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Lenovo's New PCs and Laptops 61

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the target-thinkpad-acquired dept.
pimpimpim writes "WebWire is reporting that Lenovo has introduced their 3000 line, a budget line of PCs and notebooks." From the article: "Researchers, scientists and product design teams from China, Japan and the U.S. combined Lenovo's heritage in enterprise and consumer PC technology to design an optimal computing experience for small businesses. The Lenovo 3000 product line features several new desktop and notebook models with the latest processor technologies in a new silver chassis."
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Lenovo's New PCs and Laptops More

Lenovo's New PCs and Laptops

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  • You were great while it lasted.

    Look back in a year or two and see how many of the think* lines remain, my bet is one or two models of each just to keep the enterprise's whith competent it managment, and the cheap ones for the rest.
  • C|net had a story [com.com] on this a while back too, and with pictures [com.com]. Can't help feel that these are not going to offer the rock solid reliability that IBM's are/were known for.
    • Ugh. They're. Ugly.

    • Can't help feel that these are not going to offer the rock solid reliability that IBM's are/were known for.

      Especially since the Intel desktops (J100) will use a SiS chipset (SiS 661) and the AMD desktops (J105) will use a VIA chipset (K8M800). The notebook chipset they're using (Intel 915GM) has a reputation for reliability, but notebook reliability depends on more factors outside the chipset.

      Maybe I'm being unfair in my judgement of SiS and VIA, but since I value reliability, I would have liked to se

  • Remember when GM and Ford used to positively dominate the US car market, until the Japanese came in during the 70s? Datsun absolutely destroyed muscle car sales, and Honda made the econobox a reality.

    Fast forward today, and now we have Dell, the GM of cars (ubiquitous despite questionable styling and quality), with nowhere to go but down, in the face of Chinese manufacturers like Lenovo who have inherited IBM's great tech, and have the workforce and facilities to make new machines for rock bottom prices.

    As
    • This is something I think will have a strong pull with consumers but they will soon recognise the quality problems inherent with a non-US company.
      What will likely happen is that lenovo won't be able to fulfill the warranty or guarantee facilities they need to in order to keep consumers happy. That is an area where dell traditionally lead the pack.

      Say what you will about Dell in any other area but most will agree their warranty service is second to none. IBM was very good also.

      I don't think Lenovo will be ab
      • It really doesn't matter where the product comes from anymore.

        Most products are made like crap nowadays, built by american OR chinese hands.
    • As a Mac user, I tend to find super-cheap computers just disgusting, but I can't help but look at Lenovo's upcoming N100 with envious eyes.

      Reminds you all the more of how much you're overpaying?

      LK

  • No Track Point? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tux_deamon ( 663650 ) on Tuesday February 28, 2006 @04:43AM (#14815136)

    More info and pics [notebookreview.com] on the new Lenovo's.

    No Track Point?

    • Yes, that's the thing that struck me the most. Maybe IBM wouldn't let them, just to make the difference between these and the Thinkpads more clear. Can't imagine that it can be a cost factor, a touchpad would be more or less the same price, wouldn't it?
      • I wish they would bring it back already!

        I loathe those Alps trackpads. There is something about them that makes them hard to use - once you disable tapping (so you can't mistakenly drag stuff around when you lift your finger by accident) and get over the fact you can't use them with anything but a finger press (I get the impression they work by heat, but I would rather it was more like a stylus or touchscreen so I could use my fingernail) and the scrolling stuff while SO useful, doesn't work in such a small
    • I'm wondering about the blue enter buttons, that's really still IBM heritage. Might as well have kept the trackpoint if they were going this way anyway.

    • Re:No Track Point? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mebob ( 57853 )
      Looks more like they bought dell!

      Why would they do this? Looks like they are ditching every thing they bought from IBM. What exactly did they buy?

      Doen't look like I'll be getting a thinkpad again.
      • They bought one of their biggest competitors into nonexistence.

        And they bought partial IBM ownership of them, which will keep IBM tech flowing into their more competitive operation.
    • It's sad but the Track Point is pretty much gone. Consumers basically are saying that they don't want them. What hapened? Three things:

      1. The early Track Points had a few issues. This really isn't that big of a point because most of these were fixed rather quickly and also the fact that the notebook world was still trying to find a truly usable pointing device. This was the era of trackballs and even the pop out mouse [246.dk].

      2. The Track Point III was functionally solid and very usable. Around that time many
      • Consumers basically are saying that they don't want them. What hapened?

        Nothing of the sort. Everybody I have ever seen using ThinkPads for a long time is pretty much addicted to the thing. All of the new combo trackpoint/touchpad units at my clients' have the touchpad permanently disabled. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the wants of consumers but with IBM licensing policies to other makers and later, their eventual efforts to adopt the "don't stick out of the crowd" mentality of marketing drones. "

        • Everybody I have ever seen using ThinkPads for a long time is pretty much addicted to the thing.

          They aren't addicted, they've just been forced to use it for so long that they no longer remember how much better a touchpad is.
          • They aren't addicted, they've just been forced to use it for so long that they no longer remember how much better a touchpad is.

            Right. That is why when offered, by all the combo pointer system ThinkPads in the last 3 years, the "thrilling", "exciting", "superior" joy of having one's palms move the mouse all over the screen while typing and rendering the "palm-rest" area ... well "unrestable", not to mention all the fun of having to move your hands back and forth between the pad and the keyboard all the tim

          • I'm going to have to weigh in on the side of the trackpoint. I suppose I've never been forced to use a touchpad for any long period of time, so perhaps I might come to like it as much.
            I suppose using a trackpoint has a longer training period to get accustomed to using it. But I suspect that a trained touchpoint user is much more accurate than a touchpad user. I could play a FPS with a touchpoint if I had to, but I can't imagine doing it with a touchpad.
            Oh, and I absolutely h
  • I've been a ThinkPad fan for a while now and just bought some new ones for my wife and myself. I really hope Lenovo keeps up the quality that they (thinkpads) have been known for. Time will only tell, I guess. I'll be looking for reviews and user comments on these new systems... let's hope they don't become just another Dell shitting out crappy, cheap computers...

    ---John Holmes...
    • I suggest you DON'T care about "user reviews". I mean, come on. I could be a bored Dell employee and post a comment like "Eww, IBM should take it back" with my ISP account.

      For laptop, I suggest check the machine yourself. Of course, ignoring salesperson too :)

  • I thought the article was maybe way out of date for a moment when I read this bit about these laptops,

    "The C Series includes an Intel 915 GM Chipset with choice of either Pentium® M or Celeron® M processors."

    and these bits about the desktops,

    "The Lenovo J100 features a SiS® 661 Chipset with choice of either Pentium® 4 or Celeron D® processors."

    "The Lenovo J105 features an AMD Socket 754 board with either AMD Sempron® or Athlon® processors."

    WTF?! Why not

    • Guess you missed the 'budget line' part in the summary then.
    • duh, because they are the "value" models, they aren't going to have the latest stuff.

      • Re:Specs... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Biomechanical ( 829805 )

        I did miss the budget line bit, mea culpa, but that still doesn't mean they can't be using Turion 64 ML-28's and MT-28's, or Athlon 64 3200+'s (939pin) in the desktops.

        Maybe not the dual-core Intel's, fair enough, but 17 inch screens shouldn't be ignored because the laptops are "budget models".

        Why can't anyone seem to bring out a design that has a starting configuration that is "budget" but can be configured to match almost any high-end DTR on the market? Look at the size of the new laptops from Dell

    • That little text you clicked on was a link. It said "budget line of PCs and Notebooks"
  • Wife just got a brand new T43 from work - and I gotta say that it absolutely blows my Inspiron away in terms of weight, performance, heat management and most especially 'solidity' (despite being lighter). Heretofore they've done well with what IBM gave them, hopefully this isn't where they start fucking up.

    --Ryv
    • Comparing the T series to an Inspirion is like comparing apples (not Apples) to twinkies. Inspirion laptops are the Dell consumer grade machines. They are flimsy and heavy compared the Dell Latitudes.

      Latitudes are nice machines, though not nearly as nice as the T series :)
  • News needed on \.

    Adverts need not apply.
    • Indeed, my thought was "Woohoo, computer manufacturer releases new computers".

      Meanwhile Apple is hosting today a special event for fun new products [businessweek.com] - Wake me up when the fun arrives...

      • So, the company offering first line of "Thinkpad" they purchased from the ORIGINAL PC INVENTOR, IBM and showing a glimpse of future products, where they are headed etc doesn't interest you?

        Fun new products from Apple are real funny btw ;)

        • Not overly, Lenovo has the ThinkPad brand name but aside from that they just ship desktops and notebooks like every other hardware vendor.

          At least with Apple's mac mini it's a different form factor.
    • yo, just to defend my posting here. I currently own a thinkpad with a pentium 1 processor. It's a bit bulky, the hinges show wear, but it still works! At some point I will probably be earning enough (finishing a phd at the moment) to be able to buy a NEW laptop, and I would like to buy a robust one. (And no I didn't earn anything from posting this article ;) )

      Here is where my concern for the fate of the thinkpad comes. They are expensive, not using state of the art tech (for a reason, though), no flashy d

      • btw, I would consider an apple, the nice OS and simple design attract me, but I heard about too many 'rotten apples' from people around me that I just wouldn't consider buying one when looking for a _robust_ laptop. Also I don't own an Ipod, so no incentive from that point of view ;)
      • I hear ya, man. I just got a new T43 and these things are solid. I've owned two other older Thinkpads and they're still going strong. I bought an R-series for my wife that's a little heavier and thicker, but still performs great. Performance is great, security features are great, it's thin and light but doesn't feel cheap or plastic like the Dells do.

        I hope that down the road they continue the performance and reliability of the Thinkpads. These new models don't give me much hope, though.

        As for the alternati
      • I've tried all the consumer Panasonic Toughbooks out in Japan (and will probably buy one after my 700Mhz Fujitsu B-Series gets too slow!). They are terrific. Amazingly light and built well. The only downside is that they don't make any widescreen models (they're missing out on a market segment). They have no trackpoint, but they do have a great circular scroll touchpad that takes a little getting used to but works really well (you draw circles to scroll). I agree Lenovo is taking the wrong path here...
  • They took the trackpoint out. End of story.
  • They took out the trackpoint, switched to an awkward front-loading cd drive, shrank the keyboard and didn't use
    the latest cpus.

    This doesn't look like an ad for lenovo to me. This looks like an advertisement for apple.

  • I believe it's the first one released by Lenovo that IBM didn't offer. Fantastic computer. Very Linux friendly, nice keyboard, built like a tank. Hihgly recommended.
  • I have a couple older TPs at my office and they are rocks, they have outlasted any laptop we have ever purchased. I am not sad to see the trackpoint go though. I could never get used to that, it always felt like I was sexually assaulting the laptop.
  • Compared to Dell, these are still overpriced for the features offered, but there are a slew of budget PC makers, not to mention that your local ma and pa computer store could setup a better system for the same money.

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