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FCC Pics of the IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC
jkendrick writes "jkOnTheRun has posted pics of the rumored IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC pulled from the FCC filing. It looks as expected, a nice black ThinkPad with a major exception, the swivel screen and the Tablet OS."
Excuse me but what is the significance of this tablet PC? There're tons of these similar thingie out there...
Consider it to be job security, and hope that more new gizmos keep coming out that need retraining for your users.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
It humours me how people are unwilling to go the final step and just make a freakin slate tablet. These swivel setups always remind me of someone dipping a toe into cold water, not sure if they want to jump in or not. I bet that IBM could make an amazing slate which would rock the competition (with an exception of the Electrovaya Scribbler, perhaps). At any rate, it seems to me that this is still a laptop, albeit with a 'Tablet configuration'. It's still not a slate, and I personally still group it in the 'laptop' abstract class rather than the 'tablet' abstract class.
Could someone update me on the exact status of IBM Thinkpads. I was under the impression the hardware business has been sold to Lenovo and that the latter would be allowed to use IBM's name for a few years. So would this be an IBM Thinkpad or would it be a Lenovo Thinkpad?
Projectors aren't nearly as ubiquitous as laptops, since everyone with a laptop can't afford to buy or carry a projector everywhere. This is nice for a small conference room setting or a person to person meeting.
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What will IBM say to this release of data? What if they had a big release in the works? While some may say "this is free advertisement", PR departments like to do things on their schedules. Especially if they were planning, at the last minute, to scrap this thinkpad.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Previous models failed for two main reasons: 1. Cost. Tablets are still generally more expensive than bargain laptops, but are now obtainable in the $1000-$2000 sweet spot. 2. Software. I have to admit, that Microsoft's Windows Tablet edition really goes a long way to making the technology useful and purposeful. The ink API's also make third-party developers able to extend the functionality easily. Now, if only the Gimp supported it!
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
I had a Toshiba Tablet PC.
It was a fair laptop... not the best, not the worst, but not worth the $$$. I'm glad work bought it for me.
As a tablet? Well, it wasn't useful for me. Maybe it's good for people who need to stand and write (and digitize!) at the same time, or those who need to do light-weight doodles without the need for a graphic designer's high-quality tablet & display. But since I code, create presentations, do word processing, excel, etc, the tablet feature is next to useless.
But I'm sure some will find use for it. For now, I'll keep my smart phone and my traditional Dell laptop.
The parent and all the posters above failed in basic math, sorry.
Note that you need to swivel it 180 degrees to get the screen area to face away from you. Then you can close it to get a "tablet pc".
- These characters were randomly selected.
Black, ugly, heavy, and still using that nipple joystick in the middle of the keyboard.
Black? The black color will be attractive to some, unappealing to others. I like the way they look, but I'm not all that picky on color.
Ugly? Again, that's a matter of opinion and I happen to like the way they look. No swoopy plastic, just well-engineered function. The keyboard is especially functional and well-constructed.
Heavy? Not sure what scale you're using, but you should get it checked. The Thinkpad line ranges in weight from 7lbs (including power brick) to 3.5lbs (including power brick). Only a few of the Sony laptops (and all ultraportables) are lighter and only if you leave the DVD drive at home. When comparing apple-to-apple functionally, the IBM has always come out lighter. It's one of the reasons I'm willing to pay more for them.
"nipple joystick"? All but the lightest of the Thinkpads have both trackpoint and touchpad controllers. Personally, I love the trackpoint and I have never managed to get the hang of a touchpad. The ability to leave my fingers near the home keys while moving the cursor is wonderful. I won't buy a laptop that doesn't have a trackpoint controller.
The screen looks underwhelming as well.
You should look at a Thinkpad screen in person. They tend to be the brightest and clearest displays I've ever seen. Few/no dead/hot pixels either. The resolution of this particular tablet is underwhelming, but I have two Thinkpads with 1600x1200 displays (a21p r50p) and I've never had a more comfortable display than those laptop displays. With subpixel antialiasing turned on, I've noted that I don't mind reading documents in electronic form. Normally, I find reading documents on a computer screen annoying and I print stuff pretty quickly to avoid it. Not if I'm at home using either of our Thinkpads.
I'm not sure what the attraction is to these Thinkpads.
IBM made the best designed and built laptop on the market, bar none. Like many others, I'm very interested to see whether Lenovo continues the trend or whether they drop the ball and drop the design standard down to the quality of the Dells, Toshibas and Gateways...
Regards,
Ross
> And it's not like the Chinese are famous for high quality manufacturing.
But almost every laptop today is manufactured in China, including ThinkPads and Powerbooks.