Geekonomics

Lenovo ThinkPad X200--from blue to green?

Sep 22, 2008 19:48

I was a real big ThinkPad fan until IBM sold it to Lenovo, and then I got introduced to the Compaq Tablet TC1000 and to other brands of laptops. For so many years, I've almost forgotten the joy of owning a ThinkPad. That is until now, when Lenovo passed me a review unit for a week of traveling.

It's almost like coming back to my first love. Touching with fondness every curve, every edge. This feeling surprised me somewhat because ever since Lenovo took over the ThinkPad series, I thought we had lost the ThinkPad for good, which is why I never thought to go back to it.

 

How wrong I was! 

The minute I got my hands on the X200 (blogging from it now), I realized how much I really missed the unreplaceable touch of the ThinkPad keyboard which is also spill-resistant, especially great when the flight attendant is pouring coffee into your cup above your laptop on a bumpy flight!

 

And the keyboard light called ThinkLight.



 

And, of course, the one and only Trackpoint (which is now improved in design).

 

Much to my delight, after so many years, my long-lost lover has added a few nice surprise touches. Like the HSPDA slot for your SIM card and the biometric sign-on.

 

Longer battery life.



(Although the 4V I'm using can give up to only 4 hours of usage, the 9V can do up to 9 hours.)

Small form factor very suitable for the plane, especially when the passenger in front of you leans back.



(My fellow passenger Doug trying out the X200 in our 14-hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago over Siberia and the Arctic Circle.)

As you can see from this picture, the whole plane is dark. We did not turn on any lights. ThinkLight works great in low-light environments like this 14-hour flight to Chicago where everybody else is asleep and I am not disturbing others.

Apparently, ThinkPad has also gone from blue (IBM days) to green? How many laptops do you see carry this label?

 

Oops, I'm playing with a new camera, the Canon S5 IS, and at the time of this shot, I didn't manage to figure out the macro settings yet! But all the pictures here you see are taken with the Canon S5 IS and I really love it! Check out this picture I took with it over the Arctic Circle!

 

OK, back to the ThinkPad. It now comes with new Intel Centrino 2.

 

There's a host of other features that my long-lost lover has brought back, like being really, lightweight, etc. There's also some stuff which I feel can still be improved. I'll share them with you in other posts as I discover them, so stay tuned!

(Signing off from the US) 

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