Rumor: Lenovo developing its first Thinkpad netbook

Lenovo has been putting out netbooks for a while, but the company’s low cost mini-laptops are all part of Lenovo’s consumer oriented IdeaPad series. But Lenovo’s been talking about the possibility of putting out a business-class netbook as part of its ThinkPad line since April. And now Chinese web site zol.com.cn has posted some pictures of what it says is the upcoming ThinkPad netbook.

It’s possible these photos are of something else altogether, but if they’re accurate you’re looking at the Lenovo ThinkPad X200e. There’s not much information about the specs, but the laptop appears to be running Windows XP and it has both a touchpad and a pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard.

Update: ThinkPadToday reports that the laptop will be called the ThinkPad X100e and that it will be available January 5th, just in time for CES.

via Cloned In China

Posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009, 10:57 am by Brad Linder

DougC3

I think this is the real thing. The red pointing stick cap looks big in relation to the overall size, which therefore must be netbook size. Somebody could have gone to the trouble to mock up a fake, but the unit doesn't look like any netbook I've seen.

If real, I'll be very interested in this, but where will the extended battery extend? Hope it doesn't have a factory replacable built-in.
DougC3

Excuse me for spamming about this, but, since they've extended the dimensions to acomodate both the TrackPoint buttons and the trackpad, it's sort of a crime to leave a big, blank bezel at the top of the screen instead of giving us another 168 pixels of screen height.
Jm

There is something coming from Lenovo in the ThinkPad line. About a year ago, I received an email (as a registered ThinkPad owner) to complete a survey asking questions about what I'd like to see as far as features and design in a ThinkPad branded netbook. Hopefully this isn't the result, because it looks horrible…
zima

Since Thinkpad extended batteries usually protrude from the back, NOT from the bottom, I don't see why they would change this…especially since it works much better.

I'm hoping it has passive cooling and PixelQi screen…
zima

At least there's a place for webcam, right?…

But in all seriousness – I imagine it's hard to find screens other than 16:9 and 16:10 these days, so what they could do? (other than hopefully going with PixelQi for screen…)
zima

Apart from the colour (which I don't mind; and it could be even due to early prototype) it looks pretty much like any Thinkpad to me… Though the keyboard looks wrong, not very “Thinkpadish”, especially in regards to cursor keys and PageUp/Down/etc.
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DougC3

Aha! If you follow the link, the original pics are a hair bigger, and with a healthy dose of imagination, it looks like the Delete key is third from the upper right (instead of in the upper right corner) which is very Lenovo like. Also, with the same imagination, in the bottom left, we have Fn in the corner and Ctrl to its right–a clincher for Lenovo
tomleemullins

I prefer the 'eraser head' pointing device over just a touchpad. I have more control with it than a touch pad. It looks really nice.
zima

Since Thinkpad extended batteries usually protrude from the back, NOT from the bottom, I don't see why they would change this…especially since it works much better.

I'm hoping it has passive cooling and PixelQi screen…
zima

At least there's a place for webcam, right?…

But in all seriousness – I imagine it's hard to find screens other than 16:9 and 16:10 these days, so what they could do? (other than hopefully going with PixelQi for screen…)
zima

Apart from the colour (which I don't mind; and it could be even due to early prototype) it looks pretty much like any Thinkpad to me… Though the keyboard looks wrong, not very “Thinkpadish”, especially in regards to cursor keys and PageUp/Down/etc.
DougC3

Aha! If you follow the link, the original pics are a hair bigger, and with a healthy dose of imagination, it looks like the Delete key is third from the upper right (instead of in the upper right corner) which is very Lenovo like. Also, with the same imagination, in the bottom left, we have Fn in the corner and Ctrl to its right–a clincher for Lenovo
http://home.comcast.net/~tomleem/ BigGoofyGuy

I prefer the 'eraser head' pointing device over just a touchpad. I have more control with it than a touch pad. It looks really nice.
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Rumor: Lenovo developing its first Thinkpad netbook

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