Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

viewer.zmags.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 81 posts

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#61

Post by hackoder »

mkhattab wrote: post #59

Last year I bought a Thinkpad E420s based on the praise I had read from multiple review sites and more importantly, the laptop is listed as Ubuntu certified. The first thing I did when I got it was install Ubuntu, of course. I'm not sure what "certified" means to Canonical but I assumed that every component would work flawlessly, such as the microphone, no sound output artifacts, smooth webcam, power & thermal manage…

The e420 is of the 'Edge' series. What you want to get is a T, X, or W series thinkpad. The E series is just thinkpad in name, so its no wonder that you had a bad experience.

Ofcourse, you are not to blame since Lenovo still markets it as a ThinkPad..

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#62

Post by Scene_Cast2 »

mdkess wrote: post #52
JimmyL wrote: post #31

In an office full of Retina MacBooks, I love my ThinkPad X220 (and this is my fourth ThinkPad in a row, spanning both Lenovo and IBM eras). It's not a flashy machine, but it's got a bunch of non-mainstream features that are devoted to getting things done, at which they excel: - Nub pointer? I love it. Full mouse control without moving my hands significantly away from where they were on the keyboard anyways. My X220 h…

I have a ThinkPad (T420) too, I love it. I agree with everything that you said - nobody else comes close. Plus, their keyboards are by far the nicest laptop keyboards out there. The X220 is in my mind the perfect portable laptop... except, like every Lenovo laptop I've used, it has an absolutely terrible screen. It drives me nuts, because they come so close, and yet still miss by so much. I mean, I'm not expecting a…

Try the X230 IPS screen or any of the 15" screens. Lenovo's T400 series screens are truly notoriously bad.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#63

Post by snogglethorpe »

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.

> I've always thought that the standard black Thinkpads were unspeakably ugly. And I'm not even a design snob.

"Ugly", is of course, subjective, but do keep in mind that the original thinkpad line is generally considered a design classic.

Also keep in mind that thinkpads in the last decade or so have shifted a great deal design-wise from the original, losing much of the aesthetic purity along the way.

The original thinkpad was yer basic stark black monolith (all right angles, no curves or wedges to speak of) with the barest minimum of accent (the bright red nub pointer and button markers), and a lovely silky surface texture that made you want to caress it. No tacky chrome-look plastic. No touchpad to bloat up the lower surface. Just quality of materials and purity of form.

While recent thinkpads share the color scheme with the original, they've lost many of the other iconic design cues, both obvious and subtle.

So I kinda see where you're coming from if you're talking about recent models, but the original thinkpads were absolutely beautiful.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#64

Post by cpeterso »

jlgreco wrote: post #60
cpeterso wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought the ThinkPad's keyboard is one of its worst attributes. The keyboard's layout is very cramped. The keys feel flimsy and loose. Their edges are sharp and exposed when you type.

For the life of me I cannot find a single sharp edge on this keyboard, as I type on it right now.

Perhaps "sharp" is not the right description. <:) I meant that when you press a key down, it is possible to feel the edges of the neighboring keys. Your finger can catch on a key's lip (if you try) and flex it up. To me, it (literally) feels cheap and flimsy. I've only had two (Lenovo) ThinkPads, so I don't know if different models or IBM's models had better build quality.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#65

Post by jseliger »

JimmyL wrote: post #40
rogerbinns wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one place things have gone downhill is screens. Thankfully you can still get matte screens rather than ones that double as mirrors. But Lenovo has gone 16:9 losing lots of vertical pixels - note how workflow is vertical (coding, documents) so this is a serious productivity killer. They also use large bezels meaning the laptops are larger than they need to be. And they used to be IPS giving excellent visual qualit…

You can still get IPS panels, you've just got to pay the extra $50 to get the "enhanced" screen (and they're not available on all models). I'm with you about being less than thrilled with the transition to 16:9 displays, though.

>I'm with you about being less than thrilled with the transition to 16:9 displays, though.

Interestingly enough, Lenovo is aware of the problem; I remember reading a blog post a while ago in which someone from Lenovo said the problem is with volume: since the vast majority of uses for displays are now 16:9, it's more expensive to get square-er displays. The person speculated that, if they had 10,000 paid pre-orders or something like that, then Lenovo could seriously consider offering a different size. But it's just not feasible right now given the market for displays.

(If anyone remembers the post and can find it, post it!)

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#66

Post by chrismsnz »

zerostar07 wrote: post #54
JimmyL wrote: post #31

In an office full of Retina MacBooks, I love my ThinkPad X220 (and this is my fourth ThinkPad in a row, spanning both Lenovo and IBM eras). It's not a flashy machine, but it's got a bunch of non-mainstream features that are devoted to getting things done, at which they excel: - Nub pointer? I love it. Full mouse control without moving my hands significantly away from where they were on the keyboard anyways. My X220 h…

That little machine has replaced everything for me, giving me the benefit of working in the same machine without interruptions when moving from place to place. I use it in 2 workplaces with docking stations. Love the long battery life too which can make it to 8-9 hours of use, but the screen is small and has some aftereffect issues.

I have noticed some image persistence issues on mine as well. Any idea on how to fix/minimise it?

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#67

Post by pearle »

mdkess wrote: post #52
JimmyL wrote: post #31

In an office full of Retina MacBooks, I love my ThinkPad X220 (and this is my fourth ThinkPad in a row, spanning both Lenovo and IBM eras). It's not a flashy machine, but it's got a bunch of non-mainstream features that are devoted to getting things done, at which they excel: - Nub pointer? I love it. Full mouse control without moving my hands significantly away from where they were on the keyboard anyways. My X220 h…

I have a ThinkPad (T420) too, I love it. I agree with everything that you said - nobody else comes close. Plus, their keyboards are by far the nicest laptop keyboards out there. The X220 is in my mind the perfect portable laptop... except, like every Lenovo laptop I've used, it has an absolutely terrible screen. It drives me nuts, because they come so close, and yet still miss by so much. I mean, I'm not expecting a…

I have a X220 with the IPS screen and it looks great despite being relatively low resolution.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#68

Post by pearle »

cpeterso wrote: post #48
sedachv wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing design with visual appeal. Steve Jobs loved to rant about design and longetivity, but Apple laptops only seem to excel on visual appeal (and this is a recent phenomenon - just look at the first PowerBook G4s). Design has to be functional, and this is where Apple always makes sacrifices. Bringing chiclet-style keyboards back into vogue (to the point where even Lenovo now puts them on Thinkpads) shows…

I've always thought the ThinkPad's keyboard is one of its worst attributes. The keyboard's layout is very cramped. The keys feel flimsy and loose. Their edges are sharp and exposed when you type.

Wow, I'm of the opinion that ThinkPads have the best laptop keyboards by far. Sharp keys? Which model did you use?

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#69

Post by pearle »

wyclif wrote: post #22
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.

The non chiclet ones are still great. Perhaps not as good as the IBM ThinkPads but I think they're still better than anything the competition offers.

Re: ThinkPad Design: Spirit and Essence

#70

Post by Gigablah »

nessus42 wrote: post #51
sedachv wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing design with visual appeal. Steve Jobs loved to rant about design and longetivity, but Apple laptops only seem to excel on visual appeal (and this is a recent phenomenon - just look at the first PowerBook G4s). Design has to be functional, and this is where Apple always makes sacrifices. Bringing chiclet-style keyboards back into vogue (to the point where even Lenovo now puts them on Thinkpads) shows…

> but Apple laptops only seem to excel on visual appeal (and this is a recent phenomenon - just look at the first PowerBook G4s). Design has to be functional, and this is where Apple always makes sacrifices. I don't know what you are talking about--you are WAY overstating your case. My 11-inch MacBook Air is by the far the most ergonomic and pleasant-to-use laptop computer I have ever owned. The keyboard on it is by…

Have you used a pre-2011 Macbook? My 2010 MBP has sharp edges, so they leave marks on my forearms. Not very comfortable.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2471321

The Magic Mouse is even less comfortable. I don't know how they expect people to hold that for any significant period.

Post reply on HN