Lenovo is getting ready to update last year’s ThinkPad X230 notebook. The model released in 2012 sports a 12.5 inch display and a reasonably compact design, measuring about an inch thick and weighing just under 3 pounds.
The new Lenovo ThinkPad X230s measures 0.7 inches thick and weighs just 2.8 pounds, thanks to a carbon fiber design.
Lenovo hasn’t officially launched the new notebook in the US yet, but details are avaialble from the company’s Chinese page.
The notebook is available with up to 8GB of RAM and a solid state disk or hard drive.
It features VGA and mini DisplayPort output, 2 USB 3.0 ports, a backlit keyboard, and a fingerprint scanner — ThinkPad notebooks are designed for business users, after all.
Lenovo has also given this model the new island-style keyboard we’ve seen on other recent ThinkPads, as well as a clickpad without individual left or right buttons. There’s still a pointing stick in the center of the keyboard for folks that aren’t fans of touchpads.
Engadget reports that the ThinkPad X230s sells for around $1200 in China.
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14 Comments on "Lenovo ThinkPad X230s is a thinner, lighter 12.5 inch notebook"
I wonder how long will they keep on selling plastic/carbon fiber reinforced/carbon fiber gimmick laptops for the price of all-metal/aluminum notebooks?
Ive owned 2 ThinkPads myself and been wondering why other brands can make all-metal laptops with excellent build quality and ask as much or even less than what Lenovo does for ThinkPads? How long will they keep on milking folks into buying all-plastic-generic laptops? Oh, right, they have magnesium inner exo-skeleton, but thats about it, the rest is plastic or plastic mixed with chippings of carbon fiber.
And dont start about ThinkPad’s “superior” customer service – its a myth supported by TP fanboys, nothing more. Their service can be really terrible and problematic, depending on where you live, so Id say as long as you get maximum warranty period it doesnt matter from whom are you buying your laptop.
“inner exo-skeleton” ?
So, what would be appropriate, or you have nothing to say, just being picky?
Thats how Ive seen people calling it at ThinkPad forums.
Internal frame or just plain skeleton.
Allright then, lets call it the way Lenovo does – rollcage.
exo means ‘outside’, ie insects have exoskeletons: their shells are the équivalent of our bones. By definition, you can’t have an inner exoskeleton.
I don’t know if it is a gimmick; when my Thinkpad fell out of my loft bed and hit the ladder on the way down, it got some nice dings through to said “exoskeleton”. And works fine still.
They should never abandon the Carbon Fiber material, thats something that is making ThinkPads something special. It is stronger than Aluminum if you drop it, and lighter, and it hasn´t this “cold feeling”. Some of the best ThinkPads (X301, 600x, X1 Carbon) used Carbon Fiber, it is a very good material.
My T430u comes with an Aluminum back-cover, but I would prefer Carbon-Fiber, because they Aluminum top feels strong but it isn´t, like any Aluminum lid…
And, by the way, the entire base of the X230s is made out of Magneisum, also the palmrest (which is still cover with Magnesium, but still Magnesium underneath). Only the lid is made of Carbon Fiber on the X230s. 😉
Thats great to see that its only lid that is made out of carbon fiber, good.
Is there any official information regarding what kind of carbon fiber technique have they used?
They used to have CFRP-carbon fiber reinforced plastic panels on their laptops, which isnt exactly built and made up like your regular carbon fiber panels.
Like the T430s, X230s/T431s use a Carbon-Fiber/Glass-Fiber Hybrid top. Glass Fiber is where the antennas are, the main material of the lid is Carbon fiber.
Crap, looks like I waited too long to start agitating for an upgrade…. by the time I got approved I’d have to take this one. BLEH. The keyboard is crap and it has that horrible THING below the keyboard that makes typing all but impossible. I’ll stick with my x200s and hope they return to sanity before it is hopelessly outdated.
I don’t know about integrating the trackpoint buttons into the clickpad. The clickpad is already the worst thing on my X230.
Lenovo failed again. Still a screen resolution of 1366×768 and to make things worse they also use the new buttonless Touchpad (from the Thinkpad Helix).
They should have removed the Touchpad again completely and just leave us with the Trackpoint with 3 single buttons.
The new keyboard itself is not bad (use a T430s at work), the problem with it are:
– non grouped F-Button row
– missing arrow/back/fore key block on the lower right edge
– the tiny unreadable Fn icons on the F-Buttons (I want the blue symbols back which are readable in low light…the new ones can’t be read at all)
– missing 7th row with additional keys
This is very cool, We look forward to seeing this one.