ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence • Hacker News Board

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#21

Post by daviddaviddavid » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:17 PM UTC

kitsune_ wrote: post #17

acabal wrote: post #6

I can't believe I'm reading an article touting the design smarts of the Thinkpad designers... honestly I've always thought that the standard black Thinkpads were unspeakably ugly. And I'm not even a design snob. Usable yes, but aesthetic? No way.

The ThinkPad was designed by Richard Sapper [1], somewhat of a legend in industrial design. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sapper

I found it rather bizarre that this fact was not mentioned.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#22

Post by wyclif » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

BinRoo wrote: post #20

I have two ThinkPads: X201 Tablet running Windows 8, and a T530 running Ubuntu. The craftsmanship of the keyboard and ThinkPoint nub is unmatched. As a hacker, I cannot find any sufficient replacement.

For many years, ThinkPads had the best quality keyboards on any laptop. At least that was true of the IBM models I've had. I can't speak to the quality of the Lenovo-era models.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#23

Post by Inufu » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:39 PM UTC

lallysingh wrote: post #19

Funny how they talk about how classic the machine is after completely botching up the keyboard. They even mentioned the keyboard in the PDF!

I for one like the new keyboard and think it's great. (I used both old and new keyboard on two Thinkpads simultaneously for 2 months)

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#24

Post by kabdib » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

Thinkpads /were/ great. They took a serious quality dive several years ago, and I've had a number of bad problems with customer service (e.g., orders "stuck" for months, miscommunicaton of warranty issues), and now I won't recommend them.

My guess is that when things go great, you'll be fine, but the moment you need something out of the ordinary then Lenovo will be just as bad as Dell.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#25

Post by jeffchuber » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:51 PM UTC

I know David Hill. He is a great designer and knows his clients intimately. His clients are the heads of IT for large organizations that want reliable solid unbreakable working machines. And that is exactly what Lenovo builds. They aren't sexy. They aren't meant to be sexy. Functionality comes first. Form gets a say if it's lucky. This is also how large organizations function and what they are most comfortable with. For this reason it's no surprise that Lenovo will likely become the largest PC manufacturer by volume this year.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#26

Post by peterwiese » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:51 PM UTC

I've been using think pads exclusively for the past 10 years... Never again. They're just cheaply produced overpriced crap nowadays that exploit a once proud brand. There isn't one single thinkpad with a decent screen. The fans are an insult. The only reason why it's hard to switch is the knob. Fuck.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#27

Post by tnhh » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:51 PM UTC

TorbjornLunde wrote: post #4

Very interesting, but the Flash-based player of this is not very readable. Is it available as a PDF?

This URL was hiding in the source: http://viewer.zmags.com/services/DownloadPDF?publicationID=6...

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#28

Post by peterwiese » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #24

Thinkpads /were/ great. They took a serious quality dive several years ago, and I've had a number of bad problems with customer service (e.g., orders "stuck" for months, miscommunicaton of warranty issues), and now I won't recommend them. My guess is that when things go great, you'll be fine, but the moment you need something out of the ordinary then Lenovo will be just as bad as Dell.

Same experience here. Don't recommend them anymore. I've been recommending MBAs since 2 years.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#29

Post by dfc » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:56 PM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #24

Thinkpads /were/ great. They took a serious quality dive several years ago, and I've had a number of bad problems with customer service (e.g., orders "stuck" for months, miscommunicaton of warranty issues), and now I won't recommend them. My guess is that when things go great, you'll be fine, but the moment you need something out of the ordinary then Lenovo will be just as bad as Dell.

How many thinkpads have you purchased recently? Multiple orders stuck for months? Granted I have only had 3 thinkpads in 8 years but I have never had any problems.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#30

Post by majormajor » Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:56 PM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #24

Thinkpads /were/ great. They took a serious quality dive several years ago, and I've had a number of bad problems with customer service (e.g., orders "stuck" for months, miscommunicaton of warranty issues), and now I won't recommend them. My guess is that when things go great, you'll be fine, but the moment you need something out of the ordinary then Lenovo will be just as bad as Dell.

Is there a good, power-user-focused laptop manufacturer right now? I've heard others express similar opinions about newer Lenovos, and I'm currently on a MBP so I haven't used anything newer than a T500 much, but I really miss having a proper dock on my desk that I could just slide my laptop into.

And I really really really miss my X61's keyboard any time I use the built-in one on my MBPs (oddly, my T500 seemed to have too much flex to it's keyboard, but I never bothered swapping it or anything because I hardly ever used it outside of the dock).