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back to article Lenovo ThinkPad Edge

Launching an affordable lightweight laptop that appeals both to lifestyle and business markets is a fine idea and one Lenovo clearly thinks has mileage in it. The new ThinkPad Edge is a stylish and affordable machine that is tasked with getting the ThinkPad brand into the world's coffee shops, as well as its board rooms. …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    "Clean and Sober"?

    That's an interesting turn of phrase...

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  2. Robert Grant
    Coat

    Don't forget your password!

    Post body intentionally left blank.

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  3. sgb
    Stop

    Has anyone...

    ... checked the stats recently on whether the 'sturdy build' reputation is still justified?

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Surely it's really a netbook?

    ... because laptops come with an optical drive. So it's just a large-ish £470 netbook.

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    1. tebiru
      Reply Icon

      What you need one of those for?

      I think there's a distinct lack of optical drive-less 13.3ers, particularly ones with proper processors. Most software can (legitimately) be downloaded, and same goes for films nowadays. So what use are they anymore? If it helps make laptops smaller, lighter and cheaper, be done with them, I say.

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      1. Tim Cook
        Reply Icon

        What use are they?

        Installing an OS. Loading software without a net connection. Importing CDs, DVDs (or just watching a DVD on the train). Backing up onto physical media. Quite a lot really.

        If you've got the space for it (and in a 13" notebook you have) why inconvenience yourself by not having one?

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  5. Magnus Ramage
    Welcome

    Looks aren't everything, but...

    Sounds a good bet. I have a ThinkPad laptop from a couple of years ago. Fast, well-made, solid as a rock and a truly excellent keyboard. But it looks dull dull dull, even by comparison with Dells, to say nothing of Macs. So if Lenovo have fixed that aspect, they could be on to a winner.

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  6. John 62

    farewell 16:10

    I liked 16:10 when it came out and everyone was lamenting the loss of 4:3, but 16:9 for a computer screen, especially at a mere 13.3" is a step too far for me.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Nice

    I've always had Thinkpads and the Edge could become a great replacement for my old 14" Thinkpad T42. I have an ASUS10" netbook with Windows 7 that I use when on the move, but the small screen is beginning to cause my old eyes some grief.

    One proviso though. If, like the T42, the Edge has issues accepting non-Thinkpad HDs, then I will not get one. I would like to use SSDs with my netbooks/laptops, and I do swap drives and OSs from time to time. So getting bootup messages complaining about the "non-compatible" HD is a no-no.

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    1. Bruno Girin
      Reply Icon

      T42 + SSD

      I've got an SSD in my old T42 (on which I am typing this) and it's never complained about "non-compatible" HD or anything. Then again, it's running Linux, I don't know if it makes a difference.

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      1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        T42 + OEM disks

        It was T43's that had the disk checks, and I believe that you could patch the bios to overcome it.

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  8. Jim Preis
    Alert

    Core Rection

    The Active Protection senses ACCELERATION not shock and locks the HDD heads.

    Take that and rewind it back. Little Jimmy got the scoop so da headies don't slap!

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  9. A B 3
    FAIL

    I second that widescreen is bad

    Widescreen is great for 20inch+ desktop screen. But what were they thinking when they put them on laptops? Did they actually try hunching over looking at a 16:9 screen on laptop before they started putting them in every model?

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    1. Losheda
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Lenovo has little choice

      The LCD manufacturers have decided the 16:9 LCD resolution is what they want to produce, they save money since its smaller.

      Stocks of the 16:10 LCDs are running out fast, most manufacturers cleared their stocks last year with heavy discounts. It took me hours of searching to find a 16:10 17" vostro on dell's outlet (returning due to lack of hdmi, only dell is penny pinching enough to remove something like hdmi)

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      1. Steve Evans
        Reply Icon

        Widescreen bad...

        Widescreen is a pain in the bum for laptops.

        I'm typing this on my trusty old Thinkpad R52, and I think I'll still be typing on this in another couple of years... Sure it's not fast and the battery is shagged, but I simply can't find any modern laptop that offers me the same (or better) screen real estate as the 15" 1400x1050 screen without it being a hugely oversized desktop replacement weighing twice as much.

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  10. Stacy
    Thumb Down

    Why no drive?

    A Sony TT is smaller, lighter, has comparable batterylife *and* and built in DVD. And that's a 2 or 3 year old design.

    It's fine saying you can download applications these days (and most of what I install is) but movies still come on disc for most people, as does music. If I can't rip the music, or write a mixed CD for listening in the car then a large part of the functionality is gone.

    As for screen res, for the price it's fine - but I would hope for more on 13" screen (it's the same as the 11" screen I have at present).

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  11. Dana W
    Troll

    Infesting our coffee houses.

    Indeed, we shall look down our aristocratic noses at it and think, "How quaint, Lenovo is offering cheap plastic tat, with the added extra of fewer features, and slower ram plus the wonder that is Windows 6.1. Sorry, I mean Windows 7. "

    Then we can go back to our our aluminum MacBook Pros and our $5 coffee, smug in the knowledge that when THINKPADS are trying "and failing" to be sleek and sexy, that Apple's future continues to look bright.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Mac

      And indeed you may feel superior with your Foxconn, until you need to warranty it while the Thinkpad keeps trucking. In my experience Lenovo are far better than apple for warrany repairs too.

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      1. Dana W
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        I don't know.

        If I ever have one break I'm sure I'll find out.

        Till then I'll avoid the naff plastic laptop. Silly me I LIKE an optical drive,

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    2. Tim Cook
      Reply Icon

      Yep

      I'll bask in this same smugness. My 13" MBP cost twice the price of this Thinkpad, in fairness, but I wouldn't swap it for three of the latter.

      Funnily enough, the Macbook Pro replaced a Thinkpad - a ten year old T20 that was an equally fine computer in its day - but the decline of Windows and the Lenovocation of Thinkpads since then made my choice for its replacement clear.

      This coffee-shop "Thinkpad" doesn't really deserve the name.

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  12. Maryland, USA
    Thumb Up

    ThinkPad vs. MacBook

    I'm a ThinkPad fanboy; my 21-year-old daughter is strictly MacBook. Ironically (for her), at the medical school she hopes to attend, every student is issued (and must use) a ThinkPad. Guess which med school Dad is rooting for?

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    1. Tim Cook
      Reply Icon

      Um

      The one that won't force your daughter to buy a new computer she doesn't want or need when she'd be much happier and more productive with the Macbook?

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  13. AntiPoser
    IT Angle

    Lenovo, MAC, ThinkPad

    This is a pointless argument I use all three of these machines in my day to day life, Yes weird all 3 and I am yet to notice any real benefit of one over the other unless I consider looks. Then MAC takes it, but for solidness the ThinkPad T42 wins as I drag it around the office from room to room never closing but just hanging onto the lid. Lenovo has managed to keep some of the ThinkPad solid build depending on the model I use a T400. Yes the have very different roles for me based on OS selection, so no one better than the other just how you judge it.

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