Notebookreview on the C200
December 12, 2006
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It's nice to see the Lenovo 3000 line get some positive recognition. The C200 is a sub-$1000 notebook is a great deal with ThinkPad quality built in. Kevin O'Brien at Notebookreview.com posted a comprehensive review of the machine.
"The Lenovo C200 is hands down an awesome upgrade over the previous C100 model. It seems as though they looked at a list of weaknesses of the previous model, and found ways to go above and beyond improving them. Performance has nearly doubled with the new Core 2 Duo, the hard drive is now the newer SATA standard, the screen hinges feel they could outlast the laptop, and the much enjoyed keyboard stayed just the same."
David Hill
Lenovo Meet the Modder Dean Liou
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 2
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 1
Lenovo H320 desktop
December 14th, 2006 8:27 pm
It would be nice to see some C200’s in Canada. They did launch one product featuring an Intel Celeron model.. which they quickly discontinued after 2 weeks on the market and there appears to be no replacement for them. Good marketing.
December 14th, 2006 11:46 pm
LOL. Sure. Why not? I am sure the laptop sent for review was tested at least 10 times before being sent to the reviewer, unlike your other laptops which are shipped with least bit of testing, and which I have had the unfortunate luck to own. I should have started an official complaint with Office Depot for stocking your laptops and selling their customers lemons; technically you have ruined the image of even Office Depot’s great customer service. (Which I admit is still far far quick, better and more responsive than yours).
And of course, for all the much famed Lenovo service, I am still getting “We will call you sometime (if we really care)” emails from your team.
Why am I not surprised though? Its time to put Lenovo in the same basket as Dell.
Suyog
December 15th, 2006 1:48 am
I am glad to know that Lenovo have been keeping the C200 evolving
Performance (e.g. the industrial standard keyboard, the firm hinges) is important, but I would love to see this line of laptop models to instead introduce some fresher and more dramatic designs to the market. The current streamlined look is already much better than the average Dell and the Gateway, the HP (one of those), however, if Lenovo want to produce and market a brand as a design+usability brand, it is already a shameful failure when people start to compare Lenovo to Dell. Lenovo should aim higher
In the current model, the choice of orange color is more notable than the cliches of silver color in the market. This reminds me of the orange color Lamborghini Diablo GT
http://www.google.com/search?q.....iablo%20GT
Vehicle designs can be great sources of inspiration for gadget design. However, the design should be spiced up much more, let’s say with a total Lamborghini orange colorful outer-case with shiny and scratch resistant coating
http://www.colorwarepc.com/content.aspx?id=57
While staying silver or black insider
On the other hand, the Coke co-brand Lenovo laptop has a much stronger flavor of design there
http://www.hjemmepc.no/multime.....d_526g.jpg
December 18th, 2006 3:27 am
Adam: I am told the C200’s will be coming back soon, keep an eye out.
Nicole: Thanks for your perspective on the C200. The Lenovo 3000 notebooks in general seem to be a love or hate kind of opinion with most people. Keep up the well thought comments
December 19th, 2006 9:37 pm
Help! I just purchased the C200 in Israel and brought it home and when I started it up, everything is in Hebrew!! How can I switch to English? I still need to go through the set-up process, but can’t read anything! Thanks, if anyone can help!
December 20th, 2006 7:08 am
Will this be the solution?
Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages (middle tab) -> change the “Language used in menus and dialogs” from Hebrew to English
I hope this work for you…
(you may want to post such help request to “insider the box” which is more technical then this design-oriented blog)
December 21st, 2006 3:33 am
Lisa: I’m sorry I can’t help more in terms of technical support. I’d recommend you try calling our technical support line, or in terms of community help visit http://forum.thinkpads.com. I understand there is a very helpful community of ThinkPad and Lenovo notebook owners there.
January 11th, 2007 6:42 pm
How good is Lenovo C200 with linux, especially after Lenovo announcing that it will create hardware complied with linux standards. I use openSUSE distribution – any words on this matter.
I am asking as am thinking on getting one, as from reviews I am definitely liking this note a lot.
March 7th, 2007 9:15 am
Hi. This is Chirag Gonawala from India (guj) purchesed a LENOVO 3000 C100 THOUGHT MY LEPTOP doesn’t met any kind of accident i got a problem in lcd. according to company it doesn’t cover in warranty and quoate me for 25000/- company has raised hand to solve my problem they said LCD is a costliest part of laptop so they don’t cover in warranty.. THINK BEFORE YOU PURCHESE GUYS. if any one wants my rest of parts of lenovo do email me onlinechiragin@yahoo.co.in
March 31st, 2007 7:27 pm
In the UK there is a company are offering the C200 with a celeron M420 1.6Ghz processor for a reasonable price. I like the 4:3 ratio for the display. Most laptops in the shops are widescreen now.
I’d like to run one of these as a dual boot Windows XP/Linux machine. Any views?
August 15th, 2007 1:41 am
i have a Lenovo 3000 c200 and am in canada
i have no complaints other then cant find a linux distro to support all hardware.
sound and wireless doesnt work and also the card reader doesnt work as well….BUT i plan to install linux when ubuntu has all the fixs and im comfident that they will by their next distro upgrade as for now although came with vista im running xp pro
November 22nd, 2007 4:34 am
I have a problem with one month old Lenovo 3000 Y200 (6469 22R); some of the keys have stopped working without any hints of physical damage.
The affected keys are space, x, g and left Alt, seriously damaging the otherwise excellent typing experience. Sometimes the keys are inactive for a very long time while other keys are working properly, sometimes the problematic keys work well like other keys for some time.
The problem persists both in Windows Vista and Linux so the roots of the problem seem to go down to BIOS or hardware level. Any suggestions?
(BTW, With Linux (ubuntu gutsy) it became apparent that the ACPI BIOS in this machine is broken, giving CPU frequency alternatives of 600 and 800Mhz only instead of the processor’s eight steps all the way up to 1.33Ghz. You can get full speed only by disabling CPU frequency alteration functionality e.g by rmmod acpi-cpufreq).
November 24th, 2007 12:46 am
Also Fn and F4 keys are randomly out of order. Had to take refuge in a virtual keyboard on the screen to get anything done. Especially missing space is a big hindrance. Will probably redefine the key mappings so that the input from missing keys will be accessible through other keys.
Another thing in this otherwise cleanly designed notebook is the material of the touchpad – after one month moderate use it has become shiny and requires wery dry fingertip to work properly. In the beginning the surface was matte and very well working even with sweatty fingertip.
December 3rd, 2007 9:02 am
Still about the same machine: managed to re-map the keyboard so that input from broken keys can be achieved through other keys. Space from menu key, x from Alt-z, g from Alt-f.
One more new thing that I forgot to mention: the cover of the machine seems to leak electricity; sometimes you get a small persistent shock to your hands and fingers or even to thighs when touching the machine especially to the sides, corners or bottom. Good to check before buying.
December 17th, 2007 4:55 pm
DO NOT BUY LENOVO. Lenovo is part of IBM, however if you ever have a problem and needs repairs, FORGET ABOUT IT! I have sent back the same C200 Lenovo for repairs 4 different times! My major is information technology so I know to diagnose problems. The laptop has wireless problems, and the SATA controller for the internal hard drive was bad. When we got it back the first time, they flashed the BIOS and imaged the hard disk. We sent it back to them, as that did not fix our problems. They did the same solution again and sent it back to us. The third time I sent it back I included a detailed letter explaining that the motherboard needed to be replaced and to stop applying the same solution over and over. They must’ve thrown it out or not been able to read it because it came back with the SAME SOLUTION: flash bios, image hard drive.. So I called them up again, submitted my case and the guy told me when I was telling him what needed replaced: “..They will do whatever they want to”, and BOY WAS HE RIGHT. We got it back and they finally had replaced the plantar (part of the motherboard) but the wireless button is broken. Something you need to consider before buying Lenovo.
March 28th, 2008 9:09 am
k
i just bought one of these.
the t, y, tab, caps, shift and backspace do not work.
any help on how to fix it?
x.nick.x@hotmail.co.uk
Please help
August 7th, 2008 8:13 pm
i have repaired in 15 year few laptops
i know from experience the ibm sold the lapop business to lenovo and the quality after that drop down.like when seagate finished his barracuda scsi.
the problem with these lenovo laptops r with component level design and also with motherboard, they r no golding motherboard anymore also the motherboard is ROHS (unleaded). because of bad temperature regulation the chemical structure of metal expand and shrink also the power circuit contain coils where you have some resonation, its enough to create dryjoints.
all these motherboard require component level engineering if the circuit between layer is not faulty.
the best way is to send them back.you may no gonna end up with reflashed second hand board like other companies provideing their job.