Design Matters

Yesterday I saw that PC World magazine rolled out their top 100 edition. I was thrilled to see the ThinkPad X300 rated number 5. Very rewarding for the Lenovo team and the tremendous effort that went into designing and engineering the X300. You have to dig very deep to find the product most often compared to ours. Here is what PC World wrote about the X300:

5. Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (ultraportable laptop, $2500) As everyone swooned over Apple’s hot Air, Lenovo snuck in the back door with a business-centric notebook that answers most of the Air’s shortcomings. It has processing power to burn, plenty of ports–and a paper-thin optical drive. Stick that in your manila envelope, Steve.

David Hill

I just read the Trusted Reviews analysis of the ThinkPad X300 written by Riyad Emeran. I should buy him a fruit basket. He totally gets it with regard to the ThinkPad design. Here is my favorite quote:

“For me, the ThinkPad has a timeless design. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, black will always be the new black, no matter how many silver, titanium, red or pink pretenders make their way onto the market. While others have accused the ThinkPad of being staid and dated, I see it as sleek and stylish, in the same way that a 1973 Porsche Carrera 2.7 RS is always going to look stunning, even when placed next to something modern like an Audi R8. Put simply, great design stands the test of time and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! And when it comes to design, Lenovo’s latest extension of the ThinkPad brand manages to look even more sleek and stylish than any ThinkPad before it.“

If you want to read the full review go here.

David Hill

I apologize if this is old news for anyone, but I forgot to share the big news! A little while back, I posted about Engadget’s Tablet of the Year vote and recommended everyone vote for their favorite. (Not trying to persuade you or anything…)

Well, when the dust settled, a winner was clear: the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet! Just search this blog and you can see my thoughts on our pretty highly evolved design of the tablet. A lot of different teams within Lenovo put in a lot of hard work to see the tablet come out with such a high level of insight taken from real world needs in tablet computing. Congratulations to those teams, and of course to Lenovo!

David Hill

PC World – The 50 Best Tech Products of All Time

Amidst an interesting article on the 50 best technology products of all time, I came across an old friend: the ThinkPad 700C. I talked about it once a while back and if you’ll remember, its successor the 701C has the famous “butterfly” expanding keyboard. Thanks for the compliment PC World

The machine that started it all, however, was the 700C, which weighed less than 6 pounds, had a huge-for-its-time 10.4-inch color TFT display, and featured the first-ever pointing stick. Although the laptop is now owned by Chinese company Lenovo, ThinkPads like the R60 are still coveted status symbols in the business community.

David Hill

I recently heard from Tomoyuki Takahashi, Yamato Design Center manager in Japan, that we received a “G Mark” or Good Design Award for several products. G Mark is the name of the design award issued by the Japanese Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO), and is probably the most prestigious design award in Japan.

The models you folks in the U.S. will recognize are:

• Lenovo ThinkPad X60/X60s series
• Lenovo ThinkPad T60 series
• Lenovo ThinkPad R60 series
• Lenovo 3000 C200 series

We’re very proud to have our products so highly revered. In fact, the C200 has been getting a lot of positive press lately (See my previous posts).

One product that was awarded a G Mark which some of you may not recognize is the Lenovo Tianyi F20 (G Mark page), shown below in red. This machine is only available in China currently, but sparked quite a bit of interest when it was debuted last year. Notice the Olympic logo on it, in commemoration of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, which we were a proud sponsor of.

As always, for bigger and more pictures check out our Flickr account.

Lenovo 3000 C200: Full Review – Review by PC Magazine

Notebookreview took a liking to our Lenovo 3000 C200 notebook, and it appears PCMag did as well. It is good to hear our much updated design is receiving good marks from the reviewers:

When the Lenovo 3000 C Series launched with the C100 early last year, Lenovo decided to take the budget laptop's design in a different direction. Bad idea. The C100 looked hideous compared with its sleeker siblings, the 3000 V100 and 3000 N100. Suffice it to say that Lenovo heard the rants and is ready for round two. The Lenovo 3000 C200 sports a new design that's more consistent with the rest of the 3000 series, and it adds brand-new components that make it one of the most affordable business laptops in the market.

When the 3000 C100 first hit my bench last March, it shared the traditional dark interior and, frankly, cheap looks of the Dell Inspiron B130. The C200 has a much sleeker design. Its silver cover curves toward the front bezel, giving it a slimmer silhouette.

My colleague Matt Kohut over at Inside the Box recently touched on the C100/C200 evolution in a post entitled Who really listens these days? As Matt discussed, the huge change from the C100 to C200 was a direct result of the initial design's criticisms.

From the design perspective, we wanted a single image across the Lenovo 3000 notebook lineup and the C100 stuck out like a sore thumb. Working to refresh the design to match the rest of the Lenovo 3000 line as quickly as possible, we launched the C200 at the end of October to replace the C100 which was launched at the end of February. If that isn't enough of a sign that Lenovo listens, then I'll just let the critics say it for me:

Lenovo has taken full advantage of its second chance by delivering a worthy budget business laptop. The Lenovo 3000 C200 offers a better design and improved performance than its predecessors while remaining below $1,000.

We just announced the latest incarnation of the flagship T series with a 15.4″ wide aspect ratio screen. This is the first true classic design ThinkPad to feature a wide screen view. Previous ventures in this space used the experimental Z series design. We’re back to classic. Aside from the screen, it’s design is pretty much the same as the current T60. Lots of reviews have already been posted on the web. Here is one of my favorites from Notebookreview.com.

Comments about this model are always welcome.

David Hill

XYZ Computing

Sal Cangeloso writes:

"There are not many constants in the world of portable computing. Over the past years technology has advanced rapidly and laptops have reflected that, mainly in products which are smaller, lighter, and more powerful than ever before. In addition to laptops changing with the times they have gotten extremely popular and prices have dropped so that any number of affordable laptops are available. With a laptop being a must for most professionals and with every student being sent off to college with one, there is no wonder why they have changed so much since the Thinkpad was released in 1992."

Nice review, thanks Sal. This sparked a fascinating Slashdot debate about the trackpoint which can be found here.  About 188 comments when I wrote this, so evidently there is some passion around pointing devices. 

David Churbuck

TrustedReviews – Lenovo IBM ThinkPad T60p

"I've always liked ThinkPads. Despite the fact that these notebooks have a tendancy to be more expensive than the competition, I've generally been of the opinion that the extra cost is worth it. Many people think that the ThinkPad styling is dated and dull, but as far as I'm concerned black will always be the new black. The true beauty of the ThinkPad styling is that you could have a three year old model under your arm, but it will look just like the latest generation machine, and there will be absolutely no mistaking the fact that you've got a ThinkPad."

Thanks, I completely agree that the Thinkpad's black will always be the "new black."

David Hill