him for a good half hour or so and using his X60 for just as much time I will most likely be selling my T42 and getting an X60 tablet once it is available. He didnt tell us an exact date but went into reasoning why there wouldnt be one in february with the X60 release. He specifically stated its been 6 months since the X41 introduction and the release of a new system would be much too soon. When I brought up the one year mark he just kinda smiled and again said he couldnt confirm or deny anything. So I would say to expect it in the next 6 months.

[davidlg16]

Thanks for all that info.

Seems the official release date for X60 is in Feb, and we can indeed start ordering right now

[RS_003]

Oh great,

Please let him read this topic: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19052

And if he wants to, he may reply. (I would like that)

Because I really want to know why he had to *beep* with the keyboard.
Business research ... well ... I never heard a ThinkPad user complaining... so that’s just nonsense, those colours have been on ThinkPad’s since ages.

So in my opinion this really won't make people who before found ThinkPad’s ugly buy a ThinkPad now and say, wow it looks pretty.


And please also ash this: why change the ergonomics of the trackpoint buttons?
I really like / love (seriously) the buttons on my X31 and X40.
Those square things look evil and painful (I use my TP without a mouse for at least 3 a 4 hours per day)



[edit]
Ok, I put a bit of drama in this post, but I think he gets the point


Oh, btw, while you are at it, ask if he comes to the Cebit 2006, I will be there Maybe I also could talk to him.

[christopher_wolf]

Well, if I am not mistaken, those are the same Buttons that are used on the Z60; I actually tried them out. They felt pretty good, I do like the buttons on the T4X Series though. Yet the tactile feedback was the same, if not tighter for the TouchPad buttons, as the ones on my T43. I would prefer the blue and Red borders on the buttons, but the only thing I am concerned about is the size. I hope that the new buttons don't get much smaller over many model iterations; it might be better if they actually got a tad bigger.

[Skywing]

the new buttons arent really all that different from the old ones, they have the same exact feel as the old ones. I talked to another Lenovo rep who confirmed that there is indeed an X60 tablet that will be coming out in the fall as well. We also checked out an X60s which stands for small. It is a slightly thinner single core varient of the X60 that weighs only 2.7lbs vs 3.3lbs that the regular X60 is.

[thePCxp]

You talked to the designer of the X60 Skywing? That is so cool. I want to do that. (I am also planning to work at Lenovo and design the ThinkPad's and products of the Think line.)

[Skywing]

also forgot to mention that there is now a drainage channel at the bottom for the keyboard, so if you do spill something on it theres a small hole at the bottom where the liquid can drain out of it.

[christopher_wolf]

Cool; they kept that feature.

[bhtooefr]

also forgot to mention that there is now a drainage channel at the bottom for the keyboard, so if you do spill something on it theres a small hole at the bottom where the liquid can drain out of it.

That's right, b**ch. Model M innovations trickling on to the ThinkPad!

[xyzzy]

As for looking into the future we asked if there was a higher resolution display in the works to which he stated that at least this year there are no plans to increase it since most business customers are uncomfortable with the higher DPI displays.

Talk about not being able to see the forest through the trees. This is probably the main reason I've not bought an X60 yet. Show me the resolution! It's got everything else I could want in a laptop, without the weight! ARGH!