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Follow us on TwitterLenovo’s ecommerce website is very much a real-time affair, in that things can change in an instant. Over the past couple days, 3G was added to the ThinkPad X100e and the value-line G560 notebook is available for purchase.
Gobi 2000 3G with GPS now on ThinkPad X100e
As we covered back in December, Lenovo has been planning to add Qualcomm’s new Gobi 2000 wireless chipset to their ThinkPads. You can read the details on this new card here, but unfortunately you can’t add the Gobi 2000 to any X100e model. It is only available on the $649 “Elite” configuration, which adds Win7 Pro, 2GB RAM and a 250B hard drive over the base $449 model.
The “Enhanced” configuration is identical to the “Elite” save for the Gobi 2000 and is $100 cheaper, giving you an idea of how much the card adds to the system cost.
While we’re talking about the X100e, why aren’t 7200rpm drives offered on this machine? There aren’t even any 7200rpm models listed in the PSREF sheets. If HP can put a 7200rpm drive in its “business netbook,” Lenovo should definitely have one to help offset the slower CPU and limited amount of RAM.
See Lenovo’s ThinkPad X100e for sale
Value-line G560 starts at $849(?!)
Right now there is only one model available, the 06792AU in black. It is actually a rather decent system, with a 2.13GHz Core i3 CPU, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB hard drive and DVDRW. But why would someone want to pay $849 for a “value line” system? That’s mainstream pricing right there.
Part of the issue is the Core i3 processor. Lenovo typically puts Intel’s low-bin processors in their value machines, i.e. parts that are based on high end CPU’s but with some features disabled to lower the cost. None of these are available based on the new CPU’s yet, but it’s a safe bet there will be.
Then Lenovo also has to compete with itself. Their consumer product line has gotten very full, very fast and products are overlapping in many ways. This is a topic for a whole other post, but suffice it to say there needs to be some blood letting in the consumer PC products.
See Lenovo’s value-line G560 for sale
Lenovo direct store is offering the Lenovo Essential G455 14-inch LED-backlit display, Laptop (model: 070834U) starting at $769 - $120 off - 
Lenovo is offering its IdeaPad S10-3t (065186U) - 
Lenovo is offering its 15.6-inch IdeaPad Y560 Laptop (Quad Core i7 model - 06462AU) starting at $1,399 - $100 off -
320GB ThinkPad USB Portable Secure Hard Drive (model no. 
Lenovo direct store is offering the 13.3-inch Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (AMD powered) Laptop starting at $774 - $225 instant savings - 
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Don’t worry about 7200 rpm disks. They are power hungry, expensive, and impair reliability by running hot. If you want a fast disk, solid state is the way to go. Use rotating disks for bulk data like multimedia files, and 5400 rpm is fine.
I disagree. Once upon a time, I wrote a review and performed tests comparing a host of SATA drives (using a ThinkPad T60 actually) in performance, sound and power consumption. There was virtually no difference in battery life, with most of the variation attributed to normal testing discrepancies.
It is true that modern 5400rpm hard drives are a step up from the old ones, thanks to increased areal density, but you can’t outfox plain old spindle speed.
I don’t disagree that SSD is the shiz tho
Tests I saw in the thinkpad forums indicated 7200 rpm runs hotter, though it may vary by model.
Anyway, heck with this WAN stuff in the x100e, I’m waiting for the dual core version.
The G550 at $449 (at least it was available for that yesterday) is a heck of a deal. I felt tempted to order one even though I need another big laptop like a hole in the head. Paying another $400 for a G560 is ridiculous.
I got a non-techie family member a closeout G530 for around $400 and he loves it.