First hardware review for a while! I would have wanted to write this post months ago, but Lenovo botched the launch of the Helix like no other. It was initially supposed to come out in February at a rumored price of about $1300, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on one at that price until now, almost five months later.
Once upon a time when software overhead grew faster than hardware development “upgrade” was synonymous with “performance”. The latter was the reason you did the former and that was that. When performance requirements for basic computing plateaued in the days of Windows XP, I thought that my already slow upgrade cycle would slow even more, as nobody cared about silly things like power consumption or screen quality or form factor. Well, obviously I was wrong. Now I just upgrade whenever the hell I feel like it.
The 2010 11-inch Air is a laptop I liked so much that I bought it twice, even though I couldn’t find a use for it either time.
I’ve liked the MBA 11 since launch because I don’t believe that there is, by a fairly long shot, a comparable “conventional” equivalent. It’s basically right between the top end of netbooks and the bottom end of traditional ultraportables. This is a fairly vague and messy kind of comparison to make, especially given that the MBA line has just been refreshed, but I’ll try to get across how I see it.
I originally intended to replace my t400 with a t420 or t420s, but given that I’m typically docked to my two monitors when I’m doing anything that needs more screen-estate, I decided that I just don’t need a big laptop anymore.
I didn’t need to search far for an alternative to the t420(s). The vanilla x220 boasts the same spec as the vanilla t420 in a smaller form factor. Furthermore, the base x220 is only $100 more than the base t420 on Lenovo’s website, and the difference in price on the second-hand-new and second-hand-used market is basically nothing.
Traditionally the price gap between a comparable mainstream and ultra-portable laptop has been closer to the range of two times.
I wasn’t planning on trading up on my X200 Tablet until the warranty ran out, but it turns out that that was going to be sooner than I thought. The label on the bottom of the machine suggested that coverage would end in August 2012. Lenovo’s support site said that coverage would end in January 2012. I’m also trying to work out a “better” upgrade/replacement cycle. With the TC4200, I kept it for more than two years, during which the value more than halved. With the X200 Tablet, I’ve had it for somewhat more than a year, but I think I can get at least 75% of what I paid for it. At the same time, it might have been a bit too early to buy a replacement, so this buy/sell balancing act is a work in progress.
So here I write a brief X220(i) Tablet/x220t review. This is the first current laptop I’ve owned since my E6400 and subsequently the most expensive laptop I’ve owned since then. I believe the (i) indicates that the machine is base spec or close to base spec, but the base i3-2310M, 4GB, and 320GB hard drive (obviously I threw in an SSD instead of that last piece) are more than enough for basically everything I do – as most base configs have been for the past few years. The base price is about $1100 average on the Lenovo website, but I managed to snag an MISB unit for $825.
