Lenovo's ThinkPad X200 reviewed: it's a winner

Lenovo's heralded "rock solid" design? Check. An ample amount of ports stuffed into a lightweight package? Check. A price tag that's on the good side of reasonable? Check. Laptop has just awarded Lenovo's recently announced X200 ultraportable an Editor's Choice award after determining that what it has is likely what you'll want. Reviewers deemed the travel-friendly machine an "excellent lightweight notebook for mobile professionals who demand the business essentials," noting that the omission of an optical drive wasn't really a deal-breaker for them. The Centrino 2 platform was also praised, and while performance wouldn't please the avid gamer, it should handle most everyday tasks without breaking a sweat. If you've got $1,200 or so burning a hole in your pocket, this might not be a bad way to remove that discomfort.

[El Taco @ Jul 15th 2008 1:25PM]

it's a winner, dispite the fact that it's uglier than my Dell Vostro 1500

[ShadowKain @ Jul 15th 2008 1:28PM]

IBM's were never meant to be pretty, they are rugged business minded laptops. What planet were you born from?

[kwanbis @ Jul 15th 2008 1:36PM]

I'm sad you feel that the ThinkPad, with its sleek, minimalist designs is "ugly".

I'm sure you like the "discotheque" look of the competition better.

[tom @ Jul 15th 2008 1:36PM]

Thinkpad line is for utilitarian! not a pretty boy =P
1200 is a very attractive price. If i get it, it will be my 3rd thinkpad this year =(

[MioTheGreat @ Jul 15th 2008 1:48PM]

To each his own. I'd take this over the shiny white mass that is the MacBook any day.

[Khris @ Jul 15th 2008 1:51PM]

No trackpad.......no thanks!

[OneLove @ Jul 15th 2008 1:52PM]

IBM's?

[CraigJ @ Jul 15th 2008 2:05PM]

Personally, from an industrial design perspective, I see T-Series and the Mac Book Pros at the top of the list.

[Zorque @ Jul 15th 2008 7:44PM]

So what, a machine has to be ugly to be usable? I honestly don't get why people defend the way these things look, it's ok to admit that a good computer can look bad.

I think this is the ugliest one yet.

[John Bailey @ Jul 15th 2008 11:42PM]

You must not be the market this is aimed at.

[Harrison @ Jul 16th 2008 12:12AM]

You want pretty? Buy a Macintosh, and in the true spirit of internet geeks,


GTFO.

[Artem @ Jul 15th 2008 1:26PM]

It's a great laptop, but it's still ugly as hell.

[Ethyriel @ Jul 15th 2008 2:19PM]

A pretty laptop just makes it's user look even uglier.

[Minilap @ Jul 15th 2008 2:56PM]

�?¥ou could always use a plastic bag to cover you know, Ask your daddy about it.

[4cr JaXs @ Jul 15th 2008 6:11PM]

What are you talking about? That is Sexy as hell! And the best part, no #^@%!&@ touch pad. Once you get used to a (properly set) Track Point, touch pads just suck.

[Artem @ Jul 15th 2008 10:49PM]

Oh, look at you. Getting all personal over a damn piece of plastic? Classy. Okay, here's a reply to each of you.

Ethyriel:
Speaking from personal experience?

Minilap:
I make my own money thank you very much. Enough to buy an SSD MacBook Air, except that it's not for me.

4cr JaXs:
I can never get used to the nipple mouse. It's either touchpad or a Bluetooth mouse for me.

[darkstar @ Jul 15th 2008 1:26PM]

looks like an x60 design. they coulda made it a lot slimmer without that vga port.

[zargon @ Jul 15th 2008 1:31PM]

That probably has to do with it being a X series laptop. The change to the numbers is just a minor change, it actually is suppose to coincide with the screen size which will eventually be used across the entire thinkpad lineup. 200 = 12", 300 = 13", etc..

[The Dude @ Jul 15th 2008 1:41PM]

VGA is old as balls but it's needed for connections to projectors. Because ThinkPads are work/business/presentation oriented laptops, they can't do without it.

[darkstar @ Jul 15th 2008 1:46PM]

whatever happened to those days of real skinny laptops like the sony x505, sharp mm20, toshiba r200? will they ever come back??

[sr1329 @ Jul 15th 2008 1:47PM]

I have a VGA port on my X60s and it is thinner. Nice step backward Lenovo. Where's the X200s?

[MioTheGreat @ Jul 15th 2008 1:48PM]

Couldn't they have put an HDMI port on it, and saved some space?

[nikster @ Jul 15th 2008 9:46PM]

Yeah the VGA port is a no-no. Put a mini DVI port on it and provide a DVI-VGA adapter like MacBooks do. For a 12" machine it would be particularly useful if I could just hook it up to my 24" monitor at home. But not over VGA, it's got to be DVI.
As has been pointed out VGA is needed only for projectors.

[ShadowKain @ Jul 15th 2008 1:30PM]

Does anyone else notice the ball bearing hinge on the left side in the picture? I wonder if the piece opens up to reveal a trackpad, I know it probably doesnt based on the article, but that would be a novel idea to "hide" the trackpad, and fold it out when you need it...

hmmmm...

[athousandleaves @ Jul 15th 2008 1:40PM]

mouse nipple ftw.
also why is the bezel so damn big?

[JamesR @ Jul 15th 2008 2:14PM]

I think that's the PCMCIA ejection button.

[AlphaTeam @ Jul 16th 2008 5:07PM]

@athousandleaves:

Thinkpads have great wireless, so if they have to retain the 3-antenna design for Wireless-N, probably still have room for the WWAN, and keep the display thin, they probably needed to move everything to side of the LCD panel, which would result in the large bezel.

[athousandleaves @ Jul 15th 2008 1:38PM]

JUST SAY NO!
I used lenovo laptops for years and they were all garbage and terribly ugly.
they use the cheapest plastic that gets little cracks all over...

[sr1329 @ Jul 15th 2008 1:48PM]

You didn't really have one or you'd know that the chassis is Magnesium alloy.

[athousandleaves @ Jul 15th 2008 1:50PM]

I had T & X series ones, all plastic...

[zargon @ Jul 15th 2008 3:31PM]

As sr1329 said, you didn't really have one then, they are not all plastic. On top of that, besides toughbook class laptops, Thinkpads are some of the most durable. They have faired far better than any Dell or Toshiba I have seen in my previous jobs.

[Nooorm @ Jul 21st 2008 12:37AM]

"athousandleaves"...ignorant much?

Traditionally black, ThinkPads have commonly featured magnesium, carbon fiber reinforced plastic or titanium composite cases. No cheap plastic in a Thinkpad.

[athousandleaves @ Jul 16th 2008 12:00AM]

fine then!
they had really damn cheap magnesium alloy that cracked like plastic.

[M Reddy @ Aug 1st 2008 4:26AM]

What are you guys talking about.. YOU haven't owned one. I have an x61 tablet and a t61p, they both may have magnesium FRAMES, damned if i know.
But the body panels are PLASTIC. The t61p with fingerprint reader actually has a mushy flexy wrist rest on the right.

[Phil Perman @ Jul 15th 2008 1:41PM]

Plus it has a trackpoint! I'm yet to find a trackpad that is as good to use as a trackpoint. The Macbook Air's oversized one comes close, but still not quite close enough

[fgpx78 @ Jul 15th 2008 2:48PM]

Absolutely right. Nothing is better then the trackpoint one you get used to it

[Bert Lagaisse @ Jul 15th 2008 1:44PM]

Ugly ? I must agree (kind of) ... I'm on my 3rd thinkpad now, and they're indeed not as slick and trendy as a macbook. But they make up on it with toughness and usefullness. That thinkvantage tool set is really practical.

Each of my thinkpads has hit the ground multiple times pretty hard. But I didn't get any failures or damage yet.

My last one has a sticker on the cover: "Made of macbooks and panthers ... eaten alive" ;-)

[Reality Check @ Jul 15th 2008 1:48PM]

Thankfully the US government is not allowed to use Lenovo laptops for classified data. Given China's aggressive spy activities against the US, it's a safe bet that when/if we go to war with China, these Lenovo machines will mysteriously shut down.

Our naivety and carelessness means we deserve whatever we get.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4997288.stm
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/ea_china0141_05_15.asp
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Cisco-partners-sell-fake-routers-to-US-military-/0,130061744,339288994,00.htm

[Mark Anderson @ Jul 15th 2008 2:00PM]

You can type quicker without that tinfoil hat obscuring your eyes.

[BT @ Aug 16th 2008 12:34AM]

I took my X60 to China 1.5 years ago and it worked like a charm. The plastic parts - and the screen - got cracks during the flight. But the X60 worked flawlessly all the time. And still does.

[Matt @ Jul 15th 2008 1:52PM]

What's that slick bar on the left?

[huh @ Jul 15th 2008 1:54PM]

This issue is very polarizing, but I find Thinkpads to be very attractive. I find Macs, for example, are way too sleek looking, they look like blimps, and they remove functions just to make it look better. That's fetish. I prefer pure function, which is what the Thinkpads are.

I have an x60, it's an awesome, light, robust, performant, inexpensive notebook, aside from the XGA resolution. The X200 looks really nice, but I'm really waiting to see what Lenovo does with their tablet line. A lighter X60T with a better screen would be a big motivator for me.

[Kaiser-Machead @ Jul 15th 2008 4:22PM]

Isn't it sort of contradictory to say that something is too sleek looking, but also looks like a blimp? :P

Personally, I find the rugged look of the Thinkpad appealing, but overall I still like the design of my Macbook better.

I'm buying a Thinkpad for my significant other though, since she could use a new laptop, and I'd prefer to get her one of the more durable examples around.

[huh @ Jul 15th 2008 4:32PM]

What I mean by the sleek blimp mainly refers to the Macbook Pro series, so much blank aluminum, like a big silver blimp, whereas a Thinkpad is covered with ports.

Macbook Air coming in for a landing: http://www.kilroywashere.org/03-Images/Arch/town-BlimpWDoors.jpg uh oh, where do I plug in my camera?

Watch out for the Imperial Thinkpad! http://www.swagonline.net/files/images/Galaxy-class_01.preview.jpg

[nikster @ Jul 15th 2008 10:10PM]

I think the MacBook is much nicer designed than the thinkpads, but the thinkpad design isn't bad. It's a little bit too fussy for my taste.

Form should follow function, and that's what MacBooks and MacBook Pros do - there is nothing on them that doesn't have a function. The thinkpad is close, but it does have protrusions where it wouldn't be necessary, for no apparent reason.

The lid is busy, but that's OK because it's a very solid construction, perhaps better than the MacBook in terms of durability. The ports are fine - pure function.

But - the stickers all over the thing? Not needed. The underside? Left as-is and providing no meaningful function. Accidental leftovers from engineering are not design and not function.
The different colored keys? Unnecessary and ugly - no one is using them for anything that would require different color keys. The fact that they have a different color provides no function while making the design busier. ThinkPad logo is ugly too but understandable that they put it there.

Still, the ThinkPad is a much nicer, much more functional design than most PC laptops.

[Matt @ Jul 15th 2008 1:54PM]

Any word about a tablet version yet?

[Matthew @ Jul 15th 2008 1:56PM]

Sleek, minimalist this is not.

Rugged and functional maybe.

In terms of looks, the new VAIO Z series SONY unveiled today lead the pack in my eyes.

This does offer outstanding value, but the lack of a trackpad would really bother me.

[huh @ Jul 15th 2008 2:05PM]

Oh yeah, a Lenovo tablet with a built in cam and GPS, please.

[Silas Miller @ Jul 15th 2008 2:13PM]

I love my Sony SZ.

[balu @ Jul 15th 2008 2:17PM]

A laptop i can replace my x40 with, no touchpad! I am very glad that lenovo finally increased the screen brightness, on older models this is the only, nevertheless very annoying 'feature'. The ginormous battery life is unbelievable, compared to other manufacturer's models, i wonder how do they achieve it, maybe thats the centrino 2 powa.

i understand for some this is a show stopper, but in my experience majority of the users who learned to use it and type a lot find it essential.