CES Wrap Up
An internal assignment to consider the implications of competitor CES announcements with respect to Lenovo’s future strategy got me thinking about the implications of CES 2010. As a result, you get an unasked for bonus post.
I was really impressed with the maturity and collaboration that went into our three star products of CES 2010. Though LePhone, IdeaPad U1, and Skylight all appear to be separate products, they really are not since they all feature variants of our Skylight interface. I answered many questions about the software platforms each runs on. The LePhone runs Android. Skylight runs a Linux variant (Blue Thunder I think), and the U1 is Linux/Windows hybrid. But the underpinnings are just an ingredient that delivers our user experience. As such, we could mix and match the infrastructure and I doubt anyone would know the difference. In other words, this is a major step to making the operating system irrelevant, though I am not willing to turn my computing life over to the cloud and run everything browser based just yet.
Speaking of the U1, we have the best implementation of a slate tablet EVER. It is inevitable that we will be compared to the Apple Tablet when it announces, but from a hardware standpoint, I’m not sure how Apple can beat 1.5 lbs. and 8 hours of 3G browsing. When they do announce, ignore any technology journalist that spends more than 25% of his/her column on the Apple hardware. Instead, you are going to want to read their analysis of the integration of digital content into this device and how it fits into Apple’s strategy. I’m more interested in reading about how Apple will partner with Rupert Murdoch to get people to pay for content and how the rest of the industry can capitalize on this. You will want to know how paying for previously free content will rock your world. Or perhaps instead you will want to read about how their new partnership with Netflix which will allow iTunes users to get fresh movie releases ahead of their new 24 day waiting period. Or perhaps how Apple expects its own proprietary eBook format to triumph over all others.
3D was big this year. You will soon be able to buy 3D out the yin yang on a variety of devices. Indeed, Panasonic won the coveted Best in Show for their VT25 3D television. We participated in the fun and were showing off a prototype 3D display on our IdeaPad Y460. I was glad to see that we are working 3D technology, but I think it is kind of gimmicky at this point. I don’t really want to wear glasses to watch TV, and I can only imagine the nightmare that a 3D Excel spreadsheet with X, Y, and Z column addresses would be. But given time, there may be some breakthrough killer app.
RCA has come up with a home run with their Airnergy Wi-Fi power system. It takes Wi-Fi signals streaming through the air and converts them into usable electricity to charge your batteries. I don’t expect to throw away my power adapter, but imagine if you could completely negate the power draw of your wireless radios to improve battery life by 30 minutes or more. Plus, your system would constantly be on trickle charge when it was sitting in your bag. This is yet another game changer that needs to be incorporated into every notebook battery pack NOW.
So how does Lenovo win Best in Show for 2011? If I was the one making decisions about priorities within Lenovo, here are some things I would do. (By the way, don’t read anything into any of the following. These are daydreams of Matt Kohut going “if I were in charge…”that neither reflect our current strategy nor our product plans.
The business world is going to howl in protest, but one thing that is very clear to me from CES 2010 is that consumers are going to drive the business world to change and adopt new changes in technology faster. As such, the business world insists on a lot of technology that is holding the PC industry back:
- I am talking about you, serial port. I know that you are used to connect to routers, airline ticket printers, industrial machinery, and lab test equipment all over the world. You are embedded so deeply that we’ll still use you 20 years from now. But you’re slow. You require stupid direct access to the underlying hardware. You prevent things like hot undocking and cause operating systems to crash. The sooner PC vendors say “we’re not going to include you any more” is when we finally get to a new level of stability.
- VGA ports – You’re also embedded deep, but you’re so 1980s. The world is going to high bandwidth HDMI (more below).
- Slide in Smart Card readers – Why would I want to use one of these when I can use a contact-less proximity Smart Card? These slots take up valuable room and cause me heartburn every time a customer brings the topic up for discussion.
- ExpressCard – it is time for you to die too. You had your chance, but the only thing really left to use you are some high speed memory card readers. External 3G WAN cards are mostly USB based these days. USB 3.0 has all of the bandwidth we need. Why should we waste valuable space in our notebooks for a slot that 95% of our customers never use?
Second, I would add a touch screen to our IdeaCentre A300 all-in-one.
Third, I would immediately give up on DisplayPort in favor of HDMI across the entire Lenovo lineup. I know that DisplayPort v1.2 was announced with features like daisy chaining and more USB back channel bandwidth, but in my personal opinion, if people are going to connect all of these digital devices, HDMI or Intel WiDi connecting via HDMI is the way to go. While walking around, I saw projectors, TVs, cameras and more all using HDMI. One large hotel customer of ours has HDMI ports in their rooms. If the world is going to HDMI, we should enable all of our products to connect via this interface.
Fourth, I’m done fretting over 4:3 vs. 16:10 vs. 16:9 displays. The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it. I’d accelerate changing all products to 16:9 and focus on those display technologies that can improve the quality of the display like OLED. I had one gentleman from the OLED consortium try and tell me that he expected all netbooks to have OLED in 2 years. I think he is smoking something funny, but we’ll see a LOT more OLED based products in 2011. OLED should improve the quality of displays for everyone and then we can just forget about TN vs. PVA vs. IPS LCD discussion.
Fifth, I did not write about our IdeaPad S10-3t, but the more I think about it, I probably should have. For the tablet PC world, this is a game changer. Dual swivel display. Active Protection System. Super bright 2 finger capacitive touch display. 160GB HDD. $499. That is a lot of computer for the price.
I would create a product that is a hybrid of the ThinkPad X100e and the IdeaPad S10-3t specifically for the education market. I would call it the IdeaStation and use it to steamroll over every competitor in the classroom. It would have the computing power and build quality of the X100e but feature the bright display and touch screen capabilities of the S10-3t. To enable stylus writing capability, I would change the display touch technology to resistive. Add color choices, price it at $599, and we would not be able to keep it in stock.
![s10-3t[1]](http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/files/2010/01/s103t1.jpg "s10-3t[1]")
ThinkPad X100e.
![X100e_colors-nowhite[1]](http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/files/2010/01/X100e_colorsnowhite11.jpg "X100e_colors-nowhite[1]")
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 9th, 2010 8:04 pm
“The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it.”
It’s not the world but greedy hardware manufacturers. Now they can charge more for less screen real estate.
I hope some day someone will see there is quite big demand for 4:3 screens and… no competition. As a Thinkpad fanboy I hope it will be Lenovo.
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January 9th, 2010 8:45 pm
Dear Matt Kohut,
Wonderful ideas and dreams!
Thanks,
Antonio
January 9th, 2010 9:37 pm
Serial is an important legacy connector, but let’s set that aside for now.
ExpressCard is important because of it’s backing on to the PCIe bus — nothing else gives us connectivity and expansion at that level — having space for an actual card in the chassis is useless, but perhaps there needs to be some innovation and have a PCIe/ExpressCard port rather than an entire slot.
January 9th, 2010 9:51 pm
Serial is pretty trivial to deal with via a USB-serial adapter for those who really need a serial port. For that matter, if you put one in a dock, just use USB!
DisplayPort really is a very nice standard, but there seem to be very few monitors that support it, which means it doesn’t matter. I would agree, unfortuntaely, that HDMI is indeed the way to go.
But until HDMI vs DP is 100% panned out and quite a few replacement cycles happen, there is truly no replacement for analog VGA. It works everywhere with everything, including in strange presentation venues and such.
In terms of 16:9 – yeah, we know, it’s happening. For the larger laptops, it’s not necessarily that big of a deal, but for sub-14″ machines it’s going to be really painful. If I had to replace my 12″ X61s with a 16:9 machine, I’d probably go with something in the 13-14″ range to not lose physical vertical space.
A 12″ 4:3 display is just over 7.2 inches high. 7.2 inches is already really marginal, even compared to a piece of standard office paper in a landscape orientation. To get the same physical height at 16:9, you would have to go to almost a 15″ screen (realistically, probably 14″). This makes an entire class of laptop (the generally higher dollar, higher margin, higher-up-the-food-chain user) far less usable.
January 9th, 2010 11:51 pm
If the display manufacturers continue to be more stingy, we will soon have 16:6 displays. Then it is time for Lenovo to offer two stacked display panels in one Thinkpad. Finally we are back to 4:3 (with a plastic bar crossing the operating system desktop)!
January 10th, 2010 12:27 am
>But until HDMI vs DP is 100% panned out and quite a few replacement cycles happen, there is truly no replacement for analog VGA.
I second this.
If HDMI seems ubiquitous, then just consider how much _more_ ubiquitous VGA is. The mass of devices that only support VGA and that are currently being used probably crushes the number of devices that support HDMI like a pea under a pile of matresses (to allude to the fairytale).
We have yet to see which standard wins out.
January 10th, 2010 2:02 am
VGA persists because as Zian says, it’s ubiquitous in other devices such as digital projectors. I’ve never used my S10’s ExpressCard slot but would want a TV-tuner card for that.
You didn’t mention the S10-3t in detail at all, but it does dovetail with your wish for collaboration between the Think and Idea teams. With two ThinkPads sporting SimpleTap, and now an IdeaPad sporting a touch interface (SimpleTap or VeriTouch?), isn’t this a case of innovation in one team catching on with the other?
Of all your wishes, that last one is what I’d want above all others.
January 10th, 2010 2:09 am
I really hope that DisplayPort gets enough backing from the industry. It has a number of advantages over HDMI (the scalable auxiliary channel in particular). I also have a _strong_ dislike of paying royalties for standards.
January 10th, 2010 2:54 am
“The business world is going to howl in protest, but one thing that is very clear to me from CES 2010 is that consumers are going to drive the business world to change and adopt new changes in technology faster.”
While this sentiment may have some element of truth, it does create some problems for the ThinkPad product line. Some of the consumer-driven changes (for example, dropping VGA in favor of HDMI, shift to 16:9 monitors, and eliminating docking stations) do seriously affect the value of a notebook in a business environment.
If the future of business notebooks is to converge to consumer technology, how do you design and market future ThinkPads? In your personal opinion, are business notebooks such as ThinkPads a lost cause, a dying breed?
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January 10th, 2010 6:53 am
Hello Matt!
I was expecting a major change in line for ThinkCentre. Say, a step up from Core 2 to i3/i5/i7 for ThinkCentre. But… anyway, major PC vendors are all focusing on the notebook/ netbook battlefield and completely forgot the needs for Desktop changeover.
“your system would constantly be on trickle charge when it was sitting in your bag”. Oh, God! Hope it won’t explode. (There’re countable battery explosion cases upon use and charge.) LOL, just kidding!
Nice job Skylight is as a consumer product!!! By the way, the airnergy wifi system + skylight slate would be absolutely useful! Ha!
January 10th, 2010 10:44 am
Good reason to continue to require ExpressCard slot: Intel delays USB3 support affecting most of Lenovo’s new models
Got to have a place to stick the annoying adapter for the next 3+ years…
January 10th, 2010 10:55 am
So why exactly are you able to offer outdour visible, multitouch IPS panels only on the X200? Why do I have to settle for TN on a $3000 W510? Please Lenovo, listen to your customers.
January 10th, 2010 1:43 pm
“Fourth, I would immediately give up on DisplayPort in favor of HDMI across the entire Lenovo lineup. I know that DisplayPort v1.2 was announced with features like daisy chaining and more USB back channel bandwidth, but in my personal opinion, if people are going to connect all of these digital devices, HDMI or Intel WiDi connecting via HDMI is the way to go. While walking around, I saw projectors, TVs, cameras and more all using HDMI. One large hotel customer of ours has HDMI ports in their rooms. If the world is going to HDMI, we should enable all of our products to connect via this interface.”
Got to agree on this one. I have NEVER seen a monitor, projector, TV, etc. with DisplayPort in the wild. However, I run across HDMI displays all the time. Couple this with the fact that Lenovo’s DisplayPort (at least on the Montevina lineup) doesn’t transmit audio makes HDMI much more attractive. However, I think VGA still has to stick around for a while. Whenever I have given a presentation VGA is always an option (and a cable is provided); I rarely if ever see DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort. Until this changes, VGA will be required on ThinkPads.
“Fifth, I’m done fretting over 4:3 vs. 16:10 vs. 16:9 displays. The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it. I’d accelerate changing all products to 16:9 and focus on those display technologies that can improve the quality of the display like OLED. I had one gentleman from the OLED consortium try and tell me that he expected all netbooks to have OLED in 2 years. I think he is smoking something funny, but we’ll see a LOT more OLED based products in 2011. OLED should improve the quality of displays for everyone and then we can just forget about TN vs. PVA vs. IPS LCD discussion.”
I do miss vertical resolution. However, I must agree that quality is the more important thing to focus on as the current TN panels are pretty poor. I’m still not 100% sold on OLED and I think the TN vs. PVA vs. IPS discussion will remain.
January 10th, 2010 1:59 pm
Weird. Companies are spending thousands $ to know what their customers wants. You hear it here over and over … and nothing happens.
Manufacturing a 4:3 non-TN display in 2010 year does not cost $2000 per unit nor need to build a space shuttle and travel to Mars nor need another two years of research. It would be just a bit more expensive that the utterly horrible crap called “display” for a $2.99 per unit you put into a $3000 notebook. Don’t you think we feel a bit cheated, after all ?
Please pay for a consultation in a major digital camera manufacturer and ask them how is possible they are still able to offer top-technology-and-price products for very small number of customers without going bankrupt and/or blame this and that in the “we don’t have XY component” way.
January 10th, 2010 2:03 pm
“Fifth, I’m done fretting over 4:3 vs. 16:10 vs. 16:9 displays. The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it.”
Apparently I will have to get back to doing my work on pencil and paper. Laptops have become useless: to get a screen you can actually do anything on, you need a very big and bulky machine.
And, no, not all of us have desktop screens readily available to connect the machine to, on extended multi-month travels, etc. The laptop has to suffice, and be easy to travel with. That means 14″ or 15″ 4:3. (15″ 16:10 is already shorter than 14″ 4:3, and current 15″ 16:10 machines are essentially bulkier than my 15″ 4:3 T43. 16:9 is going to be even worse.)
So the panel manufacturers suck. What are the laptop manufacturers going to do to work around this and provide usable systems one can actually do work on? Pivoting screens? (But 16:9 is awkwardly narrow, much taller than an A4 paper in portrait.) E-paper displays? Some innovation, people, instead of silently sucking the shit the panel manufacturers throw out you.
January 10th, 2010 5:25 pm
[...] Inside the Box » Blog Archive » CES Wrap Up [...]
January 10th, 2010 7:34 pm
Unfortunately nothing impressed me from Lenovo new offerings the T410s is the only good ThinkPad and the removal of Rollcage is truly disappointing.
January 10th, 2010 11:01 pm
I can’t agree more!
I was also day dreaming next version of X-series the other day.
Without express card reader, VGA port and make up some room for DVD-ROM in this small machine.
January 10th, 2010 11:46 pm
Looking forward to next version of X-series. VGA port should go away.
January 11th, 2010 1:46 am
Matt hit the point exactly with how business PC requirements are holding back the industry. At work, we have some ancient (5+ years) projectors that only have VGA input and have a hard time handling resolutions above 1024×768.
Until HDMI or some other connector becomes the norm in the industry, and until those projector relics are retired, VGA will stick around.
On a different note, I’ve gotten used to widescreen displays. I much rather have a 16:10 over a 16:9 due to the extra vertical pixels. This is especially true for smaller displays, since at some point, you can see the entire width of the screen and it makes no sense to artificially limit how much you can see vertically.
January 11th, 2010 2:06 am
Gee, Matt, aren’t there enough vendors chasing after the mo’ bling, mo’ bettah consumer laptop market? Do you really WANT to fight just to keep (not even expand) your slice of the most contested, cut-throat part of the market?
Why not, uh, innovate in _market segmentation_ by going after the enterprise and professional markets. I think you’ll achieve much longer lasting success that way. It sure beats such ‘innovations’ as screens we can’t use, cases that don’t hold up, and keyboards that cause data entry errors.
Come to think of it, there’s one vendor that is daring to be different right now–but its Apple and _not_ Lenovo. Wouldn’t you like to have Apple’s mind-share (and its increasing market share)? Am I going to have to replace my Thinkpad with a Macbook; just to get a decently made/supported machine? The horror! The shame!
January 11th, 2010 4:28 am
Another space-hungry archaic thing that should be ditched is the optical drive. I’d leave either the card reader or expresscard, though (for a card reader that can be left attached to the laptop, unlike USB ones). It only has to support the smallish SDHC, not the older/bulkier proprietary cards.
January 11th, 2010 5:40 pm
I too hate this push towards 16:9 aspect ratio screens, but I also recognize that it is not really the fault of the laptop and monitor manufacturers that this is happening… It is really the panel makers. Lenovo (and Dell, HP, Acer, etc…) are all hostage to this situation, as we are. Because the panel makers can squeeze a few more cents (or in this case, more likely yuan) out of cutting the mother glass into 16:9 ratios, versus 16:10 or 4:3, we are stuck with it. I wish the laptop makers could form some kind of alliance to fight this trend and make it be known to the panel makers that this change is not welcome and serves no purpose other than pissing off consumers.
January 11th, 2010 6:11 pm
Improve your website. Sell on your strong points and give us better pictures with multiple views and customers are more likely to buy.
Matt, I met you when you were in Saint Louis for the Win7 show at Creve Coure Theatre. I lost your e-mail address, please send me a personal message. I had questions about your monitor stands and accessories.
January 11th, 2010 8:47 pm
I agree with you Banned In Boston and i might be doing the same soon!
January 11th, 2010 9:01 pm
And now for a different tone, Laptop Magazine gave the IdeaPad U1 its Best Notebook award, and the Skylight the Best Smartbook award.
http://www.laptopmag.com/revie.....spx?pid=13
January 11th, 2010 10:56 pm
To people who think that business laptop manufactures (because those who don’t make business laptop don’t really care about the “loss of productivity”) can fight against screen manufacture, I just want to point out that, well, LCD screens on business laptops are only a tiny part (less than 1% I guess) of the total revenue of screen maker. So, seriously, do you really think that LG and Samsung care?
Displayport vs HDMI: I don’t care paying a dollar more for HDMI (which cost 0,04 per laptop to manufacture) because: (1) OMG 1$ on a 2000$ machine is such a big deal! (2) It’s a hassle to find a Displayport => DVI converter… (3) Once HDMI is implanted, bye bye VGA… Still, maybe USB 3.0 is the solution to everything (it’s fast enough for video)
On the other hand, I don’t understand why screen roll-cage is not on the T410 (even the R400 has it)…
January 12th, 2010 12:34 pm
“Fifth, I’m done fretting over 4:3 vs. 16:10 vs. 16:9 displays. The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it.”
I still think 4:3 is the way to go for laptops. Smaller screensize just do not get enough benefits from widescreen to justify the change. Whenever I see a small 16:9 laptop it’s like looking through a mailbox hole. Lenovo should at least support the 16:10 resolution and don’t let it die in two generations like they did with 4:3 (T43 4:3, T60 4:3 some 16:10, T61 16:10 some 4:3, T400 4:3 RIP)
OK, enough ranting. I do agree that legacy standards should be dropped as soon as possible. Standards like VGA and serial ports are just prehistoric today. As long as they are available there will be no incentive for companies to adopt newer standards. Off course a transition period is always needed but these standards are so over due, they are just hindering progress.
Maybe the organizations who establish these standards should also control the lifeline of it. So when a new standard is finalized the old ones may still be produced for five years after which only some niche products may still make use of it.
January 12th, 2010 2:16 pm
I find that approx. 4:3* is ideal in the 14″/15″ range — i.e. for “proper” laptops: small enough to be easy to carry with you, but big enough to suffice as your only computer/screen. For smaller displays, i.e. ultraportables, wider screen may make more sense to accommodate a good keyboard. Above 14″/15″… these are bulky portable desktop computers, not travel-ready laptops, so I don’t care much. At 17″ widescreen (16:10) in any case finally starts to have decent height. (In 16:9 you have to go for enermous 18″.)
–
Another thing that really annoys me is that most current thinkpad models could accommodate a much bigger screen, but space is wasted on massive bezels. This makes them much bulkier than older thinkpads with thin bezels: although with a considerably smaller screen, current 14″ models are not essentially smaller than a 15″ T43.
—
* This is the aspect ratio of US letter paper. sqrt(2):1 is slightly shorter in landscape mode, and the ratio of the ISO216 paper system (A4, etc.). This is ok too, still taller than 16:10.
January 12th, 2010 2:26 pm
As for producing panels of different ratios: Most compact cameras use 4:3 sensors (really). Yet DSLR cameras — which have a miniscule market share, I suspect comparable to business laptops — tend to have 3:2 aspect ratio sensors. How can makers of DSLRs manage that and stay in business, and makers of business laptops cannot?
January 12th, 2010 2:35 pm
@Sefk “So, seriously, do you really think that LG and Samsung care?”
It’s not about someone cares or not, but it’s all about money.
I know that classic 15in screen is more expensive than 15in widescreen. But as long as there are enough customers ready to pay premium there is profit to make. Both for Lenovo and for screen manufacturers.
Is there enough such customers?
Well, google for notebook sales forecast – almost 140 millions units sold in 2009, almost 160 millions expected in 2010. Not counting netbooks. This is huge market. Every niche (such as “classic ratio” notebook) is worth tens or hundreds of thousands of units.
January 12th, 2010 7:51 pm
“I know that classic 15in screen is more expensive than 15in widescreen. But as long as there are enough customers ready to pay premium there is profit to make. Both for Lenovo and for screen manufacturers.
Is there enough such customers?”
The trick here is:
People who actually need a laptop will buy it, even if they don’t have 4:3 screen, because that’s the only choice available.
It makes almost no difference from LCD manufactures in term of unit sold whether they makes 4:3 screens or not (they will only lose a very very small population who wont upgrade with 4:3 screens, say 0.01%).
On the other hand, it does make a difference in term of revenue per unit sold if they transition to 16:9 (say 2%).
Conclusion: transition to 16:9=optimization of revenue for LCD manufacture.
January 13th, 2010 4:33 am
The trick is: widescreen laptop-size displays being useless except as very short-term temporary ones, they want to sell you a second (desktop) display (plus a keyboard and a docking station, because laptops are cumbersome to use with an external display). This increases their profits. Maybe they also have holdings in airline companies, which charge you for that extra luggage.
January 13th, 2010 10:48 am
something very offtopic, sorry for that.
Matt, is there a way to operate both onboard as well as dedicated graphics on the T410s in parallel? That would be so cool! Finally there would be a possibility to operate the laptop screen additionally to two external monitors.
Another thing: i got an eSATA-drive lately and am desperately trying to connect it to my Mini Dock Plus, but it won’t. The combined port on the back of the machine works fine, but the docking station does not. Hardware failure? Or did you hear of this from elsewhere as well?
Second docking annoyance: An audio jack in the docking station does not mute the internal speakers, unlike an audio jack directly attached to the machine. Bug or feature?
hope to hear from you!
cheers and thanks in advance
Hecke
January 13th, 2010 8:30 pm
“Fifth, I’m done fretting over 4:3 vs. 16:10 vs. 16:9 displays. The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it.”
Huh? Technology is supposed to get BETTER, not worse. For my CEO, I recently managed to find a T60p on eBay with its BEAUTIFUL 4:3 FlexView display, and he views it as a huge upgrade to his T400s (which I returned because he hated the screen).
Resigning yourself to the idea that your new products are going to be worse than your old ones is a sure-fire way to go bankrupt. If Lenovo doesn’t make computers with good screens, somebody else will. As an IT manager, there is no way I can tell my users to to “get over” having the ability to view documents without tons of scrolling — I’m going to find computers that have the features they want, even if it means buying them used from eBay.
As for the other features, I agree completely except for the VGA connector, which is required for connecting to projectors.
January 14th, 2010 4:39 am
“Huh? Technology is supposed to get BETTER, not worse.”
That is what one would expect, or wish. Unfortunately, especially in computer technology, the trends tend to be the opposite. Shallow screens. Megabezels. Touchpads. Blurry fonts. Software that gets slower and heavier faster the processors become faster and memory bigger. Vanishing keyboard-usability. Hacky, clunky, unreliable, and unusable HTML-abuse webapps, instead of applications designed around proper user interface libraries. Apps dependent on unreliable internet connections and untrusted servers, instead of transparently doing synchronisation between your devices, when a connection is available. WYSIWYG. And so on.
January 14th, 2010 6:39 am
Matt, I think it;s time for a post on screens again.
I think 2 questions people just aren’t getting are:
i) How 16:9 screens will work with the ultralight X-series
ii) How much extra it would cost for Lenovo to source 4:3 screens (odd that 4:3 are still available in niche markets such as oscilloscope displays, medical equipment, etc)
Once this is explicitly answered I think a lot of comments would be unnecessary.
January 14th, 2010 10:59 pm
You know… I can live with widescreens. Not my favorite, but even 16:9 isn’t bad if you can get 1600×900 on the 14″ screens (like at least one competitor is doing for a 14″ 16:9 workstation class machine). I’m not all that attached to legacy ports, except for VGA which you really do need for projection. (I’m happy to say good riddance to serial, parallel, modem, PS/2, etc).
However, the SSD options currently offered by Lenovo are pitiful. There is no excuse for a custom build of a machine that uses standard 2.5″ drives to top out at 128GB (not even the Intel 160GB disks, which are somewhat readily available these days), nor the Samsung or similar 256GB disks many other OEMs are offering.
Right now, the only way to get a Thinkpad with a good storage configuration is to order the machine and then order the disk separately, like you used to have to do to get a reasonably priced RAM upgrade. (I remember when we’d order all of our servers from (other OEM) with minimum RAM, order everything from Crucial, save thousands per server).
This means the procedure is now:
- Order Thinkpad and disk
- Make restore DVDs
- Install the SSD
- Sell or give away the spinning disk, or put it in an enclosure
- Restore the restore DVD
- Begin the crapware removal process
- Start your warranty with a major non-Lenovo component, which will make any service issues just that much more complex
Or am I missing something?
January 15th, 2010 4:47 am
Simonm, yep, done so.
Only that i was able (after several months) to get a 256 SSD from Lenovo. Nevertheless, i had to do all the steps you mentioned. Despite crapware removal, i just shrunk the partition of crapware to a minimum and installed a proper OS;-)
But i (and the person in charge of ordering notebooks in our department also) definitely share your wonders about Lenovo not selling bigger SSDs readily installed.
And to confirm, no i can not live with 16:9. This makes an additional screen inevitable for me.
cheers
Hecke
January 15th, 2010 8:44 am
Hecke, I’m not saying I’m thrilled with 16:9, but when I’m at a desk (instead of roaming somewhere) I tend to use a 2nd (and possibly 3rd) monitor for screen real estate, separating jobs out, etc.
So while I’m not happy with 16:9, even 4:3 still needs a second head for me. (and I’m not saying I wouldn’t strongly prefer a 4:3 IPS FlexView panel, but it doesn’t seem to be in the cards from any manufacturer, though I have noticed that a certain ‘fruity’ company has managed to keep all of their laptops at 16:10)
The laptop as “standalone” does get quite a bit of use, but generally for less intensive work.
January 15th, 2010 10:49 am
“The laptop as “standalone” does get quite a bit of use, but generally for less intensive work.”
I see little point in buying an expensive Thinkpad, when — with a “staring through a letterbox” screen — one is of little use standalone. You need a bigger desktop display to go with it. But then you need a standalone keyboard too, because at least I find it awkward to use a laptop keyboard with an external screen. So, now, that you will only be using the laptop screen, keyboard and pointing device “on transport”, when nothing else is available, and using/acquiring a desktop display when you reach your destination, what’s the point of paying for a good keyboard and a good pointing device (trackpoint)? What’s the point of non-ultraportable laptops at all? What’s the value of a Thinkpad, other than durability? (But the way computer software get slower and slower, a computer doesn’t have much of a lifetime in any case.) Just get the cheapeast reasonably powerful and lightweight machine you can find, and buy an external UltraNav keyboard, and a desktop screen for every place you frequent. (This latter part is awkward for longer travels, living in prefurnished apartments, however not furnished with a computer display. This is why I prefer a 14″/15″ 4:3, as I need nothing else then. I would rather pay 200€ extra for a laptop with such a display, than for a separate desktop display.)
January 15th, 2010 6:28 pm
As Lenovo pursues profit through volume, it is becoming harder to distinguish Thinkpad from other vendors like Dell and HP. This is reflected in change in the keyboard as well as choice of LCD in terms of quality and size. At some point some manufacturer will come around to solidly engineered notebook and the value-addedness of Thinkpad will disappear. This will be unfortunate for present Thinkpad users and it is unavoidable. If Lenovo cannot keep the Thinkpad users happy in future products, we will have to go elsewhere.
January 16th, 2010 8:55 am
I’m still dreaming about a ThinkPocket…
As for serial, just drop it. USB adapters works just fine. And please put one in your docks. I’m just wondering if you can get rid of VGA with adapters as well…
As for screen size, I’m still on 4:3. In spite of that, I’m starting to lack vertical space… XGA is way too few pixels, both ways. I don’t know who wrote it, but if this development continues, we’ll end up with a bloody line instead of a display!
If all glass makers have completely turned to something else, how come EIZO still sells quite a few 4:3 displays?
On the related matter display technology, I sit and wonder why no one makes CRT TV’s anymore. Emitting light when they’re supposed to display black, LCD has never been something I’ve liked. I’ve recently seen a few RGB LED constructions, they work the right way. But they were no good TV’s, they seemed to have scaler problems or something like that. Let’s hope for OLED to sort things out in this area.
And yes, a tablet in the ThinkPad EDGE line should very attractive for students – but not for me. I’m hooked on T410s, but my back would like an X series…
I saved the biggest boo for the last lines. ExpressCard should not be thrown away! I don’t think everything can be solved using USB. As for example, professional audio – RME MADIface. That’s 64 channels of 24 bit 192 kHz audio – both in and out! Okay, USB can handle 500 MB/s, but not with <10 ms latency…
We need a better way to connect external hardware to our notebooks, such as sound solutions and graphic cards. Good luck!
January 16th, 2010 12:26 pm
Today I was going through other computer maker websites and I saw links to help
earthquake victims it would be nice to see the same at Lenovo.com thanks….
January 17th, 2010 6:51 am
I just realized that Lenovo S10-3t Tablet doest not have build in memory card reader!! Matt, could you clarify it? Thank you.
January 22nd, 2010 7:24 pm
I find that 16:9 is OK in a world of sidebars etc., but that decent resolution is a must. 1600×900 in 12-14; 1920×1080 in 14-16; 2560×1440, or at least 2400×1350, in 17+ class machines. Also, support for high res externals.
Before fixing the size of a new model, check compatibility with common hotel safes. I’m a bit leery about the new W510 fitting everywhere, as my T61 15 is a fairly tight fit already. If it doesn’t, consider a W410 or something, though still with a 1920×1080 panel. 900 vertical is too shallow for a workstation, and such a panel would help differentiate it from the Ts. If you could still fit 4 memory slots, all the better.
If you’ve got enough pull, perhaps some panel manufacturer will consider giving you a batch of 16:18s; or 9:8, 4:~3.5, for hardcore anti widescreen users willing to pay enough. A substantial segment of your most loyal users aren’t exactly of the cash strapped kind, and I’d be willing to bet you have a larger share of traditionally minded buyers than most competitors. Industry “truths” regarding viable up charges for such a feature, are probably a bit off in your specific case.
January 27th, 2010 5:33 pm
Having just seen photos of the Apple iPad, I think we can clearly see that the game changer in the category of tablets is going to be the Ideapad U1.
Congratulations to Lenovo on setting the standard for a consumer line product. I hope to see a lot more of this quality of innovation.
January 27th, 2010 9:36 pm
The showdown is on, then, between the iPad and the IdeaPad U1.
January 27th, 2010 9:41 pm
I’m eyeing the iPad’s 9.7″ IPS screen. 4:3 ratio IPS screen.
IPS. 4:3.
C’mon guys, get that screen into your lineup!
January 28th, 2010 8:11 am
If Apple are able to find properly proportioned IPS glass, why can’t Lenovo? What’s going on here? The iPad sucks but I hope it succeeds and kicks you lot in the behind. The once uncompromising spirit of Thinkpads has been lost. Think about regaining that. We’re tired of excuses, we want bold decisions in spite of the ‘conditions’, because we know it’s possible and that the excuses we’ve heard so far are just whines.
January 28th, 2010 8:31 pm
I hope you guys take notice on the iPad and hurry up and get that ideaPad U1 up and selling faster.
You guys should consider incorporating a dalvik VM as one of the available functions of the skylight device as well, and enable Android Market on that dalvik VM, along with screen resizing.
It’d be the perfect answer to the iPad, and you’ll still get the Windows 7 machine to go along with it.
Extra bonus points if you can ’save app state’ when the U1 tablet gets docked, and then be able to activate those Dalvik VM apps (ie, Android Apps) from the Windows 7 side as well.
January 30th, 2010 7:18 am
Lenovo products needs your love at Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2010/0.....et-awards/
This includes the IdeaPad U1.
February 2nd, 2010 4:24 pm
Maybe someone will figure out how to run two iPads in parallel, with a real operating system. And to hook up an UltraNav keyboard. That, with those two screens in portrait mode side-by-side, would be a nicely modular laptop replacement. Even nicer would be if one of the screens was an ePaper device (QUE or Skiff Reader). The laptop form factor is dead, thanks to useless screens…
But how can Apple source these 4:3 IPS panels, on a cheap (for an Apple) device, I ask you? Volume? But could Lenovo not sell the same screens (say, 14″ 4:3) as on a high-end Thinkpad, on a cheaper device as well? Or, if using smaller screens, continuing along the lines of U1, and selling a system as I described above, but with real operating systems, etc. At least then the same screens should be usable in a lower-end category device.
February 6th, 2010 7:13 pm
It’s really sad how lenovo have utterly defecated on the fine thinkpad name since buying it from IBM. Gone are the days when having a thinkpad meant you had a quality piece of kit. Mine squeals and hisses (despite having had almost every component swapped out during !!! 3 !!! onsite visits), the power supply makes funny noises, the plastics feel cheap, the LCD is inferior to other manufacturers…in short it’s obvious you’ve gone for cheap and (not so) cheerful at the expense of good quality.
February 8th, 2010 6:19 pm
Will the screen turn vertically like on a traditional tablet pc or like the iPad?
February 8th, 2010 6:20 pm
I should have mentioned that I am referring to the Lenovo S10-3t. When you flip the screen around can you hold it in a vertical position like a traditional tablet?
February 10th, 2010 7:48 pm
“The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it.”
Yes, why to care about usability, why to care whether the display really provides enough usable space … let’s just shrink it because who needs vertical space? I’ve read lot of times that it’s because of hardware manufacturers but I don’t like this widescreen madness … come on … can the laptop producers unite somehow and insist on displays that are demanded by the users?
February 10th, 2010 10:40 pm
16:9 is useless on a machine that mostly requires vertical scrolling. I’m not looking for a portable DVD player, I want a farkin computer.
February 13th, 2010 4:59 am
How is it about panel manufacturers? Apple has 10″ 4:3 IPS on the iPad. It’s a bit small for your primary computer, and doesn’t run a real OS, but I recently discovered that Tabletkiosk manufactures keyboardless tablet computers with 12″ 4:3 displays. Those are quite big enough in portrait. Just add an Ultranav keyboard. Too bad nobody seems to sell them in the EU… In any case, I’m beginning to think that the laptop manufacturers are bullshitting us.
An acquaintance recently provided me with the theory that the Chinese manufacturers don’t care, because chinese is written top to bottom…
February 14th, 2010 4:23 am
I wish serial was still available as an UltraBay Module, some of us still need a real hardware serial port (I’m a Telecom Engineer, and I also need to program Motorola Radios on occasion, using DOS), I preferred 4:3 displays, but I think I will adapt to the display on the new T510 I ordered.. I would ask that you guys make it easier to buy a PC with DOS on it, I own a full copy of Windows 7, I didnt really want to buy another copy with my hardware, but I was told I didnt have a choice..
On another nose, I dont want a consumer laptop, I like my plain black laptop for the most part as-is, in essence, I want features and functionality without excess bling.
February 17th, 2010 2:22 pm
HEADSUP: The Flickr photo links are all dead in earlier blog entries. can you fix this? Maybe the Flickr account is no longer a paid one…
March 17th, 2010 2:36 am
One thing I’d like to see in a Tablet is an infrared option and a wide screen version of Omniremote to control an AV system. Apple missed it. But it would be a big selling point. Dirt-cheap hardware wise, and the software has largely been debugged on other platforms.
Or an accessory that plugged in – if the plug is on the bottom, just have omniremote run upside down so the light is at the top.
tOM
March 17th, 2010 2:40 am
How about a W700 with 3 HD screens 2 of which pivot out on a swivel at a bottom corner to form a fat “U”, a landscape in the middle, and a portrait on each side. Ideal for video conferencing!
Bigger! Faster! The heck with netbooks
-tOM