Any new Thinkpad comparable to X200s / X220 coming out?

I have used the x200s and x220 and like both of them. Will something similar with the same or even better quality/features come out in the near future? I'm not familiar with X240 but from what I read it seems it's not as good as those two, though I don't know the exact reasons.

 

New keyboard layout, general cheap/crappiness of newer ThinkPads have made the newer X series quite undesirable. I highly doubt Lenovo will reverse the trend, the island style 6 row keyboard was supposed to only be an Edge/crappy ThinkPad thing, clearly not as it spread to mainstream ThinkPad models, and that was the beginning of the end for the quality ThinkPads.

 

Qualitywise, the X240 should be of higher quality than the X220.

Featurewise, the X240 has some features that the X220 did not have (for example, screens with resolutions beyond HD), but lacks other functions (for explame, only 8 GB RAM). I depends on what your needs are. If you want the highest possible performance, the X240 isn´t as fast as the X230 for example (CPU wise), but if you want the longest battery life, the X240 certainly will do much better than any other ThinkPad X.

About your question on "whats coming out": The next Intel Plattform is scheduled for the end of this year/early next year, so the X240 successor (which is very likely called X250) should be out then.

 

That sucks. One main reason I always bought Thinkpads is the unsurpassed keyboard. (Another reason is the matte screen--hope that stays)

What about reliability/ruggedness/longevity? I used to have T61, X61s, too. All these past ones were great. I don't need super high performance, but reliability and ease of use is very important.

 

I used to own a X220 for the longest time myself, but I sold it in the end because the overall quality wasn't good IMHO. It felt very cheap. I've tested a few X240's and I'm with ibmthink here. It definitely has a higher quality finish and I prefer its keyboard as well, but you'll need to try it out yourself since everybody has different preferences.

Also how do you expect us to know how reliable a machine is that was only released less than a year ago? All I can say is, most newer ThinkPads don't have any serious issues that could cause a total failure like in the old days (dying GPU's), but only time will tell. The X220 is not part of the reliable majority however, some units that were produced had faulty EEPROM chips and even though my X220 had a "safe date", it still died on me, so I had to get the motherboard replaced. I recommend to stay away from the X220.

I have also heard of multiple instances where owners had accidentally dropped their X220 (fallen off the desk for example) and it would break into a million pieces. This happened to lead_org as well if I remember correctly. And his X220 was in a laptop bag.

As for ruggedness, the X61 was pretty poor IMO. It felt very soft and used machines tend to have tears in some places due to constant stress from the hinges. I can't say for sure if the X240 will look better in a few years time, but like I said, my initial thoughts are very positive and I would place it above of all other X-series ThinkPads in terms of quality. (with a few exceptions like the X300 and X240s of course)

 

I've owned an X60t, X61t, X200t, X201, X220t (the shortlist of ThinkPads I have owned), and I can say they were solid machines. The X200t had a flimsy latch, but it never broke or anything. I can't say about the vanilla X220, but many people are still using one these days..

 

X200s was one sweet machine, and one of the better moments when it comes to Lenovo's tenure in ThinkPad design IMO.

X220 is a hit-or-miss, with the tablets being more of a "hit" in my experience.

I'd question the usefulness of a FHD panel on a 12.5" LCD for most people. Scaling in Windows world still leaves an awful lot to be desired, at least the way I see it...pun intended.

Personally, I'd wait to see what X250 - or whatever it ends up being called - brings to the table...the entire *40 generation has received less-than-stellar user feedback, with T440s being arguably the best and W540 the worst in the current lineup...

My $0.02 only...

 

I really loved the light weight of the X200s!!!

Is only the X-series getting disappointing, or all thinkpads including the T-series?

 

I had one as a travel machine until a couple of weeks ago. With 8GB of RAM and a SSD, it was pretty darn fast.

That really depends on who you speak to...opinions vary very widely.

Personally, anything after *20-series is a non-starter for me because of the keyboard. But I'm one grouchy dinosaur....

 

Want to wait for *50 lineups?

Brace yourself for this:

Spoiler

:hi2:

 

Nope^^ That feature won´t be seen on any of the new ThinkPads. Period.

 

Why my bro? Seems some people love it ^o^

 

Hm, maybe, but I haven´t read from one yet^^

 

The new T series is okay, I'm just not a fan of the keyboard. I also dislike Windows 8, and the elimination of Power Manager. I definitely prefer the X series, and X series tablets as dead as they are. Can't beat a classic swivel convertible tablet.

I think the X301 and the _61 series is the best work Lenovo has done (and no, don't say Nvidia melty melty graphics).

 

My X220 survived a 4 foot drop on its left side without serious damage, though the strip on the lid where the wifi antenna is located feels slightly more wiggly now. I don't think the quality is on par with the X200 overall but it's a lot better than the consumer laptops I've used.

 

No argument from me on that one. I'd just add W70*/ds to that list. While these sold poorly, they were very impressive machines in their own right.

Lenovo's design team still has some quite interesting ideas, whether I personally like them or not...

 

Ah yes I forgot about the W70xds machines, that's one series ThinkPad I don't think I'll ever get to own as they are still ridiculously expensive for a 3-5 year old machine.

 

No question about the X301. Never had a _61 series so I don't know.

 

Since, after numerous ThinkPads, I have ended up keeping my X301 and T61 (albeit it be a FrankenPad), I have to agree with this.

 

If it only had a better screen, that's what I'd own right now.

 

Now you have read one :hi2:

ps: taken from here.

 

I believe ibmthink was referring to the fact that he hasn't yet heard of plans by Lenovo to implement the current X1C's adaptive row across-the-board. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

- Home and End are placed where you would normally find Caps Lock
- The Backspace key is split into a smaller Backspace and Delete key

That's different from any other keyboard. So how can you call it "naturally placed"?

 

Thats not really about the Adaptive key-row, its more about the rest of the keyboard.

Correct.

 

my bad, blame the one

Each to his own I guess

Personally I really encourage lenovo to implement the Home/End change to future thinkpad lineups (folks will hate me ^^) as I find the current Home/End position are not comfortable. The adaptive Fn seems ok for me. For the backspace/delete, I have to try it first.


@OP:
Sorry for a bit of detour