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Two-Pounder From Lenovo Might Be Too Light For Comfort
MojoKid writes: With the advent of solid state storage and faster, lower-powered processors that require less complex cooling solutions, the average mainstream notebook is rather svelte. Recently, however, Lenovo announced their LaVie Z and LaVie Z 360 ultrabooks and at 1.87 and 2.04 pounds respectively, they're almost ridiculously light. Further, with Core i7 mobile processors and fast SSDs on board, these machines perform impressively well in the benchmarks and real world usage. If you actually pick one up though, both models are so light they feel almost empty, like there's nothing inside. Lenovo achieved this in part by utilizing a magnesium--lithium composite material for the casing of the machines. Though they're incredibly light, the feeling is almost too light, such that they tend to feel a little cheap or flimsy. With a tablet, you come to expect a super thin and light experience and when holding them in one hand, the light weight is an advantage. However, banging on a full-up notebook keyboard deck is a different ball of wax.
If you can cut something from 3lb to 2lb, that just means you have room for 1lb more battery.
Same thing applies with phones. Stop making them thinner, and use the saved space for more battery!
Weight plays a lot into our perception for how solid and well built things are, even when they're not. Lightweight is great, but go too far and things feel like a fragile toy.
This is almost too good a problem to have with a laptop -- too lightweight? Put more battery in it.
courtesy of MojoKid. this time with a hint of critique - as we wouldn't notice.
It looks chunky enough it should have had room for at least an optional extra battery to last more than 3-4 hours under real use. And, seriously, how can you make a tablet without a real digitizer these days? Why must I use a crayon or my finger to draw figures or edit photos in tablet mode? (Don't even get me started with that Adonis bullshit - been there, done that, not worth a penny much less $100).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Don't worry, it will soon be weighed down with the burden of crippling malware.
We want everything with bigger screens - but not that much bigger. We want everything lighter - but not that much lighter. Sometimes companies tend to focus on what the consumer says they want - instead of trying to figure out what they really want. Let's face it, we are generally terrible at knowing what we want.
Can he get a refund for the unused copy of windows, then?
I shouldn't have to ask, but this is slashdot: you are aware this article isn't about the macbook, aren't you?
Their old Satellite lines weren't much to write home about either. I ended up with several Satellite 1700 series in the past because numerous broken ones came my way, was ultimately able to make one good one with all of the cannibalized machines but the ports were way, WAY too fragile and the hinges tended to stick and break the adjacent metal parts.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Without a trackpoint I don't even want to look at it. Wtf is up with Lenovo not putting trackpoints on a lot of their laptops?
Remember when cell phones kept getting smaller and lighter? Remember when netbooks were going to revolutionize the portable computer? Remember when phablets were the next big thing? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Lenovo, unfortunately, has their own non-Thinkpad laptop lines. These are where the bad ideas that have occasionally spilled over and corrupted the Thinkpads are given full freedom to breed and mutate into ever weirder and less likeable consumer crap.
"As you can see in my PowerPoint slide, the...ah, ah, Aaachoooo!... Hey, where's my laptop?"
Table-ized A.I.
I've been using a E7240 for the past year and half and it is a wonderful machine, I have zero keyboard flexing. I travel with it all the time, in a small vertical messenger bag. I agree on the screen res, but that is because the company didn't spring a measly $60 wholesale for the full 1920x1080 screen which is available. I've good a good I5 in it though. My only other gripe is it does not have a trackpoint and I hate trackpads.
Man, now I really really want an exploit that hijacks /dev/null and logs it (with reasonable limits to prevent overloading it by piping in gigabytes of random). I'm sure you learn some pretty neat stuff from whatever output normally gets sent there.
Ehh, that's not entirely reasonable. I mean, kind of, but it's like the "pirating vs stealing" thing. You're not strictly depriving the dealership of being able to sell that copy of the software again. (Unless it has unique keys even for oems, but that's still silly.)
Really just arguing against the analogy here.
As long as you can use it without it flying off your lap, (we are talking about a laptop, right?) or desk, and the rest of the specs are what you're looking for, why wouldn't you want it to be as light as possible? As long as the "bottom" where the keyboard is weighs enough so the screen doesn't tip it over backwards, I say the lighter the better! Why would you intentionally want something to be heavy? Screw all the conversations around it being preceived as being cheap because it's light. The only people that would think that are people who know NOTHING about what it takes to MAKE things light in the first place! If it weren't for durability factors and little things like flashpoints, I would say make everything out of magnesium honeycomb! Or whatever is next, of course. (Spiderweb anyone?)
Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.
A refund for what? It's not like he's paid for the copy of Windows that comes with it.
Then who did pay for it? I was under the impression that PC makers paid about $60 per copy for a lawful Windows install. Or are you claiming that publishers of Windows-only trialware completely subsidize the Windows license?
... and they are in the similar 2 lb weight category.
The TrackPoint (nipple thing) lets you move the mouse without taking your fingers off the home row of the keyboard. Very nice if you have to do any amount of typing.
How can that be anything but a positive?
I bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon. It weighs 2 lbs 12 oz 1270 g. A bit more than the LaCie. OTOH it is built to Thinkpad standards so it is quite rugged. The keyboard is excellent. The machine came with Win 7 professional and no bloatware. It has a 500 GB SSD. It is fast and easy to use. I love it, and think the money was well spent. The battery life is excellent, it will run all day in ordinary usage. (i.e. not playing streaming HD video).
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Lenovo still uses TFT displays in high priced hardware. In this product line you pay an extra $200 to get an IPS display in the Z 360. Our business is a Lenovo authorized reseller. I do not understand why they do not put an IPS display in all their higher end gear. There shouldn't even be a TFT option at $1499. The $1699 model should be the only one available. Reduce the SKU's and hence you have less capital tied up. Sell better products, Lenovo. Your image is tarnishing more all the time. I expect more from the world's #1 PC maker than TFT junk.
It's great when you have both. If you have a high quality trackpad, I find it's generally faster to use that though. Seems to take less time to slide your finger around on a high resolution pad, than it is to try and make a precise movement with a microscopic joystick.
The only negative to it when I had a laptop with one is that it can temporarily get out of calibration if you rest on it slightly, causing the pointer to creep.
LOL. I love you. But seriously I really think a lot of the more experimental Lenovo line designs would be fun to try if only - if only - they had trackpoints. I always see a lot of Japanese dramas where there are Lenovo's and I get excited until there's a shot which shows the keyboard and the lack of trackpoint.
Just like all those annoying radio/cassette players that kids used to haul around on their shoulder: Basically a nearly empty plastic box with tiny little speakers. And some big iron weights glued inside.
Have gnu, will travel.
Oh give me an f**ing break. A comment about a similar laptop in the same weight class is pretty much on topic and discusses relevant design points that come up when computer makers make usability compromises to get the weight and size down to these levels.
Use your friggin' imagination before sniping stupidly.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
That has to be one of the most erroneous car analogies ever seen on Slashdot. I have to assume it is a troll as nobody could possibly be that stupid.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Microsoft has to refund to the manufacturer after the manufacturer refund to the customer, because again the license it's unused
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
A refund for what? It's not like he's paid for the copy of Windows that comes with it.
Then who did pay for it? I was under the impression that PC makers paid about $60 per copy for a lawful Windows install. Or are you claiming that publishers of Windows-only trialware completely subsidize the Windows license?
no, generally the crapware they ship with it pays for it, actually it usually more than pays for it to the point where coming without windows actually is more expensive for most PC Makers.
I have a 2lb LG notebook. It's great. It doesn't feel "too light", or flimsy, or cheaply made.
If these Lenovo models do, it's not the weight, it's the specific materials used, or the construction, or the design.
Damn Lenovo, put 8 trackpoints if necessary, I don't care if they weight an extra kg.
The finger position is not the right one when you use a trackpad. When you use a trackpoint you do not move your hands out of the keyboard area. It is more efficient to use a trackpoint. Also, the trackpad is not as precise of a trackpoint. Sorry but the people that didn't used a trackpoint much do not understands it.
A magnesium-lithium case: aren't that two metals highly inflammable?
These people must have never worked at a company that uses macbook pros across the board, or a startup using thin lap-tops.
Everyone holds their lap-tops with 1 hand like if it was a tablet, running around holding them by the lid, and all around handling them like they would their ipads.
Light lap-tops that you can carry with one hand without effort is a definite advantage for convenience.
Then why don't they sell Linux machines with Linux crapware, either native or in Wine? They could make a few extra bucks that way by not having to pay the Microsoft tax.
What in the hell are you talking about???? Light weight is a bad thing? I've been looking for light laptops for years. Now the same morons who think a kickstand is cool for Microsoft surface want heavy laptops to validate their stupidity? C'MON MAN. (and have fun downmodding this post to anyone who actually reads it)
Also, the trackpad is not as precise of a trackpoint.
Sure, and using a joystick is more accurate than using a mouse, right?
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
nipple things are far superior to trackpads
I've heard this asserted, yet I've never seen a study that showed it (I've seen a couple that showed the reverse, but they didn't control for all factors so aren't definitive). I've also never seen any gamers begging for them because they give an advantage in aiming (which is usually a good hint that something is a good pointing device). A modern, high-resolution, large, multitouch trackpad provides better fine manipulation (try using a trackpoint to select an individual pixel on a ThinkPad) and faster large movements (the acceleration in the trackpoint means that the Fitts' Law curve is a different shape because you need to decelerate more to stop).
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hahah, clit-mouse - I love it!
Maybe you're using crappy trackpads, but it's very easy with the one on this laptop (MacBook Pro, retina display) for me to move the cursor by one pixel in any direction. With my old ThinkPad (R31, with a under quarter of the pixel density) I could just about move it 1-3 pixels, but had little control within that range.
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It's not similar at all. This one has a fucking core i7. Macbook does not compare at all.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Weird metaphor.
I disable the trackpads on my Thinkpads. Way too easy to brush it with the palm of my hand, select an entire section of text and type over it. Happens to me over and over again.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. With a trackpad, rolling my finger a little bit moves the cursor a tiny amount. With a trackpoint, there's an acceleration and deceleration component - you have to move the trackpoint to start the cursor moving and then move it back to stop the movement. This involves having to do two fine motor movements in quick succession for a fine cursor adjustment, whereas the trackpad requires only one.
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It's not a nipple thingy, it is clearly a clitoris thingy. It even has the lips to each side and your can.... well lets not go into this too deeply, it is clearly, however, not a nipple.
Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.