CNET: Thrilla in Manila
April 1, 2008
Post a Comment (20 Comments)
I found this entertaining “smackdown” video review from CNET and thought you might like seeing it. I couldn’t help but make the comparison to the famous Ali vs. Fraizer battle from 1975. The manila connection is just too funny. You may remember that after the fight Ali made this quote in a press conference. “Joe Frazier is the greatest fighter in the world, next to me.”
Watch the video and see who won the epic CNET Smackdown.
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
April 1st, 2008 3:00 pm
I wonder if there is any way you can implement the x300 thin and light design philosophy into your next T series, and include a 9600m GT class processor?
In a nutshell: the current t61p is a chunkster… so will there be a 14″ lighter version with next gen graphics in the pipe? seems like epson got it almost right… who knew they even made laptops?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/0.....01-laptop/
April 2nd, 2008 10:22 am
finally… an unbiased, realistic MBA vs. X300 comparison. even had the MBA come out on top, i would have been happy with the fight because it was clean and no one threw a suckerpunch using the fanboy mentality typically seen with mac vs. thinkpad debates (from both sides, mind you).
i appreciate the MBA for its thinness but would much rather have my fully-equipped X300, even at the expense of adding 0.15 lbs and a few millimeters here and there. besides, black is a much better color for a notebook than silver.
April 3rd, 2008 2:10 am
@erik: Hey! Its not my fault I’m a ThinkBoy! ThinkPads are just that great!
That was quite entertaining, I really liked it. Nice post.
April 3rd, 2008 11:50 am
ThinkPads rock but the X300 lacks HDMI
April 4th, 2008 11:10 am
Nicely done comparison… interesting to note how the two excel in different respects, and how these would appeal to different user populations. As a mobile knowledge worker and a techie, I always (since the days of the first clunky notebooks) held that I’m willing to carry extra size and weight in exchange for the extra power of having all my peripherals included in my machine; it’s nice to have that “extra size” reduced to such a slim difference today. And of course battery life – and removability – is crucial to me on long flights. OTOH, there are those user segments for whom the “sexy” aspect is more important than battery life, I suppose – and of course there are those who need the Mac OS and software, which dictates their choice up front.
April 4th, 2008 11:52 am
[...] humorous video review from CNET on the Lenovo Design Matters blog (yep, these guys have a blog where their designers [...]
April 8th, 2008 3:45 pm
Ive owned an X300 and an Air for some time now, as I am one of the few who have put their money where their mouth is, please accept my views.
While the X300 is remarkable, it is only evolutionary. Meaning, some monkey would have eventually come up with a thinner laptop soon enough. However, the MacBook Air is truly revolutionary. The MacBook Air uses “new school” technology, and it gives us a glimpse of the future of computers.
The greatest flaw with the X300 is in Lenovo’s warranty of it. Should the X300 fail while you are in another country, you will have to take it home for service. With an Air, you need only walk into an Apple Store for priority service. Failing that, you can send it to Apple in any country for speedy service. Is that not the prime directive for an ultraportable business-class laptop?
As for the Ali comparison, nice try. By the way, Ali uses a Mac (just check). The X300 will never make it into the history books, while the MacBook Air certainly will, for it is today’s vision of the future. The X300 has not even made it to the desks of major CEOs, who have abandoned ThinkPad in favor of Apple.
I really hope to see a revolutionary ThinkPad one day. Mr. Hill, ignore the competition, as it ignores you. Focus on the future, and dare to innovate. Windows 7 is just around the corner. Make your mark.
So which system gets more use? My Air. Why would someone have the Think Vantage system as a separate partition on a Windows computer, when someone could have Mac OS as that separate partition? Think about it.
Respect,
Linus — a long time ThinkPad fan who is having trouble staying one!
April 11th, 2008 6:20 pm
The X300 seems like an odd set of compromises to me. The Air has a *significantly* faster processor. If I’m just going to use a system for Web browsing and e-mail, I can get an Eee (even lighter and smaller). But if I need an ultralight that can stand in for a full-time system, the Air’s 1.8 GHz Core 2 is dramatically better than the 1.2 GHz ULV on the X300.
I like much of what’s been done with the X300, but I hope that a second generation with better processors is coming soon.
April 13th, 2008 6:45 pm
As an X61s and MB Air owner, I appreciate the design and features of the X300. I’d definitely like to purchase one, but I opted to buy a MB Air instead for two reasons. First was cost — the Air, with an 80 GB hard drive was $1,000.00 less expensive. And second, the X300 is saddled with a choice of inferior OSes (XP or Vista). Imagine an X300 running Mac OS X — that would be a dream machine!
April 14th, 2008 9:13 am
Video is not available anymore.
(and btw, you can chose to install a superior os on the x300. Pick up a debian, et voilà)
April 14th, 2008 10:11 am
Yves-Alexis – refresh the page. When you embed YouTube videos, they time out after a certain period if you don’t play them.
April 17th, 2008 10:56 pm
Does this mean that IBM will not be buying X300s?
If so, that should be the ultimate “review” of the X300.
IBM Launches Pilot Program for Migrating to Macs
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/.....g-to-macs/
April 18th, 2008 8:40 am
I liked the video, it gave a concise rundown of all the technologies present in both systems. The Mac Book Air is missing critical components to be useful.
With only one USB port to share between my PSP and USB Memory card, copying files between the two requires a copy to the drive and then out to the appropriate memory. While this is a rare task indeed, it is an important one.
What about being able to operate a USB memory card and a WWAN card? Wifi is great only when near a hotspot. Wifi is quite slow compared to 100 MBit.
Making backps is also important, without an optical drive, I could only backup to USB, or be forced to carry around a slower USB drive.
If the Mac Book Air is the future, I’ll stick around for quite a while. At least until a more complete machine is made. I don’t need something as thin as a feather if it can’t perform such basic tasks. I’d much rather get one of the standard MacBooks if I were to get a Macintosh.
April 18th, 2008 11:43 am
trisha, IBM still continues to buy thinkpads and currently holds a 7.9% stake in lenovo. statistics derived from a pilot program of only 100 out of 350,000+ employees isn’t broad enough to draw such a heavy speculation as saying IBM won’t be buying the X300 let alone any other thinkpad.
April 18th, 2008 3:43 pm
Erik,
IBM has been divesting itself of Lenovo stock for some time now. Your 7.9% figure is outdated.
Check this out:
http://www.reuters.com/article.....9520080228
April 18th, 2008 6:49 pm
Well, IBM is first of all a profit oriented company, like every other company too. In the past they sold their non-profit harddisk division to Hitachi, later in 2004 they decided also to sell their non-profit IBM PC division part, which they sold in 2005 to Lenovo. – So IBM is nowadays more concentrated on their main profits and their core business, namely selling world wide server hardware, software solutions and consulting etc.
Related to the IBM Pilot Program for Migrating to Macs, it’s a good way for them to check how their business software (WebSphere, DB2, Notes…etc.) runs on Macs and also to migrate their software to the Mac OS-X platform, so they can make some more future profits in the Apple world too.
However, all that doesn’t mean that IBM isn’t using Thinkpads, Macs or any other specific hardware. A company like IBM, which has consultants in 160 countries around the world is using internally a very wide spectrum of different hardware and software.
So from a realistic point of view, the above debate and speculations are pretty much peanuts and sound to be more like the wishful thinking of some people. – I believe the IBM CEO and the stock holders don’t care much what the IBM employees do finally use as their working-hardware (…be it a TP X300 or an Air), as far as the employees are still productive enough to maximize the company profits and as far as the company can play on wider market places.
April 19th, 2008 11:23 am
trisha, it has been pointed out to me that the current figure is 7.5% and not 7.9% as i stated above. my initial figure may be slightly outdated but not by a significant amount.
April 19th, 2008 3:32 pm
The 7.5% figure comes from my posting of an article here:
http://forum.lenovo.com/lnv/bo.....amp;page=1
Since we are quoting the article I posted:
http://www.businessweek.com/gl.....han=search
“The lock-up following this transaction will only last until March 31, leaving the US company free to sell the rest of its shares after that.”
April 20th, 2008 3:06 pm
I just find it unfortunate that the X300 could not help Lenovo crack the top 50 of the world’s most innovative companies, according to Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....ial+report
April 29th, 2008 6:42 pm
the following video seems appropriate for the manila battle…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0