Agreed about the battery life. A 5.5 hour rating in the industry standard tests equates to only 3.5-4 hours of real-world use. Not very impressive. And the display resolution is pretty low. I can only hope that the battery life will be close to its rated usage time, the display will be of decent quality, and the price will be competitive...
That Tom's article that is linked is a bit outdated, and it'd be interesting to see whether SNB could be fast enough to make the contrast between single and dual channel memory matter.
As for the battery life, the trade offs necessary to create the optimal overall package are so numerous that I do not envy the engineers behind these devices. Nor frankly, do I envy the reviewers. Then again, battery life not withstanding, the overall package might just surprise us.
True, there are a number of things I really like about this laptop (thin design, spill-proof back-lit keyboard, sturdy construction). The trade-off of battery life, however, is a major strike against any ultraportable. I'd rather it be a few mm thicker and have a larger battery. Alternatively, they could require SSD's or 1.8" hard disks to create space for extra battery capacity. This would be less of an issue if two other companies hadn't already proven that you can make a much thinner, much lighter, and still sturdy laptop that gets much battery life...
I'll consider a revision, but you're right, there's something to be said for the fact that a none Gorilla Glass screen will only bother you the one time that you drop your bag too hard or let your notebook slip off your lap. But a glossy screen could bug you every day for the life of the device. It'd be interesting to talk to one of the product managers about the driver to use these glossy screens.
"Before the end of summer we will be seeing i7 quad-core CPUs inside the X1's chassis, easily making it the thinnest quad-core computer we've encountered."
Do you have confirmation of this, or is it just speculation? If that's true I'll keep my X300 a bit longer.
This is speculation, I haven't had a chance to scour the specs of all the quad core laptops in the market, however, I haven't actually heard of any ultraportables gunning for quads just yet.
yeah resolution is a pity since the x301 is 1440×900. nice that they have dropped the irritating trackpad buttons though. looks cleaner design, and no blue coloured bits on it.
i always thought the x301 keyboard was not up to the old ibm e.g. t42 standards so be interesting to see what this turns out like.
So, it looks like they took a 14"+ notebook chassis, put a 13.3" screen in there, but it's only a 1366x768 TN panel? Unless this thing sells for under $1K, the tiny low-res screen is going to be a major sticking point for many people.
Ha ha. I think the same thing everytime I see the MacBook Air. The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models could easily house displays that are 1-inch larger. The Alienware M11x is another major offender, ostensibly advertised as an "11-inch" ultraportable gaming laptop, but taking up the space (and weight) of a 13" machine.
Compare those models to the Sony Vaio Z, which is thicker, but barely has a bezel around the screen. By the way, never, ever, buy a Sony laptop. I've never seen such poorly organized, rude, unhelpful customer support (even with the highest tier of warranty service). And the reliability of their higher-end designs (Sony Vaio Z with 2 to 4 SSDs in raid 0) is very poor, so you are *very likely* to have to deal with their horrible support. Their "rapid ship" or "next day" service actually takes about 3 weeks, since they never have a replacement part in stock. Stay far, far away from those pretty-looking Sony computers...
The difference with the Macbook Air 13" is it has the same size screen as the old x301 (1440 x 900), which is 1.235 times as much real-estate as the X1. Also the Macbook Air and old x301 are in 16:10 formats, which is much much better than the 16:9 display here.
Sure the X1 will have x2 the single-thread and multi-thread performance of the 2010 MacBook Pro, but the Pro does not have a pin-hole screen. Ultimately I think the screen seals the fate for the X1, unless it is very inexpensive. It is odd to me that Lenovo decreased the screen resolution on this X301 to X1 jump but increased the resolution for the T410S to T420S jump.
At least they got the ports right on the X1. Maybe the mini-display port can be a Thunderbolt in the future. The keyboard probably sucks, but will let the reviews determine that. Without any major increase in battery performance, and decreases in things like the screen and prob the keyboard. Keeping a SDD equipped X301 is a no brainier.
That X1 looks nice, somewhere in between the Edge and traditional ThinkPad line. Here's to evermore hoping Lenovo releases an option for a 1440x900 IPS matte panel on the X1... 1366x768 doesn't give one a lot of oversight, and it's not as if this is a cheap model... It's right up there between the MacBook Air and Sony Vaio Z.
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What the hell's going on? Our phones keep getting higher and higher resolutions for smaller screens, and our laptops all keep edging toward the 16:9 720p-ish fate.
I'm perfectly fine with my phone staying at 480x800 and my computer not having 1366x768 EVER. Even 1280x800 is preferable to that terribad resolution that's barely got enough vertical pixels to display Windows 7 correctly.
Guys can we please have decent displays in our laptops AS WELL AS our smartphones?
Crap screen, single channel RAM, and fair to poor battery life makes it a fail in my book.
I wish someone would make a 13" with an matt IPS screen (and a DVD drive) - for me it doesn't even need to be wafer thin although it does need to be light weight.
This looks interesting, however, will we ever see a review of it? The x220 was released quite some time ago and have been looking forward to a review before I bite the bullet. But alas, no Anandtech review. The X220 is now available with the i7 as well. Keep up the good work anyway
Actually, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk all make competitive mSATA SSD products that could be lurking inside this thing. Only time will tell. How about it readers? Anyone pick one of these slim guys up and tear it open?
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Zap - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
If single channel RAM is true, then I'd like to see benchmarks.Also, 5.5 hour battery life without a second battery doesn't sound that great anymore. Why not use a ULV CPU for a bit more battery life?
Otherwise, nice looking notebook!
*SIGH* The search for the perfect (to me) notebook continues.
Kaboose - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/PARALLEL-PROCE...A bit old but gives good perspective on single vs. dual channel RAM, you wont find a LARGE difference (there is some).
TrackSmart - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
Agreed about the battery life. A 5.5 hour rating in the industry standard tests equates to only 3.5-4 hours of real-world use. Not very impressive. And the display resolution is pretty low. I can only hope that the battery life will be close to its rated usage time, the display will be of decent quality, and the price will be competitive...JasonInofuentes - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
That Tom's article that is linked is a bit outdated, and it'd be interesting to see whether SNB could be fast enough to make the contrast between single and dual channel memory matter.As for the battery life, the trade offs necessary to create the optimal overall package are so numerous that I do not envy the engineers behind these devices. Nor frankly, do I envy the reviewers. Then again, battery life not withstanding, the overall package might just surprise us.
TrackSmart - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
True, there are a number of things I really like about this laptop (thin design, spill-proof back-lit keyboard, sturdy construction). The trade-off of battery life, however, is a major strike against any ultraportable. I'd rather it be a few mm thicker and have a larger battery. Alternatively, they could require SSD's or 1.8" hard disks to create space for extra battery capacity. This would be less of an issue if two other companies hadn't already proven that you can make a much thinner, much lighter, and still sturdy laptop that gets much battery life...Mumrik - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
"The 13.3" screen is optimized for travelers with a pane of Corning's Gorilla Glass covering its TN-panel"I'd prefer a matte display if I were to travel with this thing.
JasonInofuentes - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
I'll consider a revision, but you're right, there's something to be said for the fact that a none Gorilla Glass screen will only bother you the one time that you drop your bag too hard or let your notebook slip off your lap. But a glossy screen could bug you every day for the life of the device. It'd be interesting to talk to one of the product managers about the driver to use these glossy screens.Henk Poley - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
Personally I would much rather have it with Schott Conturan coating.smsmith - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
"Before the end of summer we will be seeing i7 quad-core CPUs inside the X1's chassis, easily making it the thinnest quad-core computer we've encountered."Do you have confirmation of this, or is it just speculation? If that's true I'll keep my X300 a bit longer.
JasonInofuentes - Monday, May 16, 2011 - link
This is speculation, I haven't had a chance to scour the specs of all the quad core laptops in the market, however, I haven't actually heard of any ultraportables gunning for quads just yet.lenox1 - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
But the X1 itself will have a quad-core option?JasonInofuentes - Sunday, May 22, 2011 - link
Oh! Yes, it is confirmed. Quad core X1's will be available this summer.jsvaughan - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
yeah resolution is a pity since the x301 is 1440×900. nice that they have dropped the irritating trackpad buttons though. looks cleaner design, and no blue coloured bits on it.i always thought the x301 keyboard was not up to the old ibm e.g. t42 standards so be interesting to see what this turns out like.
Guspaz - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
So, it looks like they took a 14"+ notebook chassis, put a 13.3" screen in there, but it's only a 1366x768 TN panel? Unless this thing sells for under $1K, the tiny low-res screen is going to be a major sticking point for many people.TrackSmart - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
Ha ha. I think the same thing everytime I see the MacBook Air. The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models could easily house displays that are 1-inch larger. The Alienware M11x is another major offender, ostensibly advertised as an "11-inch" ultraportable gaming laptop, but taking up the space (and weight) of a 13" machine.Compare those models to the Sony Vaio Z, which is thicker, but barely has a bezel around the screen. By the way, never, ever, buy a Sony laptop. I've never seen such poorly organized, rude, unhelpful customer support (even with the highest tier of warranty service). And the reliability of their higher-end designs (Sony Vaio Z with 2 to 4 SSDs in raid 0) is very poor, so you are *very likely* to have to deal with their horrible support. Their "rapid ship" or "next day" service actually takes about 3 weeks, since they never have a replacement part in stock. Stay far, far away from those pretty-looking Sony computers...
Apologies for the Sony rant.
cptcolo - Saturday, May 21, 2011 - link
The difference with the Macbook Air 13" is it has the same size screen as the old x301 (1440 x 900), which is 1.235 times as much real-estate as the X1. Also the Macbook Air and old x301 are in 16:10 formats, which is much much better than the 16:9 display here.Sure the X1 will have x2 the single-thread and multi-thread performance of the 2010 MacBook Pro, but the Pro does not have a pin-hole screen. Ultimately I think the screen seals the fate for the X1, unless it is very inexpensive. It is odd to me that Lenovo decreased the screen resolution on this X301 to X1 jump but increased the resolution for the T410S to T420S jump.
At least they got the ports right on the X1. Maybe the mini-display port can be a Thunderbolt in the future. The keyboard probably sucks, but will let the reviews determine that. Without any major increase in battery performance, and decreases in things like the screen and prob the keyboard. Keeping a SDD equipped X301 is a no brainier.
wvh - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
That X1 looks nice, somewhere in between the Edge and traditional ThinkPad line. Here's to evermore hoping Lenovo releases an option for a 1440x900 IPS matte panel on the X1... 1366x768 doesn't give one a lot of oversight, and it's not as if this is a cheap model... It's right up there between the MacBook Air and Sony Vaio Z.flyvog6 - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
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flyvog6 - Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - link
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aa0101bb - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - link
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synaesthetic - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - link
I shouldn't be surprised.What the hell's going on? Our phones keep getting higher and higher resolutions for smaller screens, and our laptops all keep edging toward the 16:9 720p-ish fate.
I'm perfectly fine with my phone staying at 480x800 and my computer not having 1366x768 EVER. Even 1280x800 is preferable to that terribad resolution that's barely got enough vertical pixels to display Windows 7 correctly.
Guys can we please have decent displays in our laptops AS WELL AS our smartphones?
SamJost - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - link
The X1 looks like a great replacement for my X200s, if not for one thing:Is the display really *glossy*?? I'd never buy a mirroring display, hope this is only an option!
mcquade181 - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
Crap screen, single channel RAM, and fair to poor battery life makes it a fail in my book.I wish someone would make a 13" with an matt IPS screen (and a DVD drive) - for me it doesn't even need to be wafer thin although it does need to be light weight.
Alexo - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
X220PhantomKnight - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
This looks interesting, however, will we ever see a review of it? The x220 was released quite some time ago and have been looking forward to a review before I bite the bullet. But alas, no Anandtech review. The X220 is now available with the i7 as well. Keep up the good work anywaygsdzfjsg - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
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Alexo - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
> truth is, in a market bereft of IPS displays, even a 768p TN-panel can land near the top of our display charts.The X220 can come with an IPS panel (12.5" 768p)
How about testing it?
ArteTetra - Thursday, May 19, 2011 - link
The mSATA SSD will obviously be from Intel.JasonInofuentes - Sunday, May 22, 2011 - link
Actually, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk all make competitive mSATA SSD products that could be lurking inside this thing. Only time will tell. How about it readers? Anyone pick one of these slim guys up and tear it open?