HP Mini 2140 and Windows 7 Beta
January 29, 2009
James Kendrick over at jkOnTheRun has had success in installing the Windows 7 public beta on the 10″ Intel Atom-based HP Mini 2140.
The Mini 2140 is HP’s “business” or “professional” netbook (the HP Mini 1000 is their consumer product).
Some have had an issue with Windows 7 drivers on the 2140. From the video, you can see that he has it up and running and that it booted up extremely fast.
Updated: JK’s first impressions of Windows 7 on the HP 2140.
View: jkOnTheRun
New Fujitsu LifeBook Tablet PC Spotted?
April 29, 2008
There is a new article up along with a couple of photos concerning what could be a new Fujitsu LifeBook Tablet PC over at TabletPCReview.com. It appears to be a new 13.3-inch LifeBook tablet/convertible spotted at a presentation given by Fujitsu in Germany.
The 13.3-inch touchscreen display is a passive digitizer. It’s powered by a low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 25W).
As pointed out, it could be a replacement for the Fujitsu LifeBook T2010, since with the latest displays and the lowered power consumption, it could come very close to the size of the T2010 even with a 13.3″ display.
Article/Photos: TabletPCReview.com
ThinkPad X300 - Review (Walt Mossberg)
February 21, 2008
Walt Mossberg has published his impressions of the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 in his All Things Digital column., and is over all impressed:
I’ve been testing the ThinkPad X300 and I have found it to be a solid, innovative laptop that will be perfect for many mobile PC users. It isn’t as sexy or inexpensive as the MacBook Air, but it has numerous features the Apple lacks, especially a wide array of ports and connectivity options, a built-in DVD drive and a removable battery.
I can recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation, provided they can live with its two biggest downsides: a relatively paltry file-storage capacity and a hefty price tag. This ThinkPad starts at $2,476 for a stripped-down model and at $2,799 for a preconfigured retail version with a half-size battery. The configuration I expect to be the most popular, with a full-size battery and DVD drive, is about $3,000.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 goes on sale next week.
Full article at AllThingsD.com
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 - Taken Apart
February 19, 2008
It’s a very popular trend these days to take new devices and computers part, and show the world what they look like inside.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 is not a stranger to this trend any longer. “moore101″ over on the ThinkPads.com Forums has taken their ThinkPad 300X apart, and it’s a sight to behold.
Of note, the model they received is the “6477-1UU”. That means nothing yet (it’s not even on the Lenovo ThinkPad support website yet), but will soon enough.
Details, Design of the Lenovo IdeaPad U110
February 16, 2008
While poking through Lenovo’s Flickr group, I came across a very interesting set, one containing high-resolution pictures of the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 (which we’ve mirrored here).
This helped clarify some things, as well as gave me an appreciation for what went into the design (similar to the X300 information in the previous story).
Details gleaned from the pictures:
Read more
The Design of the Lenovo ThinkPad X300
February 15, 2008
The Lenovo ThinkPad design team has written about just what went into the design and engineering of the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 on their Design Matters blog (LenovoBlogs.com):
The Lenovo design and engineering team has been working on this one for well over a year. It started out as a idea: let’s build the most advanced ThinkPad ever, in the thinnest and lightest package possible.
Turns out, they had a journalist involved, who wrote a very comprehensive article about the ThinkPad X300’s design at BusinessWeek:
His secretary, Phyllis Arrington-McGee, ransacked filing cabinets until she found one of the envelopes. She handed it to Hortensius, who gingerly slipped the X300 inside. “It fits! It fits!” he shouted.
Perhaps no one was more relieved than David Hill, Lenovo’s chief designer, who stopped by Hortensius’ office right after the envelope experiment. It had been his idea to create the superthin X300, which was originally code-named Kodachi. Hill shared a laugh about the test with Hortensius and later couldn’t resist a poke at Jobs’ latest creation. “I’m a bit tired of looking at silver computers,” said Hill. “I’d never wear a silver business suit.”
Such is life in one of the most competitive markets on earth: the portable computer business. The best engineers and designers at the most powerful technology companies slug it out with top-secret plans and ulcer-inducing deadlines. From Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL) to Acer, Lenovo (LNVGY), and Toshiba, design and production teams race to carve out their share of the fast-growing market. They fight over ounces and millimeters, but their victories are measured in billions of dollars.
For David Hill, Steve Jobs, and others in the fraternity, the questions are: What is the perfect combination of weight, price, and features? And what new technologies should be included? It’s a sign of the intense competition that the revered Jobs received decidedly mixed reviews for Apple’s Air, despite its eye-catching looks.
Turns out, they focused on three things first:
Lenovo’s product development managers were focusing on a new high-end laptop that would include three important emerging technologies. The first was solid-state storage, which doesn’t break when people drop their laptops the way the mechanical disk drives in most computers sometimes do. The second technology was LED backlighting on computer displays, which would improve movie viewing. The third was a DVD drive just seven millimeters thick. In October, 2006, the managers decided to combine these technologies with Hill’s design concepts. The machine was given the code name Kodachi, after a small samurai sword.
One of the best articles written about the industry in a while, and you can read it here (BusinessWeek.com).
More Details about Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Emerge
February 14, 2008
This forum thread over at ThinkPads.com has produced a tremendous wealth of information about the upcoming Lenovo ThinkPad X300.
Of note, in some of the documents, Lenovo is comparing the X300 to other popular ultraportables, including:
- ASUS U3
- Dell XPS M1330
- Sony S/Z Series
- Toshiba M600
- Toshiba Dynabook SS M40
- Toshiba Portege R500
Some of the interesting tidbits to come out:
- The X300 is up to 12dB louder than the ThinkPad X61
- The starting weight of the X300 is almost 20% lighter than the 12.1″ ThinkPad X61s
- First X-series ThinkPad to have a 7mm DVD writer
- Lenovo’s first EPEAT Gold certified notebook, meets Energy Star 4.0 requirements, and is 25% more efficient than previous Lenovo notebooks when it comes to power consumption
- Certified Wireless USB over UltraWide Band (UWB)
- Simultaneously supports WLAN, WWAN, and 2x UWB
- Supports WiMAX
- Rubber paint on palmrest and top (comfort/traction)
- Illuminated Keyboard
Design/Case Features:
- Bottom and keyboard bezel are Magnesium
- LCD cover is mainly Advanced Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP)
- Sidewalls are made of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) for better wireless performance
Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X300
February 13, 2008
Walt Mossberg gets a chance to check out the Lenovo ThinkPad X300, Lenovo’s latest ultraportable ThinkPad, and their first ultraportable ThinkPad with a widescreen.
The X300 is being touted as a competitor to Apple’s MacBook Air, being that it’s lightweight (2.5 - 3.2 pounds depending on configuration) and with a similar screen (13.3″ LED-backlit LCD).
Unlike the MacBook Air, it has the option for an internal optical drive as well as a removable battery, and it’s powered by Intel’s Core 2 Duo SL7100 Low Voltage (LV) CPU (similar to the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010). It even has a GPS option.
It is pricey, starting well above the MacBook Air’s base configuration, and it’s only going to have Solid State Drive (SSD) options (hence the price).
Full “Sneak Peak” (All Things Digital)
