It’s not often this MacBook Air killer goes on steep sale, but today we bring you a whopping 25% off coupon on top of already discounted prices. If you’re not familiar with Lenovo’s ThinkPad X301, it is an uber thin & light 13.3-inch mobile workhorse with every feature in the book, but staying under 3 lb and less than an inch thin WITH an optical drive.
Whenever I post about the X301, I can’t help but post a favorite parody video of mine, which you can find embedded at the top of the post. For now, check out the base specs below and the details on how to get your 25% off. It is also worth noting, purchasing a Lenovo PC now qualifies for a free Windows 7 upgrade - see here for details.
Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz; Vista Basic; 13.3 WXGA+ LED
Lenovo’s ThinkPad T400s featured a number of unique additions and changes to the ThinkPad line, like the controversial revised keyboard layout, yet another revised interior design, and the larger, textured multi-touch touchpad.
VP of Corporate Identity & Design David Hill already blogged on the new touchpad, and now some of his colleagues across the world in Lenovo’s Yamato design labs have shared some of their insight on what went into the new touchpad design. Japanese culture and design philosophy has had a huge influence on ThinkPad design from day one, even something as simple as a bento box, so it’s no surprise to see the correlation into these innovations found in the T400s. Check out the excerpt below and hit the link for the full post.
The trademark feature of the new Touchpad is its textured surface. The UV-print texture is applied on top of the traditional Touchpad surface. The sensation is smooth but with a feeling of definition. The texture was inspired by the traditional Japanese handcraft technique known as Inden.
In case you were under a rock the past few days, Google recently announced their forthcoming web-centric operating system, Chrome OS. I’ve included some links at the bottom for those who haven’t read up on this major announcement, as I would not do justice to the topic by trying to write intelligently about it when so many others have.
Google also recently announced on their blog, via a helpful Chrome OS FAQ post, several industry players who are on board to support the netbook-oriented OS. Lenovo is in the list, as are Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba. You can see three interesting camps within this list: PC manufacturers, chip manufacturers (although no PC-level chips, mainly ARM), and Adobe = Flash (and possibly other Adobe softwares). But who don’t you see on this list?
But what is the best part of this?
Is Google Chrome OS free? Yes – Google Chrome OS is an open source project and will be available to use at no cost.
Rock on Google.
Sincerely yours, Addicted Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome (browser) user
While Lenovo indicated they will be adding integrated 3G to the S10-2 netbook later this year, that isn’t soon enough for some people. A member of Netbook Philippines forum over in, you guessed it, the Philippines hacked his IdeaPad S10-2 netbook to take an Ericsson 3G wireless card and antenna.
This should be pretty simple for most people to do, but consider that any problems resulting from this wouldn’t be covered under warranty; luckily you don’t have to dig too far into the S10-2′s chassis.
David Hill once again takes us behind the scenes of how some of the new ThinkPad T400s’ design changes came about. This time he’s taking a look at the all new VoIP (mic & webcam) mute button.
In my review of the T400s, I found the refreshed system buttons a nice upgrade over the cheaper, uninspiring ones found on the T60-T400. This was true not only in aesthetics, but also in usage. The mic & webcam mute/disable option is EXTREMELY handy if you are any type of frequent VoIPer or even just a hair paranoid. You don’t have to worry about whether you’re on mute or if your video conference mates see you picking your nose.
Hit the link for an insightful look into more of the T400s’ design process.
Lenovo’s 12-inch IdeaPad S12 netbook announced back at the end of May and became available for purchase a couple weeks ago. For those who are a bit behind on news around the S12, Lenovo later made available a version of the S12 with the faster VIA Nano processor and we recently learned that Lenovo may have angered Intel, either by releasing a 12-inch laptop with the Atom processor or by choosing to offer NVIDIA’s Ion platform on the S12.
I came across a video of some hands-on time with the IdeaPad S12, filmed by the fellas over at netbooknews.de at a Taiwan computer show and wanted to share it with my dear readers. While first-hand accounts with the S12 are still fairly limited, we can tell from this video that it…is a 12-inch netbook. If you were looking for a netbook, but wanted a bigger screen, this may be the machine for you.
If you’ve read my review on Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y650, you’ll know I’m rather smitten with it. 16-inches of gorgeous LCD, sexy design, and HDMI output to boot? Well now is your chance to own one of these beauties for only $799 with free shipping. And this isn’t a stripped model either, as you can see in the specs below.
What’s the catch? This deal ends TODAY, or when 800 boxes have been ordered at this price. It’s worth noting their website calls for shipment in “4 weeks or more,” so this won’t be a “just-in-time” gift, but at this price I wouldn’t be complaining. Specs and deal details below
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz | Vista Home Premium 64
4GB DDR3 | 320GB 5400rpm HDD | DVD Recordable
6 cell Lithium-Ion | Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100
How to get the deal
Click here to choose warranty & accessory options for your Y650
Apply this coupon code in the shopping cart (make sure no spaces before/after): USPY650JLY
Today DigiTimes broke a story that Lenovo and Samsung violated Intel’s restrictions on usage of their Atom N270 processor by releasing 11.6 and 12-inch netbooks.
Likely as a measure to prevent Atom sales from cannibalizing the more profitable Core 2 lineup, Intel requires PC manufacturers purchasing Atom on a “preferential pricing” plan to keep the display size more in the “netbook” range. Apparently 11.6 or 12 inches is too much for Intel, as there is a report circulating that Intel has revoked Lenovo’s and Samsung’s preferential pricing status around the Atom N270 netbook processor.
If you look at Samsung’s planned 11.6-inch netbook and Lenovo’s already released IdeaPad S12, you’ll also notice another thing in common: both offer NVIDIA’s Ion platform. Ion stands to offer far superior graphics & video performance than the anemic 945 chipset included with Atom, while offering competitive battery life. NVIDIA has already complained that Intel prices the Atom chipset bundle cheaper than the CPU by itself, and the lawsuit between the two companies certainly isn’t making things any easier. Is Intel targeting some of the first manufacturers to offer NVIDIA’s Ion platform, or are they enforcing bulk pricing rules to help keep margins on their higher end products? Either way, is it ethical? We’ll be sure to bring you the latest news around this issue.
The answer is $5,999. Electronics painting & modification crew Colorware has just announced their limited edition, “Stealth black” Apple MacBook Pro, which is strangely reminiscent of a ThinkPad.
Matte black paint. Soft-touch finish. Matte display. You can have a Apple ThinkPad MacBook Pro with all of these glorious features, as well as top of the line specs, for only $5,999. But you better hurry, as Colorware is only producing 10 of these machines.
In other news, Lenovo will sell you a PC with matte black paint, a soft-touch finish, and a matte display starting at $1,648 after coupon. If you can deal with a slightly less soft-touch finish, you can have one for much cheaper. Oh, and you can put OS X on it if you really want.
It is also worth noting that this company used to offer ThinkPads in various colors, but seems to only be catering to the Apple crowd now. Uh-huh.
Mark Hopkins over at the Lenovo blog Connections recently spent some time with product manager and fellow blogger Brandon Hoe, who as part of his job at Lenovo worked a lot on the netbook products. In this video, Mark and Brandon talk about netbook history, Lenovo’s netbook evolution, and where they see netbooks going. You will also see some hands-on with the “old” S10 and the new S10-2 models, showing some of the changes they made. As Mark notes in his blog post, the video may have gone a little long or could have been broken up into a couple posts, but overall the video is a good look at Lenovo’s view of netbooks and I’d recommend a watch.
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