Widescreen Thinkpad T-Series Coming in October

[fbrdphreak]

http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=1256

Personally I can't wait to see how these look. Esp if they drop some discrete graphics into it

 

[ubercaffeinated]

amaaaazing! they gotta get in with the widescreen trend.

 

[lazybum131]

Seems like these would compete too much against the Z-series. The Z61t is pretty thin and light, and other than the lack of dedicated graphics and higher capacity battery options it very closely compares with the Dell D620 already. Actually better than the D620 since it has more ports.

The Z61m/p is a bit bulky, but unless the 15.4" T-series gets down to MacBook Pro size and weight it still seems kinda redundant to me.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: lazybum131
Seems like these would compete too much against the Z-series. The Z61t is pretty thin and light, and other than the lack of dedicated graphics and higher capacity battery options it very closely compares with the Dell D620 already. Actually better than the D620 since it has more ports.

The Z61m/p is a bit bulky, but unless the 15.4" T-series gets down to MacBook Pro size and weight it still seems kinda redundant to me.

That is a good point. I think the m/p models are good though, especially the p, because a lot of mobile professionals want the extra screen real estate afforded by WUXGA. The Z61m, while large, is extremely well built and I didn't find the Z60m too heavy personally. I carried it around in my backpack to campus and didn't mind the extra weight over my T42 15".

I'm hoping they transition the T-series 14" widescreen (or maybe a 13.3? :Q Nah, probly not) to having discrete graphics, and that is what makes the difference of the Z61t. I've heard again and again from Lenovo that the Z-series is going nowhere, but this could indeed signal the end of it. Maybe they'll combine the t/m Z-series into T-models and all it a day.

 

[thraxes]

Nevermind the widescreen...

Hello Lenovo! I wasconsidering a T60p about a month ago... but you blew it completely. I really need Firewire/IEEE1394 for video editing and my high res display at home loves the DVI thing. Sure I could have bought the docking station which has DVI but thats even more extra cost on a already expensive machine. In the end I got an Apple MBP at a slightly lower price with DVI and Firewire... sorry. How about bringing the I/O ports of the T-Series fully into the 21st century, eh?

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: thraxes
Nevermind the widescreen...

Hello Lenovo! I wasconsidering a T60p about a month ago... but you blew it completely. I really need Firewire/IEEE1394 for video editing and my high res display at home loves the DVI thing. Sure I could have bought the docking station which has DVI but thats even more extra cost on a already expensive machine. In the end I got an Apple MBP at a slightly lower price with DVI and Firewire... sorry. How about bringing the I/O ports of the T-Series fully into the 21st century, eh?

The T is made for business users. THat seems to be the reason why the T's lack firewire.

 

[cw42]

Agreed ^. T series is business/work notebooks. Multimedia notebooks are the Z series.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: WackyDan

Originally posted by: thraxes
Nevermind the widescreen...

Hello Lenovo! I wasconsidering a T60p about a month ago... but you blew it completely. I really need Firewire/IEEE1394 for video editing and my high res display at home loves the DVI thing. Sure I could have bought the docking station which has DVI but thats even more extra cost on a already expensive machine. In the end I got an Apple MBP at a slightly lower price with DVI and Firewire... sorry. How about bringing the I/O ports of the T-Series fully into the 21st century, eh?

The T is made for business users. THat seems to be the reason why the T's lack firewire.

Bingo.

I talked with Lenovo personally, face to face about the lack of firewire on the T-series, yet it is included on the X-series. The fact of the matter is there is always a lack of space in notebooks and the majority of their customers for the T-series don't care about Firewire. While I'm sure you have an important use for it, the fact of the matter is that Firewire is in relatively small usage. USB 2.0 dominates mainstream data transfer, and eSATA is coming up as an alternative high-speed external interface. I personally don't see Firewire continuing much.

Originally posted by: cw42
Agreed ^. T series is business/work notebooks. Multimedia notebooks are the Z series.

Clarification: Z-series are small business, not multimedia. It is more mainstream, but hardly multimedia

 

[razor2025]

This is kinda wierd... I thought they made the Z-line specifically for "widescreen" business laptop? IMO, widescreen on notebook is kinda gimmicky. The screens are too small to be practical in productivity. Sure, you can try opening 2 documents side-by-side, but they both end up being very small to look at (I've used the 15.4" WS on X1000), and the loss of vertical real-estate is PITA when you're coding. Widescreen in 20"+ makes much more sense, as the real-estate on those screen can afford the side-by-side viewing without having the material being too small, and loss of vertical space isn't too great.

As for lack of firewire, it doesn't affect me much and probably the intended consumer of T-series. The T does lack a bit of connectivity option. It's also even odd that T-60 dropped the parallel port and serial port, but didn't add much more to replace those lost ports compared to T-4x series.

All laptop should have DVI out as default. They can simply add the DVI-VGA adaptor, if the user needs VGA.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: razor2025
This is kinda wierd... I thought they made the Z-line specifically for "widescreen" business laptop? IMO, widescreen on notebook is kinda gimmicky. The screens are too small to be practical in productivity. Sure, you can try opening 2 documents side-by-side, but they both end up being very small to look at (I've used the 15.4" WS on X1000), and the loss of vertical real-estate is PITA when you're coding. Widescreen in 20"+ makes much more sense, as the real-estate on those screen can afford the side-by-side viewing without having the material being too small, and loss of vertical space isn't too great.

As for lack of firewire, it doesn't affect me much and probably the intended consumer of T-series. The T does lack a bit of connectivity option. It's also even odd that T-60 dropped the parallel port and serial port, but didn't add much more to replace those lost ports compared to T-4x series.

All laptop should have DVI out as default. They can simply add the DVI-VGA adaptor, if the user needs VGA.

Well widescreen's useful is up to every one. I hate anything low res, so that eliminates most widescreens as WXGA is predominant. However, I'd take WXGA or XGA any day of the week; you simply get more pixels on the screen.

I can say that WSXGA+ is an awesome res for 15.4", even WUXGA if you don't mind the tiny-ness of it.

BTW, Lenovo dropped parallel/serial to make the new chassis design work. The T60's chassis is entirely new for the T-series, based on what the Z-series uses.

 

[WackyDan]

The serial port has been missing from the T's for some time.

Also, you can get a serial and parallel port bay insert if you really need it for the T60 (also will work in R60), and you can get any old firewire card.

The 14" widescreen is catching only slowly in the business space, but mostly strongest in SMB, which is why Lenovo came out with the Z series.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: WackyDan
Also, you can get a serial and parallel port bay insert if you really need it for the T60 (also will work in R60), and you can get any old firewire card.

Insert as in custom insert from Lenovo or add-in card?