Thinkpads Forum

bit_twiddler wrote:Somehow I doubt that David Hill is proposing a chicklet keyboard for the Retro Thinkpad.
If he is, then he should be committed to an institution.

For this particular project, I don't think he is...
... or is he? Anything's possible under his watch, after all. At any rate, I don't believe he's fighting hard for the Thinkpad legacy.

bit_twiddler wrote:Speaking of cr*p, have any of you seen the new 12" Macbook?

Oh what an age we're living in

hhhd1 wrote: Usually, we shouldn't care what apple is trying to do,
but the sad truth is that soon enough the rest of computer manufacturers are going to copy this 'cr*p'.

Agreed. Witnessing Apple's crippled computers equates to watching our (awful) near future. If we want to know what Lenovo will come up with next, we may just take a look at what the Fruit is currently doing.

axur-delmeria wrote:Whenever I see articles/headlines on how thin the newest Macbooks are, this Thinkpad X300 advertisement always comes to mind.

It's like a big middle finger to Steve Jobs and whatever he was smoking.

That's a fantastic advert!

Summilux wrote:Agreed. Witnessing Apple's crippled computers equates to watching our (awful) near future.

History is repeating, it is slowly going toward membrane keyboards known from first Sinclair ZX computers.

The same is actually happening in the software industry, robust and metadata-type-safe data formats and protocols (XML, SOAP, WSDL) are being replaced with primitive type-less error-prone ones (REST, JSON) because script kiddies does not understand them. Seems as hi-technology age is over.

Puppy wrote:

Summilux wrote:Agreed. Witnessing Apple's crippled computers equates to watching our (awful) near future.

History is repeating, it is slowly going toward membrane keyboards known from first Sinclair ZX computers.

The same is actually happening in the software industry, robust and metadata-type-safe data formats and protocols (XML, SOAP, WSDL) are being replaced with primitive type-less error-prone ones (REST, JSON) because script kiddies does not understand them. Seems as hi-technology age is over.

Those who do not understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

/rant
*mutter*

In this time of declining PC sales, should not Lenovo be more friendly to fans of their high-margin products?

By fans I mean fans of Thinkpads and by friendly I mean keep us up to date with news on products that interest us, that we might buy.

Some ppl on this very forum said not to get too exited, to wait and see if Lenovo would deliver. I got exited and I know Lenovo is just a company that want to make money like everybody else, but still... Some info would be nice

/end_rant

Has anyone heard anything about this project lately?

I really doubt we will see any news till reveal of next generation of thinkpads.

Nigellus wrote:Has anyone heard anything about this project lately?

Lenovo made a post on their ThinkPad blog with the title "It's About Time"! And the cover image was a Retro ThinkPad!...





But it's a bait and switch. Was just saying how amazing they were for Time magazine pointing out how similar their current design is to the old one. Which, you know, is the opposite point of the retro ThinkPad project...

The whole reason I follow that blog is get updates on that, and the only thing that's on there is marketing for things not directly related to ThinkPads and tailored towards pre-teens...

Ah well, the longer they wait to release it, the less I'll be tempted to buy it when I have a "perfectly good" computer... Actually, by this point it will have Windows 10 sooo.....

Lenovo made a post on their ThinkPad blog with the title "It's About Time"! And the cover image was a Retro ThinkPad!...

I hope the right half of that image wasn't the retro thinkpad, since it still has a 6 row keyboard. It looks much more like a T460s.

brchan wrote:

Lenovo made a post on their ThinkPad blog with the title "It's About Time"! And the cover image was a Retro ThinkPad!...

I hope the right half of that image wasn't the retro thinkpad, since it still has a 6 row keyboard. It looks much more like a T460s.

Well, showing the two laptops side-by-side like that made it appear that way at first glance. And first glance was all it took to read the post and find out that you were right...

That blogpost contains no new info. Also; the "side by side" "picture" shows something on the left that never existed; with the weird-shaped chicklet-shaped keys and 7 rows.

at least we could get some info from the comments:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... pad_retro/

Scroll down by a comment made by (lead_org), a Lenovo INsider. Here's what he said: "Screen quality is one reason why ThinkPad Retro got delayed, they couldn't find a manufacturer to produce the IPS LCD in 13.3 inches 16:10. Apparently Lenovo worked with undisclosed manufacturer to get the new screen." and "ThinkPad Retro project is quite well known in Wistron factory, Lenovo has already contracted them with producing the prototypes."

Does it translate to "We haven't found so cheap screen vendor yet to deliver the same crap we have done in P50" ?

13.3" 16:10 is a good start. As long as that leads to more variants down the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j4YZ3yk4QI


Updates from Lenovo about the Retro at 16.5 minutes in. Patience required and I would rather they do it properly than throw something half baked on the market.
That doesn't mean that they won't still put something half baked on the market but I like to think the glass is half full.

If "it" would be "fully backed", it would be announced proudly and officially. It is more an "it" than anything else.

It makes no sense to announce something unfinished prematurely. Why would they want to announce the product if it only starts shipping in 2017 probably?

This is also true. Based on the tone in the Q&A it sounds like the team who is working on the project is not a dedicated team - or the usual design team with a dedicated goal with a deadline (like other mainstream design projects) - but rather they are merely doing retro design work "in between" and "as time and workload permits" between their other usual job duties...

@ibthink
Because long-term customers of premium products would want to know?!

Ibthink wrote:It makes no sense to announce something unfinished prematurely. Why would they want to announce the product if it only starts shipping in 2017 probably?

Why it works for other electronics ? Pro digital cameras are being announced months before the product is available. The Retro ThinkPad is supposed (hopefully) to be an unique product in current Lenovo production some customers are waiting for several years.

It looks like they might be not quite decided on the specifics yet, so they do not want to announce something then take it back.

Ibthink wrote:It makes no sense to announce something unfinished prematurely. Why would they want to announce the product if it only starts shipping in 2017 probably?

But it does make sense to keep your prospective customers updated about the product development, otherwise you pass for a liar.

Summilux wrote:But it does make sense to keep your prospective customers updated about the product development, otherwise you pass for a liar.

Wasn't the project supposed to be more "open" than other (generic, predictable) Lenovo ThinkPad laptop production ? It would be interesting to see the whole process from the design/decision phase, prototype(s) to the final product while it can not imagine it could disclose any "sensitive" information apart from that people do mistakes.

Puppy wrote:Wasn't the project supposed to be more "open" than other (generic, predictable) Lenovo ThinkPad laptop production ?

Yep. And Lenovo didn't deliver. So they've (yet again) been lying to us.

Summilux wrote:

Puppy wrote:Wasn't the project supposed to be more "open" than other (generic, predictable) Lenovo ThinkPad laptop production ?

Yep. And Lenovo didn't deliver. So they've (yet again) been lying to us.

I fail to understand their strategy. First a lot of noise and several surveys and afterwards total radio silence. Did they actually think this through?

The "they" has a face.

Best ask the:
"PC Business Group(including Lenovo and Think brands), led by Gianfranco Lanci, who currently leads Lenovo EMEA. (2014) "
... from the 2014 link:
http://news.lenovo.com/news-releases/le ... zation.htm

and here with a nice picture (2015):
http://www.hi3p.com/2015/03/24/lenovo-g ... 16361.html

and here with an even more nice video from 2016:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/20 ... al-outlook

Whatching this view does not make me feel comfortable.

Didn't Thinkpads start to suck around when this guy joined their ranks? 2011/2012 ?

Also, I now see the inspiration for the modern thinkpads. They bought Medion around that time. Now I can see why the Thinkpad line disintegrated and became some worthless lump of plastic. Everything about the current thinkpad line-up screams cheap-a55 unremarkable P.O.S., they took over the medion exterior and morphed it with a desire to mimic apple forsaking their own strong points

lophiomys wrote:The "they" has a face.

Best ask the:
"PC Business Group(including Lenovo and Think brands), led by Gianfranco Lanci, who currently leads Lenovo EMEA. (2014) "
... from the 2014 link:
http://news.lenovo.com/news-releases/le ... zation.htm

and here with a nice picture (2015):
http://www.hi3p.com/2015/03/24/lenovo-g ... 16361.html

and here with an even more nice video from 2016:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/20 ... al-outlook

Whatching this view does not make me feel comfortable.

coolcat37 wrote:First a lot of noise and several surveys and afterwards total radio silence. Did they actually think this through?

They may have thought that we don't have any doubts about quality of the result so there is no need to show its progress. Given their actual production quality issues this is a false presumption.

I am almost sure they deliver non-16:9 machine with 7-row keyboard as expected. I am really worried about the quality issues because of cheap components and unfinished beta-stage BIOS/drivers with basic functionality issues as they manifests in premium price models lately.

I also thought that this project would be more transparent as now is a time where kick-starter etc projects are common. I'm not saying this should be a kick-starter but it should be more open because it is a very good way to get a free buzz around a product.

My feeling is that the project is still an "unwanted child" inside Lenovo, no wonder. Instead of creating just another generic model using universal (and cheapest) components as much as possible, the project is about an unique specific model requiring specific components = lower profit. Lenovo have probably failed with attempt to build P series their typical way (bad displays, BIOS and quality issues etc for premium price) so they need more mass production generic models now than an unique and expensive (to build) Retro model.

I also expect the initial price will be insane with limited availability in selected countries only (I can live with US keyboard layout).

lophiomys wrote:The "they" has a face.

Best ask the:
"PC Business Group(including Lenovo and Think brands), led by Gianfranco Lanci, who currently leads Lenovo EMEA. (2014) "
... from the 2014 link:
http://news.lenovo.com/news-releases/le ... zation.htm

coolcat37 wrote:Didn't Thinkpads start to suck around when this guy joined their ranks? 2011/2012 ?

Ha ha oh wow, they took a guy who was president of Acer That explains everything. He's an expert at cutting costs and selling crap.

Puppy wrote: I am almost sure they deliver non-16:9 machine with 7-row keyboard as expected.

Of course... 16:10 and chicklets keyboards will still fit the bill, right?