Why no CD?

[Puggy]

I've always wondered why the X* have never had an integrated CD player.

I recently went to best buy and saw a Sony ultra small (much smaller than a X30) laptop that did have a CD player.

Does anyone know why they don't include them?

[jdhurst]

Roughly: They (IBM) made heavy A's with floppy, CD and hard drive (A22e excepted); business-weight T's with CD and hard drive; and light-weight X's with hard drives. So you picked your features from that kind of line-up. It is the very feature you mention that moved me into T machines because I use the CD often enough. ... JD Hurst

[bhtooefr]

It's not included because the X tries to strike a balance between very low weight, ultra thinness, ultra small size, standard components (2.5" HDDs, standard SODIMMs, standard Mini-PCI cards, etc., etc.), and a large enough keyboard to use.

Do all of that, and you don't leave enough room for a CD drive.

(Yes, I know, the X4 uses a 1.8" HDD, and the X2 and X4 only have one SODIMM slot.)

[seabeam]

I don't think it is a size issue, at least not these days, as the original poster mentions, there are plenty of notebooks much smaller than the X series which include optical drives.

[tvi55]

I don't think it is a size issue, at least not these days, as the original poster mentions, there are plenty of notebooks much smaller than the X series which include optical drives.

But such notebooks then often lack other features like a PCMCIA slot, which the Thinkpad X models have.

[stgreek]

I don't think it is a size issue, at least not these days, as the original poster mentions, there are plenty of notebooks much smaller than the X series which include optical drives.

The word you didnt notice is STANDARD. IBM uses standard components, others use proprietary technology with little to no expansion possibilities and incompatibility problems. Look at the sony X505 and its mini-disc sized motherboard for example.

[Puggy]

Hey, thanks guys. I guess that answers my question.

[cjtopher]

I think it is a marketing decision. Consider that the X40 series is smaller than the the X30 series indicating that when face with the option of shrinking the machine or adding a CD player IBM chose the former. Similiarly the X41 Tablet is substantially larger than the X41 indicating that if functionality is desirable from a marketing perpective then IBM are happy to increase the machine size to accomodate it. In the business traveller segment targeted by the X40 series IBM obviously has not seen many customers asking for a CD option. I guess managers prefer to think of their staff working on spreadsheets rather than watching DVDs

[vhui]

I don't think it is a size issue, at least not these days, as the original poster mentions, there are plenty of notebooks much smaller than the X series which include optical drives.

The word you didnt notice is STANDARD. IBM uses standard components, others use proprietary technology with little to no expansion possibilities and incompatibility problems. Look at the sony X505 and its mini-disc sized motherboard for example.

i have a X41 tablet... and love it for better and for worse... but there is one very important component in it that does not seem to be standard (ie. does not have ANY upgrade options): its hard drive. It has a SLOW 1.8" hard disk with a proprietary connector that only the ThinkPad X4 series seems to use. There currently aren't any after-market 1.8" HDs available for X41T. I wish there was a 5400rpm 60gb HD for X41T.