After a few delays and tons of rumors, Intel’s fifth generation notebook platform has arrived. Centrino 2, previously known as Montevina, comes with with it a line of new Core 2 Duo processors, upgraded graphics and Wi-Fi, and DDR3 RAM. One of the first notebooks to be released with Centrino 2 is Lenovo’s newest ThinkPad, the X200. This is the update to the X61 which not only had all the new Centrino gear, but moves to a widescreen display.
Perhaps a bit OT, but is it just me who prefers laptop displays with 4:3 (or 5:4) aspect ratio to 16:10? They’re getting increasingly difficult to find nowadays. I want height, not width.
I agree. I have my desktop monitor in the portrait mode so I can look at more lines. I think the wide screen caters for the multi-taskers but for ppl who want to work on one program it is big distraction.
You’re not the only one. But the widescreen crowd doesn’t take it too well when I express a preference for tallscreen.
It’s not just you. Given enough vertical pixels, I can accept the extras in the horizontal direction. 1680×1050 on my desktop is perfect. I wonder how it’d look on a 15.4 inch laptop screen.
That’s the resolution my 15.4″ laptop runs at and I shudder when I think about smaller sizes. I would probably get used to it again but everything is so crisp right now, not difficult to read at all and much more pleasant than other laptops I’ve used.
It depends on whether I’m editing code or photos. For photos, the width is necessary to give the tools and palettes room. Whatever the case, please give me a matte display and a decent resolution. 1280×800 on a 15.4 inch display is hardly worth having. 1440×900 is a bit better.
Glad to see that we have a new set of processors for the games to suck dry. Last year’s games might have a fighting chance soon without breaking the bank.
I’ve found that widescreens work pretty well if you can settle on a vertical layout for the toolbars, as in this picture. http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~riedel/images/DigitalAxis.jpg
You lose some of the width, but gain back some of the height (of course, that was my old laptop with the 1920×1200 display).
Personally, I don’t think 16:10 is a good idea because the canonical widescreen is 16:9. Sure, all that means is you’ve got black bars, but why do you need them? Only recently (with the new Acer Blu-Ray laptops) is anyone doing that.
Edited 2008-07-17 15:39 UTC
Nope. I’m right there with you.
Yes, I have to agree. Hight is much more important than width unless you are dealing with video.
On the other hand on these small notebooks, there is another size to take into account, and that is the size of the keyboard.If the computer is too narrow, it can’t hold a normal sized keyboard with the result that they get hard or at least slow to type on.
So, if a wider screen allows for a wider, more normal sized keyboard. I think this a good thing, at least as long as the screen still is reasonably high.
BTW, the screen of the X200 is actually higher thatn that of most X60 models that usually had a 768×1024 pixel screen.
I have a T60 which is one of the last Thinkpads with a 4:3 display (I think it is the last T series with a 4:3 aspect ratio). I prefer the 4:3 laptop LCDs but you are right they are harder to find now. Not only that but try finding a slipcase for a non-widescreen laptop. In my search I have found none that snugly fit a 14 inch 4:3 Thinkpad.
Edited 2008-07-17 22:38 UTC
I was tempted to wait for Apple to upgrade their laptops, but given the problems the last time around when they moved tom x3100 and the graphics performance issues – I guess the old adage still stands that one is better to go with the tried and tested than the bleeding edge.
It will be interesting to see, however, how well this will go. Although this is this the tick in the tick/tock cycle of Intel; the more interesting technology will come next year with the new processor that will make use QuickPath (formally known as CSI) and have an integrated memory controller.
As as side issue, its truly amazing how far processors have come in the last several years. I remember hype when the 1ghz barrier was broken; even further back, when 500Mhz was considered ‘really fast’ and ‘more than enough for most people’.
I would actually still agree that it’s more than enough for most people.
I also agree. My laptop spends most of its time with the CPU down at 800 MHz. What makes applications feel slow is hard disk speed in my experience.
Look at the Eee PC. With its 4 GB of fairly fast flash, it feels like a pretty fast machine even though it isn’t.
A speedy display is also important. Whatever visual effects are enabled, they need to be smooth and snappy.
Now, if only developers would avoid doing things like rendering help files through XSL processors on demand instead of ahead of time, things would work well.
Yeah, email and surfing don’t require much juice. Compiling, rendering and multimedia eat processor, though. Basically, dual cores are a total waste for, um, reading osnews.com, but kick ass when you’re trying to crush a dvd into an avi and compile open office while surfing youtube.
damn… I want…
tiny and REALLY good battery life…
Many people here seem to want a laptop where the hinge is on the short side and the screen is in portrait mode. A restrictive keyboard width but plenty of space for the multitouch mouse pad.
There might be a market for it?
Tongue only partly in cheek.