Thinkpads Forum

I'm looking for a x201s and can't find anything on the website.

Is there a huge difference between 1440 vs 1280 resolution on a 12 inch?

Does the thinness justify the cost? looks like 30% markup

Can you actually notice the difference in thickness?

They're available via eBay or Google. You just can't customize one on Lenovo's site. The X201s is the only 12" notebook with a WXGA+ screen. Lenovo has a lot of leeway to charge as they please. Kind of like Sony with the Z. It doesn't really have a direct competitor. Is it worth it? I would say no as the WXGA+ has to high of a pixel density for my tastes, but someone else may value it enough to pay for it. I think only you can answer that one for yourself.

You can get x201s from (internet) resellers.

X201 and X201s are examples of redundancies that Lenovo has in Thinkpad line. X201s is a little lighter because it is a little smaller, uses LM (low voltage) CPU's. X201 uses the normal voltage CPU and require different cooling scheme. And the LCD for X201s is WXGA+ vs WXGA for X201. A key difference in LCD is DPI which some complain as being too high with 12 inch display with 1440 pixels in X201s. X201 may get a little hotter than X201s but differences between two models seem small.

One wonders whether Lenovo can save money by using a common chasis for both X201 and X201s and offer options for low voltage or regular voltage CPU. Marginal customization for each alphabet Thinkpad lines would only increase manufacturing cost. Now they don't even offer all the Thinkpad models throughout the world.

Thanks for the responses.

Well, I'm mainly concerned with thickness and the pixels. The x201 should get decent battery life anyway so I'm not concerned with the Low Voltage. Anything above 3-4 hours is plenty for me. I've been using a 17" and a 14" laptop for years.

I'm wondering if the 1440 will hurt the eyes, I love my 17" with 1920 and it's night and day vs 1440 there but on a 12"? I'm not too sure about that.

Anyone want to chime in on the screens and is the thickness difference that noticeable? I'm thinking it shouldn't matter because I'm going with the 9cell battery probably

codek wrote:Well, I'm mainly concerned with thickness

Why does it matter?

The pixel density on a 12" WXGA+ will be higher than a 17" WUXGA, which means text will be smaller on the 12" notebook.

Do a google search for 5143-28U which is the X201s type that I have which is a good value with a 3 year warranty. You should find it for around $1500.

If you're interested, you should be able to pick up a Intel X25-M 160 GB (150 usable) SSD for a little over $300 on ebay.

FredGarvin wrote:The pixel density on a 12" WXGA+ will be higher than a 17" WUXGA, which means text will be smaller on the 12" notebook.

Actually, with any modern OS it means that you can have the text be the same size, but much sharper (due to the higher pixel density.)

All modern operating systems support font scaling just fine.

Useful comparison at Wikipedia of pixel density by device, size and resolution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di ... el_density