Thinkpads Forum

Any news or rumors about the next generation of the X series? Anything? Someone got to be in the know...lol

the few who are in the know can't say anything publicly.

don't expect someone to come along and start blabbing their mouth.

PM maybe? Please?

I need to upgrade soon and have been looking at the Sony Z laptop. I played with it and it is an amazing machine. But I worry about reliability and tech support of Sony. And I had nothing but great experience with Lenovo support over a few generations of the X series laptops. I just cannot wait too long and may have to pull the trigger on the Sony.

buy the sony if you must.   all i can say is that you'd be wise to wait.

The Sony has the single advantage of the 13" screen, not currently available direct from Lenovo. Anything else I'm missing? That keyboard looks horrible.

jvarszegi wrote:The Sony has the single advantage of the 13" screen, not currently available direct from Lenovo. Anything else I'm missing?

Sony: 13", lightweight, performance, optical drive.
X201: 12", lightweight.
X301: 13", lightweight, optical drive.
T410: 14", performance, optical drive.
What are you comparing sony with?

the sole good thing about the sony is its vertical resolution and its weight

I haven't seen it, but I'd guess the Sony also has better contrast and viewing angles than the current Lenovo X201 screen - probably much better (Sony seems to be right up there with Apple in terms of screen quality). The X201 has a 'sweet spot' - especially in the vertical direction - where the display looks ok, but go a little above and below this and it changes fast. Watching any sort of video on it is particularly frustrating, as even small movements change the image a lot and just the difference in angle from the top and bottom of the display to your eye is visible.

- Jay

artic_squirrel wrote:the sole good thing about the sony is its vertical resolution and its weight

Yes, i forgot about that FullHD option.

jayk wrote:I haven't seen it, but I'd guess the Sony also has better contrast and viewing angles than the current Lenovo X201 screen - probably much better (Sony seems to be right up there with Apple in terms of screen quality). The X201 has a 'sweet spot' - especially in the vertical direction - where the display looks ok, but go a little above and below this and it changes fast. Watching any sort of video on it is particularly frustrating, as even small movements change the image a lot and just the difference in angle from the top and bottom of the display to your eye is visible.

- Jay

From what i have heard, sony also uses TN panels with mediocre viewing angles in their Z series. And you can replace the screen of your X201 with IPS or *VA one.

I know it's been said before, but I want to add my own two cents.

• Wishlist
  1) Higher PPI (Keep the 12')
  2) Add a Display Port with a Display Port to VGA adapter
  3) Heat Dissipation - I do not want my fans to kick on.
  4) USB 3.0
  5) Remove Modem
  6) Remove VGA
  7) Make the slim versions the standard
  8 ) Include a webcam on the slims

I own an x201s with an ultrabase. I <3 my laptop.

@trooper09

2, 6) I forgot to add this on my list. VGA has been kept on these laptops because most projectors in offices around the world still use it. But it is likely that they will be deleted soon, because support is ending:
http://www.itproportal.com/2010/12/10/i ... e-out-vga/

7) The s versions have carbon-fibre chassis instead of titanium roll cages (which probably costs more to make) and low powered CPUs. It does not make sense to end this choice, as most people will still want full powered ultraportables (I am assuming that more X201 models are sold than X201s).

The poor screens are the main deficiency of these laptops, in my opinion.

It's been a longstanding rule of mine never to downgrade on screen resolution in any direction when upgrading laptop.

If Lenovo switch to 16:9, the default screen resolution on the non-slim or tablet versions of the X2** models will almost certainly drop below the 800 vertical pixels that i currently have on my X200.
Very frequently I find that 800 vertical pixels is insufficient and losing any more would be completely unacceptable.

As far as I'm concerned, 16:9 is a terrible screen resolution for productivity, where I've found that vertical pixels are paramount.

the joy I feel every time I use a 5:4 1280x1024 monitor for actual work reminds me of just how annoying widescreen is for anything but gaming and movie-watching, which are not the X2** series chief uses.
Infact, when i need to write an essay or work on my dissertation, or do some coding, i actually put my 16:10 24" monitors into portrait orientation for some 1200x1920 goodness.

I'm with Squiddy. I can deal with low resolution if my laptop has a dedicated GPU, like my R61's Nvidea, that lets me create a huge pannable virtual screen. But if you're stuck with Intel built-in graphics, you're stuck with the physical resolution.