No trackpoint no sale! The first thing I looked for was a rubber nipple on the keyboard. I will admit that a lot of people at my office never take the time to learn to use the trackpoint. I find it much more accurate then the alternative.
Why? On a 14" or lower screen it works just great. I have a 15" with 1920x1080 and it is great when watching movies or playing games but the rest of the time is spent zooming
1366x768 must die, 16:9 must die too. Please follow Apple's lead and start building laptops with 16:10. These are business laptops and they don't come cheap, right? Don't worry about asking for a few more bucks for 16:10 screens. People will pay. And yes, 15" is better than 14". By the way, I saw a retina MBP today, 16:10 (good) but ruined by the glossy display and the simulated "best for retina" 1440x900 resolution. Not everything Apple does it great but 16:10 definitely is.
Warranty ??? Businesses care about warranties. They want three years, no hassles, two way paid shipping and fast turn around times. See Lenovo T Series which incedently has been on the decline since T400\T500 series. Lenovo service is still fantastic. People who speak English you can understand, fast and friendly. Lenovo business class knows customer service. Anyone who can copy that formula can compete; especially at the price premium Lenovo charges.
14" is too small; I'd consider a 15.4"/15.6" model (if resolution were at 1920x1080). I too would want a trackpoint. I like them a lot more than I do the touchpad.
12" X200 is an excellent road warrior. The T4xx series is excellent for most cases, as 15" laptops are just too cumbersome to carry around.
But on the whole, do they have accelerometers for the hard drive? Will I be able to manually set the limits of charge level ? The keyboard seems on par with Asus's entry level/mainstream notebooks.
I believe that most people think that Thinkpads are "business laptops", because of their aesthetic design, which is an odd way of looking at an instrument/tool that you make money with. Thinkpads are reliable. At least they were. The new chiclet keyboards just don't supersede the old ones, the layout is bonkers. I don't know about you, but when I'm writing stuff/coding, I rarely use look at the keyboard, so I find the backlight useless. And the trackpoint is again, more than just preference. I can't stress enough how much the seamless transition from typing to moving the cursor/using the mouse enriches the user experience. Of course, on windows the middle-button scrolling is a bit useless, but I believe there's a way to configure it so that it emulates actual scrolling, like it does in linux. And that's another reason I'd rather go with a thinkpad- they're really well supported in linux, whilst my colleagues often have problems configuring their distros to work with their particular Asus machines. Wow, looking over mine and most of the other comments, we do really sound like a bunch of bots sent here by Lenovo. But I really do feel that there's something more to the thinkpad line than just the extended warranty and the different aesthetic style.
I've also been less than pleased with the quality and support of a pair of N series (read, not cheap) notebooks I bought from Asus last year. They have both had multiple RMAs and I have had a replacement on one. Their tech support is not very fluent in the intricacies of computer troubleshooting. I love Asus components, but their notebooks aren't ready for the Rigors of enterprise life IMO. My wife is giving up on her Asus (one of the aforementioned 2) and will likely replace it with a lenovo Y series ideapad (She wants a bit better media functionality than the Thinkpad line offers).
They're cumbersome because they are 16:9. A 16:10 15" laptop is as wide as a 16:9 14" one. Progress gone backward is called regress. Everybody but Apple has regressed on displays in the last 5 years, and I'm writing more about the form factor than about resolution.
The fact that when you call Thinkpad/Thinkcenter support and some person in Atlanta picks up within 30 seconds is enough for me to buy Thinkpads for the rest of my life.
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warisz00r - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
Tried the KB + trackpad?dryloch - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
No trackpoint no sale! The first thing I looked for was a rubber nipple on the keyboard. I will admit that a lot of people at my office never take the time to learn to use the trackpoint. I find it much more accurate then the alternative.w_km - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
No trackpoint, no sale!1366x768 or 1600x900 display, NO SALE!
Homeles - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
"1600x900 display"Really? Boy, you have caviar tastes.
LoneWolf15 - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
1600x900 is fine for me, but if you're shooting at ThinkPad owners, the trackpoint is a must. That's 25% of why I buy a ThinkPad in the first place.Dahak - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
1366x768 should die as a resolution on any business/pro laptopI uses a 14inch HP Elitebook for work with 1600 x 900 and that should be the minimum.
Again the 1366x786 should DIE DIE DIE
LittleB69 - Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - link
Why? On a 14" or lower screen it works just great. I have a 15" with 1920x1080 and it is great when watching movies or playing games but the rest of the time is spent zoomingOtunia - Thursday, June 13, 2013 - link
1366x768 must die, 16:9 must die too.Please follow Apple's lead and start building laptops with 16:10. These are business laptops and they don't come cheap, right? Don't worry about asking for a few more bucks for 16:10 screens. People will pay. And yes, 15" is better than 14".
By the way, I saw a retina MBP today, 16:10 (good) but ruined by the glossy display and the simulated "best for retina" 1440x900 resolution. Not everything Apple does it great but 16:10 definitely is.
Einy0 - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
Warranty ??? Businesses care about warranties. They want three years, no hassles, two way paid shipping and fast turn around times. See Lenovo T Series which incedently has been on the decline since T400\T500 series. Lenovo service is still fantastic. People who speak English you can understand, fast and friendly. Lenovo business class knows customer service. Anyone who can copy that formula can compete; especially at the price premium Lenovo charges.Mayuyu - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
Waiting for shipping? Next Day Onsite repair is well worth the extra cost.jaydee - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
Displayport or HDMI?2xshot - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
What is the case made out of? Magnesium alloy is a key reason to choose the Thinkpads. This is a key to durability!AstroCreep - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
14" is too small; I'd consider a 15.4"/15.6" model (if resolution were at 1920x1080).I too would want a trackpoint. I like them a lot more than I do the touchpad.
nevertell - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
12" X200 is an excellent road warrior. The T4xx series is excellent for most cases, as 15" laptops are just too cumbersome to carry around.But on the whole, do they have accelerometers for the hard drive? Will I be able to manually set the limits of charge level ? The keyboard seems on par with Asus's entry level/mainstream notebooks.
I believe that most people think that Thinkpads are "business laptops", because of their aesthetic design, which is an odd way of looking at an instrument/tool that you make money with. Thinkpads are reliable. At least they were. The new chiclet keyboards just don't supersede the old ones, the layout is bonkers. I don't know about you, but when I'm writing stuff/coding, I rarely use look at the keyboard, so I find the backlight useless. And the trackpoint is again, more than just preference. I can't stress enough how much the seamless transition from typing to moving the cursor/using the mouse enriches the user experience. Of course, on windows the middle-button scrolling is a bit useless, but I believe there's a way to configure it so that it emulates actual scrolling, like it does in linux. And that's another reason I'd rather go with a thinkpad- they're really well supported in linux, whilst my colleagues often have problems configuring their distros to work with their particular Asus machines.
Wow, looking over mine and most of the other comments, we do really sound like a bunch of bots sent here by Lenovo. But I really do feel that there's something more to the thinkpad line than just the extended warranty and the different aesthetic style.
marcplante - Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - link
I've also been less than pleased with the quality and support of a pair of N series (read, not cheap) notebooks I bought from Asus last year. They have both had multiple RMAs and I have had a replacement on one. Their tech support is not very fluent in the intricacies of computer troubleshooting. I love Asus components, but their notebooks aren't ready for the Rigors of enterprise life IMO. My wife is giving up on her Asus (one of the aforementioned 2) and will likely replace it with a lenovo Y series ideapad (She wants a bit better media functionality than the Thinkpad line offers).Otunia - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
They're cumbersome because they are 16:9. A 16:10 15" laptop is as wide as a 16:9 14" one. Progress gone backward is called regress. Everybody but Apple has regressed on displays in the last 5 years, and I'm writing more about the form factor than about resolution.thejaredhuang - Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - link
The fact that when you call Thinkpad/Thinkcenter support and some person in Atlanta picks up within 30 seconds is enough for me to buy Thinkpads for the rest of my life.n13L5 - Friday, July 5, 2013 - link
Wonder if Asus knows business customers want people to talk to, when there's an issue...Asus only has a forum stacked with customer volunteers... Good luck...