Are there going to be any Thinkpads offered with AMD Trinity?

Are there going to be any Thinkpads offered with AMD Trinity that we know of?

I know that in terms of pure CPU power, the Ivy Bridge "3rd Gen iCore" CPUs are the best bet. The x230 is an excellent and highly portable option there, but it can get expensive.

If you need more graphics power while staying semi-portable, the T430 is perfect. If you need something more reasonably priced, there's the Edge 430 (though it's not uber portable). If you need portable while sacrificing overall performance there's the x130e.

But what would really be nice if there was something portable, reasonably powerful, and cheaper than the standard Intel offerings.

The answer is something in the 11-13" form factor with AMD Trinity. It would probably be cost effective while offering better graphics than the iCore integrated (though it would lose some of the CPU power). I know in the past Lenovo hasn't been overly enthusiastic about AMD, but it'd be neat.

As far as I know the x131e is only going to have the E2 options, which are the successors to the E450/E300, instead of Trinity... but if they did offer Trinity there, it'd be near ideal for a lot of folks. I think the power upgrade from the E-series to Trinity is supposed to be rather a lot, yeah?

Thanks for any info anyone has!

 

Most Thinkpad Edges have AMD options.

 

Traditional ThinkPad line will never be offered with AMD CPU's (T/W/x). Everyone just prefers Intel and price isn't a huge concern for corporations who buy hundreds/thousands of units.

 

But are we ever going to get another small edge option? 11-12"? That would be awesome if so.

 

We had a E220s last generation.

 

Ah, for some reason I didn't think the E220s had the A4/A6/A8 series of processors that were last generations offerings. I thought they had lower end AMDs from the gen before that (around the time we had first gen iCore, when we're on third gen now).

Maybe it'll be offered again then. Cool!

 

If I'm not wrong, the E220s was discontinued before the release of Llano. I know the E425 and E525 had Llano offerings last year.

 

I would kill for a Thinkpad Txxx with Trinity or any AMD Fusion chip. Unfortunately, I don't think AMD has the ability to supply the volume that major OEMs want.

 

I don't think AMD had higher performance ULV's at the time the E220s was around. Only thing they had was Brazos E series.

I personally would like to see an X2x0 with Trinity so I can have some decent gaming performance on the go.

Probably not going to happen though. IBM didn't have AMD Thinkpads even when AMD was dominating.

 

Yeah, that would be awesome. It trumps the HD 4000 in gaming yeah? Though otherwise the Intel is the far superior chip.

 

There should be a ThinkPad Edge E435 and E535 that will offer Trinity some time in July or so. I don't know of anything portable and in the 11 - 13" range though.

 

Pity -- I was hoping for... well, with current naming, I guess it'd be the E235. Ah well!

 

Here in Europe there will be the E135 and the E335. But not in the US.

 

Cool, I heard from Lenovo AMD notebooks sell better in Europe and Asia than North America, I'm not sure why, but explains why Lenovo would be selling there and not here.

 

Cost is a huge concern for large institutional buyers. They'll argue tooth and nail over a $25 increase in unit cost. While I'd agree it the chances are on the smaller side, but it wouldn't surprise me if you saw an AMD in a traditional ThinkPad, especially if it allowed them to lower the price. Any CPU sold today offers more than enough for the basics, which is what most are after.

 

I didn't know that -- cool, thanks for the info.

 

As far as the W series is concerned, an AMD offering would never happen since CPU performance is key there (GPU is already covered by Quadro, though I'm hoping for some sort of FirePro in the W540). since AMD has dropped out of the high-end market, I don't see the W series moving from Intel, ever.

T and X series, it would be an awesome option. Not only would iGPU performance be better, but it would be cheaper (slightly, or much cheaper, I don't know). As Zaz said, companies will fight over the smallest of price changes since something like $25 per unit in an order of 1,000 is still $25,000. I'm not sure why there isn't an AMD offering in these laptops since they are meant for general-purpose computing, something AMD can handle well.

 

Sorry to bump, but this was the thread that informed me that the E135 was going to exist...

Does this link -- ThinkPad Edge E135 - stylish small business laptop from Lenovo (IL) -- mean that the E135 is going to be offered in the US at some point in the near future?

...Even if it does though, looks like it's only going to have Brazos/E2/whatever like the x130 instead of Trinity? Bah.

 

I would love to see the E135 or the E335 offered in the US but with Trinity APUs.

It'll probably never happen.

 

No, because E135 and E335 will both come with Brazos 2.0, and it looks like they will not offered in the USA (here in Germany they are listed now).