Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon ultraportable looks stunning

Is that a selling point now?

I like shiny adverts.

I'd prefer no shiny adverts on laptop cases myself

that's a sweet looking Lenovo, Ed - you gonna manage a blag for 'review purposes'?

Spill-proof and backlit keyboard in a device that slim. That's some achievement.

this^^^ Lenovo and IBM laptops just feel more utilitarian from the get go - so there is less 'shiny, shiny, scared to use the new thing' going on in my head...so I get more done (I think)


Sent from my Lenovo

Workaround solutions Numer 624: for an additional £19 you could buy one of these. No illuminated logo, no shininess.

That does look very nice indeed. I'll have to wait a few years before affording one mind.

Out of interest, what's the fascination with ultra-thin laptops?

In terms of transporting and usability, it's not really the thickness that's the problem.

It's all very relative, though, isn't it?

Like, comparing a 13" Macbook Pro and a 13" MacBook Air - there's 600g in it, and the barest smattering of millimetres hither, thither and yon.

I can appreciate that's a big deal for some people, but your rather simplistic dichotomy doesn't really do justice to the nuanced variations between 'ultrabooks' and smaller laptops.

Every time I see some git with a MacBookPro and its shiny screen I think I must get an alternative and then think there are none.This laptop may be it.

I ask only because my X220 isn't exactly a burden, but it's pretty damn tubby compared to that.

Going for the ultra-thin seems to me to be an end in its own right, and a bit more connected to marketing than to utility.

I'm sure some will pay for something functionally preferable, but I'd argue many will pay for flash looks.

I remain unconvinced shaving 2 or 3mm thickness off makes a huge functional difference. Shaving a few hundred grams off, yes, I'd agree, that's useful.

Christ, I would love something like this to save me having to lug my brick of a work laptop to and from the office on my bike. However, the chance of work getting one for me are similar to the chances of Ed getting a review model.

Really?

My Dell XPS 1330 was a bit of a fucked up shape, but (IIRC) it's a smidgen off a MBP in terms of weight, and it's got an even smaller (IIRC) top-down profile.

It's a total effing twat at the back, though. Battery-arse like J-Lo.

In terms of weight, and essential front-end thinness, the difference is not that great.

What is the point you're missing there?

And of course there's the fact you can set things up that need a middle mouse wheel to treat the nipple as that instead of the pointer. Essential for some software.