A ThinkPad you wish Lenovo build for its 20th Anniversary

Hello, as a long time lurker on this forum, it was interesting to read stuff on this board. As you know, the ThinkPad brand is now coming up to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of it's birth. I was wondering what you want for Lenovo to put in the 20th Anniversary ThinkPad? Try to be realistic in this discussion but at the same time try to have some fun in it.

 

I don't want them to make a special anniversary Thinkpad. Technology gets old fast. Even if I buy a perfect laptop now, I don't see myself using it more than 3 or 4 years from now.

Since the design of the Thinkpad is inspired by the design of the traditional Japanese lunchbox, I think it would be cool to have a Thinkpad bento box and a pair of chopsticks modeled after the X series tablet stylus.

 

something with my name on it would be good. haha..

 

That's easy, it's called the lead_org CTO edition...

 

A rather light and thin 14" quad core with good GPU and at least 1600x900 matte screen. I won't bother specifying if it should be a classic or Edge design, but I like seeing how Lenovo finally flexed some creative muscle at CES. They're obviously trying to gain a reputation for something other than the tried and true (safe and boring) Thinkpad history. So if they were to put out an anniversary model, it would clearly be with a significant nod to the future, and perhaps too much of a disregard for the past for some people's tastes.

 

Do you have something against traditional ThinkPads? Safe and boring yes, but it has been a formula of success for 5+ years that Lenovo has taken the reigns of Think products, and it worked for IBM for a decade before that.

What I would want is something similar to the X220, but maybe an X220s with a 1600x900 RGBLED IPS LCD, a low voltage i5 CPU that has much reduced idle power, and a higher capacity 9 cell + slice to give a 12" ultraportable truly 23+ hour battery life.

 

Leather-clad X220 with soft rubber palmrests, no touchpad, and full manual QA/"fit and finish" inspection for every unit produced (points of focus: keyboard tolerances, symmetry when closed, alignment/margins of labels/stickers, etc.)

 

I doubt Lenovo will do anything that drastic for the ThinkPad's birthday. It would probably be something like a case or wallpapers, probably something more in Japan.

It would be cool if they could limited-edition batches of some of their older models with more modern technologies. I, for one, would definitely stare jealously at a Sandy Bridge TransNote with an x220 IPS display.

On a related note, has anyone ever compared the 701c to the X220? Obviously, the x220 is faster, but I would like to see them side-by-side and some impressions of how the ThinkPad brand's changed over the last twenty years.

 

At the cost of sounding repetitive, I hope Lenovo brings out a svelte 13" machine in either the T or the X series line up.

Basically, it would be a matte screen affair, with a high-end resolution (IPS perhaps?), a medium sized SSD, about 4 gigs of RAM, battery lasting about 8 hours.

NONE of the above will happen though!

 

Lenovo will make a white X2 in celebration of the old and new.

 

My short answer is no... but the thing is, the traditional ThinkPads don't exactly "capture the imagination", so to speak. No point celebrating a landmark by firmly planting themselves in the past.

 

Well.....this is what Lenovo did for it's 15th Anniversary

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I do hope it's more better than this stuff.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 701c is smaller than the x220 and/or a modern netbook area wise (length x width), right? If that's the case, then, I'd like a 701c with Ivy Bridge in it, a HD or HD+ display if it's going to be 16:9, and with at least the x220's battery life with a 9 cell.

 

two words: titanium alloy

 

So which elements of traditional ThinkPads don't you like? The black colour, the casing design, the keyboard, or just ThinkPad in general.

I thought the traditional ThinkPads are evolving in its design, it is not exactly the same as the first ThinkPad. It clearly has evolved.

Regarding landmarks and tradition, i guess people do that. Surely you celebrate some sort of important day in your life that repeats itself over and over again.

Also, Rolex, Montblanc, Rolls Royce, Bentley, etc are all doing pretty well, selling their same old design that evolved little over the year.

And Stradavari Volin design is still highly regarded after so many years.

 

I'd go for an x1 with a Samsung series 7 slate as detachable screen.

 

ThinkPad for Bentley:

Bentley Motors Website : World of Bentley : Bentley Collection : Exclusive Partnerships

 

A fixed/resolved X1 (14in 1600x900 screen in 13in chassis, ips if they keep the g glass, backlit keyboard that doesnt peak out of the bottom of the keys at certain angles, headphone/mic jack by the palmrest, more usb ports on the sides w/o cover, fix ugly lenovo logo + placement, built in 8 cell battery, nice ibm japan wallpapers)- and make it blacker

My thinkpad is dark grey in certain light. I want darth vader blackest black.

 

Technically, everything that is "black" is just dark gray. Absolute black is the absence of reflected light, and that's kind of hard to do with our current technology.

 

The Black Hole ThinkPad: The New IdeaPad Pro T Series, with optional Notebook Cooler slice

Probably still a few product cycles away...

 

lol- Ive seen vintage thinkpads that are darker black (though for the life of me I dont remember which model) I guess it is a difference in coating/materials that made it possible? seems simple enough.

Also-a thinkpad phone. With Sakamoto ringtones. I use thinkpads in part b/c I am a bit clumsy- a nice looking + extremely durable phone would be nice- thinkpad tablet + samsung galaxy note = ?

 

I don't know what you are talking about, ThinkPads are the best looking laptops around.

In all honesty, though, I do think that a ThinkPad is pretty good looking in that it looks like an actual laptop, and not a toy.

 

Well, Lenovo do make phone only in Asia.
Lenovo K800 is the first Intel-powered Medfield phone, coming to China in Q2 with Android 4.0 | The Verge

 

Time for some wishful thinking...

13-14 inch
modern specs (cpu, usb 3, docking station, etc)
QUXGA/QXGA matte screen
mSATA + HDD
original thinkpad keyboard etc

if this happens i don't mind paying 2-3k for it!

 

The 15th anniversary model ( Lenovo Newsroom | Lenovo Commemorates 15th Anniversary of ThinkPad by Uncorking New "Reserve" Edition) cost $5000, and you (we, actually) are already demanding a 40 to 60 percent discount for the 20th anniversary model. Tough crowd.

 

YES!

That fits with the marketplace. Nike reissues retro sneakers, Hollywood reboots franchises and TV series, and MickeyD brings back the McRib. We even have walkman cases for iPods as well.

I would love to see some retro ThinkPad reissues with contemporary hardware.

 

just add a (high-res) IPS option to every thinkpad already. how hard can it be?

 

Cost prohibitive unfortunately.

I still say SXGA+ or UXGA 4:3 panels should come back..



y u go widescreen Lenovo??

Z61t 16:10 WXGA on the left, T60 4:3 SXGA+ on the right..

 

the one with NO TOUCHPAD. shouldnt trackpoint be enough?

 

How so? They found a way to do it on the X220 for $50. Why not other ThinkPads? At least that's my hope. While the X220 IPS isn't the greatest, it's better than all but a few laptops.

My dream ThinkPad is a remake of the 770z with a 13" 1280x1024 IPS/PVA/AFFS LCD along a mSATA drive and modular bay. Then you could have two 1TB drives with the mSATA. I'd put it on a diet too. Maybe 3.5-4 pounds would be perfect.

 

But on the X220 it's just a 12.5" Display with 1366x768. The cost for bigger IPS screens with a higher resolution will be much higher (you can see that here: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System A IPS FHD Panel for the Dell Precision M4600 raises the price by about 500 $).

But there's hope: The Lenovo Yoga has a 13.3" 1600x900 IPS Display.

 

Hmm...how about a updated Transnote with with a full WACOM pad?

 

Didnt they do a horribly overpriced Thinkpad Reserve for its 15th anniversary?

 

Ya for a 1368x768 LCD 12.5". But say 1920x1080 15.6"? Look at the M4600 and 8560W, it is a 550 dollar option, though the panel is RGBLED as well as IPS. They saw a market for the X220, and probably bought hundreds of thousands of panels. Look at the price of the W520's RGBLED panel, add IPS and you get +550 over the standard 1368x768, the exact pricing of the M4600 and 8560W's RGBLED IPS panels.

 

Perhaps if they committed like they did with the X220, it could be done for a lower price.

 

Without the leather conditioning, yes, it would have been overpriced.

I'll commit if they commit. Of course, I reserve the right to reconsider my commitment.

 

That's the power you have.

 

i would like to see a new 15 inch thinkpad, thinner and lighter than the current T520, with a very nice high-res lcd screen, and around 4 or 4.5 pounds. scrap the optical drive. SSD only. under $1000.


that would be awesome!

 

See, I should have used this - - every time I think it's implied, no one gets it, which means I must not get it.