Lenovo's X200 pictured, compared, measured, feels inadequately small
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted July 31st 2008 7:28AM
posted July 31st 2008 7:28AM
posted July 31st 2008 7:28AM
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Fn key in the wrong place.
Oh Lenovo, why do you make such a great laptop and then taunt us with such a silly yet annoying little design flaw?
The Fn key has been in the same place on ThinkPads since 1992. One could argue that HP and Dell messed up their laptop keyboard layout.
Ah you get used to that, same on my X41, it not bad if your on the laptop most of the time, the small size is great to type fast on, also like the docks, simple. A good business laptop.
I had a compaq with the F'n Fn key on the edge and hit it all the time. It's not about who put it there first, it's about being able to touch-type with OS keyboard shortcuts that have comparable reach with regular keyboards. CTRL+ANYTHING was ruined by this flaw. Going back and forth between this and any desktop was like trying to type on a german keyboard in english (try that sometime. The only difference is Z and Y. Reallz annozing). Best thing I did was upgrade to a Dell which sandwiched it between CTRL and ALT.
i went to school ... i can read ... doesn't matter if the 2 buttons are switched.
I love all my dells ... i bought their cheapest laptop from their outlet center ... $400 ... it's brushed metal body, ton of ports, and great keyboard make it so much better quality than any sub $600 HP.
Live Mesh connects all my PCs and cell phone's files ...
life is good ... whether my Fn key is on the left or right of the cntrl.
It's my opinion that the Fn key, which is not a standard key on the keyboard like Ctrl, Spacebar, and the letters, etc... are on all other keyboards should not interrupt the rest of the keyboard layout if at all possible.
On a note of personal experience, the layout as it is on a Thinkpad is actually preferable, making using the Ctrl+X/C/V commands easier to perform with the Ctrl key nearby and not quite as "far away" from the rest of the keyboard.
Oh and another thing Ryan, good luck with your support from dell :) main reason I don't buyt from them, regardless of their tech. And I hate Mac's BTW.
thank god...the review wasn't done by cnet because they suck big time!!
Bottom line the relative positions of both the Fn key to the (Fn+) X keys AND the Ctrl key to the rest of the keyboard fits the hand better for a quick thumb-finger combo. I NEVER have to use two hands on my thinkpad the way I do my desktop at work.
"The ThinkPad X200's full-size keyboard looks less cramped, and it feels downright roomy--in fact, it's the same board found on Lenovo's 14- and 15-inch ThinkPads. The keyboard remains one of my favorite ThinkPad features."
they seem to think the keyboard is big enough...
Well, the 12 inch powerbooks are just shy of 11 inches wide measured at the same location and it has the same size keyboard layout as a full size macbook. So I believe it is "big enough" unless you want a oversized keyboard.
I don't see how that's possible. I'm typing this on a T60 thinkpad (15") and the bezel around the edge of the keyboard is only about 1cm. I don't have a ruler, but, eyeballing it, the whole base looks to be about 14" wide.
Also, I agree, Fn key placement sucks. I never accidentally hit it because the control key is a reasonable distance, and my hands are used to switching between Thinkpad ctrl key placement, Apple apple-key placement, and even the control key on Sun keyboards.
That Fn key should be crammed in some weird place, Control key made slightly larger and pushed to the corner.
We have the notebook right here at work (for two weeks now). I really like it.
Pros? Cons?
It looks like an old steam powered dell laptop from pre windows 95. no thanks.
As does every other IBM/Lenovo business laptop ever made.
I just wish this thing at least had a touchpad. Odd omission.
Which to be honest is the beauty of IBM/Lenovo laptops. They're very plain looking, yet very sturdy and durable. Also, you never have to worry about getting fingerprints on it.
The X200 is replacing the X6x series, which has never had a touchpad.
Actually, the newest Dell business series laptops still pay significant homage to the thinkpad design including an age-old boxy black look (admittedly with a new spin) and their own version of the nipple. They must've been in a cold room though. Dell nips are blue.
I agree with you there ibc,
It's not '92 anymore so hire a designer and catch up with the modern world (not that i'd ever buy a TP anyway)
God that is expensive.
Love the nipple, but I still believe there was room for a trackpad.
£600-£700 is good value, for a high quality laptop.
Where I work we have Thinkpads and Macbook Pros available for use. Thousands of them, about 50/50 distribution of the user base. According to one of the support techs I was chatting with the Thinkpads have a 6 month longer lifespan than the MBPs. These things are sturdy as hell, and on average outlast most laptops.
I use my X60 literally every day of the week, weekends included. I spend about 3-4 hours a day on just the laptop on average. It rides in my bike messenger bag getting bounced around and generally abused. I busted the PC card slot door, but that's about it so far.
Well you're paying for form factor here, or in your case not paying. Complaining about price is as useful as complaining about the weather. It's either going to change or it's not.
I mean look what happened when Apple tried to prematurely address complaints about price on the iphone. Everybody was SO stoked about the $199 iphone, and then everybody was SO pissed that you had to have a 2yr arm and leg mortgage with AT&T to use it. I'm sorry, but it's a market system. That's just how it works.
Take it easy, I'm not saying it's TOO expensive, just expensive (for me).
Because I initially thought it was competing with the Eee's, MSI wind...etc
But it turned out to be at a much higher class and so the price is warranted (also the X300 cost almost $3000), so yes it's reasonable, but def not for me.
Judges, can he backpedal his comment back to ho-hum after an appeal to deity? X - X - X. Looks like no.
But seriously, yeah it's too much for me, too. I just figure I'll buy one on ebay for a couple bills next spring.
Don't hate me Lenovo fans, but that design is just ugly IMO.
Still a great laptop though.
Not to argue whether is looks good or not (I personally love the 'don't mess with me, I mean business' look), but did you really expect anything else from a thinkpad?
I don't hate you. I'm sure you love your pink laptop, and I wouldn't have it any other way. May I add, it goes nicely with your shoes.
Yeah it goes nice with my pink shoes. Thanks.
Oh nice bag btw, is it Prada ?
Actually, no, it's uMama.
Nah, it's probably YoMama
it was never made to look good, like every other laptop they make. They just keep things standard.
what's the release date???
Who wants to touch my nubbin?
No one. Our standards are higher than that.
Are those inches or centimeters?
you expect a 12cm laptop. comon now...*bead of drool slips from mouth* a durrrrrrh
That's actually in feet.
Did you not even bother to read the post?
Centimeters I whould think, the inch is not an SI unit using inches on something international like this website would be kind of stupid.
"Better to remain quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Psst......it's inches!
"Centimeters I would think, the inch is not an SI unit using inches on something international like this website would be kind of stupid."
If you have a problem with it, you could always write the parent company of Crave [CNET]... based in the USA, which uses Imperial Units as a defacto standard for measure.
CNET Networks, Inc. - Headquarters
235 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
"based in the USA, which uses Imperial Units as a defacto standard for measure."
At least you're in good company, with Liberia, and Burma also using imperial, I guess you're all still longing for the good 'ol days when you were still part of the great British empire.
Anyways, 95% of the world population uses metric, so if I see a picture of a tape measure on the *world*wide*-web, I assume it's metric unless specified otherwise. How stupid of me.
^ are you really that big of a douche?? i dont go on BRITISH BASED FORUMS and bitch about the useless "U" in rumor or humor or neighbor or color or your use of queer (to describe yourself)...fact of the matter is that switching to metric should have been done a long time ago and its probably too late now and most people on this forum are american and would have no idea how to compare specs of this laptop to others if it was in cm...
How sure are you that "most of the people on this forum are American" ?
Whether most people who read this are Amerkuhns or not, they would all hopefully know that a centimeter rule is divided in tens where the above is obviously in exponents of two (halfs, fourths, eights, etc). But no, maybe you're right. Maybe the average user in a metric country WOULD think it reasonable for the author to call a 4.5" screen roomy (picture yourself typing on a propped-open cd jewel - watch out ASUS!).
I'm quite proud of my 11.5 inches.
Only 11,5 centimeters, damn that's small, about the size of am iPhone. Is the keyboard even usable at that size ?
Ever heard of Inches?
*smiles*
*shakes head*
*crys*
*bursts out laughing*