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Didn't get as much coverage, but there are also new ThinkPads this week: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/lenovo-trots-out-new-thinkpad-t-l-and-w-series-lapto

by SandB0x 16y ago

Didn't get as much coverage, but there are also new ThinkPads this week: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/lenovo-trots-out-new-thinkpad-t-l-and-w-series-laptops/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/lenovo-trots-out-new-thin... The 14" models look good: 30 hours (claimed) battery on the T420, 0.83" ultrathin T420s with discrete graphics. Edit: Here's the official announcement, which took a bit of digging around to find: http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1421 http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1421 . synacksynack has posted a good link now.

synacksynack 16y ago
Here's the friendly version of the official announcement: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/professional-grade/thinkpad/t-series/t420-t520/index.html http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/professional-grade/thinkp...
Symmetry 16y ago
I'm pretty happy about the resolution bump for the T400 series, even if it means going to a less square screen.
kloncks 16y ago
30 hours (claimed) battery life? That sounds ridiculous. How close (or far away) to the truth is that? Anybody know more?
- phamilton 16y ago
  I think it's with an external battery slice.
  - astrodust 16y ago
    Is that some briefcase-sized device you strap to your notebook with bungee cords?
    - zcid 16y ago
      It's a thin battery pack that attaches to the bottom of the laptop and works in conjunction with the system battery. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74450.html http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74450.html
- capstone 16y ago
  That's for extended battery used together with the regular battery.
  - kloncks 16y ago
    Ah, the fine print. I just feel if this was just the actual battery, we would have heard a bigger announcement!
    - icey 16y ago
      15 hours (claimed) with the regular 9 cell battery. Not too shabby.
- Desireco 16y ago
  I know, it is hard to imagine but you can have that with ThinkPad (with external battery that gets attached to a bottom)
- polynomial 16y ago
  battery life > battery life while actually using computer.
  - dhughes 16y ago
    The * often states it;s without wifi on and at 50% screen brightness, so that's pretty much the same thing.
Uchikoma 16y ago
My 2 year old X200 has 1.3 hours battery time, decreasing rapidly. The display plastic is broken, the camera is broken and the mouse tracking nob is broken. It's the worst piece of laptop hardware I've ever had (compared to older IBM Thinkpads, DELLs and iBooks, Macbooks and MacbooksPro).
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  Strange. I never had any problems with my Thinkpads, but my Macbook has had several. The plastic casing is brittle and just breaks off after a certain amount of time, the battery died and needed replacing, the hard drive died and needed replacing and the power supply died and needed replacing too. Seriously considering getting one of these new Thinkpads and sticking Ubuntu on it. Maybe the T420 or T520.
  - buro9 16y ago
    Your last sentence... I'm in the same camp. I was waiting for the MBP announcement to see if the 13" would be so compelling that it would become the perfect laptop for me, but the keyboard still isn't for me, and I really wanted USB3 and was hoping to lose the CD bay in exchange for more battery. The T420 is slightly larger than I wanted, but Ubuntu on my T61p is such a sweet thing for development and lifestyle use that the smaller T420 looks really good. If Lenovo had a 13" in the T series spec'd like that, they'd have me instantly... as it is they probably have me anyway as the MBP hasn't moved enough to be compelling to me and I can deal with the slice battery on the T420 for a long weekend of use when travelling. The Lenovo keyboards remain without compare, which I guess means I'm now talking myself into it pretty convincingly. T420 + Ubuntu seals the deal. Edit: Just checked out the T420 dimensions, and they're: 13.4in x 9.05in x 1.18in. It's not bad... a little larger than the new 13" MBP (12.78in x 8.94in x 0.95in), but not by enough to dissuade me. The higher resolution on the T420 is a good trade-off for the extra bit of size.
  - synx508 16y ago
    Your Macbook sounds as though it came from the same batch as my wife's Macbook. The Apple store replaced her battery free of charge well out of warranty and also offered a replacement casing. This could be a UK thing as it's pretty clear that there was a period where Macbooks were being manufactured below acceptable standards, the "Sale of goods act" would apply. I bought a Macbook about a year after my wife and mine has been absolutely fine, no cracking and still with a good original battery.
nepenthe 16y ago
HP's refreshed Elitebook series is also around the corner it has not received much attention either. The 14 inch model will also offer up to 32 hours with the use of the extended/slate battery. They also will use discrete graphics from AMD switchable to onboard Intel video if less performance is necessary. Early preview from Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4190/hps-business-notebook-hat-trick http://www.anandtech.com/show/4190/hps-business-notebook-hat...
- xiaomai 16y ago
  I didn't like the EliteBook 8440p that I got from work (it felt real clunky), but this refreshed version looks nice.
tsuraan 16y ago
Any news on the resolution on the 14" models? I'm still looking for a competitor for the display on my three or four year old sony: 13.3" with a 1600x900 display. The new Sony laptops do full 1080p at 13.3", but Sony really doesn't like linux, so I'd love to get a different brand. If only there were somebody else making high-DPI laptops... UPDATED: Noticed the Tech Specs PDF. Looks like the 14" does offer a 1600x900 resolution, so that's really cool. I'll have to see what the configurations look like once that part of the page is working (in late march, apparently). Thanks for the link!
- Bjoern 16y ago
  I had a Vaio VGN-Z70B. You can somehow run linux on it but its a pure pain. On another note, I strongly suggest against Sony. Some things I experienced: - Severe quality problems (broken cdrom plastic part on the side, white pixels screen, discoloring and wearout of plastic) - Broke down completely once in the guarantee time, exchanged it freely but with penalty ( I had to get my data of the disk, but guess what, you can't access the disk easily you have to take apart the whole laptop for that. Putting it together was no problem, but they noticed you did that and thus let you pay penalty.) - Broke down now again, probably again something with the power supply. No guarantee this time. Don't buy Sony.
  - phob 16y ago
    The problem with anecdotal evidence is that it makes you under the impression that you know something. If it were as harmless as it were useless, there would be no problem.
    - Bjoern 16y ago
      Sure you are right, it's anecdotal and subjective. If you think nothing of it, please go ahead and try Sony. Getting so many problems in such a short time despite a costly service repair didn't really make my day. Now the machine is a brick and under no guarantee.
fluidcruft 16y ago
Lenovo needs to get its head out of it's ass and release anything so I can upgrade my 4:3 X61s. I hate widescreen.
wyclif 16y ago
ThinkPad keyboards are still better than any keyboard on any Apple product.
- zcid 16y ago
  My only complaint with my MBP keyboard is the lack of a ctrl key on the right side. It's my only real complaint about the laptop in general. Everything else is just a quirk.
- Tiomaidh 16y ago
  I agree, but I am disappointed that the keyboard on my IBM Thinkpad T40 is significantly better than the one on my Lenovo T60. The T60's just seems flimsier, somehow.

by SandB0x 16y ago

synacksynack 16y ago

Here's the friendly version of the official announcement: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/professional-grade/thinkpad/t-series/t420-t520/index.html http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/professional-grade/thinkp...

Symmetry 16y ago

I'm pretty happy about the resolution bump for the T400 series, even if it means going to a less square screen.

kloncks 16y ago

30 hours (claimed) battery life? That sounds ridiculous. How close (or far away) to the truth is that? Anybody know more?

phamilton 16y ago
I think it's with an external battery slice.
- astrodust 16y ago
  Is that some briefcase-sized device you strap to your notebook with bungee cords?
  - zcid 16y ago
    It's a thin battery pack that attaches to the bottom of the laptop and works in conjunction with the system battery. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74450.html http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74450.html
capstone 16y ago
That's for extended battery used together with the regular battery.
- kloncks 16y ago
  Ah, the fine print. I just feel if this was just the actual battery, we would have heard a bigger announcement!
  - icey 16y ago
    15 hours (claimed) with the regular 9 cell battery. Not too shabby.
Desireco 16y ago
I know, it is hard to imagine but you can have that with ThinkPad (with external battery that gets attached to a bottom)
polynomial 16y ago
battery life > battery life while actually using computer.
- dhughes 16y ago
  The * often states it;s without wifi on and at 50% screen brightness, so that's pretty much the same thing.

Uchikoma 16y ago

My 2 year old X200 has 1.3 hours battery time, decreasing rapidly. The display plastic is broken, the camera is broken and the mouse tracking nob is broken. It's the worst piece of laptop hardware I've ever had (compared to older IBM Thinkpads, DELLs and iBooks, Macbooks and MacbooksPro).

mike-cardwell 16y ago
Strange. I never had any problems with my Thinkpads, but my Macbook has had several. The plastic casing is brittle and just breaks off after a certain amount of time, the battery died and needed replacing, the hard drive died and needed replacing and the power supply died and needed replacing too. Seriously considering getting one of these new Thinkpads and sticking Ubuntu on it. Maybe the T420 or T520.
- buro9 16y ago
  Your last sentence... I'm in the same camp. I was waiting for the MBP announcement to see if the 13" would be so compelling that it would become the perfect laptop for me, but the keyboard still isn't for me, and I really wanted USB3 and was hoping to lose the CD bay in exchange for more battery. The T420 is slightly larger than I wanted, but Ubuntu on my T61p is such a sweet thing for development and lifestyle use that the smaller T420 looks really good. If Lenovo had a 13" in the T series spec'd like that, they'd have me instantly... as it is they probably have me anyway as the MBP hasn't moved enough to be compelling to me and I can deal with the slice battery on the T420 for a long weekend of use when travelling. The Lenovo keyboards remain without compare, which I guess means I'm now talking myself into it pretty convincingly. T420 + Ubuntu seals the deal. Edit: Just checked out the T420 dimensions, and they're: 13.4in x 9.05in x 1.18in. It's not bad... a little larger than the new 13" MBP (12.78in x 8.94in x 0.95in), but not by enough to dissuade me. The higher resolution on the T420 is a good trade-off for the extra bit of size.
- synx508 16y ago
  Your Macbook sounds as though it came from the same batch as my wife's Macbook. The Apple store replaced her battery free of charge well out of warranty and also offered a replacement casing. This could be a UK thing as it's pretty clear that there was a period where Macbooks were being manufactured below acceptable standards, the "Sale of goods act" would apply. I bought a Macbook about a year after my wife and mine has been absolutely fine, no cracking and still with a good original battery.

nepenthe 16y ago

HP's refreshed Elitebook series is also around the corner it has not received much attention either. The 14 inch model will also offer up to 32 hours with the use of the extended/slate battery. They also will use discrete graphics from AMD switchable to onboard Intel video if less performance is necessary. Early preview from Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4190/hps-business-notebook-hat-trick http://www.anandtech.com/show/4190/hps-business-notebook-hat...

xiaomai 16y ago
I didn't like the EliteBook 8440p that I got from work (it felt real clunky), but this refreshed version looks nice.

tsuraan 16y ago

Any news on the resolution on the 14" models? I'm still looking for a competitor for the display on my three or four year old sony: 13.3" with a 1600x900 display. The new Sony laptops do full 1080p at 13.3", but Sony really doesn't like linux, so I'd love to get a different brand. If only there were somebody else making high-DPI laptops... UPDATED: Noticed the Tech Specs PDF. Looks like the 14" does offer a 1600x900 resolution, so that's really cool. I'll have to see what the configurations look like once that part of the page is working (in late march, apparently). Thanks for the link!

Bjoern 16y ago
I had a Vaio VGN-Z70B. You can somehow run linux on it but its a pure pain. On another note, I strongly suggest against Sony. Some things I experienced: - Severe quality problems (broken cdrom plastic part on the side, white pixels screen, discoloring and wearout of plastic) - Broke down completely once in the guarantee time, exchanged it freely but with penalty ( I had to get my data of the disk, but guess what, you can't access the disk easily you have to take apart the whole laptop for that. Putting it together was no problem, but they noticed you did that and thus let you pay penalty.) - Broke down now again, probably again something with the power supply. No guarantee this time. Don't buy Sony.
- phob 16y ago
  The problem with anecdotal evidence is that it makes you under the impression that you know something. If it were as harmless as it were useless, there would be no problem.
  - Bjoern 16y ago
    Sure you are right, it's anecdotal and subjective. If you think nothing of it, please go ahead and try Sony. Getting so many problems in such a short time despite a costly service repair didn't really make my day. Now the machine is a brick and under no guarantee.

fluidcruft 16y ago

Lenovo needs to get its head out of it's ass and release anything so I can upgrade my 4:3 X61s. I hate widescreen.

wyclif 16y ago

ThinkPad keyboards are still better than any keyboard on any Apple product.

zcid 16y ago
My only complaint with my MBP keyboard is the lack of a ctrl key on the right side. It's my only real complaint about the laptop in general. Everything else is just a quirk.
Tiomaidh 16y ago
I agree, but I am disappointed that the keyboard on my IBM Thinkpad T40 is significantly better than the one on my Lenovo T60. The T60's just seems flimsier, somehow.