Lenovo's rumored ThinkPad X200e gets two more spy spots, another shot of believability
By Darren Murph 
posted November 3rd 2009 10:56AM
posted November 3rd 2009 10:56AM
posted November 3rd 2009 10:56AM
powered by gdgt
Lenovo ThinkPad X200
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Am I the only one that finds an unbelievable retro quality to it?
Is Lenovo TRYING to kill off the Thinkpad?
they're trying to expand the brand. Under IBM it was only the T, X, and R series. It used to be kind of a niche thing, only businesses liked them and consumers by and large ignored the Thinkpad brand. Under Lenovo, they want to make it more appealing to consumers. It's kind of a bummer, but it doesn't mean they will discontinue the good Thinkpads like the T and W.
The "if it broke, then don't fix it" attitude doesn't work in the tech world. I think it's time to depart from the old Thinkpad look and create a modernized version. This KIRF however, is not it.
Looks like a StinkPad™.
Lenovo already has a netbook line in the IdeaPad. It has very good build quality, but is missing the obvious ThinkPad features this lappy has. I'm guessing this is "more" than a netbook, despite the small size and white shell.
The e is also the old designation for the craptastic model of the R series lineup. Thinner plastics, no docking connector, no magnesium cage in the case of the R60e (the R60 and all T60 and T60p models had it,) etc., etc.
However, they were still heavily based on the R/T architecture, this clearly has nothing to do with the X series.
Which means this should really be an SL210 or something to fit in their real naming scheme, where SL is the IdeaPad-with-a-TrackPoint stuff.
That said, hardware-wise, this could be interesting. 12" tells me that it probably doesn't have an Atom under the hood, but is instead CULV. CULV chips blow Atom out of the water on performance, although a dual-core CULV plus GS45 chipset has over twice the power consumption of Atom+945GSE. And, of course, there's a TrackPoint.
Sure, an X200s with a Celeron or Pentium dual core would be more appealing, but it'd also be much more expensive. The C2D SU9400 is $262 in 1k quantities, the Celeron SU2300 (1 MiB cache instead of 3, 1.2 GHz instead of 1.4) is $134. That'd be the only difference, as the X200s already uses the GS45 - assuming no change in profit margin, an X200s with the chips swapped out would be $871 - and would now be even easier to compare to low-end CULV stuff that's selling for $399.
(There is the Pentium SU4100, which is 1.3 GHz and has 2 MiB cache, but no VT support, meaning it's worthless - and it's certainly more expensive, although Intel doesn't list a price for it. The Acer/Gateway laptops based on it are $150 more expensive than their SU2300-based counterparts, but they're also upgraded in other ways.)
^^^ So basically a cheaper, worse X-series. Bad idea. This kind of thing dilutes the Thinkpad brand. I'll find it hard to recommend a Thinkpad anymore without having to explain the whole situation out.
In fact that they call it "X(whatever)" right there dilutes even the X-series brand. I used to be able to tell anyone to go get an X-series, and now I can't say that anymore.
For their own sakes they better give this a different line name at least.
If this was any other laptop besides a ThinkPad, everyone would probably be saying something different about the design :P
Yeah, we'd be saying "that's a really ugly Macbook!" instead.
If thats the new side of Lenovo, this is my LAST think pad. I guess I'll have to find another manufactured with a docking system. (Thats decent)
This is a sad day for ThinkPads.
Damn that thing is ugly! They yanked that design right from the 2001 archive.
My Lenovo rep was just here today. I have all the info on models for 2010. Lets just say that you guys are on the right track.
Guys wit to buy your ThinkPad's etc. until after the 1st of the new year. There's lots of goddies coming.
Who's exactly in the right track? There's various different thoughts on this here in the thread. The only common point its that white is a bad idea.
I hope you're talking about the white case being a "disguised" case.
It looks straight out of 1995
Guys, this is the X100e. This model is intended to be the middleman batween the IdeaPad S10 (consumer model) and new X200. It's entry business/ultraportable model. Corporate OS support with the ThinkPad durable hardware.
This one comes about 33 years too late. The last red, white & blue piece of electronics i can remember was a Commodore Bicentennial calculator!
Finally, a netbook that has a non-sucky pointing device! I don't like the change in the PgUp/PgDn keys, but it still looks mostly usable. That white does look ugly though. Please let there be a traditional rubberized black option. If this is
Gah, the comment got cut off.. The end should say "If this is less than $500, it would be perfect."
Maybe it's deliberately uglified, like what they do to test cars to disguise them.
This is most likely an SL series judging from the keyboard. Before the Lenovo 3000 became the SL series, there used to be silver and white ones that looked exactly like in the photos.
It still could be KIRF.
There will be two models: x100e and x200e, the x100e having a slightly smaller screen (11.8). The devices will come in classical black, white and red. All will have a trackpoint plus touchpad. Information is from Lenovo out of a session we had today.
Please tell me this is an X-series class device. That means: Magnesium Alloy and Carbon fiber, weighs less than 2.4lbs and has marginal to amazing battery life depending on which battery you use.
That white color makes me think of Apple plastic, not Thinkpad Magnesium Alloy.
Please let this be a real X-series.
That thing is nasty. I mean vomit inducing.
It better come in black and what's that trackpad doing where my fingerprint reader should be?
Well, unfortunately it sounded more like a hybrid between the X-class and the IdeaPad. It wasn't clear whether that only applies to the X100E or to both models. They held their cards pretty close to the chest...
I don't see any ports on the side...seems like someone removed the details and replaced it with white (which is way more likely than going away from std thinkpad color)