Lenovo's ThinkPad X200t convertible tablet gets reviewed
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 21st 2008 10:02PM
posted Sep 21st 2008 10:02PM
It didn't take long for Lenovo's two-faced ThinkPad X200t to hit the test bench after coming over to US soil, and the critics over at Laptop Mag have mostly positive things to say about it. For starters, the convertible tablet maintains the "security, durability, and performance" that we've come to expect from Lenovo. The keyboard was deemed "excellent," the lightweight design was applauded, the display performed admirably and the performance was very satisfactory (or "snappy," as it were). The biggest knocks on the machine were the omission of an optical drive and the below average battery life; testers only squeezed out around 6 hours, which was far less than the company's claim of 10.3 hours. Still, at just north of two large, the X200 was seen as an excellent choice for those seeking a versatile business machine, particularly if you dig that stylus-on-screen action.
I love the little red trackpoint, I wish more laptops had them
umm wow now my life matters except sometimes they are different colors asshole.
Wait wait. You just expended 3 minutes to call someone an asshole because they said they liked trackpoints?
lol what the hell is going on with "hungry?"
*I don't wish that more laptops had red trackpoints, just that they have trackpoints in general. The laptop with the best pointing device for me was my 13 year old Toshiba Sat Pro 400CDT, and it had a green trackpoint (or AccuPoint as is liked to call itself).
Wait... You actually like those? I've always hated them and have refused to buy a notebook that didn't have a touchpad instead or where the system had both but the little eraser couldn't be disabled.
I am stuck buying Thinkpads cuz I only buy laptops with Accupoint. I prefer laptops that don't even have touch pads. I don't use it. So, it just takes up space.
Correction: among (some) Thinkpad users those little red things are called "the nipples."
I love'em too!
I currently use a Toshiba Portege M100. Unless I have it sitting at just the right angle (which, unfortunately is not flat and level), the pointer shakes all erratic-like and creeps across the screen. It's almost like it has an accelerometer.
7 years before the iPhone! Ha!
(this is not a knock on the iPhone, it's crack on the gimpy laptop that I use)
{please don't low rank me}
"just north of two large"
EXCUSE me. This is exactly why I am so happy that netbooks took off like they did. Maybe Asus lost track of their original vision; but we can still thank them for giving a good kick in the balls to companies like Fujitsu-Siemens, Sony, and Lenovo for restricting useful technology to the mobile elite.
I admit that the upcoming Gigabyte m912 is still a poor-man's mini-tablet. Reviews are panning it for heat, not enough RAM to run Vista, the wrong version of Vista (Basic, ergo no tablet functionality), and the slow Atom processor. But it wouldn't take much (an extra Gig of RAM, or a different OS) for that $700 machine to be every bit as useful as this machine, "just north of two large".
In my opinion these computers are scarcely more than status symbols.
Status symbols? Please. I have an X61 Tablet and I've never had anyone even once take so much as a second look at it. People who don't know IBM/Lenovo typically think that ThinkPads are "ugly" or that they "look old." I bought it because of its functionality; I damn sure don't care what other people think about the way it looks or how much they think I paid for it.
If you want to see a "status symbol" machine, check out the $2,000+ MacBook Pros that so many college students use to do little more than check their Facebook.
Uhh, sorry, but you fail. There are HP and Gateway tablets for those who can't afford these (like me) not too much more expensive than the craptacular Gigabyte tablet. For starters, the Gigabyte doesn't have an active digitizer, which makes handwriting input really inaccurate. For two hundred more you get a full 12" tablet PC with a real processor and active digitizer, nice roomy hard drive and plenty of RAM, as well as a fairly capable integrated graphics chip (in the TX2500 series at least). The netbooks need to be a bit cheaper for them to really be fairly priced IMO for what they can do, and $700 for a netbook is just way too much.
That said, these are definitely not just status symbols. Even 6 hours of battery life is far above what the average laptop gets. My Tx2000 gets a little less than 3 hours. If I had the money for a Thinkpad I would have gotten one, but when they cost nearly twice as much with inferior specs it's a tough decision to make. But I can really see why people pay more, because my tablet doesn't last long enough and isn't that well built, and it seems fairly heavy for a 12". But it's still a great little machine for those that can't or won't pay the premiums on a Thinkpad. Also note, I think these go on sale for some pretty good discounts, although they're still prohibitively expensive.
The X200t is too expensive, as are MacBook Pros.
You have to give the m912 credit where it's due. Expensive for a netbook, but incredibly cheap for a 9" tablet. Consider that even Fujitsu-Siemens' Lifebook p1600s all have passive digitizers. Consider also that all of these Core 2 Duos in expensive machines are running business apps that the Atom can mostly handle just fine. The worst thing about it is the 1GB of RAM and the small battery. Also, it should have Vista Home Premium, not Basic.
But I checked out HP's tx2500z, and you have a point. Yeah it's twice the weight and a $200 premium. But you do get a lot of value. Might be one reason Gigabyte isn't telling yet whether the m912 is coming state-side.
But the x200t above? Come on. You're paying a grand extra for: an over-kill processor, a bigger battery, and a nipple.
>fuscob @ Sep 21st 2008 11:14PM
>If you want to see a "status symbol" machine, check out the $2,000+ MacBook Pros that so many college students
> use to do little more than check their Facebook.
Valid. However, to be fair to the MBP, I know many IT/computer science types who use them because they like the screen size/resolution, weight (for a 15.4" lappy), backlit keyboard, mag-plug, and supported BSD out-of-the-box. It's definitely expensive, though at $1800 (edu price) and ~$1600 during back-to-school specials (after selling off the free-after-rebate iPod), the base MBP isn't any *that* outrageous (not any more-so than high-end Lenovo and Sony models).
As far as the Netbooks go, yeah you can get then for 1/7 the price of an X200t, but they're of limited utility. As much as I enjoy using my AA1, when it comes to intensive work its CPU is too slow and its screen size/resolution too small. I'm not complaining... it met my expectations and accomplishes what I bought it for.
Anyway, the X200t is nifty and will do well in its target markets.
I'm in a market for a new tablet, but since this one doesn't have a GPU, I'll pass.
@Jeff
Who told you 2 GB is not enough to run Vista? My current tablet is 4 year old with 1 GB and runs Vista fine until the screen cracked. Nobody can touch Vista's tablet function.
Who told me? The Windows Task Manager showing Vista processes occupying 700MB of RAM, that's who.
Apologies. Minor miscommunication. 2GB is fine for Vista. It's 1GB (as in Gigabyte's m912) that is not enough.
I have a x61 and in 4 months, I have only needed a dvd drive once. I just use .iso of discs, and transfer files over my network.
If you really need a dvd drive, you can buy a small portable dvd burner that is powered by usb for only $40 on ebay.
I am sad that there is no higher res option, like WSXGA, or WSXGA+, that the x61 has.
I can run Vista on lots of things. It just won't run "well", which is what I think he was getting at.
ThinkPads ARE status symbols amond the cognoscenti.
Among some, a Rolex is a status symbol. Among those who love watches, an IWC or a Patek Phillipe is a status symbol. I have had my R40 since 2002 and still it runs. Colleagues who have had Toshibas, Dells and other brands, have had to see their laptops die painful deaths of broken hinges (for the screens), missing keys on their keyboards, and various other problems. Among college students, perhaps some Macbook is Prince, but among adults who use laptops daily, ThinkPads rule the day and decade.
Blargaaaa....why did they get rid of the nav whell thingy?