Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga: Ultrathin 3:2 convertible hits US market

[Redaktion]

The thinnest ThinkPad laptop ever is available for purchase: The ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is orderable in the USA since yesterday. The mark-up for early adopters is hefty however, as the 3:2 convertible with its Titanium top cover costs nearly $3,000.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Titanium-Yoga-Ultrathin-3-2-convertible-hits-US-market.517520.0.html

[Fedora]

All this obsession with thinness is killing repair-ability, upgrade-ability, environmental friendless and sustainability. Check out ebay, there are still tons of used laptops that people trade and use, and look at r/thinkpad on reddit, lots of people routinely use, upgrade and cherish their old thinkpads, because of their flexibility in repair, upgrade and so on.

[Paul Stregevsky]

There's already a highly regarded 2-in-1 13.5-inch convertible PC with a hinged 3:2 touch screen: the Acer Spin 5. You can grab one with a Gen. 10 Intel i7 chipset, 16GB of fast RAM, and 512GB of solid-state storage for under a thousand dollars. What is Lenovo thinking?

[Dario]

The Lenovo is 11.5mm compared to 14.5mm for the Acer.  Whether or not you care about ultimate thinness, shaving off that 3mm probably cost money.

Besides, just look at that garbage keyboard on the Acer.  And no trackpoint.  And it's an Acer.  Will probably fall apart in a year.

[Pete Mitchell]

I care about weight, not thickness.  With the right materials, you can make a thicker but light laptop.

[Mothertrucker19]

The Lenovo is 11.5mm compared to 14.5mm for the Acer.  Whether or not you care about ultimate thinness, shaving off that 3mm probably cost money.

Besides, just look at that garbage keyboard on the Acer.  And no trackpoint.  And it's an Acer.  Will probably fall apart in a year.

It's a suprisingly great device, and also has ports!

[Dorby]

The point is, a matter of your principle should factor into your purchasing decisions rather than just avidly following one brand.

I'm someone who loves the Thinkpad aesthetic and have used them extensively in the past, but the current direction they're heading with all the shaving keyboards, shrinking batteries, soldering components etc I do not endorse. So I will not buy them, or recommend them as easily to the people I know until Lenovo shows me they've changed.

I have friends and family members who have used Apple MacBooks and Microsoft Surfaces in the past and while they loved their devices, some had to pay a hefty amount for a simple repair that would've cost <$100 with another brand. So I do not buy, use, and easily recommend their products until they get 8+/10 on the iFixit Repairability score.

And Pete is right. "I care about weight, not thickness. With the right materials, you can make a thicker but light laptop." LG Gram laptops are a good example of this, but it takes significantly more effort and resources which more advanced hardware companies like LG and Samsung are capable of.

Now as for Titanium, it must be special if both the X1 and the MacBook are planned to use it for chassis manufacture. As always, I'll wait for proper durability testing videos on Youtube where reviewers brutally drop and chuck the review units.