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Thinkpad X60 — the Tablet Goes Ultraportable
Rovi writes "Lenovo had a gift for Thinkpad fans this season- they finally released the successor to the X41 Tablet. The Thinkpad X60 Tablet weighs in at about three and a half pounds and has great tablet functionality. The updates from the older model include a 2.5" hard drive (the X41 used a 1.8"), automatic screen orientation, and an Intel Core Duo processor. For performance seekers some serious upgrades are available, such as a 120GB 5400RPM hard drive, 100GB 7200RPM drive, SXGA+ monitor, or up to 4GB of RAM."
Run Linux or OpenBSD or my favourite, FreeBSD? Can I actually use the tablet features with those OSs?
Just asking.
So, I'd get one if it had linux support for the tablet functions. It seems like right now, if you really want to explore the full functionality of tablets, you have to be running a non-free operating system. One would think that IBM, with all its talk, would help in this regard. Anyone have positive experiences getting full tablet functionality under linux? Including word recognition...
Deconstruct the State
If the tablet is facing a mirror, will the display properly orientate itself to be readable in a mirror?
When does the regular show come back on?
but the processor isn't fast enough and the screen's to small. The graphics card isn't great either.
The X60 looks like a Toshiba M400 without a CD/DVD drive - much like the M200.
My question is, how does the Core Duo 1.8Ghz Low Voltage CPU performance compare to the standard Core Duo 1.8Ghz CPU in the M400.
Sounds like an unnecessary or "sponsored" plug. ... or maybe I just hate my Thinkpad lately.
(Maybe its both.)
IBM sold off the laptop division quite a while ago.
Blar.
I thought these have been out a while. I've seen them at microcenter for months...
Ultraportables are 2.5 pounds and lighter. 3.5 pounds is just too much.
Some companies (Apple, IBM(Lenovo),Acer, etc) just do not know how to build small and light. If Sharp, Sony, Fujitsu, Samsung can build 2 pound laptops and lighter why cant Lenovo and Apple?
Towards the end, IBM's choice of laptop hardware and their BIOS ACPI tables worked very well with Linux. IBM's support may translate some, since Lenovo started from a good position and were not necessarily inclined to deviate for no reason (Also, Lenovo bought the employees too, so the tendency would be strong). My biggest concern is if they continued to take care to do the ACPI tables properly or not going forward, but having the same firmware developers gives me hope.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I visited the Lenovo web site this AM looking for a machine for my daughter to use in grad school. Parts availability and the 3-year warranty add a lot of value. Where'd the warranty go?
Do not look into LASER with remaining eye!
Indecisiveness? Shallow fashion obsession I'll grant you (though I disagree that fashion needs be shallow), but indecisiveness has me scratching my head. What does indecisiveness have to do with a computer's appearance?
I'll admit I like Apple's current white/clear plastic look (I'm a proud iMac owner myself). It would be nice if they had some variety, though. Sadly, Apple is one of the few companies out there that's actually trying. Everyone else seems to be content with black plastic and the odd blue LED. Blah. I just refuse to buy black.
Color me cynical but when I hear something is long overdue I wonder if it's been thrown together quickly out of desperation. This model or models which check in at 4+lbs are not ultraportable. One would think that with a smallish screen it would come in a little lighter.
/Yes I am bitter and slaving away on a 3 year old T-40 while my managment chain tells me that anyone with a 900Mhz CPU or higher is not eligible for a hardware upgrade, indefinitely. That puts my 3 year old machine at least 2 more years from replacement. That ought to be fun trying to run, support and patch XP Pro on a 5 year old machine in the 2008-9 timeframe while MS has its hands full trying to keep Vista from running off the rails.
Moreover, Lenovo clearly has a demarc between consumer models (N series, V series, etc.) and their corporate customer brand (Thinkpad). I have to wonder how they're going to support a consumer model like this out of the corporate channel since obviously there are zero corporations out there who are going to stock their inventories with this. It's at least $900 too high for that. I'm sorry but to me this sounds like another one of those glitzy PC's your Director gets while you toil away on a 3 year old T-40. Frankly I'm shocked they haven't built seamless functionality with a Blackberry and/or Treo 700 into it since that's the sweet spot of the people who are bound to get one of these. And of course it needs a docking station and massive audio.
But in either case, if you Joe Shmoe picks one of these up for your own use, what kind of support are you going to get from the channel that typically handles big customers who buy hundreds or thousands of units at a clip? Think they'll put your pissant problem at the top of the queue?
And for the record. I have a Lenovo N100 as well and while I love it, someone needs to shoot the person in the head who decided on the price points for hard drive upgrades. Lenovo wants more than $120 to upgrade an 80GB drive for a 120GB. That is patently insane.
Just a quick correction, not that it really affects your post. But, IBM sold off the Thinkpad line to Lenovo. So, this isn't really IBM versus Toshiba, but Lenovo versus Toshiba.
"However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation."
4 hour run time. I'll pass. Wake me up when they make something competitive with Panasonic R5
laptop or Electrovaya tablets.
I would snap something like that up in a heartbeat. As it is now, whenever I need to buy laptops for people I always have to scour tons and tons of systems just to find one with a non-intel-graphics video subsystem in them (the CAD people will never forgive you if you buy them laptops with intel graphics).
aesthetics - the study of the nature and expression of beauty
assthetics - the study of a (usually female) person's J-Lo rating
asthetics - ???
Oh no... it's the future.
>You mean you'd rather have one of those bathroom fixture-lookin' Apples that just exude indecisiveness and shallow fashion obsession?
>Taste is in the eye of the beholder.
Indeed.
And vision is in his mouth.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Might be worthwhile to wait for Santa Rosa platform in April/May. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino#Napa_platfor m
Why would they help out? Thinkpads are not their product anylonger.
Speaking of,what is up with the ibm logo on that picture of the tablet?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
My question is...
Does anyone have a laptop/tablet that can last for 4 to 6 hours on a battery. I'm sick of 5 minute battery life, and would be willing to use a 300mhz laptop if I could use it to read on for 4 or 5 hours.
Why would anyone buy a computer from a company that's owned mostly by the Chinese Government? People here make huges fusses if a western government restricts a classified document - then people glow about a Communist Chinese tablet.
the stylistic lt from circa 1999 has a tft screen standard 2.5 hdd and with the bigger battery 1400mah
i think it will last 'bout 6 to 7 hours with a 5400 rpm hd they can be had on ebay for a hundred bucks
plus you don't need a pen for it you can use your finger
Of course Lunix will not support the Tablet features. Since when has Lunix ever innovated?
All they are ever doing is providing the "God I wish I were Microsoft" desktop wannabe platform. They blatantly rip off features from MS all the time, but do it poorly... and multiple times. Heck, how many text editors does Lunix have?
Maybe they should focus on getting something like an application installer instead, or a way to make installation possible by someone other than a Lunix guru. Lunix STILL isn't as good as Windows 95. How can they be a viable option for the desktop, when they can't even do what MS was doing OVER TEN YEARS AGO?!?!?!
In closing... if you want a Tablet PC, make sure it has a real operating system installed on it.
As the author of the article states, "1024x768 resolution could use an upgrade".
What he failed to mention though, was that this resolution was already very poor and uncompetitive in a well-featured tablet PC back in 2004 !!! As a clear fan of his X41t and X60s, I think he's reviewing the new Lenovo through rose-tinted spectacles.
I looked at the X-series along with many others when I was researching for my own tablet PC some 2+ years ago (before that I had a Thinkpad), and the Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet came out miles ahead on so many fronts that it was like something out of the future, yet it was very cheap compared to its rivals: 1069 UK pounds in 2004.
Graphically, there was just no comparison: the Tosh has a terrific 1400x1050 screen (driven by nVidia 6200 Go), and as this is a convertible tablet (the laptop screen swivels around and folds back down flat for tablet use), this lovely screen supports pen-proximity sensing too, as well as the usual touch pad and Thinkpad-like nipple on the keyboard.
The Tosh is tightly packed with other features too (Wifi, Bluetooth, Firewire, SD card, PCMCIA, gigabit Ether, excellent Linux support), but graphics is the killer advantage that decided the choice. Lenovo's 1024x768 was pretty poor even back in 2004, but now it is simply unacceptable on any but the most basic laptops, and in an otherwise-sexy Lenovo tablet it is so completely out of place that I find it just totally incongruous.
I liked my old Thinkpad, but if Lenovo are going to attract people like me "back to the fold", they need to take a very serious look at their specs compared to the competition.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Beleive me, the swivelling screen makes jaws drop. It also doesn't have that ugly sealing ridge around the edge of the top screen that most thinkpads do.
Mr. Period: Nine is the one that's right by ten!
Nine: One day I will kill him. Then, I will be Ten.
1400x1050 (SXGA+) resolution on a 12.1" screen? That's suicide! XGA on a 12.1" is relatively small as it is.
Problem number one: CPU crippled by Lenovo. Is this model also affected?
(Short story: Lenovo disabled hardware virtualization in BIOS, one of selling point of Core processors)
:wq
I bought a Raven X60 from Emperor Linux this summer. It's a very nice machine and is just perfect for cafés where my nine pound Dell is inconvenient. Amortized over the last six months, my café drinks are down to less than $100 each!
Although Emperor Linux claims that they have many of the key laptop specific features working out of the box, I've found that not to be the case. Sleep, hibernate and dial-up modem capabilities never worked for me from day one. Also, you have to pay the Redmond Tax, so I had them not uninstall Windows XP and make it a dual boot machine. It's a good thing too, because it turned out to be the only way I could get online at some motels.
I've also run into problems with WiFi because one of my favourite coffee shops, Bluff City Coffee, because they provide access through a Cisco access point with WPA and a security protocol I'd never heard of before. It works easily with Windows, but it was tough to get it to work with Ubuntu. Evenutally we got it figured out, but it still blocks apt-get packages, so I have to download them manually, which isn't exactly a common thing for me to do in a café anyways.
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
The new ThinkPad tablet looks great, except for the display resolution. Who would nowadays still buy a notebook or tablet that only has 1024x768 pixels display resolution? Anything below 1400x1050 is a pain to work with. You can only fit a fraction of a page on it, your eyes won't like the zigzag outlines of the characters, and your fingers get tired from scrolling up and down. As soon as they release one with a better resolution I will buy it right away.
What he really failed to mention is that the X60t has a choice of three screens: a regular 1024x768, a 1024x768 touchscreen/outdoor readable, or a 1400x1050 SXGA+ screen. Granted, it still has Intel graphics, but a 6200 isn't that much better, and since the X60t is (much) lighter and smaller than the Toshiba it's worth it.
Of course, the downside is that the SXGA+ screen is backordered or something -- according to Lenovo's website, my X60t isn't scheduled to ship until February. : (
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It doesn't block apt-get. Apt uses http or ftp, and I bet you have set it up to use ftp, which the coffee shop probably blocks. Modify your sources.list to tell it to use http instead, and you'll be fine.