The Art of Thin
I’m sure everyone has heard the adage “you can never be too thin”. This seems to hold true not only for the human body but many other things, including notebook computers. Actual thinness, or the illusion of being thin, has a tremendous power to change people’s impression of nearly anything. The architect I. M. Pei has often used knife edge details to to create a powerful and dramatic impression. The east wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. is one of my personal favorites. In certain views the building appears to be a paper thin sheet of perfectly quarried stone.
For years we have used a chamfer detail on the front edge of ThinkPad to not only make them appear thinner, but also easier to pick up. The ThinkPad 600 was the first to use this detail. Interestingly enough, I just read another blog on this topic referencing ThinkPad and other examples. It’s interesting to me that people have noticed design details like this.
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
February 6th, 2008 4:15 pm
That is one of the reasons I love my Thinkpad. The angled front slips between thumb and forefinger comfortably unlike boxy old Dells and Toshibas.
Please do not remove this from future models, to me it has become part of the iconic Thinkpad design.
February 6th, 2008 4:36 pm
design is easy to notice when it is taken out of the equation. good design feels right and needs no explanation; it is a holistic experience. now this blog post probably is a red herring to that ThinkPad I’m not going to name which got leaked on to a website I’m not going to link to, but let me tell you, foot print is much more important than thinness.
i hope lenovo is being inspired by the eeepc for their next laptop line, not the macbook air which in some circles is already being called the cube of 2008. cube being apple’s gorgeous machine that was over priced, under powered and really didn’t fit into any market segment.
it was pretty however. thinkpad was always about function first, pretty second. i hope that doesn’t change.
February 6th, 2008 5:53 pm
I completely agree with MartinD comments.
Cheers,
Antonio De Castro.
February 6th, 2008 9:43 pm
[...] This post is an extended response to my comment on David Hill’s post: The Art of Thin. [...]
February 6th, 2008 9:44 pm
Quoting Stefan Constantinescu: “design is easy to notice when it is taken out of the equation.”
Absolutely! It is very easy to say “good design” – but incredibly hard to do. “Good design” is always obvious _after_ the fact.
In our marketing/advertising/image obsessed world, it is often easy to mistake initial visual appeal for good design.
See my extended response here: http://eicolab.com.au/2008/02/.....od-design/
February 7th, 2008 1:10 am
Good design is not about looks, its about utility, and the supplementing of looks to said utility.
Something that has little utility but much looks is called “art,” as in paintings and the general sort. Something without look and much utility is called “marketing failure,” such as solar cells and the sort.
People are drawn and attracted to art, but art is useless in terms of productivity, while marketing failures do not gain many consumers, simply because consumers aren’t attracted to them.
A major part of design is to balance the two, to gain interest from prospective buyers, but then to keep it. For example, when Apple released the Air, it released quite a stir, based on its aesthetic appeal, however, it quickly lost the interest of many groups due to its lack of horsepower, battery life, etc.
I find that the ThinkPad line gives us the best utility it can, and fits the visual appeal into that. Some may argue that this makes all ThinkPads “ugly black rectangles,” however, none can argue the quality of the machine, and its capabilities, therefore, to those of us that appreciate this already, the look and feel of a ThinkPad, with its simple design, is comforting. It makes us know that more effort was done making the machine work than making it pretty. The ThinkPad line is functional, but incorporates just enough visual appeal to have people want to buy it. This tends to lose prospective sales, due to its lower awareness, however, it makes its customers loyal lifetime customers.
“It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.”
–Albert Einstein
In short, ThinkPads do it right, minimum visual appeal, maximum utility, without eliminating visual appeal completely, instead intertwining the two in the beauty of a machine that makes its users very loyal. I very much approve of the design. Go ask your boss for a raise.
One thing though, on my X61s RAM access panel, there’s an awkward bump. What’s up with that? Its just so…wrong.
February 8th, 2008 9:55 am
Your thinnest notebooks are form X series, why they are thin and light? well because they are for people who need their laptop with them most of the time and they want it as portable as possible.
The target group of this notebook class usually use it to:
-Surf the Internet
-Email
-Work on documents
-take notes
-attend video conferences and online meetings
*Users usually access the documents they need via network
I want to know when Lenovo plans to add integrated webcam to X series? So that I don’t have to carry a webcam with my ultra portable tablet pc. These webcams are very small, nearly every mobile phone have one of them! The X series designed to answer ultra portable user needs, but still don’t cover video conferencing need.
Another thing is the touchpad, that many people (including me) find easier than TrackPoint. Now we can see touchpads on all other ThinkPad series except X series. Why don’t you add it to X series? They can be optional to see how many percentage of costumers prefer it. And /or there can be a mechanism to turn it off if you thing it might bother user when typing. If there is no space for touchpad keys, it can share TrackPoint keys. Most people tab on touchpad instead of pressing the touchpad’s left key and can use the TrackPoint’s right key to right click.
David! It’s great that you are listening to us, will be wonderful to learn your views on the mentioned design ideas.
February 8th, 2008 2:54 pm
I’m not really a fan of the ridge at the front (or any ridges at all) of the ThinkPads, I seen the new lacie drive and it just reminded me how good a black box with crisp lines and proper corners could be:
http://www.lacie.com/uk/produc.....?pid=11014
I’d like to see ThinkPads go back in this direction towards the original bento box origins.
Prince, the webcam will be coming, its is all the other models now so its only a matter of time, but please spend some time learning how to use the TrackPoint properly – it is much superior to the touchpad and a touchpad would only harm the X series (12″ models anyway ;o) ) I guarantee the overwhelming majority of ThinkPad users do not use the touchpads and those that do simply do not know how to use the TrackPont properly or haven’t given it enough time to migrate to.
February 10th, 2008 1:06 am
Looks like it’ll be a theme in an upcoming ThinkPad..Sony’s had this idea down for a while (Z1, G1, etc), and more recently Apple with the Air. Combine this type of thinking with conventional A4 size and you have the perfect form factor. This one’s been a long time coming, Lenovo!
March 16th, 2008 12:09 pm
I love the edge on the 600E. It’s easier to hang onto. My VAIO PCG-FX340K and FR-130 can’t be gripped as easily. I always feel more comfortable carrying the 600E instead of other machines. I was happy that the tradition continued with the T60p 2613-HQU.
June 9th, 2008 4:40 pm
Thin edges can be attractive and useful – see the Mac Air. Makes it easier to pick off a flat surface, looks to be floating, and could even provide some useful crush space if the notebook falls on an edge.
Look at diner plates. Why do they turn up at the edges? They not only hold liquids in, they are also easy to pick up.
I had a wristwatch once which tapered around the edge. Tho bigger and thicker than some other watchers, it looked smaller & thinner. Curves are also stronger than straight lines (Maybe the next thing will be oval-shaped laptops…
For a laptop, where the thing we want big is the display, it would make sense to taper the bottom and not the top.
Other thoughts:
Batteries: why do they have to be at the edge, taking up peripheral real estate and obstructing cooling? Plug them in the middle like the 701. Make them shorter or longer depending on whether you want light or heavy.
Hot knees: why not provide some inbuilt ventilation when laptops are used on laps by providing ridges which let air flow better?
tOM
PS, I, too, am appreciating my touchpad, esp with the Synaptics tools.
June 1st, 2009 1:23 am
Mornin`
hey this is a very interesting article! I have to go to bed, it`s late.