The ThinkPad has long been looked upon as the standard of PC notebooks. Partly because the line has been a staple since 1992, but also because they’re just so damn good. The notebook line will hit the 60 million mark sometime this month. That’s impressive and an achievement that should be celebrated with a bit of booze and bonuses for everyone involved.
But Lenovo, the current owner of the brand after buying the rights from IBM in 2005, is keeping the line rolling towards the 100 million milestone with some nice updates. Hello, Nvidia Optimus. → Read More
It’s pretty great that people are just now realizing that Planet Earth isn’t some sort of static strip mall. There are volcanoes, and earthquakes, and hurricanes, and tornadoes, and tsunamis—objects from outer space regularly invade the atmosphere. This planet is alive, brother! So, idea: you know how certain laptop models, like ThinkPads and MacBooks, come with built-in accelerometers? They’re there in order to protect the hard drive from a devastating fall, but what it you could use said accelerometer to detect an earthquake before it happens? → Read More
Lenovo ThinkPads have offered 3G access for a while now but soon Sprint 3G and 4G WiMAX will be available as well. All buyers will need to do is select the Sprint access during the ordering process and their fancy new notebook will arrive with a Sprint SIM card already installed. It’s then just a matter of firing up the Lenovo Access Connection tool to start the service. Of course Sprint will want a monthly service charge as well, but hopefully you can con your company into picking up the tab under the guise of “mobile productivity”.Middle mangers love that type of talk. → Read More
It’s the new year, and time for some new stuff from Lenovo. The laptop manufacturer announced their latest and greatest recently, the new ThinkPad X100e and the ThinkPad Edge (amongst others). → Read More
A pair of new additions have been announced for Lenovo’s ThinkPad line. So all of those business people who shunned Windows Vista and held onto XP can finally take the plunge to a new OS. These new notebooks are optimized to run Windows 7 along with a host of other little goodies. → Read More
Lenovo is “exploring” the possibility of a ThankPad-branded netbook. Such a netbook would, one guesses, be the first specifically aimed at the business crowd. Does this mean that we’re beginning to see the blurring of the line between netbooks and notebooks? One can dream, friends. One can dream. → Read More
What could you get for $700? Well, you could get a busted, stained MacBook off Craigslist, you could get a brand new Samsung NC20, or you could get an honest-to-god convertible touchscreen laptop. Not the latest model (far from it) but buddy, it’s a swivel-screen tablet PC! For $649! → Read More
We all know ThinkPads are pretty great. They’re rugged, easily upgradable, and fully-featured. Now you can even freeze the buggers or push them around in the dust. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X200, X301, X200s, X200 Tablet, T400, T500, R400 and SL300 machines just passed Mil Spec tests for “semi-rugged” computing which means you can use them in extreme conditions for all of your computing needs.
Low Pressure – Tests operation at 15,000 feet
Humidity – Cycles 95 percent humidity through the environment
Vibration (operational and non-operational) – Jostles and jolts the laptops to make sure they can withstand shocks
High Temperature – Simulates high heat conditions by baking the laptop up to 140°F
Low Temperature – Tests operation at -4°F
Temperature Shock – Fluctuates between -4 and up to 140°F to test operation
Dust – Blows dust for an extended amount of time
Sony’s new subnotebook Vaio P does look like a neat little machine but several official promo shots of the device triggered a wave of mockery in the blogosphere of its home country Japan. → Read More
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds broke cover over the weekend, there are so many questions on how it will work. This quick, 10-sec video does shed some light on how the action will take place. It seems that the second screen simply slides-out behind the main screen. Hopefully it works well. Video after the jump. → Read More
Lenovo recently announced the ThinkPad X301, the next in line for the X300 line. Surely you remember the X300, Lenovo’s answer to the MacBook Air. Well the X301 seems to be stuffed in the same less-than-three-pound shell, but the delicious candy inside has changed a little bit. For starters, you can get the X301 with a 64GB or 128GB solid state drive (available in September). You’ll also get 20 percent better performance over the X300, according to Lenovo, thanks to “the latest DDR3 memory and the latest Intel Core 2 Duo ultra low volt processor.” Finally, there’s new support for the DisplayPort interface so you can hook your rig up to your home theater setup or what have you. Pricing for the standard hard drive model starts at $2,599 and goes up from there based on your desired configuration. They’ll be available on August 26th. → Read More
In the next few weeks, Lenovo is expected to formally announce its SL series of notebooks aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses. According to IDG News Service, the machines will be priced between $699 and $1,199 and will feature online backup services and LoJack anti-theft technology. The SL series also looks to loosen its necktie "with a more stylish look and multimedia features such as a connector to display high-definition video and software for video creation" but the relatively low price brings tradeoffs that might alienate certain would-be business buyers, most notably, "the SL laptops will not come with the proprietary docking stations usually found on enterprise ThinkPads, but will include a USB-based port replication system." → Read More
The Chinese notebook enthusiast forum, 51nb, has the new Lenovo X200 all spec’d out and it looks very, very good. And these are just the baseline specs. Based on Centrino 2 + VPro technology platform 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo CPU, the highest clock up to 2.4 GHz DDR2 (667MHz) or DDR3 (1067MHz) Memory 12-inch WXGA LCD screen 64GB SSD or the maximum capacity of 7200 to 200 GB hard drive or transferred to a maximum capacity of 5,400 to 320 GB hard drive T-series size keyboard Optional 1.3-megapixel camera built-in USB X 3, Express Card X 1,3 in 1 card reader Magnesium alloy roof, the chassis 9-cell battery, with the largest life time up to 9.6 hours To support the latest communication features, such as WiMax, GPS Starting from 1.32 kg weight (X61 1.42 kg) What do you think? → Read More
The X300 is official and it’s fabulous. It starts a $2,799 and includes a 64GB of solid-state hard drive space, GPS, and a DVD burner. It’s lighter than the Air, runs Vista, and comes in rich, Corinthian rubber. Road warriors, begin salivating. Release → Read More
Walt Mossberg took an early look at the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 about a week ago and promised a full review later. Later is now. He likes the MacBook Air competitor despite its limited storage options and high price tag, saying… “I can recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation, provided they can live with its two biggest downsides: a relatively paltry file-storage capacity and a hefty price tag. This ThinkPad starts at $2,476 for a stripped-down model and at $2,799 for a preconfigured retail version with a half-size battery. The configuration I expect to be the most popular, with a full-size battery and DVD drive, is about $3,000.” → Read More
If for some strange reason it wasn’t before, thin is officially in as far as notebooks are concerned. At least that’s what seems to be the case with Lenovo as it answers the MacBook Air with the ThinkPad X300. It’s thin, yes, but not quite as thin as the Air (the Air fits in an envelope, the X300 merely fits on top of a newspaper or whatever that is on the left there — hell, maybe it IS an envelope). What it lacks in the not-as-thin-as-the-new-MacBook department it more than makes up for in the actually-comes-with-useful-stuff department, with a built-in optical drive, removable battery, three USB ports, Ethernet jack, and optional integrated high-speed cellular modem and/or GPS chips. → Read More
[photopress:x300.jpg,full,center] Those looking for a PeeCee version of Apple’s MacBook Air might want to start poking around to find details about the rumored Lenovo ThinkPad X300. Word is it’ll clock in with a similar 13.3-inch screen, weight just 2.5 pounds, and also feature a 64GB SSD HD. Unlike the Air, it has an interated DVD burner and optional WiMAX for about $2750. Now we’ve got confirmation from Electronista that BestBuy, among others, has a pre-order page up. Tasty indeed! Lenovo ThinkPad X300 preorders surface, show details [Electronista] → Read More
Today Lenovo announced their newest laptop, the ThinkPad T61p. Touted as Lenovo’s highest-performing and greenest notebook, this 15.4-inch widescreen mobile workstation is Linux-certified, features an 802.11n connection, NVIDIA’s Quatro FX chipset, and optional Ultra-Wideband wireless. The ThinkPad T61p raises the bar on performance with Lenovo’s Ultra Connect II wireless design helping improve WWAN and WLAN 802.11n performance, new NVIDIA® Quadro FX 57OM graphics certified to the open GL graphics GPU standard, Intel® Centrino® Pro mobile technology and long battery life with more control via Battery Stretch. Users can even opt for next-generation wireless capabilities with Ultra-Wideband. With Lenovo’s new cooling system, the notebook runs three decibels quieter over previous models and up to 10 percent cooler even under the most intensive tasks. Tops for security, the notebook offers optional port disablement, 32-byte password protection, an integrated fingerprint reader and full disk encryption. Certified to run applications of more than 20 independent software vendors, the workstation is also certified to run the Novell® SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 operating system and is supported by Lenovo’s Help Center for hardware issues. The notebook is also certified to run Red Hat and Turbo Linux operating systems. → Read More
Finally my hatred of cows and love for technology have come together in the form of a leather-bound Thinkpad. This bovine beauty is actually a stock X61 with a leather jacket which can remain attached while the laptop is in use. It has a decent hardware lineup with a low-voltage 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive. An 80GB external HDD is also included for backups. The true selling point, according to Lenovo, is the extra support. Yes, we too remain unimpressed. If you ever have a problem with the Reserve — and you’re in a major city — Lenovo will fly technicians to you within 4 hours. The invite-only laptop also comes with 24/7 tech support, though you’ll have to decide if all this is worth the $5,000 price. Lenovo Reveals Thinkpad Reserve [Electronista] → Read More
There has never been a better time to be a geek road warrior. Technologies exist today that seemed like the stuff of science fiction just a decade ago. Laptops in particular have seen a glorious augmentation of performance with a concurrent reduction of size. Good times. I recently found myself in this situation and, even in my position, it was an incredibly difficult situation. But given the process, I was able to note and demo several possibilities for all types of road warriors: → Read More
