Buy X61s now or wait for X200s?

I recently canceled my T400 order after seeing and playing around with it in a store. It seems too big/heavy for my needs. I decided the X series would fit me better.

Now I have another decision: Should I buy the x61s now or wait for the x200s?

Here are my pros for each:
X61s:
- screen seems bigger, and better for my eyes; i saw an X200 in a store, and the 1280x800 resolution on a 12" makes everything seem a bit small to me
- cleaner design, and without the thick bezel
- i can get it now, and cheaper; might be a while before the x200s comes out, let alone gets discounts

X200s:
- faster processor, RAM
- runs cooler
- better battery life
- bigger keyboard


The x200s is technically superior, but the screen and bezel are holding me back..

Any help or recommendation will be very much appreciated!!

 

just something to think about, the x61 will be the last thinkpad to have a 4:3 display.

 

The CPU of the X200s will be only marginally faster, since the clock speeds will be the same as of the X61s but they will be one generation newer.

If it will run cooler than the X61s, that remains to be seen (felt).

 

I would definitely get the X200... If it is nostalgia you want, then get the X61 Both of these should make you a happy camper and the X61 is much cheaper at the moment so if you're on a budget, get that...

 

The benefit of a standard screen is they're taller which does help make things easier to read.

 

Here they say X200s will have LED LCD - just to take into consideration...

 

i have a x61 for two months now

the two main drawbacks are the heat and maybe the xga thing

so i'll go for a x200s after making sure the heat is well manage

 

You forgot to mentions some more advantages the X200s has over the X61s:

1. LED backlight (better battery life, better brightness and better contrast).

2. X4500MHD graphic card (in comparison to X3100 on the X61s). The X4500MHD is much more powerful, and can do High Definition decoding in hardware (both AVC and x.264 codecs).

3. The wider footprint allows a male human to sit with the laptop in his lap, without closing the knees like a female woman.

4. The X200s weight less than the X61s (with the 4 cell battery).

Regarding the 16:10 aspect ratio, true, you have less LCD area. Still, usually the problem is not in the vertical axis of the screen (because it's easy to scroll up/down and doesn't affect reading), rather in the horizontal axis, since it's a real pain in the a$$ to scroll vertically AND horizontally. The X200s has a wider screen and it's not a bad compromise imo.

Only problem is that Lenovo promised the X200s in September. We're in September and don't even have a price for the thing. I hope they didn't mean September 2009... (weirder things have happened before, like season 7 of "24" being postponed by a full year...)

 

This is not a personal attack, but I don't understand all the whining about the "thick bezel" on some Lenovo notebooks. Who the hell cares? Are you going to get laid more because the bezel on your notebook is 5mm instead of 10mm? I don't think so! Sure, a thinner bezel can be said to look more sleek, but if one is really more concerned with how the notebook looks rather than how it functions, buy a Mac! It's not like any other design aspect of a Thinkpad is pretty, so why complain about a utilitarian design in the screen bezel?

The "thick" bezel makes up the size of the lid that must be large enough to cover up the full-sized keyboard. Yes, they could have designed the notebook to have a 95% size keyboard or something like they did with the X61, but it is hard to argue that typing on a full-sized keyboard is better than a smaller than full-sized keyboard. In addition, the price of producing the X200 is reduced if they can use the same keyboard that is used on most (all?)other Lenovo notebooks like the T-series, R-series, etc.

If the upsides of a so-called "big ugly thick bezel" are a cheaper price and better typing experience, I'd rather deal with +5mm of plastic surrounding the screen.

I've owned an X60s and X61s. Several of the downsides of that series of notebook is solved with the new design of the X200: can balance on the lap, watch movies in widescreen, solved palmrest heat, brighter screen with better viewing angles, and lighter weight. As has already been mentioned, the X200 is better still simply due to the newer technology that allows better battery life, processing, video, connectivity options, and wifi range/speed.

As far as I'm concerned, the only upsides of the X6x series are a 4:3 screen (for those it is useful for only), smaller width footprint, and nostalgia. The last point seems to be the most compelling yet unacknowledged argument for a lot of people.

Of course, the ~$400+ one can save by going with the X61s instead of X200s is a serious consideration if saving money is a priority over having the most current technology.

 

No, but most of us are more concerened with the porno actress looking less real when surrounded by a thick bezel.

This is not necessarilty true. The bezel is thick not on the horizontal axis (which is relevant to the keyboard size), rather on the vertical axis.

Because Lenovo did not use a touchpad on the X200, they theoretically could have finished the computer at the end of the keyboard (i.e make the computer less deep), and this could have allowed them to trim the bezel in the vertical axis to be extremely thin.

Anyway I too don't think that the thickness of a bezel is a real consideration whether to buy a laptop or not, unless that's the only difference between two otherwise identical laptops, but this is not the case of course.

 

I would concede you have a point here if the model in question were an amateur, but porno actresses don't look real in the first place!

This could be true. However, there isn't an abundance of space in the palmrest area of the X200. It is possible that shortening this area more could have resulted in poor ergonomics for typing (i.e., not enough rest for the palm). It is also possible that the PCB of the notebook or other design considerations required the extra space either in the width or depth dimension and Lenovo chose to use the depth dimension rather than make the widescreen wider yet. In any case, I think it is safe to conclude that Lenovo didn't make the bezel "thick" to fulfill expectations of the thinkpad being an ugly line of notebooks but rather because of other design considerations.

Definitely.

 

Wow lots of good advice here. Thank you all!

I agree, the thick bezel is not a deal breaker. My main concern is the 1280x800 on a 12" screen which makes fonts and things look smaller. But after talking to a couple of friends who own similar widescreen 12" laptops, I'm thinking it might not be as big of a deal.

Heat can be an issue for me. I currently have a 3-year old Samsung: it's a solid laptop and I like (almost) every bit of it, but it runs so hot that I can barely put it on my lap. The x200 reportedly runs a lot cooler than the X61/X61s, and I suspect the x200s can't be too far from the x200 temperature wise.

The LED screen on the X200s sounds like a big plus too. I've heard great things about the T400 LED screen, so I'll be happy if the 12" can come close to that.

Minor plus: I really like the red stripes on the x200 trackpoint buttons, which the x61s doesn't have, so I guess it kind of makes up for the thick bezel

Seems like there's a lot to like about the x200s. I'm leaning towards it now. Hopefully Lenovo will release it soon!! And with the dell e4200 looming, hopefully we will see some discounts like the T400 did!

 

Does anyone know if the X200s will also feature a multi-touch ISP option?

 

touche ;-)