Color My ThinkPad?
It seems like everywhere you look now there are notebook computers available in a myriad of bright colors and decorative patterns. Kind of reminds me of the olden days when even stodgy IBM sold mainframes and typewriters in colors. I used to own a bright red Selectric before it got lost in a move. IBM stopped offering the color option because of the enormous business complexity it drove. The current color movement seems to be primarily focused at consumer notebooks. Will the trend overtake business computing?
Color can be something that is strongly connected to a brand. Imagine a John Deere tractor coming out in a color other than green? What if the Pink Panther wasn’t, or if Batman wore a white suit? Some brands have celebrated color choice as a brand attribute offering new colors all the time. Apple continues to offer a rainbow of colorful iPod choices. Even Levi’s offers blue jeans that aren’t blue. Shame on them?
ThinkPad has never really departed from classic black, with the exception of a short run special edition titanium cover on the Z series. For the record, it was real titanium, not paint. Over the years we have made matte black, gloss black, rubberized black, metallic black and even titanium sparkled black. We should get a healthy discount on black plastic and paint based on purchase volumes and long term contractual commitments. I’m sure you have all seen that a company called ColorWare will gladly take your precious ThinkPad from you, bathe it in your favorite color, and return it to you for about 400 dollars. When returned they look a lot like this.
I’m curious what Design Matters readers think about ThinkPad coming in colors other than black. Should we join the color trend or stay the course? I’ve created a poll to gather your views.
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
January 19th, 2009 3:05 pm
enough with the polls!!!!!!
January 19th, 2009 3:11 pm
In colors, but only if by “color” we mean black na titanium. I totally loved my z61t with metal side. My current t400 is dull
January 19th, 2009 3:15 pm
Perhaps some users may consider a colored thinkpad, but me i’m a big supporter of the black!
But for instance i would like to consider a black matte thinkpad with the baroque pattern of the ideapad in glossy, would be very fashionable! and still black, just image if you can order an special offer of thinkpad all black but with patterns as you wants embroidered on it, cool! like the laser name option in the ipods.
January 19th, 2009 3:47 pm
Maybie some color would be good.. But not this Electric Orage pleeeeeaseee !!!!
January 19th, 2009 3:49 pm
Don’t really care about different color options, but I’d rather see the time and energy going toward making ThinkPads lighter, faster, and more solid.
January 19th, 2009 3:58 pm
If you must offer color, just partner with Colorware. Choosing a color at checkout time would simply have an additional cost and would delay shipment by say one week. Then you’d ship it *through* Colorware, who would apply the selected color and send it on the consumer.
Colorware would get a lot more orders due to the visibility, so they should be able to cut their price on volume. If you made it a long-term partnership they could invest in their infrastructure to further reduce costs, and you could start taking the complexity of their disassembly/painting/reassembly process into account in the design of your notebooks.
The end result would be that you had almost entirely outsourced the business complexity of colorizing all ThinkPad models, and had placed the cost of colorization exactly where it belongs: on the shoulders of consumers who value color enough to pay extra for it.
While your system would be slower and more costly (to consumers) than other manufacturer’s systems, it would also be less risky, more one-and-done, and more robust. Colorware offers more colors than any OEM I’ve ever heard of, and they offer more than color as well. Customizations, personal graphics or images, etc.
I say, embrace it, but do it smart and at arms length.
January 19th, 2009 4:33 pm
David, I am very happy to hear you changing your tune a bit. As an x40 tablet, x60 tablet and soon to be x200 tablet I was always haunted by a quote you made in the BW article in February 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....350389.htm
“I’m a bit tired of looking at silver computers,” said Hill. “I’d never wear a silver business suit.”
I found that remark to be incredibly dated and literally scary to come from someone in your position. It made me feel as though you did not understand the current business environment and were still mired in the black suit (think “Mad Men” on AMC) era thinking. To me, this type of thinking did not reconcile with the Tablet PC’s you were producing. It seemed you were so right in producing technology truly ahead of its time but still so behind on how the marketplace was receiving the non-black machines.
I am a 30 year old MBA student at a top school and must say that I never feel “cool” lugging the black box into a Starbucks or equivalent…that is until I turn the machine on and others see what it is capable of. That being said I firmly believe there could be an even greater ‘wow’ factor if you were to make even minor design changes. The s9 and s10 show that the ability is certainly contained within the IBM/Lenovo walls to pull of a great looking machine.
I would have to think there is research that the marketplace has changed and perhaps if you were to ask how IBM’s brand is still defined in the eyes of the business consumer you would realize that the “Black” design is simply perpetuated in IBM’s own mind and not the true realities.
So if you do entertain the idea of mixing up a few colors you must first wear that silver business suit.
John
January 19th, 2009 5:20 pm
Are you sane?
January 19th, 2009 5:28 pm
Just like the Mini Cooper or the VW Beetle, or the BMW Series 1 Compact, there’s a point where you can leverage the insistence in unfashionable design into a fashion. Thinkpads are at just that point, and would gain nothing in joining the herd created by Apple. I do like the boxy, black look of Thinkpads. They exhale the odor of a hardware conoisseur, who can see beyond looks. Beautiful machines, for those who know how to appreciate them.
A 20 year old Vintage Port bottle doesn’t look fashionable either…
January 19th, 2009 5:37 pm
How about another car analogy — the well known selection of colors for the Ford Model T
January 19th, 2009 7:37 pm
Colors and decorative patterns on the epitomize of business notebooks, namely ThinkPads? (*big disapproval*) – Oh my, what do you guys smoke over there during your brainstorming sessions?
The only colors one needs on a ThinkPad are the red Trackpoint cap and preferably also the red and blue stripes on the mouse buttons. Every thing else is pretty fine as it is and always was.
The day ThinkPads get overall schicki-micki colored will definitely herald the end of that traditional classic brand for me. So to say will be then a clear indication, that it seems to be time to look elsewhere after a decent business notebook!
January 19th, 2009 8:58 pm
Look, I agree that the ultimate goal for the thinkpad should be functionality. I’m not saying it needs to go by the wayside, or that the form factor of the thinkpad should change. But, I would say that a color option AFTER the purchase is made would not make me think anything less of the brand. As a budding industrial design student who uses a workhorse of a thinkpad as my computer for design I would welcome the option or at least a link to a place like the one mentioned that could color my laptop. I gotta say, that orange car paint is sick looking (in a good way!). Being able to express the strength of the thinkpad in its form, and express a bit of myself in the color would be very cool… even if it meant paying a bit more.
January 19th, 2009 10:02 pm
ThinkPads should be black…it’s part of the iconic appeal.
However, it would be great to push the black even more and make a really all-black stealth ThinkPad (no red or white or blue) and just play with matt/glossy surfaces with black-chrome trims.
January 19th, 2009 10:16 pm
it’s too bad the poll uses radio buttons instead of check boxes. i wanted to vote for #1 and #3.
instead of removing the black, how about improving it? why not give all thinkpads a soft-touch palmrest and LCD bezel instead of only a few models? thinkpads used to come with the trademark rubberized coating on every model. those days need to return.
if lenovo wants to spend money on color, put it into IPS/AFFS displays. let all the so-called “experts” on notebook design gasp at the flat black visage and swallow their pride after seeing the gorgeous displays.
January 20th, 2009 1:00 am
I actually like the surveys/polls and the ability to make comments, it’s a nice way to get the opinions of thinkpad fans, and let us know that the lenovo team is listening.
P.S. – Keep it black… Stronger plastics and rubberized finish on all thinkpads would be nice
January 20th, 2009 4:03 am
I think customors shoudl be able to choose what ever color they want, as long as it is black….
I believe something similar was said about a car at some point.
Thinkpads are a buissness investment. If I put it up for apresentation they leave aseriuos impression, independently if they are 1 month or 10 years old.
Do you want to be seen with a notebook in last years color???
January 20th, 2009 4:35 am
I like the red and blue stripes, the grey F-keys, and the old IBM logo, that’s enough color for me
and I hope there will be a complete comeback of the first two things.
Though I have to say that I actually like that orange thing. I’ve seen the yellow and purple versions and thought “WTF”, but the orange one at least looks like some industry machine
But in the end, I would still prefer a black one. If I want some other looks, I’d mod it all by myself.
January 20th, 2009 5:57 am
Keep it black, no question.
That being said, if you could match the color and texture of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glock then I would be in love.
NOTE: I am not advocating violence, nor weapons, but it is difficult to explain what that particular color and texture is without pointing to the original reference. The only other product that I know of which had that color scheme was this Playstation 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/p.....401724641/
January 20th, 2009 8:28 am
Hum, well, why not. But try to not paint the next generations in flashy colours, orange, yellow, red…
Why not try one generation in silver ? It’s look like more “design”.
But keep black colours with the silver generation.
Thinkpad mean business, not bling bling apple consumers.
January 20th, 2009 8:56 am
Hi, as for this talk I guess I’ll support the “conservative” party here. In my eyes (Thinkpad fan/owner for quite a few years now) those machines are (visualy) remarkable not because they “go” with the fashion trends, but because they create one.
I don’t think anybody here would buy a laptop because it’s got a catchy look.
To speak for myself, after few weeks with T500, I’d MUCH prefer Thinkpads to revert to the way about 2-3 years ago. Two keywords: durability & the best hw you can get for the price (not speaking always about performance, but e.g. the T60 IPS screen and keyboard became AFAIK legendary).
I’m not saying T500 is a bad machine – currently at the market it probably doesn’t have much of a competition (maybe partly some from Dell). The point is that comparing between T60 and T500, the T500 wins only in the fields where other companies are to be rewarded the credit (Intel/ATI for boosting the performance and lowering the power consumption). As for other things, the result remains debatable (keyboard, screen, ports layout).
Please, PLEASE!!!! To quote from Pratchett: “Si non confectus, non reficiat” (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).
January 20th, 2009 9:59 am
What about offering certain surfaces of the ThinkPad in certain colors? Dell offers various models of its Latitude E-series notebooks in Regata Red and Royal Blue. My impression is the only component that has changed on those models is the top lid of the display housing, much like the Titanium Z61.
I personally appreciate the all black color of my ThinkPad, and the fact that there are no choices. I’d probably be stuck for weeks deciding between blue and red, even longer if green and orange were options as well.
Another good but difficult idea might be to offer snap-on shells for the lid and/or bottom of the ThinkPad, to add color, or give customers a space to put their own printed images, much like the Speck hard shells that are available for MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
January 20th, 2009 10:13 am
“ThinkPads should be black… it’s part of the iconic appeal.”
Yeah but I don’t buy thinkpads because of the iconic appeal. I buy them because they’re the best. No reason to rule out /options/. Ethan’s idea is good.
January 20th, 2009 12:16 pm
Matte (preferably rubberized) Black on the outside and subtle color on the inside.
You have already brought back the red stripes and blue enter key (at least on the x200 series), but I would like to see a return of the grey function keys as well.
Subtle accents on the ports are also acceptable (green/red on the headphone/mic, copper on the heatsink, blue on the VGA, etc.).
As has been said before, “Any color you like; As long as it’s black.” If other colors are offered, the cost should be entirely shouldered by the consumer that wants that color (e.g. a Colorware partnership at checkout for $100-$300).
The defining feature of a ThinkPad always has been, and should remain quality and function. Maintain the keyboard quality (T60 or x200 is ideal), improve the quality of the displays (the AFFS+ display on the x200 Tablet [mine] is fantastic, but the others leave much to be desired), and focus on superb overall build quality/reliability.
January 20th, 2009 12:23 pm
One other thought.
Cut down on the stickers!!
The overabundance of stickers (9 on my x200 Tablet) really mars the otherwise clean lines. I had to manually pry all these off with a pocket knife and rub out the adhesive with a moist cloth.
This would bring you into Apples league for clean designs (they are the only other manufacturer I know that doesn’t put on a dozen stickers). If the stickers must be kept (e.g. the COA tag, MACID, serial, etc), they should be relocated INSIDE the battery bay.
Even if this is a consumer pays $10 extra for a clean appearance, I would appreciate it.
January 20th, 2009 4:19 pm
Hehe.
Sometimes, I wonder about thinkpad users. while we profess to be above the crass superficialism of Mac users, we get hung up on the tiniest details – like red stripes on mouse buttons, I, B and M letters coming in different colors, or in this case, our beloved black chassis.
I personally don’t see colored thinkpads as catching on in the business environment, nor do I think the addition of color alone will entice fickle consumers easily drawn in by gimmicky gloss, chrome and imprints.
Deep inside, though I’d love to see the shocked look on staid users’ faces when a hot pink thinkpad is unrolled. We could call it… the Pinkpad (:P).
January 20th, 2009 6:57 pm
Colors are always a pain — they’re usually extremely fashion driven. One years colors often look extremely worn the next — it’s just so easy to get sick of any bright, eye catching color. I don’t mind deep charcoal, darker grays, deep olive drabs, deep black-browns, and various other deeper, muted colors, with maybe a few points of bright color as accent. But it’s nice that a four year old ThinkPad is just as “in style” as a new one. I would like to see more (muted) colors on the keyboard — the current essentially all black keyboards except for the Enter key, like on the T400, is taking it just too darn far.
I’m with the others on concentrating on construction and solidity and durability should be far more important than any bother over colors. Deep, tough, grippy rubberized coatings; solid, strong, tough plastics; solid, stiff chassis and display covers; …. Let others mess about with cheap slivered plastics that look like crap in a few months, and colors that everyone is sick of in 6 months.
January 20th, 2009 7:36 pm
Instead of thinking about trivial subjective stuff like color, please focus on your strengths of good design/usability. Fund your designers to do whatever it takes to make the experience of actually using the product better, stretch them, usability is 99% of what makes the thinkpad. Refine what’s there and reinvent the bits that matter. If you have more attention to divert, look at software since that’s another increasingly important area.
The titanium experiment was sufficient warning in itself, I’d be willing to bet if you came out with color options on the ThinkPad, it’ll thoroughly mark the death of the brand and what it stands for.
January 21st, 2009 12:45 am
I also hate stickers, whenever I got a new ThinkPad, I get rid of those. My question is, are those stickers required by Microsoft or Intel? For example, a MS logo, or a Intel Logo, I hate them.
January 21st, 2009 2:46 am
#1: thy thinkpad is black.
remember MIB? they wear black. they maybe wear pink underwear, no sweat here – that’s maybe the yellow sticker on the inner end of the battery. and they come with palmsized nuke-the-city-to-pieces devices.
imagine them wearing stuff like austin powers. and now go wash your brain with soap.
thinkpads are so cool, because most of the design is based on shape and function, and not on flashing gadgets and high gloss colour-of-fall-2009-driven eye candy (the european ministry of health advises: eye candy can lead to eye cancer).
#2: thou shalt be happy when thou spotteth thy thinkpad.
remember Pulp Fiction? there’s this mafia boss, with his black leather case. he opens it, something golden is gleaming inside. “are we happy?” – “yes, we are”. i tell you a secret. this was NOT a case with gold or anything inside. the whole case stands for a THINKPAD, and when he opens it, the thinklight is giving that healthy glow, and we are happy.
please, please, also for your own sake. don’t open that can of worms colours are. you will be spending days discussing about what tint the ‘new lemon’ this year will be. and you will lose your fans for turning the bricks into cheap-looking plastic dolls.
#3: thou (mr. hill) shalt spend ye tyme on something useful (useful as in “thinkpad”, not as in “this colour blinds ork attackers”).
January 21st, 2009 3:56 am
LOL @low!
“eye candy can lead to eye cancer”
this is one of the best phrases i’ve ever read, and it’s so true. i will keep that in my mind, as from time to time there comes along a moment where i’d need that
January 21st, 2009 6:01 am
definetely someone loves and someone hates.
Color is the trend. Color is appealing to consumer and even part of business guys.
why not give multipul options to customers!?
Black for those stick to TP tradation (might be majority) and color for the young gerneration, fashion follower.
No option of color is guilty.
January 21st, 2009 9:43 am
yeah, why not? as long as it’s black… and make that rubberized mate black.
black will always be the new black. I have a 570E that still looks great after almost 10 years and I’m pretty sure it will still look great 10 years from now.
January 21st, 2009 1:00 pm
I voted for the (1) option. However, now I have some conservative second thoughts. In some regards I think that ThinkPad can be compared to piano – both are conservative in terms of looks at least. And as everybody knows pianos mainly come in two colors – balck and white. Then what do you think about piano white ThinkPad with rubberized lid and red stripes on the mouse buttons?
January 21st, 2009 9:31 pm
I don’t think a bit of visual savoire faire would be a bad thing, and would be pleased to have the bright orange TP. Hopefully the plinth would remain black to be less intrusive for the user.
I’d say it’s no different than wearing a flashy tie.
An object doesn’t have to be pure black to be visually appealing or stylish.
Art
January 21st, 2009 9:41 pm
@Eudoxus I think rubberized white would be a dirt-magnet.
January 21st, 2009 10:57 pm
Instead of offering colors, ThinkPads should be coming with different variations of black. Perhaps make a ThinkPad that comes in jet black. Also make a ThinkPad with all matte black rubber. Then you could offer a special ThinkPad that comes in anodized black aluminum (although this comes at the risk of corrosion compared to plastic).
Black is good. Maybe just create different ways to apply that classic black to modern ThinkPads. Just do not go glossy.
January 21st, 2009 11:44 pm
Am I really reading this right? You are having a *poll* to see if thinkpad users would want them in colors other than black? WHY?
Glad to see that the poll is much in favor of black … brrrr, can’t imagine thinkpads in any other color.
January 21st, 2009 11:48 pm
You’re kidding, right? Or I’m in a middle of a nightmare and someone is about to wake me up any second…
Please leave air-brush customizing to people with a lot of time on their hands and “vivid” colours to competition…ThinkPad is black and nothing but black although there have been different versions of black over the past 15 years…let’s keep it that way, pretty please…
And I honestly wouldn’t want your next poll to be something in the respect of “anyone still uses a trackpoint here or shall we exclude it from the next generation of ThinkPads”…
January 22nd, 2009 12:36 am
I find myself agreeing with Ethan in post #6 who suggested outsourcing color options for a price to those that want it.
I also agree with Erik in post #14. Erik said: “if lenovo wants to spend money on color, put it into IPS/AFFS displays. let all the so-called “experts” on notebook design gasp at the flat black visage and swallow their pride after seeing the gorgeous displays.” Yes indeed!
Finally, I feel that more importance should be placed on shape rather than considering offering other colors. I was pleased to see the X300 in person recently. Finally a newer ThinkPad that has a decently shaped LCD bezel! ;>)
January 22nd, 2009 1:37 am
@ajkula66: so true. these polls are getting scary.
January 22nd, 2009 2:29 am
Let me preface this by saying if what I’m about to suggest were only possible by opening the door wide open for all “flavors”, then it shouldn’t even be considered…
However, as a lover of the ThinkPad design, I would accept an inversely colored model as a one-off limited “reserve” type edition. That is, a red rubberized chassis model with black highlights and trackpoint.
THAT’S ALL.
Keep your fruit in the fridge….except for cherry, I guess.
January 22nd, 2009 8:13 am
Polls…
Well, I do wonder what happened to the real David Hill? That “I’d never wear a silver business suit” is what I expect to hear from you. This seems a little weird…
My ThinkPad is rubberized black. That’s the way it should be – but please put it on the back of it too, so that I can really get a good grip of it. I don’t want to drop it!
Still, there might be something good to this. “I’d never wear a black Hawaiian shirt” I think someone responded with.
IF there was such a thing as coloured ThinkPad that might actually lure me into having two ThinkPads – one for business and one for fun. The last with colour, of course.
And I can imagine myself using a dark matte green ThinkPad for work. If it has a good grip and feel to it. And a keyboard with the very same colour.
In addition to this, I’m also very appealed by no colour at all – raw material. May that be any kind of metal, carbon fiber or something else. Just the whole point of showing what it is.
Should perhaps be mentioned here that I belong to the newer generation, I’m eighteen. But according to my friends there’s something wrong with that number – some of them consider me an “oldie”.
January 22nd, 2009 8:43 am
Forgot one thing. I would love to have my name on my computer. So that everyone can see this computer is mine.
And I hate those stickers, me too.
Maybe it’s cool that the ThinkPad still looks great after ten years or so. But wait a minute… most of us seem to agree it’s the inside that counts. And I wouldn’t even be able to use a computer that’s ten years old, since software is getting heavier and heavier on the system everyday. And I have to use 3D-CAD applications of recent date…
January 22nd, 2009 10:42 am
Having considered the options carefully I still prefer the colour to be black. The main reason is that other colours show dirty fingermarks too easily.
January 22nd, 2009 11:34 am
Provide choice of colors.
To each their own!
January 22nd, 2009 1:25 pm
Yes, I would like my thinkpad carved out of a single piece of translucent onyx please.
That would speak properly about the business I conduct.
January 23rd, 2009 3:28 am
O8h7w’s idea is pretty sweet. Raw materials. Of course I am imagining something like what the interior magnesium reinforcement looks like, and that’s not what the exterior is made of so maybe I’d be disappointed. It’s a very original idea though. It takes the ThinkPad aesthetic to an extreme – I’d love to see it.
January 23rd, 2009 6:58 am
Heh, I like Klaus’s comment about the stripes and grey function keys. I actually pulled all the grey keys off my X40’s spare keyboard and put them on my X61s. I was going to do the same to the audio/access IBM/power bank, but the design is different.
My 2c
Keep the top as plain as possible. The X200 has a line a centimeter from the top of the lid and the extra Lenovo logo are a real killer. There is plenty of space on the ThinkPad *-series Sticker to replace the series line with the Lenovo name. Also, theres a few panels around the sides for antennas and stuff. I don’t know how easy it is to remove them, but please try. The sticker right above the X60’s display ribbon is pointless and compromises the display’s integrity (Worst place to accidentally stab the top of the display with a pen–you’d lose your screen’s input)
Also, as mentioned, do try to clean up the bottom of the machine. I understand that some things can’t be moved (screws, feet, air intake, ultrabase port) but the “This product contains a lithium battery” and “Registered trademark” can fit nicely either under the battery, or inside the customer access panel. Speaking of which, the paint on mine has been steadily coming off, the dull black coat that matches the case has mostly come off, and the flat black has come off in places showing the aluminum under it…this is very ugly, and shouldn’t be too hard to fix (same material as case?)
Also, do try to simplify the design. There are little ledges where the palm rest meets the bottom shell on my X60 that attract debris like no other, as well as a few other nooks and crannies that are difficult to clean.
I’d also like to see less plastic and more of the material the outside case is made of. The tones look a lot nicer than the plastic, and it seems more durable (noting the broken palmrest at the PCMCIA slot and the fan on my computer). Bring back the grey function keys, they were trademark ThinkPad style, and the keyboard looks different without them. Another thing I’ve found out the hard way…the palm rest is NOT waterproof on the X61s. There is a millimeter between the keyboard tray and the palm rest itself, so if liquid lands on the curved part of the palm rest, it ends up on your system board.
And, if possible: interchangeable parts. I often pull spare keys, RAM, and cards out of my older computers to save money, and it would be nice to be able to change out more parts. I don’t see the reason for the lack of compatibility in same size cases, keyboards, LCDs, batteries, etc between models. As they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Perhaps offer upgrades on the site? It would be nice if I bought a computer, and at a later date could afford say an IPS display or a higher quality case and was able to buy one off the site (I’d be able to keep my X61s in service and not have to get a widescreen if I could get a later gen board). But laptop modularity is for a different rant.
tl;dr: Ranting about what I would like to see in a ThinkPad, problems I’ve had, etc. I’d include what I like, but that would quadruple the post length.
January 23rd, 2009 9:09 am
chassis Color not that important IMHO
way important is …
a) e-SATA support across T and W lines (and not just in the dock as in the W700 series)
b) quad-core support in 15.4 sizes (there ’s no alternative right now to the QX9300 in the M4400 and 8530w from Dell and HP on that regard), and believe me some people REALLY have uses for that kind of power in small footprints, and would pay for it.
c) some really decent LCDs… non TN, or at least with the RGB LED thing (which alleviate things a bit)
d) better built-in speakers… It may be a business work-horse, but having better speakers won’t hurt.
January 23rd, 2009 10:26 pm
Cute, looks like a lambo in this color.
They clearly should come only in black, but it ok if they could come in colors upon request, making a custom thinpad a real exclusive thing.
January 24th, 2009 6:31 pm
Thanks @ Ethan for that lines – how nice to see someone like my opinion.
And I have to agree with those who say that there is other things than color to argue about. We’ve always been lucky with black, right? Still, a carbon ThinkPad would be the coolest thing ever…
Colors of the screen for example. W700 comes with an in-built calibration tool, thats great. But I still think there’s a lot to be improved upon regarding to the display itself.
And the stickers and the e-SATA… but the speakers? Skip those. I just don’t understand how such bright engineers even can imagine putting sound in laptop. It just aint possible to do it good. And something that aint good should be improved or skipped in such a high-end product. No damn compromises!
January 26th, 2009 10:24 am
Instead of changing the color, you better change the material. Use aluminum, unibody if necessary, anodize it with black. This will refresh thinkpad look and improve the strength, which are all we need. And one more thing: please stop putting stickers beneath.
January 27th, 2009 1:58 pm
How about – colour inside, black outside?
January 27th, 2009 7:26 pm
QED has a pretty good idea; I would pay for variable black finishes on my thinkpad.
January 27th, 2009 8:49 pm
Matt black, don’t change it. I love the thinkpad look.
I am an arrogant elitist thinkpad user. I am better than anything else out there. And I can run several os’: Leopard to make fun of Mac users, Linux to be able to pretend I am core and WinXP because it works very well with my beloved blue button.
Well if I could afford Panasonic Toughbooks I might be tempted to give a few of them a change.
But please don’t do colours. Out there: first ‘Breitling’ then ‘IWC’ and now maybe my beloved Thinkpad might go and do ‘colours’ I look down on these consumers.
So please, continue on the black course
January 28th, 2009 5:07 am
Black. Doesn’t show the dirt.
tOM
January 30th, 2009 1:22 pm
I want to post an excerpt from the book “ThinkPad: a different shade of blue”.
page 245:
The team never lost its focus on the product features recognized in that market, as evidenced in this quote from Business Week’s Steve Wildstrom, a member of the 1998 Industry Advisory Coucil: “ThinkPads are very good machines. They probably have the strongest brand identification in the industry through their industrial design. From the brand point of view, this was very important. When you see a black machin with red buttons, customers know it’s a ThinkPad, and that’s a very powerful message.”
#6, Ethan, has the best alternative to black: a partnership with a company with a specialty in colour.
#42 O8h7w, raw materials, a naked ThinkPad, sounds great, too. It reminds me of Cannonball trumpets. I can’t say anything about their quality, but they are the best looking brass instruments I have seen. They make some trumpets with no finish, they call it “Mad Meg”, and it looks great. http://www.cannonballmusic.com/finishfindertpt.php
And #29, low, I will definitely remember your line “eye candy can lead to eye cancer”.
January 31st, 2009 2:55 am
it’s time to bring a disruptive innovation to ThinkPad, David. it’s the time to change, it will be a honorable try even if it fails, but it will give you a historical position, better than keep conservative in the name of ‘keeping classical’ which is in fact ‘timid’.
it’s time to change, it’s your time.
February 2nd, 2009 3:21 pm
There are at least a thousand variations of Black — I don’t understand why other colors should even be considered.
A black anodized brushed aluminum case with matching LED-lit black metal keyboard (of legendary Thinkpad quality) sounds decent and cutting edge. I’d buy that. Don’t ever lose the trackpoint though.
February 5th, 2009 2:54 pm
i think its a great idea just look at the Original Stat Trek TV show they all wore shirts that helped define their rank
command and helm personnel wear gold shirts, engineering and security personnel wear red, and science and medical personnel wear blue
just remember both Star Trek & Thinkpads are timeless classics
but the only color for the “thinkpad” SL…. is RED as in the ones that are expendable, and quite often killed off, sometimes in great numbers. like the RED shirt security officers in Star Trek
February 8th, 2009 3:27 am
My main complaint with regards to the visual features of the Thinkpads is not their color, but rather the dated look of the buttons and LEDs; the small touches on the overall pleasant monolithic design.
The buttons (power button, volume controls, AccessIBM/Thinkvantage) have too much travel and are too far recessed. Also the text is not marked on the buttons, but to the side, which makes them look a bit cheap. The yellow-green LEDs can be livened up with bluish green LEDs that glow a bit (such as by making the mask for the LEDs have some sort of transmission gradient, instead of being a sharp aperture; or by using a translucent plastic and hiding the LEDs behind it). The sleep LED can pulse when the computer is asleep, much like the red dot on the SL series.
Also there is not enough texture variation in the designs. Recent thinkpads have a slanted dash design on the lid; perhaps that can be carried further to the button panel. Or the speakers can be moved to above the keyboard and have a mesh pattern extend the entire top half of the machine. I do miss the sparkly flakes on the T4x series lids also.
February 9th, 2009 3:01 am
it’ll be better if thinkpad have a custom material (glossy, doff etc) rather than color option, thinkpad=black, hehe..
February 16th, 2009 1:52 pm
Thinkpads are, and always will be, known for their black, boxy design. That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of business would shell out a little extra to customize their company’s laptops with the company logo on the lid or the company color.
I do like the idea of experimenting with materials. I’m not a big fan of my T60’s palmrests compared to the rubberized X300’s.
February 18th, 2009 9:48 am
NO!!!! Don’t give in to silly consumer trends. Keep them the classic, classy devices they are. Black with red and blue accents. Please!
Tony
February 18th, 2009 9:48 am
Who are you and where is David Hill!?
Tony
February 19th, 2009 3:39 pm
[...] Hill over at the Lenovo Design Matters blog was thinking about this and recently posted a poll. He showed a picture of a colored ThinkPad (see below) care of ColorWare, a company which [...]
March 8th, 2009 12:11 pm
A burden of one’s choice is not felt
March 10th, 2009 5:07 am
I think the white version on the ColorWare website looks like it’s coming right out of Star Wars !
March 19th, 2009 11:29 pm
I just wanted to say that I love this site
August 25th, 2009 4:51 am
My personal opinion is that all ThinkPads are business laptops and as such you cannot make them too strange. Especially not that ghastly colour in the picture.
But I think this shouldn’t be the end of the discussion. On the contrary, business laptops don’t need to be drab and stark all the time. I mean look at what HP has been doing with their lines and swirls and so on.
I wouldn’t change the general look of the ThinkPad, or the font of the keys, (maybe I would change that useless nipple-trackthingie) but the case just looks… old. I mean think of it as a car, and now think that it just has that old feel to it.
An executive anything should be stark, dark, with powerful lines, but not to the point of keeping it in the past. Think of the BMW and how that has changed. Sure I love the old 1980s models, and even the 1990s, but they needed to change. Imo the newer ones are crap as far as design goes, but just because they’re targeted at someone else now.
A business laptop needs to say “I am the boss” but that can only happen when the big, expensive model has an impressive something. It mustn’t exaggerate too much with it or it’ll become tacky, but just a simple badge, a dark carbon texture, soft textiles in a place where you want them (suede laptop skins are awesome
), simple lines (look at the dell adamo) and just screaming executive by its conservativeness.
And this needn’t come at a huge price increase. Most materials are cheap (like suede) and applying them is nothing more than a little high quality glue and a way to wrap them to the inside.
So no to colours, yes to patterns, especially tactile ones.
September 21st, 2009 2:34 am
For those who want it in black, let them have black, but for those who like to break out of the mold a bit, let them have their freedom of expression. I wouldn’t mind trying something beyond the typical black.
I’d like to find either a snap-on case for my TPs or something leathery like the Reserve Edition has. In fact, if I had a bit more know-how, I’d have done this myself already.
Sure Thinkpads are for business, but don’t forget that not all businesses are the same. There is a WIDE variety of businesses.
Bottom line: if it puts more Thinkpads in the hands of users without sacrificing the qualities we’ve come to expect from Thinkpads, do it.
September 21st, 2009 10:29 am
While the use of silver paints may look good for the first 3 months, but when it wears out like most do, then they look really tiresome and simply crap.
November 18th, 2009 12:19 pm
And this needn’t come at a huge price increase. Most materials are cheap (like suede) and applying them is nothing more than a little high quality glue and a way to wrap them to the inside.
November 18th, 2009 12:51 pm
Have been waiting for this kinda stuff for years
December 7th, 2009 2:22 am
Black ThinkPads Forever!
Whether or not they’re colored, eh… Although I do hear good things about the titanium bits on some of the past ThinkPad models, I’d rather have the all-black.
On the other hand, how about you guys offer the ability to repaint our lid with the original rubbery paint? The paint is coming off on certain places.