Nearly 20 years before Richard Sapper created the simple black box that would become ThinkPad, he had already made design magic with a very similar idea. It too was a simple black box, but for a totally different company and product category. The design was created for Jack Heuer back in 1974 for their classic Microsplit digital stopwatch. The Heuer company felt that the time had come for them to enter the digital age. Digital clocks and watches were just starting to emerge, but nobody thought to produce a digital stopwatch. Most early digital wrist watches were more of a technology novelty than a stunning revolution in design. Heuer wisely avoided sticking a glowing red digital display in the center of a traditional round watch case and calling it a day. Instead he selected Sapper to create a design concept because he wanted something special. It was an amazing corporate decision, design and market success. No longer in production, the best place to see one today is at the MoMA.
In 1972 Pulsar introduced the first digital LED watch
Here is a excerpt from a great interview conducted by Stephan Ott, that was published by the Goethe-Institut, where Richard talks about his Heuer design experience:
“I designed the first digital stopwatches for Heuer years ago. Of course they were a revolution back then. Heuer liked the model that I presented to him personally. When he then showed it to the sales managers, about 25 of whom were present, he suggested that each of them should comment on it as they passed it around. The first one said immediately, “I can’t sell this!”. He explained this by saying that the stopwatch was completely different from the usual devices. All the others at the table agreed with him – I already thought that I had been working in vain for half a year. When the stopwatch finally came back to Jack Heuer, he said “Your comments were all very interesting. We’ll sell this stopwatch nevertheless. YOU will be selling them!” End of discussion.
Six months later, by the way, Heuer was making a third of his turnover with this stopwatch. That means that Heuer and I were right, his sales bosses were wrong. But I don’t blame the marketing people at all, they’re just not trained for something like this. A designer works in and for the future. An entrepreneur, too, can be expected to have an eye for the future. But marketing and sales people have to concentrate on what they have on the table, they are guided by what they have already sold. Marketing has no basis at all for a new, revolutionary project, there you can’t make a well-founded sales prognosis. You have to rely on pure instinct.” Richard Sapper
The design similarity with ThinkPad is astonishing when closed, and in the open state
What does the stop button remind you of?
For well over a decade, I personally have been on the hunt to purchase one of these wonderful stopwatches. Of course I wanted one because of the striking design, but I also wanted one because of the aesthetic connection to ThinkPad. I love the simplicity of form that reveals a more richly detailed and lively interior when you choose to open and use it. This is a hallmark of much of the work Sapper creates. I’ve scoured junk shops in the US and Europe, flea markets, the Internet, and of course eBay looking for the elusive prize. The hunt has finally ended. I located one on eBay a few weeks ago and was determined to buy it no matter what. I found myself in a bidding war just minutes before the auction ended, but when the smoke cleared, it was mine. It would be interesting to know who I was bidding against? Another ThinkPad fan perhaps?
It arrived last night in a rather anonymous cardboard box neatly wrapped in pink bubble wrap. Certainly not the trappings worthy of such a design classic. I was thrilled to find the Microsplit to be in perfect condition. There was not even the slightest scratch in the beautifully finished matte black case. The Swiss craftsmanship was so evident. I gently slid the power switch to the on position and immediately discovered it was fully functional. I hadn’t even bothered to ask the seller if it worked. Honestly, it would not have mattered to me, working was just a bonus. The only thing amiss on my newly acquired design treasure was the the lack of the original neck lanyard. I’m not too worried, however, I can easily fashion one myself. I excitedly called Richard on his cell this morning to inform him of my find. He was more than delighted to learn that I had rescued it from an uncertain home. He also generously volunteered to send me a photo of the lanyard from one in his personal archive to ensure I got it right. He’s a great friend, as well as designer.
I hope you enjoyed the comparison of this Heuer design classic to our own iconic ThinkPad. I just can’t seem to stop looking at mine. If you admire design like I do, it’s possible that you now have a new quest. In case you’re curious, mine is not for sale.
I recently did a podcast with Information & Design founder Gerry Gaffney. Operating out of Australia, Information & Design is an innovative usability and user experience consulting firm. Not to suprisingly, Gerry is also a big ThinkPad fan. I thought you would find the content regarding the evolution of ThinkPad interesting.
You can read the transcript, or give it a listen here.
On it’s own it may not be pretty, but it certainly works!
If you’re a power user like me you never seem to stray too far from your ThinkPad. I use mine for more hours a day than I honestly care to admit. Battery life is of great importance to me.
I’ve never been a big fan of the extended batteries we offer, not because of the function they provide, but because they make my ThinkPad look less elegant. They certainly do deliver on better battery life, and some people may not mind the bump. Being a design centric kind of person, I prefer my ThinkPad to be bumpless. Enter the bay battery.
It neatly replaces the optical drive for my T400s and gives me a huge bump in battery life without the physical bump. I just recently made the transition from onboard optical to the bay battery and have not regretted the move. I rarely used the optical drive other than to show someone it had one. I am probably not the typical user. I really like it. Yes it makes my system a bit heavier, but that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make. I haven’t measured the exact battery life I am experiencing, but our marketing claim states that adding the bay battery may take total battery life up to a impressive 8.5 hours for a T400s. Your actual battery life depends highly on actual CPU use, screen brightness, fan speed, etc. etc. etc. Suddenly I feel like a lawyer.
If you are hungry for battery life, but don’t like extended battery bumps, I suggest you strongly consider this option. It works for me.
First Grade at Ranch Heights in Bartlesville Oklahoma
Way back in 1963 I ventured out from the security of the nest to experience first grade at Ranch Heights Elementary School. It was a big deal for certain. Who were all those new people? Why were we made to go there? Wasn’t it more comfortable at home? Were we really expected to eat that food? There were so many unanswered questions for the newly appointed first grader. Questions aside, we were there and we weren’t turning back. Thank goodness my first grade teacher, Mrs Cramer, was a decent and caring person. She made us all feel at home. Can you imagine what it would have been like if she had delivered on the evil-schoolmarm vision that filled the minds of most new first grade students? Rumor had it that Mrs.Castleman, another teacher at Ranch Heights, ceremoniously kissed each child before they headed home at the end of the day. The mere thought of being systematically lined up and kissed by her sent shock waves through the entire student body.
In addition to the unique personalities and experiences, part of the elementary school indoctrination was the ritual of shopping for school supplies Armed with a blurred mimeographed list of supplies, my mom skillfully guided her tiny shopping cart through the TG&Y store looking for the prescribed supplies. ”No David, it specifically calls for the 10 count crayon set, not the set of 64″ explained my Mom. Did this really matter? The 64 color set certainly looked better to me, it had far more interesting colors and it sported a nifty built-in sharpener. Being the thrill seeker that she is, we bought the 64 color set. Thanks Mom.
Was $1.00 really the highest priced item at the TG&Y?
One of the oddest items on the list eventually became my first tablet. It was strangely called a “Big Chief ” tablet. What in the world was that? Growing up in North Eastern Oklahoma, we all wondered what Indians had to do with it. Turns out it was a poorly bound tablet of very low quality paper with exceptionally wide rules. I guess they thought the rules would help guide you through the painstaking exercise of learning to write properly. In my opinion penmanship was one of the most tedius punishments ever devised by educators. The unbleached paper was nearly impossible to write on, tore frequently, and even smelled bad. It had a kind of musty odor. How could anyone think this helped the higher education cause? To make matters worse, we were expected to write on this thing with what was called a Laddie Pencil. For those of you who don’t know, these were extra large diameter pencils. I suppose someone decided that small hands required a huge pencil. They didn’t even fit into a normally sized pencil sharpener. Curiously enough, they also had no eraser. I guess we were expected to never make a mistake.
The “Big Chief” tablet was all about content creation. A brief story, penmanship practice, simple diagrams, or a crude sketch were what mattered in the first grade tablet world. We certainly didn’t read from it. Reading was done primarily from rudimentary wonders such as the popular Dick and Jane series. Who can ever forget such literary masterpiece phrases as ” See Dick run. ” Today it would be turned into an acronym like SDR.
The Big Chief Tablet was pencil based and wireless
The infamous Laddie pencil required you to bring your own eraser
Later in life I was fortunate enough to have been given a much more creative tablet than the infamous “Big Chief” version. I’m not certain of the year, it must have been in the early 1960’s, but I certainly remember the product. The tablet was the Etch A Sketch by Ohio Arts. An Etch A Sketch is a thick, flat gray screen in a bright red plastic frame. There are two white knobs on the front of the frame in the lower corners. Twisting the knobs moves a stylus that displaces aluminum powder on the back of the screen, leaving a solid black line. The knobs create lineaographic images, not so different from a crude computer plotter. The left control moves the stylus horizontally, and the right one moves it vertically. This tablet was a real breakthrough, it promoted creativity! Okay it was a bit frustrating to try to draw a diagonal line, but it was part of the whole creation experience. I remember a friend of mine set a goal to color the entire screen black so that he could discover the inner workings of what made the magic happen. He never quite finished before someone mistakingly erased his time consuming quest. Creativity was what the Etch A Sketch was all about.
Think creativity when you think about this breakthrough tablet design
Many years later, I was exposed to what is probably the next milestone tablet in my life. It was my first IBM tablet. Oddly enough it was called a THINK pad, although it was clearly not a computer, and it was certianly not black. I carried one for nearly 20 years while I worked at IBM. It was all so handy for jotting down a note to myself, capturing a phone number, or of course drawing a quick sketch of some design idea. I can still remember pulling it out in the hallway at IBM to sketch the design of a System/36 control panel in front of the responsible engineer. I’m not sure he had ever seen someone draw a sketch before, he was much more comfortable with circuit diagrams and numbers. I still have the pad tucked away in a drawer someplace. It contains a nice list of outdated phone number, some old passwords, and a few very old sketches. Refills for the pad were free from IBM by just dropping them a line requesting one. Somehow I think the address listed is no longer fulfilling the refill requests. The patina on the leather cover is a priceless reminder of my many career experiences at IBM.
As the personal computer and cell phone became more and more important in my life, and career, the friendly well worn pocket sized notepad became less relevant. I found myself sticking it in my pocket more out of habit than true necessity. It was time to move on to a new generation ThinkPad and retire my old leather friend. Sometimes change is hard, but in this case it made good sense.
My first THINK pad was the ultimate in portable content creation
The first computer branded ThinkPad was in fact a pen based tablet. It was not a clamshell notebook. Called the ThinkPad T700, it was launched in 1992 for a vertical market application. Howard Dulany, a current Lenovo software marketing manager, worked on it when he lived in Boca Raton. You can watch a short video of Howard talking about the first ThinkPad here. It seems an insurance company had a need for a portable device optimized for filling out claim forms, and IBM was prepared to deliver a solution. It contained a huge number of innovations including magnesium construction, integrated heat sink technology, solid state storage, and of course a pen based operating system.The design point, however, was not so different from my red framed Etch A Sketch. Thankfully a stylus replaced the somewhat frustrating white knobs for manipulating content on the slate user interface. The device was a bit ahead of it’s time, but lacked the ability to drive much in the way of content creation. It was pretty much about simple forms.
Since those early days we launched the first ThinkPad convertible tablet in early 2005. Called the ThinkPad X41 Tablet, it quickly became the tablet of choice for demanding business applications. Sure we designed and released something called the TransNote a few years earlier, but it failed to register on the radar as anything more than an off target technology driven oddity. We learn from our mistakes. With the X41 our refined offering finally got the balance right between viewing, annotating and creating content. Practice makes perfect.
With all the recent interest in tablets, it will be interesting to see how this market continues to develop. Is the IdeaPad U1 hybrid the answer? I certainly endorse the concept of allowing choice for how people use their devices. I also support optimization of form factor to task. The U1 does both of these. I’m honestly not certain that a content consumption focused slate is the answer. It sounds far too compromising to me.
No matter what happens in the market, I still think content creation is just as important as consumption. What did you expect? I love to design things. Where did I put my crayons anyway?
I was just in Japan for a week working on our future generation ThinkPad offerings. I met Richard Sapper there along with Aaron Stewart from my North Carolina based design team. The trip there was a lengthy 24 hours door to door, including a 13 hour torture test of an airline seat. When I arrived at the hotel I was pretty much worn slick. International travel of this magnitude is brutal. We ate that evening at the Trader Vic’s at the hotel. Seems a bit odd, but it was actually quite good and convenient. We got up at the crack of dawn the next morning, rode the train into Yamato, and began a week long marathon discussing, debating, and inventing the latest design details for ThinkPad. I think you will like what we are working on.
While we were in Japan we got the opportunity to visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and tour the East Gardens. I love Japanese gardens and found this very inspirational from a design perspective. The Japanese attention to design detail and beauty is everywhere. Not so different from the ThinkPad design approach. While at the palace we were fortunate enough to get to observe a team of gardeners delicately prunning the black pines perched 50-75 feet in the air. Working without ropes or safety nets, they prune individual bits of the tree with small specialized scissors. At ground level, assistants scurry around picking up the clippings. It’s really impressive to watch.
How high in the air are these people?
Japanese pruning scissors are a design treasure
Can you find the Imperial Palace?
Resting on the promontory
The trip to Japan was a great success. I got to visit my friends in Yamato, re-think next generation ThinkPad, and emerse myself in another design sensitive culture. I can’t wait to go again. Maybe I can squeeze in a trip to Kyoto, the cultural hub for all Japanese gardening. I can only hope.
Lenovo made a huge splash at CES with great new ThinkPads, IdeaPads, and award winning paradigm shifting products that turned heads. The IdeaPad U1 and SkyLight smartbook are wonderful examples where Lenovo invented new computing categories. But this wasn’t just a Lenovo technology prowess show, our design innovation was everywhere.
Making such an impression at CES, however, is more than just announcing super products. The design of the venue, in our case the Aquaknox restaurant, was a critical component of setting the stage. Lenovo literally transformed the place into a product exhibition space/nightclub. We wanted to create a lasting and positive impression for everyone who attended. The design of our event was led by Rebecca Welles from our corporate identity team. It was demanding work for her and the others who chipped in, but it paid off with an event to remember. One of goals we established early in the project was to avoid the urge to “out-Vegas” Vegas . There is just no point in throwing more flashing lights, spinning plates, fake gold leaf, dangling tinsel and glitzo patterns at the problem. Such an approach would only blend into the existing Vegas environment. We wanted to attract attention. The idea we chose was to design dramatic monolithic forms bathed in pure white to contrast the visual explosion around us. Colors would be minimal and restricted to the brand palettes. The architectural monoliths would stand above the crowd and draw attention to the featured products we wanted to showcase. We also created brand specific zones for more intimate demonstrations and hands-on use.
Bubble chair for conjuring up the next big idea
For the Idea products zone ,we used all white classic modernist furniture to suggest a futuristic home setting. Maybe everyone doesn’t own a bubble chair, but I bet they secretly wish they did. They look like they’re right off the set of a vintage James Bond film. Even the Corbusier lounge chair looked right at home in white leather. The space was accessorized with stark white objects such as chunks of coral, rhino sculptures, and an occasional, although somewhat disturbing, all white slice of pizza. It was hard to pry people out of the comfy white chairs. Wooden stumps served as end tables and conversation pieces.
Nice place to sit and think while at CES
ThinkLand was all business, but rich and sophisticated in design. Smoked mirrors etched with the brand signature, regal red carpet, and modernist seating that reminds me of a giant TrackPoint cap adorned the environment . A few people said the chairs reminded them of molars, too funny. The red dots on the signatures illuminated in a show of respect for the Vegas heritage. The products themselves were showcased on glowing white pedestals. An animated video wall showcased many of the design and technology features ThinkPad enjoys. It really looked impressive, and so “on brand”.
“Thing” from the Addams Family bought a Skylight?
The handheld products such as Skylight and the Lenovo smartphone were displayed using pure white 3D hands that were molded from real people’s extremities. Very interesting process with great end result. There seemed to be a strange magnetic attraction to them. By the end of the event, they had all mysteriously disappeared. How do you suppose they smuggled them out of the venue? I would love to know what people are going to do with them.
Scale paper model of the design concept
The design was conceived using pencil sketches, scale paper models, detailed computer renderings, and traditional sample boards. The scale model turned out to be very useful in visualizing the space and planning final graphic and product placement.The final renderings are very similar to the actual built space. Computers are wonderful tools for this sort of thing. Sadly,the days of magic marker renderings are all but over.
Can you tell which one is real?
The crowd loved it!
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the thinking that went into creating an event like this. Few people understand the magnitude of effort that goes into creating such a creative, but temporary, space. It was hard work, but also fun.
Back in November of 2008, I first learned of the Lenovo super secret project that would eventually become the Skylight smartbook . It sounded fascinating to me that we would attempt to create an entirely new offering category in the computer space. I could only imagine a device that would behave similar to a smart phone, but be of a size and scale that would make it more suitable for viewing or typing data. The design goal was also to create something that would turn heads. It could not look like just another miniature notebook computer.
I thought it would be a great project to get Richard Sapper, our long time design guru, involved with. After all, Richard has specialized in turning the ordinary into the extraordinary for decades. I’ve seen him do it over and over again with things as seemingly mundane as a desk lamp, cheese grater, tea kettle, kitchen timer, transistor radio, television set, and of course our own ThinkPad classic. When I first proposed the idea to the executive team I was asked by several if Sapper had ever designed a consumer product. Not such a surprising question if your view to Sapper and his work has been through the restricted lens of business computers, but I knew better. I quickly made a Powerpoint slide show of Sapper’s work, to make it clear what he was capable of. It worked. Everyone was intrigued enough to brief him on the project immediately.
Sapper and team discussing design details
On November 12th of 2008 Sapper was in town for a design work session where we took the opportunity to brief him on the super secret project. Sorry I can’t share the code name with you. He had many questions about user scenarios, screen sizes, technologies, and other such design-related details. Sapper was clearly interested in breaking the mold with us. His enthusiasm dimmed, however, when he was informed of the deadline for completing the design concept. The design had to be locked before the Christmas holiday in order to maintain the very aggressive schedule. I think the words Sapper used were “you must be joking, I need time to design such a thing” . The worst part was that it had not been formally decided if Sapper would be retained to create the design. That wouldn’t happen for yet another two weeks at the next Lenovo senior leadership meeting. The timeline issue would only become worse if he had to wait two additional weeks before he had the approval to start working.
The meeting adjourned as promises were passed around the room to speed the process and get more technical details. Of course, Sapper was asked to hang in there with Lenovo and wait for the next decision point. It was later in the day that Sapper, with a gleam in his eye, proposed to me that he would begin designing it immediately, on speculation that he might be retained to do so. For Sapper, there was no time to waste for the final Lenovo decision. How could anyone argue with that? If Lenovo liked his idea, we would compensate him for the work. If they didn’t like it, nothing was lost for Lenovo. The risk was all on Richard’s back. He was confident that he could create something revolutionary, and was willing to bet his own time and expense on doing it. The Sapper plan was quickly agreed to by Lenovo. Now it was up to Richard to deliver his idea by December 18th.
Richard flew to New York City late that evening. The following morning he would travel to Gloucester Massachusetts to visit with close friends. Immediately after the Gloucester visit, he was off to Los Angeles to be with his wife and son for Thanksgiving. How would he ever design anything if he was in hotel rooms, friend’s houses, carving turkeys, and riding airplanes? Designers need tools and time to create design. Sapper clearly understood the dilemma he was faced with. The next day he called me from New York City to describe the sleepless night he had endured as he imagined the design solution. His news was that he had been “kissed by Aphrodite” the night before. For Sapper, that means having the genesis of an idea. How poetic. He had spent the night drawing simple sketches in the hotel to refine his initial idea. He later described the concept verbally as a very thin and sculpted flowing form but not a “glob of pudding”. It had direction and clarity. He also talked about an articulated “stick” that would swing into view for various functions such as storage or a possible telephone handset. For me, that was the icing on the cake. Now all Richard needed was a model to validate his idea in 3 dimensions. Tall order if you are not in your normal work environment.
The infamous “hotel sketch” that defined Skylight
Two days later, I received yet another call from Richard. Now he was in Los Angeles. There was very little chit chat, he went straight to work. “Do you know what I have in my hand?” he questioned. I really had no idea how to respond to that one. “A model!” he declared, instantly answering his own question. How could that be possible I thought? He must have just arrived in California. He told me of being at a cocktail party while in Gloucester, where he mentioned to a friend that he was working on a secret design project. He described how interesting the project was, but that he was frustrated by not being able to get a model built of the idea he had conceived the night before. He was in desperate need of a model. What followed is one of the most incredible strokes of luck ever. His friend suggested that he discuss his need with one of the guests at the party who amazingly enough makes violins and other such instruments. It was reported that he had an elaborate woodworking shop and the skills to match. Surely he could make such a model. After a brief introduction, Richard met him at his shop the next day where he masterfully directed the shaping of a raw block of olive wood into what would become the first model of Skylight.
Stradivarius would be envious
Using the kitchen table at his son’s house and old-school drawing tools, Sapper then created a series of cross sections that were sent back to his studio assistant in Milan. His goal was to create computer generated 3D data and a highly accurate stereo lithography model for his immediate review when he returned to his studio. His plan worked. Once in Milan, he made several revisions to the form and interior leaving just enough time to create a more detailed model for the final review that was now scheduled for December 19th. There was little margin for error.
Early interior study model showing placeholder keyboard and speaker location
On December 15th Sapper again called to say that the model would be finished as promised but that he had no idea how to get it to Raleigh in time for the meeting. There was even some concern expressed about having adequate time for the paint to cure. More on that later. We immediately exercised all various options to get the model from Milan to the meeting but none were very promising. The final solution was to send Robert Enochs to Milan on the 18th to hand carry it back the following morning. Robert, who actually wrote the original marketing requirements document, eagerly agreed to the plan as though he had a choice. After landing in Malpensa, Robert took a taxi to his hotel in Milan, freshened up, and then headed to Sapper’s studio a few blocks away. Richard met him on the street in front of his studio, where he suggested they head to La Torre di Pisa for a nice Risotto dinner before visiting the model maker’s shop. It was nearly 9:00 PM Milan time.
Sophisticated color inspiration
Once at the model shop Robert saw the models, yes there were two, one a beautiful shade of red and the other black. Black was eventually replaced by a nice rich blue. We had enough black computers. Enochs was immediately impressed by how unique the design appeared and equally by how sticky the paint was. It seems there was a paint compatibility issue that never allowed the paint to fully dry. Sapper’s normal painter was already out on holiday. Richard had to scramble to find someone to paint the model. He ended up hiring a rather inexperienced painter that he had never used before. I seem to recall that Richard even had to buy him the paint gun at a local hardware store. I guess that should have been a warning sign. The models were placed into a clever box of Sapper’s design and Robert headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep before catching the morning flight to the states. I called Robert when he returned to the hotel to get his impression of what he saw. He was at a loss for words but groggily described it as “well…VERY unique”. It was well after midnight when Robert called it a day.
Sapper designed the box for the trip home
On Friday evening in Raleigh the executive team anxiously awaited the arrival of Robert Enochs and the model. His plane was about an hour late due to weather issues and people were getting rather anxious. Once Robert landed, he called us on his cell phone to give us a turn by turn status of his continued progress towards Lenovo headquarters. At about 7:30 PM his car was spotted from the design center windows pulling into the parking lot. We were more than ready to see it. Sapper was standing by on the phone to discuss any of the details concerning his work. It was well past midnight Milan time. The cleverly designed Baltic birch box was carefully opened and the models were revealed. Immediately, the reaction was extremely positive, people loved what they saw. Sapper had delivered on the challenge beyond any of our expectations. The most immediate issue was how we were going to remove the bubble wrap texture that had now become impregnated into the forever-sticky paint. The finish looked a lot like a well worn alligator. It was pretty clear that the only alternative was to photograph the models and remove the alligator pattern in Photoshop. Since this all had to take place before Monday we needed a photographer and Photoshop expert the next morning. Not easy to get that done unless your son is a photographer home for the weekend. Who else do you call at midnight to do a photo shoot the next morning? He was more than willing to help and did an expert job of saving the paint disaster. Thanks Eric.
Worn alligator texture or just bad paint?
Photo of the concept models after extensive retouching by my son Eric
Final design is extraordinarily close to the original vision
There was far more to do following this pivotal meeting, but the most important hurdle had been crossed. We had a really marvelous design concept. We still needed to design a keyboard, make everything fit in the envelope, move the speakers around, finalize the touchpad, meet all the schedule commitments, and of course, design a totally new user interface. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it. For me, it’s incredible to see the real thing and compare it to the original Sapper concept model. I’m not sure anything we have ever made has ended up this true to the original idea. In the end, this was a great achievement for all of Lenovo. We had a fantastic team of people from Beijing, Raleigh, Yamato, and of course Milan. I think we truly delivered on the promise of our corporate tagline… New World. New Thinking.
Even though there is considerable buzz about the ThinkPad Edge line, lets not forget our heritage. We just announced four new ThinkPad classic offerings continuing the legacy of design and technology innovation for business. The T410s, T410, T510 and the W510 workstation are all new models with enhancements to processor performance, battery life and wireless technologies. You can read the detailed press release here. What is most interesting for this blog, however, are the improvements we made to the design and user experience. If you are a fan of the work we did on the T400s you will love these new rock solid ThinkPads.
All the new models use the same updated keyboard and controls we first introduced on the T400s. This includes the larger escape and delete keys, tighter key-skirt tolerances, enhanced volume/mute controls, and of course the flush textured touchpad. You can read entire blogs I wrote about all of these updates when we first introduced the T400s. Also gone are the off centered displays that were driven by the previous level antenna design. Thanks to Yamato engineering for fixing this one without sacrificing performance. Having now used a T400s for months, I can attest to the significance of these improvements to the user experience. The thinking and testing that went into these updates was enormous and has paid off. If you are a classic lover these are the systems for you.
Lenovo is starting the decade out right with the announcement of two new ThinkPads. I made a couple of short videos that talk about the design thinking that went into each of them. I plan to write a few blogs during the next week or so with more details about keyboards, the color red, and something we call sophisticated simplicity. Enjoy.
Interesting article by Sal Cangeloso at Geek.com regarding the introduction of ThinkPad Edge as a compliment to the ongoing classic line.
Two of my favorite leadership ThinkPad offerings have been the X300 and the T400s. We used our best technology, engineering, and design talent, to create some of most amazing ThinkPad’s ever made. Even though one is called an X and the other T, they are in some ways quite similar. They both have an onboard optical drive, for example. Of course there are also many key differences between them such as processor speed, docking capability, hard file capacity, battery life, thickness, weight, and of course keyboard design. The T400s was the first to sport the big escape and delete keys. One significant difference that is often discussed and debated is screen size. The X300 models use a 13.3″ screen and the T400s uses a 14.1″. It’s amazing how a difference of about an 1″ can get people talking.
The 13.3 is 11.4% smaller in overall viewing area
I thought it would be interesting to poll my Design Matters readers to understand your preference for screen size. Lets assume we are talking about a hypothetical 2 spindle machine where everything is equalized except for screen size. There is a very slight difference in DPI and of course the 14″ version would be a bit heavier. The increased glass size adds about a half pound of system weight.
Assuming the same system features and thickness, what is your screen size preference?
Thanks for your continued interest in helping us shape future ThinkPad offerings. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the poll.
