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mastershakeman posted:Is there any indication of a 540? Or is Lenovo abandoning that screen size. I could be interested in a T540 as well if it turns out lighter/smaller. The T530 has laughable graphics performance considering how big and chunky it is. Probably to goad people into buying the W series I suspect.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:08
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Seamonster posted:I could be interested in a T540 as well if it turns out lighter/smaller. The T530 has laughable graphics performance considering how big and chunky it is. Probably to goad people into buying the W series I suspect. The T530 isn't really that chunky, though. It's essentially the same thickness as a T430 and comparable to other laptops in that screen-size with optical drives. Unless you're talking about 15.6" 'ultrabooks' which are kind of a ridiculous idea and often have issues with cooling and durability.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:45
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It was chunky compared to the Vaio S.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:59
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I'm ordering a t430 tonight unless I find a reason not to. And I won't.
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Sep 3, 2013 21:03
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oneof27 posted:I'm ordering a t430 tonight unless I find a reason not to. And I won't. Look at dat buy it now price on a used widdle T420s: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thin...=item417685487d
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Sep 3, 2013 21:07
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I'm having a hard time keeping up with this thread, please excuse me if this is a repeat. Can I get a decent laptop/tablet convertible-thing, or are those mostly gimmicks? I love the idea of taking my laptop to class and being able to use the touchscreen or keyboard to take notes, then detaching the screen and use it at home as a Kindle-like reader for books or reading the notes I took during the day. I realize I could probably do this with a laptop + Google Drive + a cheap tablet but I prefer to carry around fewer devices. Plus, drawing chemistry stuff with a mouse is a pain, I'd rather do it on a touchscreen.  The Surface tablet with Windows 8 fits the criteria, but are there more like it?
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Sep 3, 2013 21:11
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shrughes posted:It was chunky compared to the Vaio S. I would have assumed that was covered under "often have issues with cooling and durability."
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Sep 3, 2013 21:15
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There's the Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro: http://www.samsung.com/us/business/computing/tablet-pcs/XE700T1C-A03US There's the Lenovo Thinkpad Helix: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/thinkpad/thinkpad-helix/ There's the Vaio Duo 11 and Viao Duo 13: http://store.sony.com/c/VAIO-Duo-11-Ultrabook-Laptops/en/c/S_D_SERIES_PAGE (The Duo 11 is kind of weak in the keyboard/trackpad department.) Not detachable but maybe sufficiently light (maybe not...). Some goon has the Duo 13 and likes it. I like the looks of it. These are all pretty expensive, things with digitizers tend to be. ASUS's transformer book would look nice, but it doesn't have a digitizer. I have a Thinkpad Helix and I like it. I don't really use the digitizer though. Personally I'd much rather take notes on paper. Using notes is much better on paper too -- I'd rather have paper textbooks than digital ones, too, for the same reason. I definitely wouldn't try to write on a tablet that doesn't have a digitizer, but maybe I'm just a coward.
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Sep 3, 2013 21:29
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Boner Slam posted:and here I thought you'd buy the T430 because of the NVS for CAD. But apparently it's the cheaper machine. Eh okay NVS5200M vs NVS5400M. I'm sure it makes a difference but both do have discrete options.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:18
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internet inc posted:I'm having a hard time keeping up with this thread, please excuse me if this is a repeat. There are a bunch of laptop / tablet convertibles, check out the Yoga or the Dell XPS 12, they're compact but not detachable I cannot imagine trying to take notes on a touchscreen though, that just sounds like a nightmare. Paper is greener, cheaper, more reliable, longer lasting, and easier to use. Writing on a keyboard is useful for making changes and because typing is usually faster than writing, but neither of those advantages are applicable to touch screens.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:47
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I think I'm another person who's just going to get a T430 instead of waiting for a T440/s. I'm still open to other suggestions, but I plan on ordering in the next week or so. I'm looking for something that is <=14", has more than 800 vertical pixels, and decent build quality. Discrete graphics is unnecessary, and I'd want better than stock wireless. Soft budget is $650 CAD.
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Sep 4, 2013 00:29
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Silver is the new black  At least give us the option to make the keyboard match the rest of the computer? Looks like the marketing guy was assigned a piece of specifically designed fabric to help camouflage how ugly the new silver is (see zoomed thumbnail of second photo)  Also, the black touchscreen bezel looks hillariously bad on a silver case 
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Sep 4, 2013 00:40
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Hadlock posted:Silver is the new black I think the color difference may mainly be due to the lighting. The material isn't smooth, and depending on the color of the light (if it's kinda yellowish instead of bright white) and how to reflects off of the surface, it'll get that off-black color. My old thinkpad (which is def black) looks the same way under the right lighting conditions. edit: vvv oh, they did change it, thanks for the clarification. Seems like Lenovo wanted to change a lot with this line. I kinda want to be excited, but...I may just go with the macbook air + windows desktop idea I've been planning instead. yoyomama fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 00:55
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Ordered my T430! It feels so good to finally just commit and order a new computer.
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Sep 4, 2013 01:13
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yoyomama posted:I think the color difference may mainly be due to the lighting. The material isn't smooth, and depending on the color of the light (if it's kinda yellowish instead of bright white) and how to reflects off of the surface, it'll get that off-black color. My old thinkpad (which is def black) looks the same way under the right lighting conditions. They really did change the color to make it "graphite" and satin instead of matte black with a texture, though. I'm thinking of buying another regular X230 now as a backup.
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Sep 4, 2013 01:43
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Hadlock posted:Silver is the new black It looks like it used to be black, but was left out in the sun too long.
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Sep 4, 2013 01:52
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It's pretty obvious it's just silver Let's not mince words here, that's not graphite, it's just 1999 era dell crapbox inspiron silver. Keyboard is black, but it'll only be another year before they figure out how to color match the keyboard with the new 1990's 'vintage' color scheme. People are going to wonder why you can't afford a new laptop and had to buy a wrong-color replacement keyboard.
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Sep 4, 2013 02:54
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Sucks that it's not pre-faded beige. Going to get an Air if Lenovo doesn't sort out their act.
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Sep 4, 2013 03:16
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Hadlock posted:It's pretty obvious it's just silver Why is it so difficult to spend some money and hire someone with good taste? The last thing we need is to regress back to 90s and early 00s color schemes.
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Sep 4, 2013 04:20
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Butt Savage posted:Why is it so difficult to spend some money and hire someone with good taste? The last thing we need is to regress back to 90s and early 00s color schemes. OXBALLS DOT COM fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 04:23
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Hmm. Learned something new. Well Lenovo should take a hint then.  But seriously, it really shouldn't matter if it was "boring old black", Lenovo should stick with it and let the body's design speak for itself. No need to try and "wow" the customer by playing with new, hideous colors.
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Sep 4, 2013 04:50
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Butt Savage posted:Hmm. Learned something new. Well Lenovo should take a hint then. Really, a company making business-oriented laptops should know better than to rock the boat with chintzy stuff like metalic surfaces; that poo poo's fine on your consumer lineups, but anything with the word "business" in it shouldn't be forced to suffer so.
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Sep 4, 2013 05:02
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Looking at Lenovo's announcement, all I can think is: I can't believe I've waited for this bullshit. All I wanted was a T530 with a Haswell CPU. Now, in order to get a 1920x1080 screen, I have to get a 14-inch laptop with a incredibly irritating clicking touchpad, and it's several hundred dollars more? I honestly don't understand what they're thinking. Of course, those rumors that new T530's are shipping with bad 1080 screens has me worried about getting one. This is just depressing.
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Sep 4, 2013 05:06
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After patiently waiting for a few months, and for the past month lugging my old HP 8510p to school and back I gave up and bought a Acer Aspire S7 (Haswell version) today on Amazon. I wanted to save a few hundred and get a Lenovo but I just couldn't wait any longer.
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Sep 4, 2013 05:11
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surf rock posted:Looking at Lenovo's announcement, all I can think is: I can't believe I've waited for this bullshit. All I wanted was a T530 with a Haswell CPU. surf rock posted:This is just depressing.
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Sep 4, 2013 05:39
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Arg. I need something to do web dev stuff on the go and to browse the internet, as well as to run light virtual machines. How much am I going to regret going with the 4gb/128ssd 13" macbook air? Battery life and durability are important, but I'd really prefer to not spend much more and I'm sure I can get a better screen in an ultrabook at the same price. (I've also been agonising over this decision for a while now)
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Sep 4, 2013 06:22
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Hadlock posted:It's pretty obvious it's just silver It's pretty obvious that's just specular highlight. shrughes fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 10:04
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shrughes posted:It's pretty obvious that's just specular highlight. Looks pretty silver in spectacular lowlight too  Or are you joking, it's hard to tell
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Sep 4, 2013 10:32
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Hadlock posted:Looks pretty silver in spectacular lowlight too That doesn't look very much lighter than the plastic bits of my T430s - as someone else said its very dependent on lighting anyway. While I'm disappointed about a lot of aspects of the new Thinkpads the colour looks okay to me.
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Sep 4, 2013 11:19
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For those curious, it appears that the W540 will have the same http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w540 I was hoping that they'd decide to at least keep the trackpoint buttons, but no luck. I don't understand why companies don't see their rush to clone the Macbook Pro/Air look as free advertising for their competitors... the Lenovo isn't as blatant as say, some systems from HP, but it looks like they are slowly edging their way there. Honestly, I don't care about the color, but if they remove what made the Thinkpads special (great trackpoint, keyboard with tons of function keys, "sturdiness" features like the hinge/latch, little niceties like the indicator lights) while falling behind in other areas (still no Retina-quality displays), I don't see any reason not to get a Macbook Air or a (Retina) Macbook Pro other than maybe saving a few dollars on price (which could probably be made up by the Mac's better resale value). Meltycat fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 11:44
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The trackpoint without physical buttons works perfectly well, with the exception that you can't configure the middle button to be a middle click without going into the registry. (I've wound up going with the default scrolling and using a three-finger click for the middle button, maybe this is better or maybe this is Stockholm syndrome, I don't know, but I've been using the trackpoint scrolling a lot more than I expected.) Just turn palmcheck down to the lowest level and trackpoint usage will behave perfectly, no clicks will be missed. The trackpoint nipple is better than before, too -- it's recessed below the plane of the keyboard, which makes it less annoying to fat-fingered idiots that think it gets in the way, and it's also slightly more comfortable to use. I don't get joint pain when using it for lengths at a time, it requires less force or has better accuracy when used with minimal force. The trackpad is excellent, too. There is nothing bad to say about it. I think the T440s and X240 are fantastic. Finally you can recommend Thinkpads to people without saying "well the screen is mediocre" or "well the trackpad really sucks, hope you like the nipplemouse!". Another thing to note: The six row keyboard is pushed all the way to the hinge on these models, giving it room for a larger trackpad and palmrest. People were complaining about the wasted space before, well now you can stop. I guess you could find something else to complain about, like the ugly gray color. It's a shame, Thinkpads used to be such icons of beauty. Now look at them.
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Sep 4, 2013 12:30
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Everyone hated the black color scheme of the old ThinkPads. Now everyone is bitching about the gray ones!EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:Arg. I need something to do web dev stuff on the go and to browse the internet, as well as to run light virtual machines. How much am I going to regret going with the 4gb/128ssd 13" macbook air? Battery life and durability are important, but I'd really prefer to not spend much more and I'm sure I can get a better screen in an ultrabook at the same price.
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Sep 4, 2013 13:14
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Whoever it was that said that recent shipments of T530's have a significantly worse 1920x1080 display panel than before, where did you hear that? I'm having trouble finding those reports, and if that rumor is baseless, then I'll just take advantage of the B&N Gold/Labor Day sale to get a rock-solid, upgraded T530 for a little cheaper than normal. If it's true, I guess I'll swallow my tears and wait to get a T440s. Alternatively, the W540 may work, since it'll still have the 15.6" screen (which is the main T530 feature I'm missing with these new Haswell ThinkPads). That's gonna be more laptop than I need, though, and crazy expensive. I keep looking at the Ativ Book 9 Plus, but its 13.3" screen is just too small to use for my job, realistically. A 14" screen will be stretching it, let alone a 13.3" screen. The Zenbook Infinity has the same problem. I don't like Apple laptops, the only Sony VAIO with a large enough screen is the VAIO Fit (which appears to be the cheap consumer line and isn't appealing on many levels). I suppose I should consider the Dell Latitude E6540 and XPS 15. The Precision M4700 seems to be, like the W530/40, more laptop than I need.
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Sep 4, 2013 13:19
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Lenovo's still advertising 95% gamut on its website, I would go for it and return it if you get a bad screen. Of course I would only be inconvenienced vicariously. Edit: You could probably still find a Vaio S 15 somewhere.
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Sep 4, 2013 13:20
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Bob Morales posted:Everyone hated the black color scheme of the old ThinkPads. Now everyone is bitching about the gray ones! Just because they changed it doesn't mean it's better.
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Sep 4, 2013 13:35
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Bob Morales posted:What kind of light virtual machines? If you need an install of Windows 7 for IE testing, it's going to hog up a bunch of space on your SSD. 4GB systems are okay with 512MB Linux VM's but if you start running a bunch of other programs and 2-3 VM's you're going to wish you got the 256GB/8GB model. Just small linux VMs for me. I I was going to need a Windows 7 VM that took up 1/4 of the disk space I'd just get the bigger one.
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Sep 4, 2013 13:42
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Maybe the OP should be changed to reflect some of the recent revelations about the T440s or at least signify that the newer think pads might not be up to snuff with the old ones. When you purchase from B&N gold, can't you just upgrade the screens through the customization menus for pretty much all of the thinkpads or is it just some marginal upgrade that I wouldn't be able to notice?
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Sep 4, 2013 14:00
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I've been looking into starting independent app development and for this I'd like a Mac. Pretty much everywhere I look says a Macbook Air is the shiz, and for an excellent laptop to take down for weeks away at my parents in lieu of taking my big fuckoff desktop it seems like an excellent choice for wanting to play Skyrim and XCOM without bringing the aforementioned beast with me. It meets all my requirements for power, portability, ability to use Windows and the ability to develop App Store apps etc so my only concern is price. Configuring it on the apple store gives me a cost of > £1550 for the i7, 512 Flash memory and 8Gb RAM and was wondering what people thought, if this was a good config or if I should lower the i7 to i5 or the memory to 4gb bearing in mind my aforementioned game desires.
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Sep 4, 2013 14:30
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PiCroft posted:I've been looking into starting independent app development and for this I'd like a Mac. Pretty much everywhere I look says a Macbook Air is the shiz, and for an excellent laptop to take down for weeks away at my parents in lieu of taking my big fuckoff desktop it seems like an excellent choice for wanting to play Skyrim and XCOM without bringing the aforementioned beast with me. If you can stand a little thicker laptop the current rMBP is even faster, andthe Haswell refresh should bring similar gains in battery life. The 2012 13" rMBP runs 6,800 in GeekBench where the 2013" Air runs about 6,000.
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Sep 4, 2013 14:45
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Bob Morales posted:If you can float the i7, 8GB and 256GB drive go for it. It's 20% faster than the i5 in many tasks. Cool, thanks. The MBA currently has Haswell now doesn't it?
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Sep 4, 2013 14:58
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