We’ve known it’s been coming for a while now, but today Lenovo took the lid off and officially announced the refresh to their ultraportable ThinkPad X Series. The X201, X201s and X200 Tablet launched today don’t have too much in the way of substantive updates, but they do get a nice performance boost and a new pointing device.
Under the hood
As expected, the X201 models get Intel’s new Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The X201 itself will have the normal voltage processors, with lower priced Core i5 chips and a single Core i7-620M (2.66-3.33GHz) chip. Low voltage chips are used in the thinner X201s and the convertible X201 Tablet, likely to consist of the Core i7-620LM (2-2.8GHz) and the i7-620LM (2.13-2.93GHz).
While details are still scarce, it is confirmed that the X201 Tablet officially supports 8GB RAM now. I would find it highly unlikely if the X201/X201s didn’t support this as well, but I’ve not seen any official documentation for those models yet.
When equipped with the 9-cell battery, Lenovo calls for up to 11 hours of battery life on the X201 and 12 hours on the X201s.
On the outside
The chassis, keyboard and ports are all the same on the X201 models. On a smaller note, the fingerprint reader gets upgraded along with the other ThinkPads to power the laptop on with a single swipe, along with an LED indicator to let you know if your swipe was accepted. These new fingerprint readers were first introduced on the T400s.
The biggest external change comes with the optional touchpad. The good news here is that it is indeed optional and is made possible with a simple palm rest swap. The bad news is that with the small palm rest in the first place, the touchpad is rather tiny. In the end, this opens up the X Series to more potential customers, both corporate and individuals.
Availability
All models will be available in March with the X201 starting at $1,199, the X201s at $1,599 and the X201 Tablet at $1,549.
Source: [Lenovo Press Release]
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The tablet pricing is not too bad but the x201/x201s are about 2x the price of the x200/200s for the processor upgrade and a few other minor tweaks. Some pretty good discounts are going to have to start showing up before this becomes attractive, especially if there is some blowout pricing for the outgoing models.
Well keep in mind 3 things: (1) When the X200/X200s announced, they were priced around this same range. (2) The X200/X200s has been getting steady price cuts over the past several months to help move inventory. (3) Lenovo generally puts 5-10% coupons out, even on brand new models. Heck the T410s got 15% off recently…
Yeah, the tablet definately looks to be the better buy. Not only do you get the obvious tablet capability, you also get a GREAT screen.
Oh, just wanted to add that according to the PDF spec sheets, there doesn’t appear to be any difference in dimensions between the X201 and the X201s (the “s” is not thinner).
Phelan, are you saying the x201s is thicker than the x200s?
John, I don’t think the x200/x200s discounts in the past few months have been much better than what we saw earlier. The configuration I paid the most attention to was the WSXGA+ X200s and there were 20%-off coupons several times last year that put it to just a tick over $1000. The most recent coupons might have it a tiny bit under $1000 but the difference isn’t large.
I agree with you we will see discounts for the new models pretty soon. I guess the X201s is the model most in need of that…
No, I’m just saying that all of the X201 laptops are the same chassis as their predecessors. The X200/X200s/X201/X201s are all 35mm in thickness (1.4″).
This is unfortunate since I consider any laptop to be over 1.25″ to be bulky. I understand why Lenovo chose to reuse the old chassis (obviously to save money), but it wouldn’t have took a lot to make a slimmer X200 series laptop which is almost mandatory at the price point they are asking for IMHO.
I know it has been said that “heat” and “space” requirements are an issue, but let’s do the math:
Note that I used the thickest height to calculate volume (tapering of Thinkpads only occur over a little space). This is a more realistic volume measurement than using the average thickness.
T400s Dimensions:
(WxDxH): 337 x 241.5mm x 21.1–25.9mm = 2,107,884 mm^3
X200/X200s Dimensions:
(WxDxH): 295 x 210 x 20.7 – 35.3 mm = 2,186,835 mm^3
You can easily see that the T400s is less in volume and it also has a DVD bay.
DVD dimensions:10 x 127 x 130mm = 165,100 mm^3.
If we negate the DVD space, we see that the T400s only has roughly 89% (1,942,784mm^3) of the total volume as the X200 series while (the T400s) still retains an ‘internal’ battery. Of course, the difference is even bigger with the X300 series which has an even smaller internal volume that the T400s. To match the volume of the T400s, the X200 would have to be 1.22″ thin, which is acceptable. For the tablet version (which has a 13.3″ footprint thanks to its huge bezel), I propose Lenovo just takes the X300 and converts into a tablet…. And call it the X210 tablet. They can even use a 12.1″ screen as the bezel doesn’t bother me. That would be my dream laptop. And guess what? Lenovo would just have to use a pre-existing form factor to save costs!!!!
I would prefer the dimensions of the x300/301 for a tablet especially if there would be a higher resolution screen option like the sxga+ in the x60/61 (but a wide screen option for the current series of course)
Well PSREF says X200s is 0.8-1.1 inches, whereas X200 is 0.8-1.4 inches.
Phelan, have you handled an X200 before? I know 1.4 inches sounds like a lot, but the thickness does taper and frankly the machine is so light and well balanced, I never notice the thickness. Plus the keyboard, battery life and performance are so great. If only for the crappy LCDs.
Sure they could’ve made a super thin X200. Development would’ve taken longer and the price would’ve gone up. They primarily sell X200′s to large corporations and extra money to shave a quarter inch of thickness wouldn’t be appreciated by someone who is ready to order thousands of your laptops. Unfortunately the story is the same with LCD quality and why the X201 now has an optional touchpad. It is also why the T410 got a fourth USB port – not having it on the spec sheet arbitrarily kept them off some corporate requisition lists.
Whoops! I must have took the 9-cell dimensions. Yes, I’ve handled a X200, X200t, X300, and X301. I’ve never handled the X200s.
Forgive me.
No worries. In fact, the data sheet says 1.4 inches. So who knows. I may have one of each around here, I’ll have to check…
Actually the thickness bothers me less than the height and width. My x40 fits quite nicely in my belt pack and would still fit if it were thicker, but might be difficult if it were wider. The 200/201/s are a bit wider than the x40 and this may be an issue. I’m going to have to make some measurements, or cope with it somehow if I get an x200/201/s. This is one of the reasons the x100e is still somewhat attractive.
The spec sheets are out even on the X series page… though the X200/X200s are the ones for sale….
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/pdf/notebooks/ThinkPad/X-Series/X201%20ThinkPad%20datasheet.pdf
hmmm…The dimensions of the x201 4 cell and the x201s 6 cell look the same….
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