How about having a Thinkpad 17" in the near future?

[Shurato]

I was fancying around how it would be having a 17" Thinkpad notebook being engineered in the same built quality as how we're already used to have them. I came to the conclusion that it would be a very nifty thing to have. However, then again I was asking myself if a 17" Thinkpad - which essentially would be going in the category as "desktop replacement" - would fit Lenovo's product strategy? Since Thinkpads indeed are being used in professional environment where reliable mobile computing is being taken seriously, emphasizing the term 'mobile'.
Still, actually for some high-performance visualisation where there's a demand for a "real estate-sized" screen and on-the-go visual productivity, a 17" Thinkpad would be an asset.
There's a nifty and inexpensive 17" from HP/Compaq, the 6820s to be more precise, and it weighs only 6.5 pounds, which is very lightweight for a 17" notebook; weighing even less than Apple's 17" notebook.
Since Lenovo just released the X300 short while ago weighing around 3.1 pounds, I wonder - or rather - I would consider it DA_ABSOLUTE_UBER_NOTEBOOK if they would engineer a 17" Thinkpad and making it weight around 5 pounds only (let's say max. 5.5 pounds ) - now THAT would be "Desktop replacement redefined".
How would it be called - X3000? Or what about giving it a more descriptive name for once, like "Thinkpad Airboard"?

[ryengineer]

There is a 17'' consumer notebook from lenovo, IdeaPad Y710.

[ajkula66]

I've been asking the "desktop replacement" question for a while now, and it doesn't look like it's happening....check out the thread about it on Lenovo's forum.

BTW, 17" Y710 does look like an absolute beast, the only two things preventing me from getting it were screen resolution and a lack of trackpoint.

[CZOLG]

I personally think that introducing 17" Thinkpad would cheapen the brand.
Lenovo already makes multimedia oriented notebooks, Ideapad, Lenovo N-series and I think it should stay that way.
Thinkpad was always considered as a business tool and should not be
placed next to Pavillions XPS's etc.
Just my opinion.

[Shurato]

I personally think that introducing 17" Thinkpad would cheapen the brand.
Lenovo already makes multimedia oriented notebooks, Ideapad, Lenovo N-series and I think it should stay that way.
Thinkpad was always considered as a business tool and should not be
placed next to Pavillions XPS's etc.
Just my opinion.

Well yeah, I second that thought that Thinkpads should not be placed next to Pavillions and XPS's.
Wasn't aware that there's a 17" from Lenovo coming (the Ideapad Y710); looking at it, this is exactly what I did not mean with a 17" Thinkpad.
Firstly, it is heavy (almost 8 pounds, gimme a break!!) and looks too chintzy to me (might be wrong though, who knows) and there's no numeric keypad.
So far, the one real productivity-oriented 17" Notebook for a reasonable price to me is the HP Compaq 8710p. Decent resolution (WSXGA+), neat graphics adapter (nVidia Quadro NVS 320M) and sober and ergonomic design.
And built-in trackpoint

So back on track, with a 17" Thinkpad I was more thinking about something like the same built quality and idea of the just recently released X300 however with a 17" screen, WUXGA resolution, numeric keypad built in AND lightweight. I think 5.5 pounds would be feasible; might be tricky however for having it with a long-life battery as that would hog up most of the weight I would think.

[ajkula66]

Weight would be an issue for a machine that you're dreaming of...just read the specs of 15.4" T61p with WUXGA...which is already above your target weight limit. And a 17" machine, even if derived out of new X300, could only be heavier. Not to mention the fact that on such unit a 64Gb SSD would not fly...price tag would also be an interesting one indeed, I'm certain. But it's a good dream, and the one I'd like to see come true.

Nothing wrong with Y710 IMHO, as long as you don't compare it to a ThinkPad, which it's not meant to be in the first place. It's an entertainment centre with a CPU and GPU...

And my kids (and I'm sure many others) would love it.

[ryengineer]

I personally think that introducing 17" Thinkpad would cheapen the brand.....
Thinkpad was always considered as a business tool and should not be......snip

I respect your opinion nevertheless trends change very often in the market, in early days of IBM maybe nobody had imagined about prospective thinkpads coming in 15.4’’ widescreen displays, even before thinkpads going widescreen in 2005 many people could've thought that way, that said I don’t see how it would cheapen the brand; Macbook Pro comes with 17’’ display and I don’t think it has devalued Macbook’s brand.

In my viewpoint when the market demand for 17’’ notebooks would go on rise, 17’’ thinkpad would be a welcome addition to rest of the series.

Now-a-days the market demand for 13.3’’ notebooks is booming.

Thinkpads are business machines but who knows in coming years businessmen would require notebooks (as a desktop replacement) in 17’’ form factor, also you don’t have to wear a suit and do 9-6pm job to be classified as a businessman.

[pianowizard]

introducing 17" Thinkpad would cheapen the brand.....Thinkpad was always considered as a business tool

What makes a 17" laptop incompatible with business use?

[andyP]

My information is that there will be a 17" TP - "mobile work station" in round about july.

[Shurato]

My information is that there will be a 17" TP - "mobile work station" in round about july.

YESSS... there it is, there it is....
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... D=hpc00310&
Cool idea with the built-in pen-tablet. Not sure though if there ought to be a version for left-handed people or we can disable the trackpad and its buttons
Deserves the title "mobile workstation" in all aspects.
Still fancying for a 5.5 lightweight pound 17" Thinkpad à la X300
Other than that, this W700 looks to be very impressive.
Guess patience will be a virtue for some time to let the hefty pricetag come down somewhat.

[Radioguy]

Of course, I drool over the W700. However, as a right-handed individual, the WACOM pad is more convenient at the right, but pushing the touchpad that far left makes it near useless to me compared to the trackpoint. So much so, that I think the touchpad should have been dropped altogether on the W700. The WACOM pad could have doubled as a touchpad as well.

On another note, the WACOM pad should be available as an Ultrabay device for the lesser models. I'd buy one for my T61.

[dr_st]

but pushing the touchpad that far left makes it near useless to me compared to the trackpoint.

The touchpad is in the same position it always was relative to the keyboard. Everything was pushed left by the keypad, but the relative keyboard/trackpoint/touchpad locations remained the same. Why do you find it useless?

[Radioguy]

Well, let me backtrack slightly by stating that in relation to the trackpoint, if the touchpad is still right in front of it, then "hand travel" would be about the same as before. (Had to re-reference the photo)

However, I'll reiterate that the WACOM pad could do double-duty as the touchpad, and so makes that Touchpad redundant.