Thinkpads Forum

I wish I knew the release date. I just this week gave my boss specs for a T61 that my company is going to buy for me. I'm tempted to hold up that order for an X300, but not w/o some sort of ETA.

Very cool laptop though. I'm excited by what I see.

It appears that name "Transformer Slot" is being used for what we might otherwise call an "Ultrabay". I also notice the statement that says: "Only Battery is CRUable". Does that mean only the battery is customer-replaceable? The implication would be that if one orders a DVD player in that slot, that there's no swapping it out. I wonder whether we'll have to choose whether we want a second battery or a DVD when we place our order. Sounds like that might be the case.

KristianJ wrote:Or without the optical drive inserted?

I doubt that adding an optical drive would increase the laptop's weight by 0.67 lbs. These drives usually weigh only around 0.4 lbs.

EDIT: I spoke too fast. I guess it's possible that 2.5 lb is for a unit with small battery and no optical drive, and 3.17 lb is for one with extended batt and an optical drive?

This looks like a hoax to me. The specs are too good to be true, and everyone from here to Ars Technica is absolutely drooling over it.

Does anyone know if 13.3" displays are even available at that high resolution? That and some of the language in the slides leaves me skeptical.

The SXGA+ screens in the 12.1" X-series are 1400x1050 pixels.

pianowizard wrote:The article says:

"a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen, an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor"

NOW WE ARE TALKING!!!!! Also, besides the trackpoint, it has a touchpad (which I prefer)! I may upgrade to this from my HP nc2400!

But I am suspicious of the weight. If Apple had such a hard time making their Macbook Air three pounds, how could Lenovo make this higher-res 13.3" Thinkpad half a pound lighter?

Ugh. I have no qualm with a touchpad option. But by making it standard, I worry that Lenovo is trending away from its core base, going down the marketing road. I hope they at least have the wisdom to sell a palmrest/bezel to cover it, as is available for the T-series.

While I'm sure you know best the granular weight of every component, consider that the Sony X505 beat 2 pounds 3 years ago with a carbon-fiber shell and a chiclet keyboard; the Toshiba R500 handily beats 2 pounds with an SSD.

Is it really that far-fetched for a Thinkpad to shed a mere .2 pounds, using an SSD and a nanophosphate Lithium Ion battery? (speculating)

I actually looked at the nc2400, for its lack of touchpad...until my SO gave me her "budget glare", and we "compromised" on an X31. (Everybody say "Aww...."). One of these days I'll have to read her the story about Brer and the Tar Baby...

Me thinks next time I'll have to look lovingly at the "Thinkpad Reserve".

If this is for real, and if SSD proves to be reliable in any type of a longer run, Lenovo has a certain winner on its hands, almost regardless of price...very impressive, to say the least...and unlike the new Apple toy, has wired LAN, which is going to be such a big deal for many people, especially business users, which have been ThinkPad's bread and butter clientèle for the longest time...

Yes, I'm all for it, just in case anyone wondered....

hate it, and here's why

screen size - X's are ultraportable, 12" screen is big enough, if you absolutely desperately need a bigger screen i suggest a T61p 14inch, as for the large pixel size yea it is true that you can make it smaller but 1024x looks like sh*t on a 1440x screen compared to how it looks on a 1024x screen, plus we already have X61T tablets that come with high-res screens

hard drive- SSD? no way - too expensive and too small capacity and bad performance (write speeds), questionable durability, did i mention these cost A LOT? i mean A LOT, as in "ill have to work overtime to pay off this SSD drive" alot

size-im sorry, but to me making it lighter isnt an advancement if its going to be longer and wider, thats a step backwards in the portability game, if you make it lighter while keeping the same dimentions and features, THAT's an improvement

cpu- Merom 2.0ghz?! wtf? penryns are already out, how about a T9500, that would impress me, 0 advancement there

optical drive-WHY? in this day and age of 320gb hard drives and 10gb flash drives do we suddenly NEED an optical, X's never had one for good reason, definite minus, if they had so much extra space why not stick a dedicated card in there make it a hybrid system like others have done already with beautiful results

touchpad- HUH?! wha... WHY?! ive used alot of X's and never have i thought "[censored] i really wish this thing had a touchpad", why? because they suck and are completely unnecessary in the presence of the godly touchstick, horrible addition im speechless

i dont know what else i missed, but comparing X's with Macbook Air is a serious insult to the X series which i consider close to perfection as far as small laptops go, the only thing they needed to do was put in dedicated + igp graphics to make a hybrid, faster cpu and larger HD, BAM! finished, keep the same design

this is a step back in so many ways im left wondering who's bright idea this design was and what they were smoking, i wouldnt buy one, absolutely not, and i LOVE the X series

just my thoughts

I have it on good authority, that the X300 will be introduced first in Europe, most likely by the end of February, 2008.
No date yet for the USA, but the US version will also have Wimax.
There's also a 12" X200 in the pipeline for later this year.
And I would not be surprised either to see a 17" TP (X700 ?) by the end of the summer.

anarky321 wrote:screen size - X's are ultraportable, 12" screen is big enough, if you absolutely desperately need a bigger screen i suggest a T61p 14inch

The X200 has a 12" screen. I suppose the X200 (which will probably weigh even less than 2.5 lb) is for people (e.g. you) who need the smallest and lightest possible laptop, whereas the X300 is for those who want a laptop that's still very portable but has a larger screen and higher resolution.

The 14" T61p can't substitute the X300 because it's twice the latter's weight.

I suppose the X200 will have a widescreen too, right? Or else it'll become undistinguishable from the regular X series. I hope they will not discontinue the regular X lines. I think the 12" SXGA+ screen used on X6 tablets is awesome and I'd definitely like to get one of those when I've got enough money.

The guy on the TP 15th anniversary show says there will not be a 17" ThinkPad but maybe he wasn't very sure himself or Lenovo has changed its mind. It's always good to see some new attempts. I would expect it to be called A700p with 3 Ultrabay slots, a good screen, a desktop processor and two geforce 8800 cards (doesn't sound very ThinkPad does it?)

This is a great looking laptop. I have not been following the x series up till this point, but this particular model makes me tempt to trade this in for my cute z61t. Is it just me seeing the steel hinges missing in this laptop or x series has always been like that?

RealBlackStuff wrote:I have it on good authority, that the X300 will be introduced first in Europe, most likely by the end of February, 2008.
No date yet for the USA, but the US version will also have Wimax.
There's also a 12" X200 in the pipeline for later this year.
And I would not be surprised either to see a 17" TP (X700 ?) by the end of the summer.

Any idea/commentary/gossip on the pricing? If it's under $2000 for any configuration, Lenovo will serve Apple with a massive one-up.

13.3" 1440*900... if it's true, hot [censored].

Cool down your jets boys. This laptop makes no sense. I could *almost* believe it if this was Penryn Santa Rosa combo. Why would Lenovo introduce Merom Santa Rosa laptop now when everybody else will have Penryn Montevina laptops on the market in a few months?

jamesdin wrote:Why would Lenovo introduce Merom Santa Rosa laptop now when everybody else will have Penryn Montevina laptops on the market in a few months?

Perhaps because this X300 will be released sooner than "in a few months"?

pianowizard wrote: Perhaps because this X300 will be released sooner than "in a few months"?

Why not Penryn Santa Rosa then? It just makes no sense to release new laptop using old chipset and cpu.

Maybe Memrom LV consumes less power than about-to-be available Penryn? Maybe Lenovo's battery stretch is more than hype and optimized for Memrom? I care much more about battery life than a faster processor. Memrom LV is already silly fast.

qviri wrote:

Any idea/commentary/gossip on the pricing? If it's under $2000 for any configuration, Lenovo will serve Apple with a massive one-up.

I honestly doubt it for the X300, maybe for X200...my expectation, given the specs, that for the former we're looking at $2500-$2800 range.

jamesdin wrote:

It just makes no sense to release new laptop using old chipset and cpu.

It all depends on one's perception of the target market. To the best of my knowledge and belief, right now no competitor has a machine that would fully measure up to what X300 is supposed to be. And quite a few business users will rather go with a tested combination of chipset and CPU, with a whole new packaging and configuration.

If you look back, ThinkPads were hardly ever the first ones to offer "sensational" new stuff. And that's exactly why they've survived while keeping the price range high when compared to the competition...a statement of tested technology and simple, yet distinctive, design...

ajkula66 wrote: If you look back, ThinkPads were hardly ever the first ones to offer "sensational" new stuff. And that's exactly why they've survived while keeping the price range high when compared to the competition...a statement of tested technology and simple, yet distinctive, design...

i disagree..
thinkpads were ALWAYS the first to market with the newest jim-dandy widgets..

first CD drive for one..
first color TFT display..

and many more, i'm sure..

also, this new thinkpad model sort of restores my faith in lenovo not to [censored] the brand..
so far, so good..

i want one but i'm sure i can wait for the first sale..

gunston wrote:just got my X61, this X300 is coming true, wat am i going to do with my X61?

rich dr gunston, can give me your x61 and get that x300 for your research!

BillMorrow wrote:

i disagree..
thinkpads were ALWAYS the first to market with the newest jim-dandy widgets..

first CD drive for one..
first color TFT display..

I guess I haven't gone far enough in the past before making my previous observation. I stand corrected.

Just imagine, you could seriously be online with 4 types of wireless at the same time...

BT network
Wifi (N)
WIMAX
EVDO or HSPDA
You could even have a UWB ethernet adapter...

lightweight wrote:Maybe Memrom LV consumes less power than about-to-be available Penryn?

Penryn CPU is already on the market. Lenovo, among others, offers laptops with Penryn.

How big is power consumption difference between Menrom LV and Penryn/Santa Rosa (Y)? How big is the performance difference (X)? Is y minus x marketable, and is it worth the risk? If it is, we must be looking at a line refresh in a couple of months from now because new chipset/cpu combination offers 10-20% performance increase with LESS energy consumption. This just does NOT add up to me.

<rant>
What about that fat bazel? I like the camera option, but I hate the fat Apple-like bazel.</rant>

Got excited about this new SSD
but nothing about write cycle limit is mentioned
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 2008-1.htm

milstein wrote:Got excited about this new SSD
but nothing about write cycle limit is mentioned
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 2008-1.htm

With proper dedicated SSDs, write-cycles are usually not a matter of concern.

milstein wrote:Got excited about this new SSD
but nothing about write cycle limit is mentioned
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 2008-1.htm

Every forum i go i always see someone mentioning about reliability, that the HD is gonna die after 30 weeks or some ridiculous number. Your SD card/USB Sticks uses cheaper memory chips and those last more than 2 years as far as i've seen so why would SLC (instead of MLC used in memory) die faster when it's better more reliable memory?

SSD drives can last up to 140yrs (as quoted by DVNation.com about the MTRON SSDS) - You don't send SSDs to MARS (the planet) if they have high failure rates (SSDs were in the Mars Rover) Granted they weren't designed to last long but umm, i don't think a HDD in the mars climate would last 20mins (from the huge drop in the first place and then the temps!)

BillMorrow wrote:i disagree..
thinkpads were ALWAYS the first to market with the newest jim-dandy widgets..

first CD drive for one..
first color TFT display..

According to ThinkWiki, Thinkpads were the first notebooks to have the following features:

IrDA (755CD, Oct 1994)
integrated DVD-ROM drive (770, Oct 1997)
integrated keyboard light (i Series 1460 & 1480, Oct 1999)
HDD protection system (T41, Oct 2003)

This X300 may be the first notebook to have a 13.3" 1440x900 display!

I will probably keep my T61.

- ugly fat LCD bezel
- main battery that sit flush only has 3 cell
- optical drive slot too thin to take a 2nd HDD
- no 2.5" HDD option

sugo wrote:- main battery that sit flush only has 3 cell

I can sympathize with wanting more than three cells. At the same time, I very much prefer my batteries to be flush. In the case of the X300, I can see myself replacing the DVD drive with a secondary battery. I do think I'd prefer though, to have a single, six-cell battery without a DVD drive than to have two, three-cell batteries.

I detest batteries that stick out, but that's a discussion for another thread.

The dvd drive is fixed and not modular, it is required keep the X300 rigid / stable.
The battery sits at the front under the palm rest. With the standard battery it will sit ergonomically with the keyboard slanted down to the front, with the larger battery the keyboard will be "flat".
There is a slot for an extra battery.

Hope that helps a little.

remember the pentium4 days with the 3x series? The T3x used the p4 while the x3x used the p3m... If my memory serves me right. Now while all specs I see show better efficiency on the new penryn platform, I dont think they have released a LV or ULV version of the chip just yet, and correct me if Im wrong, but the x series does include in its lineup low voltage chips. I really like that this laptop fits in between the T and the really small 12" x, and would run circles around the mb air, but what would have me very happy would be an x100 class... 11" or 10" tablet with sub 2 lbs weight and bordering on sub 1" thk. I really think that portability is irking its way to the spotlight for 2008.