1 00:00:21,580 --> 00:00:27,120 Christian: Hello and welcome to episode 21 of the ThinkPad Museum podcast recorded on the 10th of January 2 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:33,560 Christian: January 2026, the very first episode in the new year. And no, your podcatcher isn't broken. This 3 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:38,680 Christian: is a very special episode, so we are kicking the year off with a special. This is why this episode 4 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:44,560 Christian: is recorded in English. As you might have already seen, we are going to talk about the ThinkPad X300, 5 00:00:44,780 --> 00:00:49,420 Christian: a very special machine. And of course, I'm not going to do this all by myself. 6 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:54,900 Christian: Our special guest today is Thomas, also known from Laptop Retrospective. Hi, Thomas. 7 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:56,620 Thomas: Hello, Christian. 8 00:00:56,870 --> 00:00:58,060 Thomas: Thank you so much for having me. 9 00:00:58,150 --> 00:00:58,880 Thomas: This is going to be awesome. 10 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:04,559 Christian: Definitely, I'm so glad that we finally managed to find a date where we both can participate 11 00:01:04,940 --> 00:01:09,840 Christian: in an interesting conversation, because it's not that easy to find time slots between our 12 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:10,200 Christian: countries. 13 00:01:11,780 --> 00:01:12,900 Thomas: It is a bit of a jump, yep. 14 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:13,580 Christian: Definitely. 15 00:01:14,340 --> 00:01:15,820 Christian: So we're going to talk about this later. 16 00:01:16,620 --> 00:01:19,320 Christian: Maybe we start with some feedback and announcements. 17 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:29,980 Christian: So like in every other episode, we're going to talk about some news from the museum. 18 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:34,440 Christian: Because I managed to get two very rare machines that have just been added to the collection. 19 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:35,760 Christian: And I'm very proud about this. 20 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:37,880 Christian: So this is why I'm bringing this up here. 21 00:01:38,260 --> 00:01:41,500 Christian: One of those machines is a ThinkPad 360PE. 22 00:01:42,300 --> 00:01:46,620 Christian: That's a very, very special machine that's incredibly hard to get these days. 23 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,760 Christian: For those who don't know, that's a machine manufactured between 1994 and 1996. 24 00:01:52,500 --> 00:01:54,680 Christian: And it's a 9.5-inch convertible tablet. 25 00:01:54,800 --> 00:02:01,260 Christian: and that's pretty crazy for the early 90s I would say. I think it's going to be one of the very first 26 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:06,800 Christian: tablets at all I think. So the screen can be rotated in the display frame. It has a VGA resolution 27 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:14,140 Christian: and 256 colors and it also offers a digitizer pen that's very much like the later X tablet model. So 28 00:02:14,170 --> 00:02:20,120 Christian: you can use that old digitizer pen on the new X tablet and vice versa. That's kind of interesting. 29 00:02:20,820 --> 00:02:24,400 Christian: Did you manage to ever saw one of those rare machines from that day? 30 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:26,360 Thomas: I've never seen one in person. 31 00:02:27,100 --> 00:02:28,840 Thomas: And you're absolutely right. 32 00:02:28,900 --> 00:02:36,320 Thomas: they are rare and very difficult to get. You are the third person that I know that has one. 33 00:02:37,620 --> 00:02:42,160 Thomas: You don't see them come up for sale. And when they do, and I don't know if you also saw it on eBay 34 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:47,120 Thomas: for years, there was one for like six figures that somebody was trying to sell. And it's like, 35 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:52,940 Thomas: so I'm, I hope that you didn't pay anywhere near that because they are very cool. But 36 00:02:53,830 --> 00:02:57,400 Thomas: yeah, they fetch some very high prices and people know what they are. 37 00:02:57,760 --> 00:02:58,280 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 38 00:02:58,700 --> 00:03:02,820 Christian: And I mean, it's hard to guess what the price would be these days. 39 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:05,140 Christian: We know what the former price was. 40 00:03:05,380 --> 00:03:09,200 Christian: And if we calculate inflation, this is going to be ridiculous. 41 00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:15,220 Christian: And I think the value of it is hard to put in numbers because it's a rare machine. 42 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:14,720 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 43 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:17,960 Christian: It's a very special machine that's hard to get. 44 00:03:17,980 --> 00:03:19,880 Christian: And it's a very historic machine. 45 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:25,540 Christian: This is why I plan to, after I tried all the things that I want to try on that machine, 46 00:03:25,700 --> 00:03:29,840 Christian: to give it to a real museum where people can go in and have a look at it. 47 00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:35,420 Christian: That's way too special to just have it sitting in my working room. 48 00:03:37,380 --> 00:03:41,620 Christian: So this is what's going to happen maybe later or maybe next year with that machine. 49 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,380 Christian: But speaking of the hardware details, it is equipped with an Intel 486 CPU. 50 00:03:46,860 --> 00:03:52,100 Christian: It has 20 megabytes of memory, a whopping 340 megabytes hard drive, and it comes with 51 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:56,700 Christian: Windows 3.1 with the Windows for Pen Computer 1.0 extension. 52 00:03:57,130 --> 00:03:58,180 Christian: Did you ever see that one? 53 00:03:58,820 --> 00:04:06,900 Thomas: not running i've seen some old vhs video of that operating system in action that was digitized 54 00:04:07,900 --> 00:04:17,920 Thomas: but no i've never seen it run run in person i acquired a thinkpad t7 or 710 and 730t that were 55 00:04:18,140 --> 00:04:23,919 Thomas: pretty much scrap and you could tell just based on the old style of display that it 56 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:28,540 Thomas: It wouldn't have looked like anything that we would consider a tablet computer today. 57 00:04:29,260 --> 00:04:32,100 Thomas: It's almost like the dinosaur version. 58 00:04:32,900 --> 00:04:38,740 Christian: Yeah, definitely. So I had some fun. I put one of my X tablets beside that one. I think it was an 59 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:45,640 Christian: X200T tablet. And yeah, it's very much like that don't talk to me and my son again memes, 60 00:04:46,100 --> 00:04:55,139 Christian: because the 360PE is very bulky, but a lot of things those machines have in common. And speaking 61 00:04:55,160 --> 00:05:00,320 Christian: Speaking of Windows for Pencomputer 1.0, there are also some things that this very early 62 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:05,300 Christian: operating system has in common with things like the Windows XP tablet PC edition that 63 00:05:05,310 --> 00:05:07,800 Christian: came out I think 2005 or something like that. 64 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:15,560 Christian: So the input dialogs where you can write letters and then it will be converted into normal text 65 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:20,340 Christian: that already existed back then in the early 90s and that's kind of mind-blowing I think. 66 00:05:21,540 --> 00:05:27,820 Christian: interesting. I think we will need to cover this on a dedicated episode in more details. And speaking 67 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:35,340 Christian: of bulky, this machine weighs 3.1kg. So that's not a light catch for your backpack. 68 00:05:35,380 --> 00:05:36,780 Thomas: No. 69 00:05:38,140 --> 00:05:46,879 Christian: Definitely not. So the next machine, also a very rare one, is a 755cdV that also was built between 70 00:05:46,940 --> 00:05:57,020 Christian: May 1995 and October 1996, also mid-90s machine. It has a 10.4-inch display with 64K colors and, 71 00:05:57,740 --> 00:06:03,520 Christian: that's a real interesting detail, it has a removable cover so that the screen can be mounted 72 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:09,800 Christian: on an overhead projector. And I think nothing says more "hey, I'm from the 90s" like "hey, 73 00:06:09,820 --> 00:06:11,820 Christian: I'm using an overhead projector, right? 74 00:06:12,740 --> 00:06:13,080 Thomas: Oh, yeah. 75 00:06:14,460 --> 00:06:21,480 Christian: So I never saw a machine like that in person by now. I know that some other vendors like Siemens 76 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:28,920 Christian: also produced machines that are overhead projector focused in the 90s. And I was extremely lucky to 77 00:06:29,060 --> 00:06:34,840 Christian: get also that one. That's a very niche device, I would say, also quite hard to get. The most 78 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:39,740 Christian: hardware details are unknown to me by this point, because I did manage to get mine running though. 79 00:06:40,430 --> 00:06:46,300 Christian: I think it could be in Pentium One or in 486 machine. I also have the power supply for that 80 00:06:46,420 --> 00:06:51,760 Christian: machine, but I can also turn it on, but I hear fans spinning and the hard drive spinning up, but 81 00:06:52,380 --> 00:06:55,560 Christian: nothing that's shown on the screen, so maybe I need to have a look at it. 82 00:06:55,900 --> 00:06:58,060 Christian: Maybe some battery is just broken or something like that. 83 00:06:58,800 --> 00:06:58,860 Thomas: Yeah. 84 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:02,500 Thomas: The 755 era is very persnickety. 85 00:07:03,300 --> 00:07:09,420 Thomas: I bought two, yes, of 755s. 86 00:07:05,500 --> 00:07:05,880 Christian: Oh really? 87 00:07:09,420 --> 00:07:12,380 Thomas: One was just a regular one and one I actually thought was a CDV. 88 00:07:13,300 --> 00:07:16,140 Thomas: And I was heartbroken to get it. 89 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:22,040 Thomas: And the badge was correct, but somebody at some point had swapped out the whole top case. 90 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:23,160 Christian: Oh. 91 00:07:22,620 --> 00:07:31,940 Thomas: So the top case was from a regular 755 and not in fact the one where the panel comes off the back and you can lay it down. 92 00:07:32,010 --> 00:07:39,620 Thomas: And I was very bummed out that it was not that one because I was like, wow, this is a rare model. 93 00:07:40,020 --> 00:07:42,640 Thomas: I have an overhead projector that I could demo this with. 94 00:07:42,740 --> 00:07:44,820 Thomas: Like I could, I was ready. 95 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:56,440 Thomas: But yeah, it turned out that at some point it was delivered to an IBM repair center and they didn't replace the top case with a CDV case. 96 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:57,460 Thomas: It was just a regular case. 97 00:07:58,260 --> 00:07:58,860 Christian: What a bummer. 98 00:07:59,800 --> 00:07:59,940 Thomas: Yeah. 99 00:08:00,260 --> 00:08:03,240 Christian: Really hope that you'll find one of those machines at some time. 100 00:08:04,140 --> 00:08:05,440 Thomas: Yeah, I'm not holding my breath. 101 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:07,000 Thomas: That's going to be a hard one. 102 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:12,100 Christian: Definitely, and I'm really really lucky because I know somebody who also collects retro hardware, 103 00:08:12,380 --> 00:08:19,400 Christian: so greetings to Jan Lukas at that point, and he meets a lot of people that also collect 104 00:08:19,420 --> 00:08:25,240 Christian: hardware or he finds hardware at some very strange places. I don't know exactly how he managed to do so. 105 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:30,180 Christian: And because he's not collecting IBM stuff, whenever he sees one of those fancy machines, 106 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:35,719 Christian: he gives me a call. Hey, Christian, I have a 701C right here. Do you want me to pick it up for you? 107 00:08:35,900 --> 00:08:43,120 Christian: And the answer always is yes, please go ahead. Tell me your price. Yeah, so thanks a lot for that, 108 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:47,300 Christian: because otherwise, I think I wouldn't have the chance to get one of those machines, to be honest. 109 00:08:48,260 --> 00:08:54,220 Christian: Yeah, and I think you also had a conversation with Dr. Ted Salker, because one of those CTV machines, right? 110 00:08:55,060 --> 00:09:02,480 Thomas: yes so when i spoke to him a while ago now he talked to me about how he was one of the people 111 00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:10,320 Thomas: that helped build that thing. And he understood the technology on how the screen was actually 112 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:16,440 Thomas: built and how IBM was manufacturing these machines. And he was like, you know, all I have to do is just 113 00:09:16,620 --> 00:09:23,520 Thomas: take these back pieces off. And he's such a tinkerer, even to this day, that he bought these 114 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:31,059 Thomas: 755s and he pulled them apart and he was able to find that transparent piece that he was able to 115 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:38,700 Thomas: put on an overhead projector and IBM obviously saw that loved it and then produced it for a couple of 116 00:09:38,700 --> 00:09:47,780 Thomas: years and it was probably meeting a need that wasn't quite there but it was still really really cool 117 00:09:48,260 --> 00:09:56,139 Thomas: and that was a time I think in IBM's history where they were still experimenting with weird 118 00:09:56,780 --> 00:09:56,960 Christian: Yeah. 119 00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:57,160 Christian: Yeah. 120 00:09:57,780 --> 00:09:58,060 Thomas: and 121 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:00,840 Thomas: that went away in the later years 122 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:02,960 Thomas: but that's a weird time 123 00:10:02,970 --> 00:10:03,920 Thomas: at IBM 124 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:05,180 Christian: Definitely. 125 00:10:05,610 --> 00:10:10,920 Christian: Yeah, I also think about the transnode, which was also one of those weird experiments. 126 00:10:11,250 --> 00:10:12,040 Christian: Very, very unique. 127 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:18,020 Christian: And I mean, they even made a left-handed version for an even more unique audience. 128 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:19,360 Thomas: mm-hmm 129 00:10:18,380 --> 00:10:22,640 Christian: So tinkering was quite important to IBM back then. 130 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:24,879 Thomas: yeah the trans note 131 00:10:24,900 --> 00:10:27,040 Thomas: has a whole, whole history, 132 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:29,320 Thomas: but we'll save that for another day. 133 00:10:29,620 --> 00:10:30,280 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 134 00:10:32,180 --> 00:10:33,480 Christian: Let's jump to some of the news. 135 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:42,900 Christian: So, while we are recording this, CES in Las Vegas just took place. 136 00:10:43,220 --> 00:10:44,040 Christian: Have you ever been there? 137 00:10:45,220 --> 00:10:45,940 Thomas: Not in person. 138 00:10:46,620 --> 00:10:49,580 Thomas: I have media credentials to go every year, 139 00:10:50,300 --> 00:10:52,100 Thomas: but getting down to the United States 140 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:53,280 Thomas: sometimes is a bit tricky, 141 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:59,060 Thomas: And it's also something that I'd have to take off time from work to do, which isn't impossible. 142 00:10:59,860 --> 00:11:02,860 Thomas: But I would need to go down there for a real good reason. 143 00:11:03,420 --> 00:11:06,780 Thomas: So one day I hope to make it, but I haven't made it in person yet. 144 00:11:07,460 --> 00:11:22,840 Christian: Same for me. So I just follow the news and there were two ThinkPad related news. Also Intel announced their new processors, but I think I will keep that for a future episode because not all the details are available in that level that I would like to discuss it. 145 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:29,680 Christian: But Lenovo announced that they are going to release a ThinkPad X9 15p Aura edition. 146 00:11:30,090 --> 00:11:38,600 Christian: So it's a new member of the X9 family that was discussed very emotionally last year, I would say, to put it in that way. 147 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:37,800 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 148 00:11:38,820 --> 00:11:43,140 Christian: And the new model is going to aim at MacBook Pro users. 149 00:11:43,420 --> 00:11:50,520 Christian: So this is going to be a performance machine, as we can guess from the P and 15p, like for previous performance machines. 150 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:53,800 Christian: So it's an X9 machine for power users, I would say. 151 00:11:54,140 --> 00:12:00,900 Christian: While the normal X9 variants are aiming at MacBook Air users, this is going to be for the professionals. 152 00:12:01,900 --> 00:12:03,080 Christian: Maybe some hardware details. 153 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:10,420 Christian: We're going to see a 15.3-inch 2.8K OLED display with whopping 1000 nits HDR peak brightness. 154 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:12,260 Christian: That's like a lot, I would say. 155 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:13,840 Thomas: Yeah, that's high. 156 00:12:14,300 --> 00:12:15,380 Christian: That's really, really high. 157 00:12:15,420 --> 00:12:20,060 Christian: I think that's maybe one of the brightest displays we ever see in a ThinkPad. 158 00:12:20,140 --> 00:12:29,380 Christian: I think there was some T15G model with 1200 nits or so, but it's rather the exception 159 00:12:29,540 --> 00:12:32,120 Christian: than the rule, I would say, to have that much brightness. 160 00:12:32,579 --> 00:12:33,240 Thomas: Uh-huh. 161 00:12:33,980 --> 00:12:39,680 Christian: Of course, we're going to have a 10 megapixel webcam and up to the Intel Core Ultra X9 Series 162 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:42,480 Christian: 3 CPU, the new ones that have just been released. 163 00:12:43,140 --> 00:12:49,260 Christian: We have solid memory up to 64 gigabytes DDR5 and a whopping 88 watt-hours battery. 164 00:12:50,140 --> 00:12:57,940 Christian: Also we have Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, Thunderbolt, USB-A, HDMI, card reader and audio in and out. 165 00:12:58,260 --> 00:13:01,160 Christian: So I would say normal specs these days. 166 00:13:01,500 --> 00:13:06,980 Christian: But what really caught my attention is that this model is going to have six speakers and two microphones. 167 00:13:07,170 --> 00:13:09,340 Christian: And that's very unusual for ThinkPad, I would say. 168 00:13:10,300 --> 00:13:16,880 Thomas: yeah thinkpads are not held up in high regard for their audio capability like they've gotten a lot 169 00:13:17,010 --> 00:13:23,540 Thomas: better uh when they started making upward firing speakers and thin chassis but that's like the one 170 00:13:23,570 --> 00:13:28,879 Thomas: thing that most enthusiasts will kind of agree on is you don't really buy a thinkpad for its audio 171 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:31,020 Thomas: system. So we'll see. 172 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:37,720 Christian: definitely i think that's also quite hard to compete up against apple devices at that point 173 00:13:37,740 --> 00:13:41,620 Christian: because they really have very good speakers and good microphones. 174 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:45,660 Christian: And I have a very old MacBook Pro from 10 years ago 175 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,580 Christian: that still has better sound than my current daily driver. 176 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:53,100 Christian: So I think it's a different focus on your audience. 177 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,880 Christian: So it's hard to compare those two devices. 178 00:13:58,460 --> 00:14:00,140 Christian: So any other details? 179 00:14:00,180 --> 00:14:01,660 Christian: We have a fingerprint on the power button. 180 00:14:01,780 --> 00:14:03,520 Christian: We have a webcam shutter for privacy. 181 00:14:03,660 --> 00:14:05,900 Christian: And the weight is just 1.5 kilograms. 182 00:14:06,100 --> 00:14:07,120 Christian: That sounds interesting. 183 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:09,820 Christian: maybe we can talk a little bit about 184 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:12,040 Christian: what's your point on the X9 185 00:14:12,380 --> 00:14:13,820 Christian: series that's the latest 186 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:15,040 Christian: member of the ThinkPad family 187 00:14:15,860 --> 00:14:27,780 Thomas: Well, I think I won't try to remember the person's name, but it came out last year that the reason that they called it the X9 is because it is the furthest away from the X1. 188 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:28,320 Christian: hmm 189 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:29,480 Thomas: And it's like, you know what? 190 00:14:30,460 --> 00:14:33,820 Thomas: I think that that is an okay approach to take 191 00:14:34,490 --> 00:14:36,500 Thomas: because you're not trying to say 192 00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:38,200 Thomas: that this is like every other ThinkPad 193 00:14:37,100 --> 00:14:37,220 Christian: hmm 194 00:14:38,390 --> 00:14:39,420 Thomas: because it isn't. 195 00:14:40,620 --> 00:14:43,900 Thomas: There's some huge departures from design language 196 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:49,200 Thomas: that I think scared a lot of traditional fans 197 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:51,200 Thomas: because the track point is missing, 198 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:53,500 Thomas: the colors it was offered in. 199 00:14:53,960 --> 00:15:02,460 Thomas: It didn't look necessarily like a traditional ThinkPad would that, you know, Richard Sapper helped design. 200 00:15:03,140 --> 00:15:06,520 Thomas: It didn't have that sleek, black, mysterious box look. 201 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,180 Thomas: I still wonder a bit why it was called a ThinkPad. 202 00:15:12,190 --> 00:15:14,440 Thomas: Like, to me, it's a very nice ThinkBook. 203 00:15:14,980 --> 00:15:15,100 Christian: Hmm. 204 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:24,800 Thomas: But I also understand that the ThinkBook kind of fits in a certain price bracket that a premium ThinkPad may not. 205 00:15:25,220 --> 00:15:34,960 Thomas: So we will see how long they produce the X9 for and how well it does because they've produced the Z13 and Z15. 206 00:15:35,380 --> 00:15:41,860 Thomas: I can't remember, but when they revitalized the Z series, that kind of came and went. 207 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:47,760 Thomas: I'm curious to see if the X9 will stay for the long haul in the lineup. 208 00:15:49,260 --> 00:15:56,300 Thomas: But I don't, I didn't panic as much as some people did at CES last year when that thing came out. 209 00:15:56,540 --> 00:16:04,380 Thomas: And even when they made the white version and people were talking about, oh, you know, Thinkpads are now white. 210 00:16:04,390 --> 00:16:12,040 Thomas: And it's like, well, actually, Thinkpads have been, yeah, they always, they were at the beginning. 211 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:08,860 Christian: Always have been. 212 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:13,260 Thomas: And that was a whole problem. 213 00:16:13,620 --> 00:16:18,440 Thomas: And like, I remember, you know, talking to Tom Hardy about that very issue with the DIN 214 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:23,360 Thomas: standards over in Germany and how that was, you know, controlling the industry of what 215 00:16:23,740 --> 00:16:24,660 Thomas: colors PCs could be. 216 00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:28,300 Thomas: But yeah, you know, experiment, go play. 217 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,180 Thomas: It wouldn't be what I would have called it, but I don't make those decisions. 218 00:16:34,220 --> 00:16:38,520 Thomas: And if it gets more people looking at the ThinkPad line, I guess that's not a bad thing. 219 00:16:38,639 --> 00:16:44,580 Christian: I think so as well. So of course, I would rather choose to have a ThinkPad with the trackpoint. 220 00:16:45,340 --> 00:16:52,040 Christian: But from a business perspective, I mean, have a look at how IT departments work these days or 221 00:16:45,740 --> 00:16:46,000 Thomas: Oh yeah. 222 00:16:52,430 --> 00:16:58,280 Christian: big companies work these days. You have normal corporate workers with their business machines, 223 00:16:58,490 --> 00:17:04,679 Christian: let it be HP, Dell, Lenovo, whatever. And you have a lot of people that are using MacBooks these days 224 00:17:04,699 --> 00:17:08,620 Christian: for developing purposes, for creative stuff. 225 00:17:09,089 --> 00:17:13,640 Christian: And of course, this is an opportunity to make another device 226 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:15,160 Christian: that would fit in their needs. 227 00:17:15,780 --> 00:17:19,079 Christian: And have a ThinkPad that's more looks like a MacBook 228 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:21,920 Christian: and is more stylish, has better sound. 229 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:23,060 Christian: Why not? 230 00:17:23,540 --> 00:17:28,480 Christian: So I can see why they decided to play with that kind of devices. 231 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:34,360 Christian: And I also like to hear that they still keep up the track point. 232 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,960 Christian: So they say that very loud and very clearly that the track point is going to stay. 233 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:46,120 Christian: And this is just for the people that maybe just started working after their university 234 00:17:46,550 --> 00:17:50,180 Christian: and they never saw an old ThinkPad because they are 20 years old. 235 00:17:50,630 --> 00:17:53,860 Christian: And when they were born, they weren't able to use old ThinkPads. 236 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:57,640 Christian: So they do not know these kind of devices. 237 00:17:57,980 --> 00:18:03,740 Christian: And you can approach these customers easily if you have a device that looks like a MacBook. 238 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:04,820 Christian: So, why not? 239 00:18:05,570 --> 00:18:11,440 Christian: So the second news is about the X1 Carbon Gen 14, the very latest variant of that series, 240 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:13,680 Christian: with better repairability. 241 00:18:14,150 --> 00:18:18,640 Christian: So maybe let's focus on what the X1 Carbon looked like the last couple of years. 242 00:18:18,670 --> 00:18:23,260 Christian: So beginning, ever since the X1 Carbon Gen 2, the mainboard was mounted directly against 243 00:18:23,330 --> 00:18:24,040 Christian: the keyboard frame. 244 00:18:24,660 --> 00:18:28,700 Christian: So a lot of dismantling was required in order if you wanted to replace the keyboard. 245 00:18:29,310 --> 00:18:32,680 Christian: It was possible, but it was really painful, I would say. 246 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,540 Christian: And now they came up with a new design they named the Space Frame. 247 00:18:37,340 --> 00:18:41,420 Christian: And this means that the keyboard frame is now separated from the main structure frame. 248 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,980 Christian: And this is going to assist you because it's easier and faster to replace. 249 00:18:46,500 --> 00:18:48,680 Christian: So this looks basically interesting, I would say. 250 00:18:48,940 --> 00:18:50,360 Christian: Do you have any opinions on that? 251 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:51,560 Thomas: I do. 252 00:18:52,820 --> 00:18:55,760 Thomas: It is, to me, a return to form a bit. 253 00:18:56,300 --> 00:19:00,840 Thomas: If you think about when the magnesium roll cage was first added to ThinkPad design, 254 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,380 Thomas: that is very similar to what they're doing here. 255 00:19:06,420 --> 00:19:13,920 Thomas: But what it really reminds me of, and I have it here for demonstration purposes, is a T430U. 256 00:19:14,380 --> 00:19:14,560 Christian: Mm-hmm. 257 00:19:15,260 --> 00:19:22,960 Thomas: Because the T430U was a one-off model that had essentially a screwless entry on the bottom. 258 00:19:23,780 --> 00:19:30,060 Thomas: And if you open that up and take a look at the inside of the device, 259 00:19:30,700 --> 00:19:34,360 Thomas: you can see that there are components that are available on this side. 260 00:19:34,740 --> 00:19:38,840 Thomas: And if you take out the keyboard, there are components available on the other side. 261 00:19:39,940 --> 00:19:48,040 Thomas: So the space frame, I think, is a bit of a return to form rather than a brand new idea. 262 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,800 Thomas: They might be doing it for brand new reasons, though. 263 00:19:52,140 --> 00:19:52,320 Christian: Yeah. 264 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:55,680 Thomas: I think that would probably be the key difference there. 265 00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:57,000 Christian: That's interesting. 266 00:19:57,300 --> 00:20:01,740 Christian: We're going to put a link to the T430U in the show notes and of course a picture of yours, 267 00:20:02,500 --> 00:20:03,920 Christian: because it looks really interesting. 268 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:09,340 Christian: I never saw the T430U from the back because I do not have one in my collection. 269 00:20:09,460 --> 00:20:13,240 Christian: And it's considered one of the very first Ultrabooks of the ThinkPad lineup, 270 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:20,220 Christian: before it was officially named Ultrabook, because this is an Intel trademark as far as I remember. 271 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,840 Thomas: Yeah, it's very much a one-off experimental machine 272 00:20:24,020 --> 00:20:28,360 Thomas: that they didn't really keep any design cues of in later models. 273 00:20:29,660 --> 00:20:32,340 Thomas: However, when we look at that space frame idea, 274 00:20:33,340 --> 00:20:36,080 Thomas: I think that they might have gone back into their records 275 00:20:36,380 --> 00:20:38,400 Thomas: as well as looked around at what other people were doing. 276 00:20:39,220 --> 00:20:41,340 Thomas: A bit of column A, a bit of column B. 277 00:20:41,740 --> 00:20:44,700 Thomas: I wouldn't call it a copy of, say, like a framework or anything. 278 00:20:45,900 --> 00:20:49,400 Thomas: It's still very different, but you can definitely tell 279 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,800 Thomas: that there are a few design cues that they looked around and said, 280 00:20:53,020 --> 00:20:55,660 Thomas: How can, because ultimately they need to make it profitable. 281 00:20:57,220 --> 00:21:01,460 Thomas: And adding something that is repairable usually means you're adding components that drive up 282 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:02,340 Thomas: the cost of a machine. 283 00:21:02,940 --> 00:21:06,880 Thomas: So how can you reduce cost or increase value in other areas? 284 00:21:07,260 --> 00:21:13,340 Thomas: So when they're talking about how much, how many watts they can get a CPU to push in that 285 00:21:13,420 --> 00:21:21,239 Thomas: thin chassis, that's probably the bigger thing that helped them make that decision, not necessarily 286 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:26,100 Thomas: the repairability because like well if we can get the airflow in there increase the performance and 287 00:21:22,460 --> 00:21:22,640 Christian: Hmm. 288 00:21:26,180 --> 00:21:32,960 Thomas: say that we can push this chip harder and faster than the other guy we actually have a product that 289 00:21:33,030 --> 00:21:38,760 Thomas: we can claim has more value because it does and then help maybe hide some of that repairability 290 00:21:38,980 --> 00:21:45,819 Thomas: cost because screw posts and screws they take up room they add manufacturing time like it all it 291 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:50,180 Thomas: all adds up, especially when you're producing, you know, hundreds of thousands of machines. 292 00:21:50,800 --> 00:22:04,440 Christian: Definitely. And thermals is a very good reason to do this kind of refresh, because this is also something that they mentioned specifically, that cooling is now able to cool up to 30 watts of thermal design power. Previously, JOS has been 20 watts. 293 00:22:05,340 --> 00:22:16,940 Christian: And this is required because the G14 also now comes with Intel's latest Panther Lake CPU, so the Core Ultra 300H series, aka Core Ultra X7. 294 00:22:17,140 --> 00:22:21,840 Christian: They are really into finding new fancy names, aren't they? It's so hard to keep up with that. 295 00:22:22,900 --> 00:22:25,680 Thomas: I, you know, speaking of keeping up and fancy names, 296 00:22:25,770 --> 00:22:30,480 Thomas: I do hope that they keep the naming nomenclature 297 00:22:30,630 --> 00:22:33,880 Thomas: for the Gen 14 better than they did the Gen 13. 298 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,440 Thomas: Because the Gen 13 came with so many different CPU configurations. 299 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:40,040 Christian: Yeah. 300 00:22:40,140 --> 00:22:41,980 Thomas: It was very, very frustrating. 301 00:22:42,900 --> 00:22:45,180 Thomas: Notebook Check did a great article on it. 302 00:22:46,020 --> 00:22:48,080 Thomas: and even when I was looking to be like 303 00:22:48,310 --> 00:22:49,640 Thomas: do I want to buy a Gen 13 304 00:22:50,020 --> 00:22:51,820 Thomas: it was a minefield of different 305 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,060 Thomas: CPU configurations even though they were 306 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:55,440 Thomas: all called the same thing 307 00:22:55,750 --> 00:22:56,880 Thomas: very frustrating so hopefully 308 00:22:57,710 --> 00:22:58,620 Thomas: they tidy that up 309 00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:05,120 Christian: It's really hard to get into the details because sometimes you see G13s with very good pricing 310 00:23:05,270 --> 00:23:08,760 Christian: and then you have a look at the hardware specs and then you see, ah, okay, I see, that's 311 00:23:09,260 --> 00:23:11,440 Christian: exactly the CPU generation I do not want to have. 312 00:23:11,820 --> 00:23:15,600 Christian: There are big differences between the two variants that Intel offered. 313 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:15,240 Thomas: mm-hmm 314 00:23:16,700 --> 00:23:22,240 Christian: So the G14 also brings up to 64 GB of soldered DDR5 memory. 315 00:23:22,650 --> 00:23:25,040 Christian: We have the keyboard that has been slightly updated. 316 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:30,940 Christian: And speaking of repairability, I think this relates to the fact that the USB-C ports are 317 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:31,520 Christian: now modular. 318 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,500 Christian: So they have a small daughterboard and that daughterboard can be replaced. 319 00:23:35,650 --> 00:23:40,920 Christian: I think they did that last year on one of the P models and they said that they are going 320 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:42,580 Christian: to do this for new models as well. 321 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:48,440 Christian: The G14 X1 Carbon is the very first one in this year that also gets that update. 322 00:23:49,550 --> 00:23:50,520 Christian: So this is quite good. 323 00:23:51,460 --> 00:23:54,860 Christian: The weight is still less than 1kg and that's not very much. 324 00:23:55,140 --> 00:24:00,700 Christian: That's very much like the X1 Nano, which was the slimmest and the lightest ThinkPad 325 00:24:00,900 --> 00:24:02,380 Christian: they made in the last couple of years. 326 00:24:02,510 --> 00:24:03,220 Christian: Very interesting. 327 00:24:04,260 --> 00:24:09,780 Christian: Last detail: We still have a 40-inch display that could be the 2.8K OLED variant or the Full 328 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:15,580 Christian: HD display with a 10 megapixel web camera. One of those machines appearing to you. 329 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:17,700 Thomas: I will say it does. 330 00:24:18,500 --> 00:24:21,720 Thomas: So I'm still using my X1 Nano Gen 1 331 00:24:22,980 --> 00:24:24,260 Thomas: even to this very day, 332 00:24:24,420 --> 00:24:25,960 Thomas: although it is starting to slow down 333 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:27,540 Thomas: with 16 gigabytes of RAM, 334 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:28,660 Thomas: and of course it's soldered, 335 00:24:28,820 --> 00:24:30,060 Thomas: and that was the max configuration 336 00:24:30,220 --> 00:24:31,700 Thomas: I think you could get for it at the time. 337 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:36,400 Thomas: So the idea that I could get a X1 Carbon 338 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:38,780 Thomas: that is the same weight, 339 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:39,720 Thomas: because let me tell you, 340 00:24:40,300 --> 00:24:43,080 Thomas: the weight on that machine is phenomenal 341 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:44,800 Thomas: in terms of its usability. 342 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:50,820 Thomas: There is no place that you couldn't take it, that you couldn't take a sheet of full-scap paper. 343 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:56,660 Thomas: This is probably the first machine since then that has actually got my interest as a possible replacement. 344 00:24:57,740 --> 00:24:59,200 Christian: Yeah, the X1 Nano is a lovely machine. 345 00:24:59,350 --> 00:25:01,260 Christian: I would love to get one of those as well. 346 00:25:02,220 --> 00:25:04,620 Christian: But it's not that easy to get. 347 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,200 Christian: It's at fair prices in use conditions. 348 00:25:08,980 --> 00:25:12,600 Christian: I mean, it's way too young to be put in a museum, right? 349 00:25:12,820 --> 00:25:12,920 Christian: So. 350 00:25:15,660 --> 00:25:33,760 Thomas: Uh, perhaps not, but they also don't make them anymore, which I can understand why I suppose, because it's like, well, the, the X1 carbon has kind of become the nano. So unless you make a nano nano, like, what are you going to do? So we'll see. 351 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:28,420 Christian: Yeah. 352 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:33,440 Christian: Yeah. 353 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:34,660 Christian: Yeah, right. 354 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,220 Christian: And I mean, it's a 13-inch display, 355 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:38,240 Christian: and the X1 Carbon has a 14-inch display. 356 00:25:38,500 --> 00:25:43,540 Christian: So it's not a huge difference that it would make sense to have two dedicated machines. 357 00:25:43,860 --> 00:25:49,180 Christian: If the XN1 Nano would have been a 10 or 12-inch display, okay, then it would have made sense. 358 00:25:49,540 --> 00:25:53,100 Christian: But nobody uses those tiny machines these days anymore, right? 359 00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:56,020 Christian: So 10 or 12-inch displays are kind of worn out, I would say. 360 00:25:57,060 --> 00:25:58,360 Thomas: No, I would agree with you on that. 361 00:25:58,470 --> 00:26:07,160 Thomas: And the footprint of a old 13, old 14 inch machine can now fit into a old 13 inch machine. 362 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:13,480 Thomas: Like the amount that they're able to shrink down a device over the decades is impressive. 363 00:26:14,100 --> 00:26:17,540 Thomas: So it's no longer your display is this many inches. 364 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:19,520 Thomas: Therefore, your machine is going to be this big. 365 00:26:21,380 --> 00:26:29,440 Thomas: Like I had a Gen 12 X1 Carbon that I was quite surprised how close it was in size to my X1 Nano. 366 00:26:29,570 --> 00:26:32,200 Thomas: I was like, oh, it's going to be like a whole inch bigger. 367 00:26:32,310 --> 00:26:34,620 Thomas: And it's like, ah, it actually wasn't. 368 00:26:34,820 --> 00:26:36,220 Christian: Yeah, it's not a big difference. 369 00:26:40,220 --> 00:26:42,600 Christian: So, Thomas, let's talk a bit about yourself. 370 00:26:42,990 --> 00:26:48,040 Christian: So, I'm very, very happy that we managed to do this conversation today. 371 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:54,980 Christian: But let's assume some of our listeners never heard about you and Laptop Retrospective. 372 00:26:55,660 --> 00:26:55,820 Thomas: Okay. 373 00:26:55,780 --> 00:26:57,740 Christian: Why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself. 374 00:26:58,080 --> 00:26:58,880 Christian: What are you known for? 375 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,120 Christian: What's your connection with ThinkPads? 376 00:27:02,140 --> 00:27:15,080 Thomas: okay um so in 2017 i had some free time and like a person with free time uh you usually find ways 377 00:27:15,150 --> 00:27:21,440 Thomas: to keep yourself busy and i wanted to do a couple of things the first thing that i wanted to do is i 378 00:27:21,490 --> 00:27:29,040 Thomas: wanted to start messing around with linux so i read online and this is in 2017 and everybody 379 00:27:29,060 --> 00:27:37,480 Thomas: was saying you need to get an old ThinkPad and to start with Linux like you know spend a modest 380 00:27:37,630 --> 00:27:43,580 Thomas: amount of money go get a ThinkPad and use that as your experiment or your experimentation machine 381 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:50,780 Thomas: so that's what I did I went to a used computer shop that refurbished stuff and they have this 382 00:27:50,980 --> 00:27:59,020 Thomas: ThinkPad x220 and I was like this thing is like it's so cool it's so small it's sleek it's black 383 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:00,540 Thomas: It's got all the ports. 384 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:06,520 Thomas: And full disclosure, for work, I was using a MacBook Retina. 385 00:28:07,540 --> 00:28:12,800 Thomas: And that continued until that machine was no longer of any value to me. 386 00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:13,960 Thomas: And then I switched back to Windows. 387 00:28:14,300 --> 00:28:20,880 Thomas: But that was my first introduction to both Thinkpads and Linux was that X220. 388 00:28:22,559 --> 00:28:28,400 Thomas: And at that time, at least where I am, people didn't know about Linux locally. 389 00:28:28,660 --> 00:28:31,280 Thomas: Like the people I talked to don't know about it. 390 00:28:32,050 --> 00:28:35,120 Thomas: The circles that I ran in weren't really talking about it. 391 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:44,480 Thomas: And I would show them this machine and it would be faster than their Windows laptop that they had spent like 90% more money than I did. 392 00:28:45,180 --> 00:28:49,280 Thomas: I think I bought that X220 for like $200 Canadian dollars in 2017. 393 00:28:51,220 --> 00:28:53,080 Thomas: And that did a couple things. 394 00:28:53,230 --> 00:28:57,440 Thomas: Either frustrated them, confused them, or had them asking me where do I get one. 395 00:28:58,620 --> 00:29:14,840 Thomas: So that started a bit of a route of documentation because I realized that there wasn't a lot of content out there that was accessible to the casual individual. 396 00:29:15,620 --> 00:29:29,960 Thomas: The content that was being produced at the time, I felt was either like really, really specialized and didn't have a low bar of entry or was, I'm going to use the word overproduced. 397 00:29:30,450 --> 00:29:36,880 Thomas: It was very much a show and it was very commercialized. 398 00:29:36,990 --> 00:29:38,520 Thomas: There was like product placements. 399 00:29:38,650 --> 00:29:40,760 Thomas: There was a lot of stuff. 400 00:29:41,900 --> 00:29:46,680 Thomas: And I'm like, but what if somebody just talked about the machine and that was it? 401 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:51,880 Thomas: Like, it would not be super entertaining necessarily, but it would be very informative. 402 00:29:52,060 --> 00:29:54,760 Thomas: People would get what they need and they could go about their business. 403 00:29:56,020 --> 00:30:05,440 Thomas: And that's kind of where things would start for the channel and both my journey with ThinkPad. 404 00:30:06,580 --> 00:30:10,260 Thomas: And I would help people that I know acquire these machines. 405 00:30:10,420 --> 00:30:15,700 Thomas: I'd set them up on Linux and they would be very happy with it. And I would produce videos on the 406 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:21,860 Thomas: machines that I would purchase for people before I gave them to them just to document what I was 407 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:27,960 Thomas: doing. I'd put it out there. And anytime that I took apart a laptop, now I was putting it underneath 408 00:30:28,010 --> 00:30:34,220 Thomas: a camera and filming it and just putting it online for people to watch. And that seems to have been, 409 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:44,960 Thomas: I'll say, you know, modestly successful for a person that's not looking to make a career out of this or do it full time or rely on YouTube ad revenue. 410 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:54,100 Thomas: And to answer your second question, kind of how things really got started with ThinkPad beyond the X220, is it was very clear that people love ThinkPads on the Internet. 411 00:30:54,880 --> 00:31:00,540 Thomas: I know that's a huge shock for your listeners that people like ThinkPads on the Internet. 412 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:08,780 Thomas: so i started to uh seek out well what are the cool thinkpads because i am coming to the game late 413 00:31:09,900 --> 00:31:16,020 Thomas: ladies and gentlemen so late in terms of like the the history and all of the things that i missed 414 00:31:16,690 --> 00:31:27,579 Thomas: uh in 2017 like that's only 10 that's not even 10 years yet of uh of coverage and i was just 415 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,940 Thomas: consuming huge amounts of information about ThinkPad because like here is a brand that has 416 00:31:32,340 --> 00:31:39,120 Thomas: lasted longer than any other portable computer brand to date like no one has lasted longer 417 00:31:40,300 --> 00:31:46,760 Thomas: and that not only that did the machines fascinate me but the stories behind the people that came up 418 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:52,359 Thomas: with this idea the fact that this idea was able to persist and go through all of these changes 419 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:59,240 Thomas: and still look the same and give the same nostalgic experience. 420 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:05,940 Thomas: So I was filming for a while, maybe about a year and a bit, all these different machines. 421 00:32:07,140 --> 00:32:09,500 Thomas: And I got in touch. 422 00:32:09,700 --> 00:32:11,220 Thomas: Well, I saw this article. 423 00:32:11,510 --> 00:32:13,180 Thomas: It was like the top 10 ThinkPads. 424 00:32:13,180 --> 00:32:15,060 Thomas: And there's loads of articles out there like this. 425 00:32:16,220 --> 00:32:19,679 Thomas: And I went through the list and I'm like looking for things that I might be able to 426 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:24,280 Thomas: acquire that were not super expensive that I could film. And I'd be like, oh, this would be 427 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,380 Thomas: probably really interesting. Like, I didn't know enough at the time to determine for myself what 428 00:32:29,460 --> 00:32:34,520 Thomas: was interesting. I was kind of relying on all of that community history that came before. 429 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:43,420 Thomas: And I found out about this X300 machine. And then I found out that there was a book 430 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,760 Thomas: that has essentially been written on its entire development. And I was like, well, 431 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:58,040 Thomas: this is obviously something I have to talk about. And I posted on Twitter about the book and the work 432 00:32:58,260 --> 00:33:05,940 Thomas: that I was looking into. And by chance, that is where David Hill reached out and said, hey, 433 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:12,700 Thomas: that's a ThinkPad book, but have you seen these ThinkPad books? And they were his design, 434 00:33:12,950 --> 00:33:17,420 Thomas: spirit, and essence books. And I'm like, no, where do I get them? And he's like, well, 435 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:25,040 Thomas: you don't because they're not like commercially available and then in a private message like 436 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:33,660 Thomas: would you like me to send you some and i'm like yes yes i would very much like you to send me them 437 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:27,780 Christian: Oh, wow. 438 00:33:34,380 --> 00:33:43,819 Thomas: um so yeah it's these two here so the large one was produced for the 20th anniversary when they 439 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:51,840 Thomas: had the exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. So that's, it's very, very similar to the book that 440 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:58,280 Thomas: you would see, that you can find online very easily, which is the 25th anniversary edition. 441 00:33:58,940 --> 00:34:06,520 Thomas: And I can leave a link for where your viewers can see it. But this one was only included in the 442 00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:16,179 Thomas: ThinkPad 25th anniversary edition at the T25. And he sent me both of these books, which was 443 00:34:11,300 --> 00:34:11,560 Christian: Mm-hmm. 444 00:34:16,419 --> 00:34:23,960 Thomas: exceptionally kind of him. And we were still talking afterward. And I said, and this is just where you 445 00:34:24,379 --> 00:34:30,000 Thomas: ask the question, like you have, like, I know who I'm talking to. I know how important they are to 446 00:34:30,139 --> 00:34:34,940 Thomas: ThinkPad history, but it's the question you don't ask is the one that's never answered. And I said, 447 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:38,040 Thomas: hey, would you be willing to talk about the X300 448 00:34:38,270 --> 00:34:39,860 Thomas: and maybe we could like record something? 449 00:34:40,010 --> 00:34:41,260 Thomas: And he was like, yeah, I'd love to. 450 00:34:41,820 --> 00:34:42,580 Thomas: And the rest is history. 451 00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,460 Christian: Wow, that's just awesome. 452 00:34:45,639 --> 00:34:51,020 Christian: And I mean, it really speaks for itself that they are so interested in sharing their thoughts. 453 00:34:51,899 --> 00:34:57,800 Christian: So they're interested in the topic and they really like to talk about the topic that drives them. 454 00:34:58,300 --> 00:35:08,440 Christian: And I think people always think I do not need to try to get in contact with that person and try to get arranged an interview because I will be ghosted. 455 00:35:09,100 --> 00:35:15,320 Christian: Quite often, people really love talking about those topics and are up to that kind of conversation. 456 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:20,080 Christian: But I did know that he reached out to you on Twitter. 457 00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:21,460 Christian: That's a fascinating story. 458 00:35:22,740 --> 00:35:29,060 Thomas: yeah he saw the the steve ham book um this one right here and as you can see it's it's very well 459 00:35:27,460 --> 00:35:27,700 Christian: Yeah. 460 00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:37,620 Thomas: read um and we'll probably mention this a little later but if you are a person that either loves 461 00:35:37,740 --> 00:35:42,420 Thomas: Thinkpads or loves computers and you don't have this book, then your collection is incomplete. 462 00:35:43,140 --> 00:35:44,240 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 463 00:35:44,550 --> 00:35:48,340 Christian: And I tried to get this one for my collection as well. 464 00:35:48,450 --> 00:35:52,600 Christian: I think that's the way how we got more in touch with each other 465 00:35:52,730 --> 00:35:55,999 Christian: because I commented some of your Mastermind posts 466 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,080 Christian: and I was looking for some books 467 00:35:58,460 --> 00:36:00,320 Christian: and I posted one of the ThinkPad books 468 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:01,880 Christian: that I was able to get 469 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,120 Christian: and then you commented on it, 470 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,240 Christian: hey, you need to get these and that ones as well. 471 00:36:06,580 --> 00:36:08,440 Christian: So that one is still missing in my collection. 472 00:36:09,340 --> 00:36:10,320 Thomas: It's a must have. 473 00:36:10,460 --> 00:36:14,280 Thomas: Like Steve, Steve Hamm interviewed so many people that are no longer with us. 474 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:21,820 Thomas: And it's, it's a, probably one of the better comprehensive pieces of just notebook and laptop 475 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:28,040 Thomas: history, not only, you know, IBM and Lenovo history and ThinkPad history. 476 00:36:28,180 --> 00:36:32,780 Thomas: It covers all of those beautifully, but we'll get to that topic later. 477 00:36:33,540 --> 00:36:34,540 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 478 00:36:35,250 --> 00:36:35,600 Christian: Awesome. 479 00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:44,620 Christian: So this also answers my next question, how you managed to interview all those important people because you spoke to David Hill and to other persons as well. 480 00:36:44,630 --> 00:36:50,160 Christian: So I assume you just wrote them on mail and said, hey, I did an interview with David Hill. 481 00:36:50,310 --> 00:36:52,220 Christian: Why don't we go ahead and also do a recording? 482 00:36:53,340 --> 00:36:54,300 Thomas: David has also been 483 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:55,880 Thomas: very gracious 484 00:36:56,020 --> 00:36:56,800 Thomas: with his connections 485 00:36:57,220 --> 00:36:58,060 Thomas: to arrange 486 00:36:58,220 --> 00:36:59,180 Thomas: some of those interviews 487 00:37:00,260 --> 00:37:01,640 Thomas: I really do need 488 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:02,339 Thomas: to give credit 489 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:08,580 Thomas: where credit is due. He's been exceptionally kind and generous with sharing his connections as well. 490 00:37:09,740 --> 00:37:15,500 Thomas: So I was able to connect with Tom Hardy, who was like one of the first industrial designers 491 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:21,680 Thomas: working on ThinkPad with Richard Sapper and Tom Takash, the people that were there at the very, 492 00:37:21,900 --> 00:37:28,259 Thomas: very, very beginning. That was a phenomenal conversation. He helped me connect with 493 00:37:29,119 --> 00:37:38,040 Thomas: George Caritas, Dr. John Caritas's brother, and we talked about John's journey, which is still one 494 00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:42,600 Thomas: of my favorite interviews. It was just beautiful. This is the only word I can use for it. Anything 495 00:37:42,670 --> 00:37:49,200 Thomas: else undersells it. And the recent interview that we just did with David Cherbuck is another example 496 00:37:49,850 --> 00:37:57,159 Thomas: of David graciously using his connections to kind of help tell all of these stories that might 497 00:37:57,300 --> 00:38:06,220 Thomas: otherwise be lost. And I think they help inform a much more comprehensive and well-rounded and 498 00:38:06,460 --> 00:38:09,320 Thomas: informed history around a topic that a lot of people love. 499 00:38:10,020 --> 00:38:16,360 Christian: definitely and i think also your your uh listeners i i would say all the people that subscribe your 500 00:38:16,460 --> 00:38:24,300 Christian: YouTube channel are of the same opinion because 30k people watch your content and I also had a 501 00:38:24,300 --> 00:38:29,540 Christian: look at some of your videos because they are just an awesome source for researchers so thanks a lot 502 00:38:29,540 --> 00:38:35,000 Christian: for all the work that you did and all the interviews they are so valuable totally makes 503 00:38:35,100 --> 00:38:41,979 Christian: make sense to have them online so maybe speaking of your collection I I try to find out on your 504 00:38:41,980 --> 00:38:44,840 Christian: website how many machines you have in your collection and 505 00:38:44,900 --> 00:38:45,080 Thomas: oh 506 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:47,880 Christian: whether you have any favorites, but I couldn't get an answer. 507 00:38:50,079 --> 00:38:57,580 Thomas: so the the number in the collection i have not counted not that i'm afraid to it's not like a 508 00:38:58,170 --> 00:39:03,220 Thomas: it's not an obsessive collection because there are some machines that are i will refer to them 509 00:39:03,300 --> 00:39:10,980 Thomas: is iterative. They're not like tent poles of ThinkPad history. So I would say that it's a 510 00:39:11,240 --> 00:39:21,520 Thomas: collection of probably maybe 25 machines. And yeah, I try to go after the ones that 511 00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:28,680 Thomas: are significant historically, or I find them personally interesting. And of course, 512 00:39:28,780 --> 00:39:35,680 Thomas: the ones that I can literally just afford to acquire and showcase to the world. There are 513 00:39:35,820 --> 00:39:41,940 Thomas: some machines I know I will never get in my collection because the cost is a barrier. You 514 00:39:41,940 --> 00:39:48,220 Thomas: know, I get a small amount of ad revenue from YouTube, and then that goes right back into 515 00:39:48,350 --> 00:39:54,819 Thomas: the acquisition of machines and filming equipment. So it's its own self-contained budget. In terms 516 00:39:54,840 --> 00:40:03,960 Thomas: of favorites like the ones that i like go down into the kind of my my little museum as it were 517 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:10,960 Thomas: and mess around with let's see if i can narrow it down for you i mean one of the obvious answers 518 00:40:11,060 --> 00:40:17,900 Thomas: we'll talk about later is the x300 that is probably one of the most if not the most important 519 00:40:18,100 --> 00:40:23,799 Thomas: thinkpad that was ever built and that's a very controversial thing to say i know um but if you 520 00:40:23,820 --> 00:40:28,960 Thomas: look at everything that came after, it's quite clear that that was a very key moment. So the X300 521 00:40:29,110 --> 00:40:39,260 Thomas: is important. I do have a 701C and that machine obviously captures the imagination of everybody. 522 00:40:39,410 --> 00:40:45,500 Thomas: When people have a list of really cool ThinkPads, that one is always on there. They made the model 523 00:40:45,590 --> 00:40:53,380 Thomas: kit for it on the 10th anniversary. It has that mystique and wonder about it. Practical, 524 00:40:53,680 --> 00:41:00,340 Thomas: practicality is an entirely other matter because it is not very practical and it's a there's a bit 525 00:41:00,340 --> 00:41:07,340 Thomas: of tragedy there but it captures the imagination and it's a lot of fun to to mess about with 526 00:41:08,380 --> 00:41:12,860 Thomas: and obviously there's kind of a personal connection being able to talk to George about his brother and 527 00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:19,759 Thomas: get a better understanding of who John was as a person adds adds a lot to that machine that other 528 00:41:19,780 --> 00:41:26,900 Thomas: people have not had the opportunity to add. And that makes it special to me. There is a machine 529 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:33,620 Thomas: that I got recently that it's just the pinnacle of weird. And it's that ThinkPad with the bubble 530 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:44,960 Thomas: jet printer built into it. That was, yeah, yeah, it's, it's ridiculous. Like, why would you do that? 531 00:41:35,620 --> 00:41:37,280 Christian: Oh, awesome. 532 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:54,400 Thomas: And of course, it's not an operational condition and it needs so much work that it's probably beyond my skill set to do. 533 00:41:55,420 --> 00:42:09,479 Thomas: But it really highlights to me just how far in those early days in the mid to early 90s where anything went in the notebook industry. 534 00:42:10,380 --> 00:42:18,080 Thomas: Like we just hadn't figured it out that no, the notebook needs to be this and for people to actually want to use it. 535 00:42:18,580 --> 00:42:20,820 Thomas: Like, no, we're going to make projector screens. 536 00:42:20,950 --> 00:42:23,300 Thomas: We're going to make printers go inside of it. 537 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:24,880 Thomas: We're going to make the keyboard expand. 538 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,060 Thomas: We're going to have straps so you can carry it around on your chest. 539 00:42:30,460 --> 00:42:34,660 Thomas: It just represents to me that, you know, that top of the mountain. 540 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:37,160 Thomas: Let's just, let's just do it. 541 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:45,900 Thomas: So that to me is pretty fun. 542 00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:46,940 Christian: Lovely. 543 00:42:47,660 --> 00:42:54,340 Christian: it's the 550bbj if i remember correctly so the first one that's ridiculously hard to to get and 544 00:42:50,820 --> 00:42:51,220 Thomas: Yeah. 545 00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,900 Christian: that's a very interesting machine so congratulations you managed to get one 546 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:00,620 Christian: really looking forward to your video on that one 547 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:08,220 Thomas: Yeah, I did a top five video on Thinkpads I haven't properly filmed yet. 548 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:12,240 Thomas: And I did feature it in that one because it's like, I don't know if I'm ever going to get the chance to feature this. 549 00:43:13,130 --> 00:43:17,200 Thomas: I could keep going, but there's one more just for the sake of time that I'll pull out. 550 00:43:17,450 --> 00:43:19,240 Thomas: And it's not a ThinkPad. 551 00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:21,480 Thomas: It's the Lenovo Skylight. 552 00:43:22,020 --> 00:43:22,420 Christian: Oh, yeah. 553 00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:35,500 Thomas: The story behind the Lenovo Skylight is one of brilliance, fun, little bit of tragedy because it never got built. 554 00:43:35,820 --> 00:43:38,320 Thomas: And that thing is just gorgeous. 555 00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:42,660 Thomas: It's just sleek and red. 556 00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:48,420 Thomas: And it's where we saw what would eventually become the new ThinkPad keyboard. 557 00:43:48,510 --> 00:43:57,280 Thomas: Like that's where that whole design of the scooped chiclet style keys started with. 558 00:43:57,330 --> 00:44:01,640 Thomas: And that was that collaborative effort between Richard Sapper and David Hill and his team. 559 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:08,700 Thomas: The reason that I hold it out, not only because of that, but because of the provenance of the machine. 560 00:44:09,500 --> 00:44:12,420 Thomas: It's the only machine that I own that was never released. 561 00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:15,640 Thomas: It's got that mystique around it. 562 00:44:17,700 --> 00:44:21,580 Thomas: I've got a really good idea where it came from as well. 563 00:44:21,740 --> 00:44:29,600 Thomas: And I know that there's a pretty direct connection between where it came from and the development team that worked on it. 564 00:44:30,020 --> 00:44:31,500 Thomas: So that's really cool. 565 00:44:32,100 --> 00:44:48,600 Thomas: And yeah, it's just, it's a look into what if or what could have been that wasn't. And for me, that kind of makes it stand out as a, as a very special machine. 566 00:44:49,340 --> 00:44:49,840 Christian: It is definitely. 567 00:44:50,060 --> 00:44:53,760 Christian: I never heard about that one before I saw your video on that, so we're going to link 568 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:53,920 Christian: that. 569 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:59,780 Christian: You did a very interesting video about that machine, and it's a real time capsule. 570 00:45:00,660 --> 00:45:05,420 Christian: could have been that that wasn't. That's a nice way to phrase that machine. 571 00:45:06,850 --> 00:45:10,000 Christian: So, speaking of all those fancy machines in your collection, what's your daily 572 00:45:10,220 --> 00:45:13,400 Christian: driver? Do you have any machine that you use on a daily basis? 573 00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:24,400 Thomas: so the daily driver is the lenovo thinkpad x1 nano gen 1 and i i went through so much 574 00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:31,880 Thomas: deliberation. So to give you a very quick, speedy overview of the laptops that I have owned, 575 00:45:32,500 --> 00:45:37,000 Thomas: because I couldn't afford a laptop before I went to university. So it's actually a very short list 576 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:44,800 Thomas: of laptops that I have used for work and that sort of thing. So I started with a Toshiba 810 577 00:45:45,260 --> 00:45:50,720 Thomas: satellite Pentium 4 laptop that was open box. Everything about that thing was mediocre. 578 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:54,020 Thomas: And the battery life was atrocious. 579 00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:59,100 Thomas: And then the netbook came on the scene. 580 00:46:00,110 --> 00:46:07,700 Thomas: And then I bought an Acer Aspire 1 A101 or something netbook. 581 00:46:07,710 --> 00:46:14,180 Thomas: And I was just fascinated that, one, this is a real laptop that's running a real version of Windows. 582 00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:20,120 Thomas: And two, this 10-inch machine fits on the lecture desk at my university. 583 00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:24,060 Thomas: And I have this big honking battery that it lasts all day. 584 00:46:24,860 --> 00:46:24,940 Christian: Yeah. 585 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:26,700 Thomas: I'm like, this is the future. 586 00:46:27,380 --> 00:46:32,440 Thomas: So like when people, you know, dump on the netbook, like these things were garbage. 587 00:46:27,980 --> 00:46:28,240 Christian: Yeah. 588 00:46:32,700 --> 00:46:33,580 Thomas: Why did we build them? 589 00:46:33,580 --> 00:46:35,140 Thomas: And it's like, it's okay. 590 00:46:35,150 --> 00:46:38,100 Thomas: It wasn't for you, but I love that thing to death. 591 00:46:38,860 --> 00:46:39,580 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 592 00:46:41,020 --> 00:46:43,360 Thomas: And it sold me on small machines. 593 00:46:44,700 --> 00:46:56,100 Thomas: And then after that, it was a HP TouchSmart TM2, which didn't stick around for very long because I did buy it new and it had an anemic i3 processor. 594 00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:03,440 Thomas: And then I went to a MacBook Pro Retina because they had time capsule technology. 595 00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:08,640 Thomas: And I had my cat walked across my keyboard one day and I lost a week's worth of work. 596 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:17,720 Thomas: And yeah, Mac at the time, to my knowledge, had the best backup support system that was built into the OS. 597 00:47:19,100 --> 00:47:24,780 Thomas: And then after that, I went back to Windows with the Surface Book 2, which I still use on the desk. 598 00:47:25,340 --> 00:47:26,460 Thomas: I'm actually on it right now. 599 00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:30,580 Thomas: And that's because it is the best laptop that I have in terms of web camera. 600 00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:34,080 Thomas: It has a very, very good web camera. 601 00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:42,700 Thomas: certainly better than the 720p one that's in the X1 Nano, because webcams weren't important to 602 00:47:42,940 --> 00:47:52,140 Thomas: most people before COVID, and then COVID changed that. So yeah, and then the X1 Nano came out at a 603 00:47:52,280 --> 00:48:00,959 Thomas: time where I was looking to change to a ThinkPad, because the purchase of the Surface Book 2 and the 604 00:48:00,980 --> 00:48:06,340 Thomas: beginning of my journey researching and documenting ThinkPad were kind of happening at the same time. 605 00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:13,560 Thomas: And it's like, well, my next computer is going to be a ThinkPad, but which one? So I went through 606 00:48:14,100 --> 00:48:23,700 Thomas: looking at like the T14 at the time, or the X13 at the time, or the T14S. And I researched those 607 00:48:23,980 --> 00:48:31,940 Thomas: into the ground because the differences were you know very nuanced and then they released the x1 608 00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:43,460 Thomas: nano gen 1 and it's like here's a a laptop that has a you know 2 2.8 k color 100 color accurate 609 00:48:43,700 --> 00:48:51,759 Thomas: screen which i wanted it was small and the thing was less than a kilogram and the only detractor 610 00:48:51,780 --> 00:48:57,920 Thomas: that I had at the time was like, oh, it's only got two USB C ports and a headphone jack. 611 00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:00,920 Thomas: Golly, that's going to be hard. 612 00:49:01,940 --> 00:49:02,740 Thomas: And then it wasn't. 613 00:49:04,780 --> 00:49:05,540 Thomas: It just wasn't. 614 00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:10,440 Thomas: The whole issue of dongle life has never been a barrier. 615 00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:13,180 Thomas: And we've gotten better at building dongles. 616 00:49:13,220 --> 00:49:15,260 Thomas: So that issue just went away entirely. 617 00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:19,100 Thomas: And it wasn't until last year that I've even started looking at a replacement for it. 618 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:21,260 Christian: Very good, very good. 619 00:49:21,390 --> 00:49:25,640 Christian: I can see myself in some of the things that you just said, because I was also a big fan 620 00:49:25,780 --> 00:49:28,560 Christian: of the netbook devices that were out there. 621 00:49:28,710 --> 00:49:33,020 Christian: I bought one of the very first ones, the Asus EPC-701G. 622 00:49:34,060 --> 00:49:39,520 Christian: That's just a 7-inch display machine, and I also, because of this machine, 623 00:49:39,700 --> 00:49:41,380 Christian: I also fell in love with small machines. 624 00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:46,160 Christian: I bought myself a Toshiba Libretto 100 CT 625 00:49:46,820 --> 00:49:48,080 Christian: that I still have in my collection. 626 00:49:47,140 --> 00:49:47,360 Thomas: Uh-huh. 627 00:49:48,440 --> 00:49:50,980 Christian: And yeah, those tiny machines 628 00:49:51,130 --> 00:49:52,860 Christian: have a very special place in my heart. 629 00:49:52,970 --> 00:49:55,060 Christian: So I can relate to that one. 630 00:49:56,420 --> 00:49:58,660 Christian: So maybe just five short questions 631 00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:01,820 Christian: to get to know you even better. 632 00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:03,780 Christian: So for our listeners, 633 00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:02,840 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 634 00:50:04,660 --> 00:50:06,900 Christian: they are not part of the shared document 635 00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:09,160 Christian: that Thomas and I are having a look at it. 636 00:50:09,260 --> 00:50:12,440 Christian: So he's not prepared about the things that I'm going to ask right now. 637 00:50:13,260 --> 00:50:14,720 Thomas: Yep, I have not seen these questions. 638 00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:15,580 Thomas: Let's go. 639 00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:17,000 Christian: Start with the easy one. 640 00:50:17,070 --> 00:50:19,280 Christian: Would you prefer IBM or Lenovo Thinkpads? 641 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:20,760 Christian: What's your cup of tea? 642 00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:28,840 Thomas: oh you said you're starting with the easy one okay i have an answer for this and it might shock a 643 00:50:28,930 --> 00:50:40,380 Thomas: couple people i do prefer lenovo and the reason i say that is a simple one ibm had like ibm built 644 00:50:38,270 --> 00:50:38,380 Christian: Okay. 645 00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:48,940 Thomas: that brand there is no denying that IBM built that brand they were not the best stewards of that 646 00:50:49,180 --> 00:50:55,720 Thomas: brand and what I am like this is just what I have gathered from talking to people and looking at 647 00:50:56,060 --> 00:51:05,940 Thomas: probably over a hundred thinkpads and it is toward the end like I would say after the year 2000 648 00:51:05,940 --> 00:51:10,660 Thomas: when they're starting to murmur internally about selling the PC business, 649 00:51:11,900 --> 00:51:12,760 Thomas: innovation died. 650 00:51:13,940 --> 00:51:15,620 Thomas: The quality started to drop. 651 00:51:17,720 --> 00:51:21,300 Thomas: There were heavy cost-cutting restrictions. 652 00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:26,540 Thomas: And many people that I've talked to simply were talking about 653 00:51:27,140 --> 00:51:29,320 Thomas: IBM turning off the hot water in the shower. 654 00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:37,440 Thomas: Like the, and I know that that's a very unpopular thing to say for a lot of diehard IBM enthusiasts. 655 00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:47,940 Thomas: But if you look at some of the machines that were being built, especially toward the end of IBM's tenure with the brand, they had a lot of quality control issues. 656 00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,440 Thomas: They were, they weren't even building their own machines at that point. 657 00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:53,840 Thomas: They were outsourcing to different companies like Acer. 658 00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:55,400 Thomas: Lenovo was already a manufacturer. 659 00:51:56,300 --> 00:51:57,400 Thomas: LG was building machines. 660 00:51:59,980 --> 00:52:03,980 Thomas: the brand was there, but I think the quality that a lot of people associate with 661 00:52:04,570 --> 00:52:12,620 Thomas: some of the original machines was starting to go away. So if you were to say to me, I could have 662 00:52:13,560 --> 00:52:22,340 Thomas: a modern IBM ThinkPad and a Lenovo ThinkPad, again, even though Lenovo has done a lot of 663 00:52:22,620 --> 00:52:28,359 Thomas: things that the enthusiast community has struggled with, I think overall that they would 664 00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:31,260 Thomas: they were the better stewards of the brand. 665 00:52:32,380 --> 00:52:33,040 Christian: That's a good answer. 666 00:52:34,660 --> 00:52:37,780 Thomas: Yeah, and it's one that I have to usually explain to people 667 00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:43,320 Thomas: because they have in their mind the nostalgia of IBM 668 00:52:43,960 --> 00:52:47,040 Thomas: being the original company that built that brand, 669 00:52:47,110 --> 00:52:48,740 Thomas: and that is absolutely true. 670 00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:50,660 Thomas: They did so much cool stuff. 671 00:52:50,660 --> 00:52:51,860 Thomas: They laid the groundwork. 672 00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:53,480 Thomas: They made the design. 673 00:52:54,620 --> 00:52:57,700 Thomas: But all of those people, like the majority of them, 674 00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:01,340 Thomas: were still there when Lenovo picked it up 675 00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:02,520 Thomas: and they gave them a budget. 676 00:53:03,220 --> 00:53:03,280 Christian: Yeah. 677 00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:03,420 Christian: Yeah. 678 00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:06,160 Thomas: They gave them the opportunity to continue to innovate 679 00:53:06,810 --> 00:53:09,320 Thomas: rather than be like, oh, this is just good enough. 680 00:53:09,900 --> 00:53:12,600 Thomas: Oh, we can save some money cutting the costs here. 681 00:53:13,020 --> 00:53:14,560 Thomas: We can make these plastics cheaper. 682 00:53:14,650 --> 00:53:17,120 Thomas: We can make the ThinkLight amber because it's cheaper. 683 00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:17,520 Christian: Yeah. 684 00:53:18,380 --> 00:53:21,080 Thomas: Like the fact that those conversations are happening 685 00:53:21,360 --> 00:53:22,600 Thomas: is not healthy. 686 00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:25,500 Thomas: And the fact that they were about to give it, 687 00:53:25,780 --> 00:53:35,200 Thomas: Like it was a toss up, a two way toss up between Lenovo buying it and this finance group in the United States buying the brand. 688 00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:38,840 Thomas: Like that's how close we were to probably losing ThinkPad. 689 00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:40,900 Thomas: And it's all in Steve Hamm's book. 690 00:53:41,180 --> 00:53:42,300 Thomas: It's a must read. 691 00:53:42,750 --> 00:53:49,700 Thomas: If my answer to that question makes you upset, you need to go read Steve Hamm's book. 692 00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:48,580 Christian: read the book 693 00:53:50,340 --> 00:53:55,340 Christian: yeah definitely and i i mean i also have this kind of conversation with other people 694 00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:02,839 Christian: and some people also say ibm has been the better vendor and then when you go into the details then 695 00:54:02,860 --> 00:54:09,960 Christian: it quickly comes out that those people that say these things mostly relate to IBM in terms of 696 00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:17,360 Christian: Thinkpads because of machines like the 760 series about the 701 series but they do not think about 697 00:54:17,620 --> 00:54:23,520 Christian: that for example we had the X20 series that had serious problems with main boards just dying 698 00:54:24,240 --> 00:54:28,960 Christian: or maybe the T20 that had a lot of internal problems in the beginning and later revisions 699 00:54:24,380 --> 00:54:24,660 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 700 00:54:28,980 --> 00:54:34,500 Christian: fix that. That's something that not everybody is talking about or maybe just forgot about 701 00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:43,220 Christian: in all those years. So I think your answer totally makes sense. So maybe now an easier one. What's 702 00:54:43,220 --> 00:54:48,200 Christian: your pick for the operating system on your ThinkPads, Windows or Linux? Because you mentioned you 703 00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:51,540 Christian: are also trying to start using Linux in 2017. 704 00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:59,240 Thomas: so because of like and i don't know if this is true for everybody else so if if you're listening 705 00:54:59,270 --> 00:55:03,720 Thomas: to this podcast or you're watching this on youtube i would love to hear your your rationale 706 00:55:03,790 --> 00:55:12,060 Thomas: and the comments for this um i run both on a variety of different devices the generally speaking 707 00:55:12,260 --> 00:55:17,500 Thomas: if it's eighth generation intel or older i'm throwing linux on it in terms of performance 708 00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:24,040 Thomas: security, all of those good reasons and compatibility, because I want a modern operating 709 00:55:24,190 --> 00:55:29,280 Thomas: system that's safe to take online that I can still do work on. If it's newer than eighth 710 00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:35,160 Thomas: generation Intel, and if it has more than 16 gigabytes of RAM, that is another criteria I have. 711 00:55:35,860 --> 00:55:41,820 Thomas: Generally, my machines are running Windows, and that is a limitation of the environments that I 712 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:52,360 Thomas: have to interact with. So I interact with networks and other people where I need access to either 713 00:55:53,080 --> 00:56:01,600 Thomas: Windows network security protocols, or I need access to specific pieces of software that yes, 714 00:56:01,690 --> 00:56:11,800 Thomas: I can emulate on Linux, but I just don't have the time to have those systems like I won't snap 715 00:56:07,820 --> 00:56:08,020 Christian: Yeah. 716 00:56:08,350 --> 00:56:08,700 Christian: Yeah. 717 00:56:11,820 --> 00:56:17,840 Thomas: that's a terrible thing to do on a on a podcast but like like that like i just want things to run 718 00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:16,560 Christian: Yeah. 719 00:56:18,590 --> 00:56:25,720 Thomas: uh immediately out of the box without the the need to tweak and i get the sense that those people that 720 00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:30,300 Thomas: are that are running linux on really modern hardware they're either in an ecosystem that 721 00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:35,120 Thomas: allows it or they're really running their own ecosystem where they don't really need to worry 722 00:56:35,140 --> 00:56:38,360 Thomas: about the others that they're interacting with. 723 00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:42,580 Thomas: But like I love MX Linux for like older hardware, 724 00:56:42,730 --> 00:56:43,940 Thomas: the XFCE edition. 725 00:56:44,490 --> 00:56:46,120 Thomas: I love Mint for that in-between 726 00:56:46,310 --> 00:56:48,600 Thomas: where you've got enough RAM to run that Cinnamon 727 00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:51,360 Thomas: desktop or operating system. 728 00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:54,840 Thomas: I know that Windows 11 gets a lot of flack 729 00:56:55,140 --> 00:56:57,220 Thomas: for the bloatware and there are ways 730 00:56:57,220 --> 00:56:58,880 Thomas: that you can reduce that down. 731 00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:03,720 Thomas: But I think we'll also recognize that 732 00:57:03,740 --> 00:57:10,820 Thomas: because of the ubiquity of windows that it becomes a necessary evil so it still runs on my 733 00:57:11,579 --> 00:57:14,780 Thomas: x1 nano and it will probably run on the next machine i buy 734 00:57:16,620 --> 00:57:21,380 Christian: relate to that. It always depends on the kind of applications you need to use for your job and for 735 00:57:21,380 --> 00:57:27,760 Christian: the things that you need to do, which makes me really grateful that I can choose the utilities 736 00:57:27,870 --> 00:57:36,800 Christian: I want to use in my workplace, but that's rather an exception than a rule. So it's kind of personal 737 00:57:37,010 --> 00:57:38,280 Christian: freedom that I'm very grateful for. 738 00:57:39,100 --> 00:57:43,880 Thomas: yeah and i think the other thing too just to to finish that and i've gotten much better at doing 739 00:57:43,900 --> 00:57:48,600 Thomas: this is I try to choose software that is platform agnostic. 740 00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:54,160 Thomas: I try to avoid applications that will only run on Windows. 741 00:57:55,660 --> 00:58:01,740 Thomas: If you have a Linux executable, even a Mac, even though I don't run Mac, if you have an 742 00:58:01,940 --> 00:58:08,880 Thomas: executable that you service the big three, Windows, Linux, and Mac, I will pick your software 743 00:58:09,160 --> 00:58:11,860 Thomas: over the one that is exclusive to any other platform. 744 00:58:12,760 --> 00:58:13,320 Christian: Very good idea. 745 00:58:14,140 --> 00:58:19,700 Christian: If you had to choose, would you rather not use Thinkpads at all or just ones without a trackpoint? 746 00:58:19,900 --> 00:58:22,180 Christian: If those are the only two options you would have. 747 00:58:22,420 --> 00:58:22,540 Thomas: whoa 748 00:58:24,170 --> 00:58:25,760 Thomas: so not use thinkpads 749 00:58:26,730 --> 00:58:27,240 Thomas: at all 750 00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:27,640 Christian: Yeah. 751 00:58:27,980 --> 00:58:28,380 Thomas: or 752 00:58:29,800 --> 00:58:31,680 Thomas: what was the track point condition again 753 00:58:32,300 --> 00:58:40,140 Christian: So you need to pick up a new machine so it can be a used one and it could rather be Thinkpad without a trackpoint. 754 00:58:34,980 --> 00:58:35,740 Thomas: yep 755 00:58:37,010 --> 00:58:37,220 Thomas: yep 756 00:58:40,340 --> 00:58:45,340 Christian: because in the near future, we only have ThinkPads without TrackPoint to set a horror scenario, 757 00:58:46,120 --> 00:58:49,900 Christian: or you would need to use a notebook that's not a ThinkPad. 758 00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:53,260 Thomas: yeah actually you know what this question is actually not that difficult because 759 00:58:54,030 --> 00:58:59,900 Thomas: i like there are there are people that fall in love with thinkpad that fell in love with 760 00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:08,440 Thomas: different things. They fell in love with the modularity and the repairability, and many of 761 00:59:08,560 --> 00:59:14,620 Thomas: those users have migrated to other platforms in recent years. The framework is the classic example. 762 00:59:15,580 --> 00:59:18,660 Thomas: The framework has never attracted me because it doesn't have a track point. 763 00:59:19,100 --> 00:59:19,640 Christian: Same for me. 764 00:59:21,939 --> 00:59:29,920 Thomas: And track point technology, that's a whole other conversation on the patents and the 765 00:59:29,940 --> 00:59:32,540 Thomas: the history and the stories behind that. 766 00:59:32,540 --> 00:59:34,720 Thomas: Cause like when I talked to Dr. Selker, 767 00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:36,900 Thomas: he really gave me the history of that. 768 00:59:37,560 --> 00:59:40,700 Thomas: And it is fascinating how every other company 769 00:59:40,790 --> 00:59:42,680 Thomas: has handled track point technology 770 00:59:43,580 --> 00:59:45,560 Thomas: and how IBM and Lenovo handled it. 771 00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:47,400 Thomas: But yeah, I would, 772 00:59:47,720 --> 00:59:50,280 Thomas: the track point has to be on the next computer I buy. 773 00:59:51,820 --> 00:59:53,720 Thomas: Once you have learned to use it, 774 00:59:54,980 --> 00:59:56,540 Thomas: swiping up and down with your fingers 775 00:59:56,790 --> 00:59:59,300 Thomas: multiple times to scroll a page just feels stupid. 776 01:00:00,240 --> 01:00:09,420 Thomas: the idea that I can put in the bare minimum amount of like muscle and movement and get everything 777 01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:18,520 Thomas: that I need and I don't have to leave the home row and I like even the the new track pads that 778 01:00:18,780 --> 01:00:23,799 Thomas: don't have the physical buttons but they have the haptic ones that Sensil's technology is built 779 01:00:23,820 --> 01:00:30,720 Thomas: those are actually quite good that the haptic feedback is is not by perfect replacement for 780 01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:36,180 Thomas: a button but i would still take that over a machine without a track point so yeah that's 781 01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:38,160 Thomas: an easy question track point or bust 782 01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:45,500 Christian: yeah very good one so as you have have been speaking to a lot of very interesting and 783 01:00:45,560 --> 01:00:49,520 Christian: influential people on the ThinkPad brand, if you could have interviewed Richard Zepper 784 01:00:49,550 --> 01:00:51,940 Christian: at his lifetime, what would you have asked him? 785 01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:53,780 Thomas: sorry who 786 01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:54,360 Christian: Richard Zepper. 787 01:00:54,900 --> 01:01:21,280 Thomas: Oh, Richard Sapper. Man. It's actually a question that I have thought about because David Hill and I have had quite a few conversations about Richard Sapper and he's shared a lot of stories about the time that they were able to spend together. 788 01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:35,680 Thomas: If I were to ask him a question, and I've read some of his biographies, so I would avoid some of the questions that I've seen how precisely he would answer. 789 01:01:36,980 --> 01:01:39,640 Thomas: I would probably just ask him, what are you working on now? 790 01:01:41,200 --> 01:01:50,600 Thomas: And I know that might seem like a really simple answer, but I think that would probably be what I would want to know. 791 01:01:50,740 --> 01:01:56,820 Thomas: Like, what are you working on right now in this moment that you think deserves your attention? 792 01:01:58,500 --> 01:02:06,020 Thomas: Because here's a person, yes, he's got this background of being known for, you know, doing a lot of design work on ThinkPad. 793 01:02:07,120 --> 01:02:10,020 Thomas: But there are very few things that that man did not design. 794 01:02:11,120 --> 01:02:17,900 Thomas: And I also got the impression that he wouldn't have worked on something that he didn't feel that he could make a contribution to. 795 01:02:19,440 --> 01:02:35,040 Thomas: And I think just even for a moment to see the world through his lens in that point in time that I would be speaking to him through that question, like what, what is getting your attention right now? Like, what are you excited about? That's what I'd want to know. 796 01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:43,320 Christian: that's a very good one yeah i focused a lot on on the things that he did in the in the past so i 797 01:02:44,160 --> 01:02:49,400 Christian: recorded an episode just about his early works and how he ended up with ibm and he did a lot of 798 01:02:44,900 --> 01:02:45,380 Thomas: Yeah. 799 01:02:49,500 --> 01:02:57,320 Christian: great things so he he did um um a kettle and he did a coffee maker of of course he he designed 800 01:02:57,600 --> 01:03:04,800 Christian: the the tco lamp i also have one in my collection and really which one the black one or the silver 801 01:03:00,780 --> 01:03:01,420 Thomas: I have one 802 01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:03,020 Thomas: Yes 803 01:03:04,860 --> 01:03:05,080 Thomas: Yep 804 01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:06,460 Thomas: No I have the black one 805 01:03:06,240 --> 01:03:14,340 Christian: that's a lovely one i i was very very lucky that uh from my my friends um gave this tco lamp to me 806 01:03:14,360 --> 01:03:20,100 Christian: at my birthday, and it was just awesome. So it's a very lovely lamp. 807 01:03:19,560 --> 01:03:22,620 Thomas: Oh, that, that lamp is fun to show people. 808 01:03:22,790 --> 01:03:25,480 Thomas: Cause it's like, they just move the lamp, just get them to touch it. 809 01:03:25,780 --> 01:03:25,900 Christian: Yeah. 810 01:03:26,130 --> 01:03:29,000 Thomas: And then they understand why all the weights work the way they do. 811 01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:33,320 Thomas: And like, you can position that lamp in any place and it'll stay there. 812 01:03:31,940 --> 01:03:40,420 Christian: Yeah. And it's so lovely. It's just black. It's classic. It's timeless, like the ThinkPad design. 813 01:03:39,600 --> 01:03:39,860 Thomas: Uh-huh. 814 01:03:40,620 --> 01:03:45,140 Christian: And you have the red accents that we also see on the ThinkPad design language. 815 01:03:45,340 --> 01:03:50,200 Christian: And I would be really interested in here what he would have been up to these days. 816 01:03:50,540 --> 01:03:56,980 Christian: So I just found out that he died 10 years ago on the 31st of December 2015. 817 01:03:57,600 --> 01:04:00,760 Christian: So that was just 10 years ago. 818 01:04:01,500 --> 01:04:08,200 Christian: And in his book, he mentioned that designing products is more like crafting sculptures to him. 819 01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:16,240 Christian: And I think that's a very important sentence that gives an impression about how he was thinking about designing and his work. 820 01:04:17,300 --> 01:04:22,680 Thomas: yeah there are there are two um good books there's the the one larger one that's black 821 01:04:23,340 --> 01:04:30,079 Thomas: and i the author escapes me and then there was a newer one released i think one and a half years 822 01:04:30,100 --> 01:04:38,720 Thomas: ago by Kaz, which is also very, very good. And there's lots of stories in the back pages as well. 823 01:04:38,900 --> 01:04:43,600 Thomas: So if you're, if you're listening and you're a Richard Sapper fan, those are, those are two 824 01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:48,900 Thomas: really good books to have in your collection, especially if you're a ThinkPad fan, lots of 825 01:04:48,900 --> 01:04:50,280 Thomas: good pictures and info on there too. 826 01:04:50,640 --> 01:04:57,160 Christian: Definitely. And you will end up in a very, very deep rabbit hole that is called industrial product 827 01:04:57,520 --> 01:05:03,840 Christian: design. Because after reading the book, I have a lot of very special lamps and pens and so on, 828 01:05:03,620 --> 01:05:04,820 Thomas: Yes. 829 01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:06,220 Christian: designed by Richard Sepper on my wish list. 830 01:05:08,780 --> 01:05:11,400 Christian: So maybe speaking of designing a ThinkPad, 831 01:05:08,790 --> 01:05:09,200 Thomas: Yes. 832 01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:09,280 Thomas: Yeah. 833 01:05:11,640 --> 01:05:14,240 Christian: let's assume you could design a ThinkPad on your own. 834 01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:19,160 Christian: You have a team that would implement all the crazy ideas that you have. 835 01:05:14,980 --> 01:05:15,260 Thomas: Oh. 836 01:05:19,400 --> 01:05:22,660 Christian: Which discarded feature from past ThinkPads would you bring back? 837 01:05:22,850 --> 01:05:25,520 Christian: So things that aren't part of modern ThinkPads anymore, 838 01:05:26,030 --> 01:05:28,380 Christian: but that you would like to bring back in a new machine. 839 01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:29,800 Christian: What would it be? 840 01:05:30,680 --> 01:05:33,500 Thomas: The first thing right off the top of my head without even thinking is the Fink Lite. 841 01:05:33,720 --> 01:05:34,800 Christian: Yeah, same for me. 842 01:05:36,600 --> 01:05:38,740 Thomas: I was like, discarded feature. 843 01:05:38,830 --> 01:05:41,040 Thomas: So something that's already been there that's gone. 844 01:05:41,960 --> 01:05:50,300 Thomas: Yeah, it would, without, like, that's the honest, not thinking about it, carefully answer would be the ThinkLight. 845 01:05:51,120 --> 01:06:06,040 Thomas: And I understand why keyboard lighting was kind of the quote-unquote winner, but the ThinkLight had so much additional utility beyond just lighting up the keyboard. 846 01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:19,040 Thomas: And when everybody that I've spoken to that we talk about the ThinkLight, whether that's David Hill or David Cherbuck, it becomes really clear that that feature was, I'm going to use the word poorly marketed. 847 01:06:19,580 --> 01:06:19,680 Christian: Yeah. 848 01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:29,100 Thomas: A lot, like it was, if you look for promotional material specific to the ThinkLight, you're going to come up empty handed. 849 01:06:30,340 --> 01:06:32,680 Thomas: It just, it was not talked about enough. 850 01:06:32,850 --> 01:06:34,380 Thomas: And I think that's one of the reasons 851 01:06:35,140 --> 01:06:38,040 Thomas: that it struggled to find success 852 01:06:39,100 --> 01:06:41,180 Thomas: because generally in the structure, 853 01:06:42,100 --> 01:06:43,040 Thomas: from what I understand, 854 01:06:43,990 --> 01:06:45,900 Thomas: during the time that the ThinkLight was around, 855 01:06:46,860 --> 01:06:48,760 Thomas: your design team would come up with these ideas, 856 01:06:49,370 --> 01:06:51,900 Thomas: but then your marketing team had some influence 857 01:06:52,320 --> 01:06:53,300 Thomas: on what would be, 858 01:06:54,520 --> 01:06:55,780 Thomas: what would kind of go to the next level 859 01:06:55,790 --> 01:06:57,940 Thomas: and actually start making it into production. 860 01:06:58,940 --> 01:07:06,280 Thomas: And I think that there may have been some skepticism over the utility of a Thinklight. 861 01:07:06,460 --> 01:07:09,340 Thomas: Well, why is no one else making this? 862 01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:11,780 Thomas: Why are they all going with backlit keyboards? 863 01:07:12,220 --> 01:07:14,220 Thomas: Maybe we need to do that too. 864 01:07:15,180 --> 01:07:20,660 Thomas: And to me, like the really cool machines were like the T430 and X230. 865 01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:25,120 Thomas: You had both where you had the backlit keyboard and the Thinklight. 866 01:07:21,820 --> 01:07:21,960 Christian: Yes. 867 01:07:25,620 --> 01:07:32,620 Thomas: It's the reason that my X220, I still use it around the house because I was like, oh, I need some light just not for where my keys are. 868 01:07:32,640 --> 01:07:33,660 Thomas: Like I'm a touch typist. 869 01:07:33,700 --> 01:07:34,680 Thomas: I can type in the dark. 870 01:07:34,860 --> 01:07:35,560 Thomas: That's not a problem. 871 01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:44,380 Thomas: But if I have like a document or something, and if you've never sat in a dark room and turned on a think light, there's an emotion. 872 01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:45,700 Christian: Yeah, it is. 873 01:07:45,620 --> 01:07:52,480 Thomas: There's just the calm, soft white light that it's like, I'm kind of isolated. 874 01:07:52,620 --> 01:07:54,700 Thomas: I'm in this little bubble of dark. 875 01:07:54,880 --> 01:08:13,380 Thomas: I've just got my ThinkPad. I've got the light that I need. I can put papers on my keyboard and read everything. It's like low light to vibe to, you know? So yeah, the, the think without thinking, uh, it would absolutely have to be the ThinkLight. 876 01:08:13,400 --> 01:08:21,359 Thomas: I know that they tried multiple times to bring back the butterfly keyboard, but aspect ratios, it just didn't become necessary. 877 01:08:21,470 --> 01:08:32,839 Thomas: And it's way too complicated in terms of manufacturing to do it, even though that they have patented about four years ago now, a new butterfly keyboard. 878 01:08:33,089 --> 01:08:35,299 Thomas: It hasn't been released on a commercial product. 879 01:08:36,660 --> 01:08:39,180 Thomas: So, yeah, that would be the answer. 880 01:08:39,609 --> 01:08:43,040 Thomas: And I don't want them to give up on foldables. 881 01:08:43,940 --> 01:08:44,100 Christian: Yeah. 882 01:08:44,430 --> 01:08:44,740 Christian: Yeah. 883 01:08:44,480 --> 01:08:49,859 Thomas: i don't want them to give up on foldables i know that the the x1 fold they like they were still 884 01:08:49,950 --> 01:08:56,940 Thomas: trying to figure that out but they they seem to have shelved that product line for now um having 885 01:08:56,940 --> 01:09:04,880 Thomas: the opportunity to test the x1 fold 16 a pre-production sample of it um that was cool 886 01:09:01,859 --> 01:09:02,680 Christian: Oh, great. 887 01:09:05,759 --> 01:09:12,100 Thomas: and i know it was pretty clear why there were some barriers there as to why it didn't do well 888 01:09:12,120 --> 01:09:13,120 Thomas: and maybe get a Gen 2. 889 01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:15,020 Thomas: But I really, really hope 890 01:09:15,120 --> 01:09:15,900 Thomas: that they don't stop 891 01:09:16,720 --> 01:09:18,500 Thomas: looking at a foldable PC 892 01:09:18,839 --> 01:09:19,400 Thomas: because I think that 893 01:09:19,460 --> 01:09:20,400 Thomas: they're the company to do it. 894 01:09:20,940 --> 01:09:21,799 Thomas: So yeah, it's kind of 895 01:09:21,859 --> 01:09:23,220 Thomas: my one and a half answers for you. 896 01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:28,020 Christian: I think so too, because we see that other vendors are doing it as well right now. 897 01:09:28,160 --> 01:09:31,100 Christian: I think at CES there were also foldable screens. 898 01:09:31,420 --> 01:09:37,759 Christian: I mean, even Lenovo presented a consumer-facing foldable screen. 899 01:09:39,260 --> 01:09:42,560 Christian: So I think as well that there could be a market for that. 900 01:09:42,759 --> 01:09:47,400 Christian: And I would also go for the ThinkLight because it's more than just see where you type. 901 01:09:47,620 --> 01:09:50,540 Christian: It's just you have some very spare light on your table, 902 01:09:50,980 --> 01:09:54,840 Christian: sitting on your desk in the middle of the night doing some nerdy things. 903 01:09:55,680 --> 01:09:57,260 Christian: I really miss that one. 904 01:09:57,360 --> 01:10:02,140 Christian: and I mean it's no hanging fruit. I mean it's just one or two LEDs that need to be put in the 905 01:10:02,630 --> 01:10:08,920 Christian: in the display case so that shouldn't be too expensive and too complicated to produce these 906 01:10:04,980 --> 01:10:05,080 Thomas: yeah 907 01:10:09,120 --> 01:10:09,200 Christian: days. 908 01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:15,960 Thomas: i think now it would be easier than what it was four years ago and the reason i say that is because 909 01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:29,900 Thomas: Rightly or wrongly, they have added that communications bar to the top of most ThinkPads, and that's where they're putting in these bigger sensors for higher resolution video cameras. 910 01:10:20,700 --> 01:10:20,900 Christian: Yeah. 911 01:10:31,320 --> 01:10:33,580 Thomas: So you got the space up there. 912 01:10:34,620 --> 01:10:38,400 Thomas: As you correctly state, we're talking about an LED. 913 01:10:38,690 --> 01:10:43,520 Thomas: You could probably put it on the same board as the camera up there with a piece of software. 914 01:10:44,540 --> 01:10:59,540 Thomas: I think where things might get a little tricky is how flat, because there's no like hook that kind of hangs over anymore, where the lid closes for the light to kind of come down. 915 01:10:59,630 --> 01:11:10,800 Thomas: So they'd have to get fancy, I think, with some prisms. And I don't know enough about light to be to say that that would work, but it would definitely require a great deal of experimentation. 916 01:11:11,200 --> 01:11:18,500 Thomas: And I fear that the experimentation is for something that unless you've used it, you don't know that you're missing it. 917 01:11:18,820 --> 01:11:18,900 Christian: Yeah. 918 01:11:19,420 --> 01:11:37,640 Thomas: And because it perhaps wasn't previously marketed very well, unless you use a ThinkPad that is older than an X230 or older, the history and the knowledge of that experience is going to dwindle to the point where people will no longer ask for it. 919 01:11:38,360 --> 01:11:38,520 Christian: Definitely. 920 01:11:39,150 --> 01:11:45,560 Christian: And I mean, I can remember when I started working in IT, I had an HP Elite book that 921 01:11:45,720 --> 01:11:53,400 Christian: was also kind of thin and there was no a place to have the old style think light but hp also had 922 01:11:46,200 --> 01:11:46,500 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 923 01:11:53,560 --> 01:11:58,800 Christian: something like the think light and there was a was a square button on the display case next to the 924 01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:05,600 Christian: webcam and when you pushed it then yeah it it flipped out on maybe 30 40 degrees and then the 925 01:12:05,780 --> 01:12:12,040 Christian: led was shining on your keyboard so maybe that's something that could be most of the time be within 926 01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:15,460 Christian: inside the display case, and if you push a button, then it will flip out. 927 01:12:15,920 --> 01:12:18,180 Christian: That could be a way to implement it. 928 01:12:18,900 --> 01:12:22,880 Thomas: yeah you're you might be right on that i don't know if hp ever patented that design 929 01:12:23,210 --> 01:12:24,560 Thomas: that would probably be the only barrier 930 01:12:24,960 --> 01:12:25,060 Christian: Yeah. 931 01:12:26,320 --> 01:12:26,960 Christian: Very interesting. 932 01:12:27,160 --> 01:12:31,000 Christian: So thanks a lot for participating in this game. 933 01:12:31,740 --> 01:12:35,060 Thomas: no i loved it you fantastic questions 934 01:12:36,140 --> 01:12:40,580 Christian: So maybe we can focus on the topic of that episode, which would be the X300. 935 01:12:36,980 --> 01:12:38,380 Thomas: you 936 01:12:44,960 --> 01:12:51,580 Christian: So, as we mentioned more than an hour ago, the X300 is one of the most important Thinkpads 937 01:12:51,780 --> 01:12:52,720 Christian: Lenovo ever built. 938 01:12:53,380 --> 01:12:58,380 Christian: It is considered the very first ultra-portable and power-saving notebook that later became 939 01:12:58,480 --> 01:13:04,160 Christian: Ultrabooks, and very importantly about that variant, it still had an optical drive, which 940 01:13:04,540 --> 01:13:09,300 Christian: isn't very common these days, and which was really special these days that it still had 941 01:13:09,300 --> 01:13:10,320 Christian: an optical disk drive. 942 01:13:11,320 --> 01:13:14,280 Christian: while still having a very low footprint notebook. 943 01:13:14,400 --> 01:13:17,720 Christian: It was built from February 2008 to something around, 944 01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:21,900 Christian: if I found out correctly, May 2009. 945 01:13:22,540 --> 01:13:24,580 Christian: And you have a X300 in your collection. 946 01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:25,740 Christian: Tell us about it. 947 01:13:25,900 --> 01:13:27,260 Christian: Which configuration does it have? 948 01:13:27,560 --> 01:13:28,780 Christian: What condition is it in? 949 01:13:29,300 --> 01:13:29,420 Thomas: Okay. 950 01:13:29,540 --> 01:13:39,540 Thomas: Okay. So I have both an X300 and a 301 in the collection here. I would say that they're in 951 01:13:39,590 --> 01:13:44,180 Thomas: fair condition. Like these were used machines, but in terms of like all their bits are still 952 01:13:44,780 --> 01:13:51,700 Thomas: in place, light scratches and fingerprints on the lid, that sort of thing. No cracks in the body or 953 01:13:51,740 --> 01:14:01,040 Thomas: the plastics. I have one of them configured with the optical drive. And thanks to a colleague of 954 01:14:01,140 --> 01:14:12,240 Thomas: mine in Ontario, Mike, years ago, he helped me get an X300 Bay battery, which is really, really cool. 955 01:14:09,200 --> 01:14:09,320 Christian: Oh. 956 01:14:12,660 --> 01:14:21,140 Thomas: So one of my X300s runs with two batteries. Those are pretty hard to come by accessories. The 957 01:14:21,160 --> 01:14:27,720 Thomas: other accessory that goes on that ultra bay of course is the second um ssd um which i have never 958 01:14:28,060 --> 01:14:34,700 Thomas: found um but you could get it so yeah i have two of them uh they're both in in pretty modest 959 01:14:35,060 --> 01:14:39,240 Thomas: condition they're both uh have a couple videos on the channel of mods that i've done to them 960 01:14:39,900 --> 01:14:47,800 Thomas: obviously the interviews with david hill as well um but yeah they are they're still really cool 961 01:14:47,800 --> 01:14:49,740 Thomas: machines. It's like one of the ones I go down 962 01:14:49,760 --> 01:14:50,320 Thomas: and look at. 963 01:14:51,380 --> 01:14:51,840 Christian: Same for me. 964 01:14:51,920 --> 01:14:54,320 Christian: So I also have an X301 in my collection. 965 01:14:54,560 --> 01:14:56,180 Christian: It's kind of sticky. 966 01:14:56,310 --> 01:14:59,640 Christian: I think it was used in a repair center or something like that. 967 01:14:59,900 --> 01:15:01,920 Christian: But besides that, it works pretty good. 968 01:15:02,560 --> 01:15:03,300 Christian: And it's a lovely machine. 969 01:15:03,650 --> 01:15:05,240 Christian: So it's very, very thin. 970 01:15:06,020 --> 01:15:06,460 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 971 01:15:06,080 --> 01:15:13,300 Christian: And I remember back then when this machine was new, I went to school and one of my colleagues 972 01:15:13,950 --> 01:15:15,540 Christian: from school had one of those machines. 973 01:15:15,820 --> 01:15:21,040 Christian: and we were so jealous when we saw him every day opening up his X300 974 01:15:21,560 --> 01:15:23,680 Christian: because it's such a lovely designed machine 975 01:15:23,840 --> 01:15:28,920 Christian: and we all had very kind of cheap devices from our workplaces 976 01:15:29,240 --> 01:15:32,700 Christian: and he had a very good looking ThinkPad. 977 01:15:34,340 --> 01:15:34,380 Thomas: Yeah. 978 01:15:34,480 --> 01:15:39,760 Thomas: Yeah. And to illustrate how thin it is, like if you look on the very back of the one that you've 979 01:15:39,840 --> 01:15:45,340 Thomas: got there, you'll notice that the power port is not perfectly round because they had to shave the 980 01:15:45,440 --> 01:15:52,140 Thomas: top and the bottom to get it to fit. And they didn't have the plastics on the top and the bottom 981 01:15:46,500 --> 01:15:46,580 Christian: yes 982 01:15:52,400 --> 01:16:00,080 Thomas: of the VGA connector. So it's like they're making this thing as thin as physically possible for the 983 01:16:00,100 --> 01:16:04,040 Thomas: year it's being produced and the I.O. that people are expecting to have. 984 01:16:04,040 --> 01:16:10,300 Christian: definitely so maybe speaking about how thin it is let's let's talk a little bit about the hardware 985 01:16:10,480 --> 01:16:20,180 Christian: fact so the dimensions it's 380 by 231 by 23.4 millimeters so the thickest part is roughly about 986 01:16:20,370 --> 01:16:28,220 Christian: two centimeters thick that's like not very much and the weight starts with a three cell battery 987 01:16:28,240 --> 01:16:35,500 Christian: variant at 1.43kg. That's a very lightweight machine for mid-end 2000, I would say. 988 01:16:36,660 --> 01:16:43,400 Christian: Also, it has a 13.3-inch display with LED backlight and a resolution of 1440x900 pixels. 989 01:16:44,320 --> 01:16:52,860 Christian: It has a soldered Intel Core 2 Duo low-voltage CPU. That's a 1.2GHz dual-core without hyper-threading, 990 01:16:53,240 --> 01:16:58,440 Christian: So it's just two threads and four megabytes of cache, but at least it's a 64-bit capable 991 01:16:58,740 --> 01:16:58,880 Christian: CPU. 992 01:16:59,240 --> 01:17:00,400 Christian: So that's OKish. 993 01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:07,180 Christian: And using this machine these days, I would say now we reach the point where even lightweight 994 01:17:07,280 --> 01:17:11,620 Christian: Linux distributions show you that's a very early ultra-low-voltage CPU, right? 995 01:17:12,660 --> 01:17:17,600 Thomas: yeah i it's not something that i would want to daily drive regrettably because 996 01:17:18,730 --> 01:17:25,800 Thomas: like everything else about it you absolutely could um like the the ports uh the port selection 997 01:17:25,840 --> 01:17:26,800 Thomas: is still quite good. 998 01:17:29,179 --> 01:17:31,880 Thomas: Yeah, it's so, so cool. 999 01:17:33,420 --> 01:17:34,800 Thomas: Yeah, I could just keep going. 1000 01:17:34,880 --> 01:17:36,700 Thomas: But yeah, the CPU really lets it down 1001 01:17:36,720 --> 01:17:39,000 Thomas: in terms of even the most lightweight 1002 01:17:39,540 --> 01:17:42,860 Thomas: of Linux distros running on it, unfortunately. 1003 01:17:43,560 --> 01:17:50,040 Christian: Yeah, I also have Linux running on one of my machines and you can feel that the CPU isn't 1004 01:17:50,060 --> 01:17:56,420 Christian: that powerful but i mean it's an ultra slim machine and speaking of how thin it is i think 1005 01:17:53,340 --> 01:17:53,920 Thomas: Uh-huh. 1006 01:17:56,450 --> 01:18:02,620 Christian: we really need to double point this out it's so thin but it still has a modular ultra slim bay 1007 01:18:02,920 --> 01:18:08,920 Christian: with a height of seven millimeters you mentioned that you have the battery add-on for it that's 1008 01:18:09,080 --> 01:18:15,640 Christian: quite rare by default this machine comes with an integrated dvd burner and that's the only machine 1009 01:18:15,660 --> 01:18:22,060 Christian: in ThinkPad history, and as far as I'm concerned, of other vendors as well, that have an optical 1010 01:18:22,180 --> 01:18:27,920 Christian: drive that's that thin. So the manufacturer of the optical disk drive said after that, 1011 01:18:28,100 --> 01:18:32,480 Christian: okay, that's the one and only drive that we made that thin, that's way too complex, 1012 01:18:32,740 --> 01:18:37,560 Christian: we're not going to create further DVD burners for that size form factor. 1013 01:18:39,340 --> 01:18:45,960 Thomas: yeah no one else was was crazy enough to try it like if you i have a picture of it somewhere and 1014 01:18:45,960 --> 01:18:54,100 Thomas: if i can find it i'll share it with you but it's a a side shot of the drive and then a dvd 1015 01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:59,960 Thomas: And just in terms of thickness, like we're talking about something that's like three or four DVDs thick. 1016 01:19:00,760 --> 01:19:05,320 Thomas: Like it is mind blowing that it is that thin. 1017 01:19:05,380 --> 01:19:05,700 Thomas: And 1018 01:19:06,460 --> 01:19:06,580 Christian: Definitely. 1019 01:19:06,800 --> 01:19:09,920 Christian: Yeah, so it's crazy to create a device that's that thin. 1020 01:19:10,420 --> 01:19:18,300 Christian: And they even offered a 7mm HDD adapter, so you could put another SSD or hard drive into the machine. 1021 01:19:18,500 --> 01:19:19,440 Christian: That's also quite interesting. 1022 01:19:20,199 --> 01:19:25,800 Christian: So, interestingly, I hope that I did my research right. 1023 01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:29,420 Christian: I found out that the X300 comes with DDR2 memory. 1024 01:19:29,920 --> 01:19:31,620 Christian: 2 to 8 gigabytes where possible. 1025 01:19:31,880 --> 01:19:38,620 Christian: and that's kind of interesting because at that time when this machine was released, DDR3 was 1026 01:19:38,940 --> 01:19:44,980 Christian: already out there, for example in the R500. But I think we will cover this later. The X300 work 1027 01:19:45,260 --> 01:19:51,980 Christian: started earlier, so maybe one or two years earlier, and back then DDR2 was the standard to go, right? 1028 01:19:52,880 --> 01:19:58,280 Thomas: Yeah, it kind of had in that way a small issue like the 701C did. 1029 01:19:58,330 --> 01:20:02,699 Thomas: It was in development long enough that the technology moved forward, but you don't have 1030 01:20:02,720 --> 01:20:07,920 Thomas: the time to retool everything, especially when you're fighting tenths of millimeters 1031 01:20:08,070 --> 01:20:08,620 Thomas: of thickness. 1032 01:20:09,840 --> 01:20:10,000 Christian: Definitely. 1033 01:20:11,220 --> 01:20:15,900 Christian: And speaking of crazy form factors, now we reach the point where we need to talk about 1034 01:20:16,260 --> 01:20:19,540 Christian: the 1.8 inch microsata SSDs. 1035 01:20:19,560 --> 01:20:20,520 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1036 01:20:20,320 --> 01:20:24,940 Christian: That's a not very common half-length disk format, I would describe it to our listeners, 1037 01:20:25,820 --> 01:20:30,720 Christian: because back then, mSATA and NVMe adapters weren't there yet. 1038 01:20:30,960 --> 01:20:35,540 Christian: They are available these days, so you could get an adapter to get an mSATA SSD into that 1039 01:20:35,640 --> 01:20:35,780 Christian: machine. 1040 01:20:36,200 --> 01:20:38,500 Christian: You covered this also in your video about the machine. 1041 01:20:39,180 --> 01:20:42,100 Christian: But back then, that was the crazy standard to go. 1042 01:20:43,040 --> 01:20:46,980 Thomas: Yeah, it was definitely something that drove up the cost of the machine, I think, 1043 01:20:47,060 --> 01:20:48,580 Thomas: going with a non-standard drive. 1044 01:20:49,600 --> 01:20:51,640 Thomas: But I think for the customer, 1045 01:20:52,580 --> 01:20:55,980 Thomas: it wasn't a huge selling point 1046 01:20:56,010 --> 01:20:56,700 Thomas: one way or the other. 1047 01:20:56,770 --> 01:20:57,320 Thomas: They just saw, 1048 01:20:57,780 --> 01:20:59,680 Thomas: I can get all of this in this package, 1049 01:21:00,320 --> 01:21:00,860 Thomas: sign me up, 1050 01:21:01,200 --> 01:21:02,420 Thomas: or I don't need it. 1051 01:21:03,240 --> 01:21:08,200 Christian: I mean, there have been other X-series machines in the ThinkPad lineup that also had that crazy 1052 01:21:08,560 --> 01:21:13,620 Christian: form factor. I remember the X40 series also has a 1.8-inch hard drive. I mean, it's IDE, 1053 01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:11,820 Thomas: Yes. 1054 01:21:14,340 --> 01:21:19,560 Christian: Not microsata, but those drives were ridiculously slow and hard to get. 1055 01:21:20,340 --> 01:21:22,680 Christian: And a lot of people wanted to have adapters. 1056 01:21:22,870 --> 01:21:31,920 Christian: And I mean, at least they went for an SSD instead of a spinning Rust drive, because this would have made the machine even slower, I would say. 1057 01:21:29,500 --> 01:21:29,600 Thomas: yes 1058 01:21:32,580 --> 01:21:33,260 Thomas: no it could use 1059 01:21:33,300 --> 01:21:34,240 Thomas: all the help it could get 1060 01:21:34,360 --> 01:21:35,000 Thomas: to be the 1061 01:21:35,660 --> 01:21:36,080 Thomas: ultralight 1062 01:21:36,360 --> 01:21:36,840 Thomas: low voltage 1063 01:21:37,400 --> 01:21:38,180 Thomas: portable that it was 1064 01:21:38,860 --> 01:21:39,040 Christian: Definitely. 1065 01:21:39,900 --> 01:21:43,340 Christian: Beside that, we have USB 2.0, audio in and out. 1066 01:21:43,340 --> 01:21:47,020 Christian: We have Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, wireless LAN, and optionally also Wii. 1067 01:21:47,720 --> 01:21:49,080 Christian: WiiWan card if you want to. 1068 01:21:49,330 --> 01:21:49,920 Christian: We have a webcam. 1069 01:21:50,210 --> 01:21:54,000 Christian: We have the UltraNav, the trackpoint, and of course also the optional fingerprint sensor. 1070 01:21:54,150 --> 01:21:57,300 Christian: So all the good stuff packed into a very small footprint. 1071 01:21:57,680 --> 01:21:59,500 Christian: And of course, we have a white ThinkLight. 1072 01:22:00,260 --> 01:22:00,520 Thomas: Uh-huh. 1073 01:22:00,320 --> 01:22:05,220 Christian: And as you mentioned in your interview, David Hill said that a lot of people dislike the orange ones. 1074 01:22:05,400 --> 01:22:10,280 Christian: So a very good idea that they went for the white ones for the X300, I would say. 1075 01:22:10,520 --> 01:22:18,820 Thomas: I think that was also a very important moment that showcased that the X300 was not a compromise 1076 01:22:19,220 --> 01:22:24,980 Thomas: machine. And like, this was going to come up, I think at any point in our conversation about this, 1077 01:22:25,180 --> 01:22:30,640 Thomas: that the X300 was the very first ThinkPad that Lenovo was in charge of designing and producing. 1078 01:22:30,890 --> 01:22:36,900 Thomas: Like they had built other machines, but they were running off of IBM oversaw designs. 1079 01:22:37,820 --> 01:22:44,820 Thomas: And the X300 was their first time out to be like, OK, you are building this thing, Pat. 1080 01:22:45,520 --> 01:22:47,320 Thomas: IBM is long gone. 1081 01:22:48,300 --> 01:22:49,600 Thomas: What are you going to do? 1082 01:22:50,380 --> 01:22:51,960 Thomas: Everybody is watching. 1083 01:22:52,320 --> 01:22:53,340 Thomas: Investors are watching. 1084 01:22:53,800 --> 01:23:01,660 Thomas: The marketing companies that work with Lenovo and used to work with IBM are watching very carefully. 1085 01:23:02,960 --> 01:23:12,820 Thomas: And you've also got essentially an old team, but it's also brand new in the sense that they have a new set of corporate structure sitting over top of them. 1086 01:23:13,720 --> 01:23:19,200 Thomas: And that, you know, from the people I spoke to, that was a very significant shift. 1087 01:23:20,080 --> 01:23:29,060 Thomas: So the fact that a amber light wasn't even considered is one of those really small, you know, you could argue insignificant moments, 1088 01:23:29,180 --> 01:23:35,600 Thomas: But it's actually very significant that Lenovo wasn't like, oh, we want the low cost one, too. 1089 01:23:35,740 --> 01:23:37,440 Thomas: Like that conversation didn't happen. 1090 01:23:37,600 --> 01:23:43,340 Thomas: Like they were working on ultraviolet prototypes and that they couldn't get them working. 1091 01:23:43,600 --> 01:23:45,620 Thomas: But they were going in the opposite direction. 1092 01:23:45,830 --> 01:23:48,080 Thomas: We're not looking at how do we cut costs. 1093 01:23:48,090 --> 01:23:54,240 Thomas: We're looking at how can we build the best, smallest computer that people have ever seen. 1094 01:23:54,840 --> 01:23:55,000 Christian: Definitely. 1095 01:23:55,510 --> 01:23:57,300 Christian: And I mean, we have a lot of highlights on that machine. 1096 01:23:57,720 --> 01:24:02,780 Christian: So as we mentioned several times, it's a very thin machine that still has an optical drive. 1097 01:24:03,100 --> 01:24:10,640 Christian: That's a highlight because no other machine after that and the X300 One had an optical drive in that size. 1098 01:24:11,480 --> 01:24:14,480 Christian: It's the first ThinkPad with an SSD as far as I'm concerned. 1099 01:24:14,610 --> 01:24:16,940 Christian: And it's also the first ThinkPad with an LED backlit screen. 1100 01:24:17,360 --> 01:24:18,520 Christian: So a lot of highlights. 1101 01:24:19,100 --> 01:24:24,860 Christian: And as you mentioned, the X300 was going to be a non-compromised ThinkPad. 1102 01:24:25,170 --> 01:24:30,000 Christian: Go big or go home was the motto, I would say, when they designed that one. 1103 01:24:31,040 --> 01:24:36,600 Christian: And they did so with an internal project that started with the name Project Kodashi. 1104 01:24:37,700 --> 01:24:42,780 Christian: So I think you have a lot of experience to share about that one. 1105 01:24:43,380 --> 01:24:48,860 Christian: That was the internal code name and the project that started that ended up with the X300. 1106 01:24:49,320 --> 01:24:52,880 Christian: And I think they changed the name several times, right? 1107 01:24:54,400 --> 01:24:58,560 Thomas: They first started out with the name Razer, oddly enough. 1108 01:24:59,800 --> 01:25:01,880 Thomas: I think they were, and this was an internal name. 1109 01:25:02,020 --> 01:25:04,940 Thomas: This wasn't something that was going to be shared as a product. 1110 01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:08,820 Thomas: But they hadn't acquired Motorola at this time. 1111 01:25:09,200 --> 01:25:15,040 Thomas: But the Razer phone was, I believe, floating around the market at that point. 1112 01:25:15,310 --> 01:25:16,400 Thomas: And I think they saw it. 1113 01:25:16,680 --> 01:25:18,460 Thomas: And they're like, well, that's kind of what we want to go for. 1114 01:25:18,650 --> 01:25:22,760 Thomas: Because the Razer was thin, but it was still a phone that did everything that a phone had to do. 1115 01:25:23,900 --> 01:25:28,700 Thomas: But they didn't like the idea of using an internal code name that was a product at another company. 1116 01:25:28,990 --> 01:25:29,840 Thomas: So they scrapped it. 1117 01:25:30,390 --> 01:25:37,520 Thomas: And then they went with Katana and they were like, oh, we got the same problem. 1118 01:25:37,630 --> 01:25:39,860 Thomas: I think Suzuki made a motorbike called the Katana. 1119 01:25:39,980 --> 01:25:41,080 Thomas: So they didn't want to do that either. 1120 01:25:41,860 --> 01:25:48,720 Thomas: And they settled on Kadachi, which is the shorter sword in Japanese culture. 1121 01:25:48,890 --> 01:25:51,020 Thomas: So the Katana is a little longer. 1122 01:25:51,360 --> 01:25:52,360 Thomas: Kadachi is a little shorter. 1123 01:25:53,240 --> 01:25:59,280 Thomas: And they're like, well, that works because it's going to be thin, but it's going to be probably smaller. 1124 01:26:00,210 --> 01:26:02,300 Thomas: So that is kind of how they settled on the name. 1125 01:26:03,220 --> 01:26:06,780 Thomas: And again, a lot of that is detailed in Steve Hamm's book. 1126 01:26:07,920 --> 01:26:10,500 Thomas: So it's one of the many reasons why you should go read it. 1127 01:26:11,000 --> 01:26:16,020 Christian: I was just wondering, because I know you're also into mechanical keyboards, because you 1128 01:26:15,940 --> 01:26:16,520 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1129 01:26:16,080 --> 01:26:23,420 Christian: have some of those videos about keyboards on your YouTube channel. And there's this company called 1130 01:26:23,580 --> 01:26:28,220 Christian: Tex, and they also create mechanical keyboards that have a lot of ThinkPad DNA in their design. 1131 01:26:24,660 --> 01:26:24,840 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1132 01:26:28,820 --> 01:26:37,560 Christian: So I'm also proud owner of one of those keyboards, which is the Tex Shura. That's a 60% keyboard with 1133 01:26:29,160 --> 01:26:29,320 Thomas: Yep. 1134 01:26:34,780 --> 01:26:35,460 Thomas: Oh, yes. 1135 01:26:37,560 --> 01:26:43,820 Christian: a track point. And funny enough, they also have a Tex Kodashi keyboard. And I was just wondering 1136 01:26:39,000 --> 01:26:39,340 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1137 01:26:43,940 --> 01:26:48,580 Christian: whether this is related to the X300 and they picked it up in their naming maybe. 1138 01:26:49,520 --> 01:26:55,380 Thomas: you'd have to ask them um but i i suspect that i don't know you'd have to look at the year it 1139 01:26:55,420 --> 01:27:00,300 Thomas: was produced i suspect that they're probably aware of that story or somebody over there is 1140 01:27:00,400 --> 01:27:06,840 Thomas: aware of that story um because they could have called it the katana but they didn't um they they 1141 01:27:04,180 --> 01:27:04,480 Christian: Yeah. 1142 01:27:06,860 --> 01:27:11,960 Thomas: specifically went after that name so but i also think that it's we're talking about a very niche 1143 01:27:12,040 --> 01:27:21,300 Thomas: group of people that would know kodachi as well um so i suspect that there there is not a coincidence 1144 01:27:22,580 --> 01:27:28,340 Thomas: um there that there's probably a connection i've seen those keyboards over the years the one thing 1145 01:27:28,480 --> 01:27:33,719 Thomas: i've always wondered and since you own one i'm going to ask you a question how do you find the 1146 01:27:34,300 --> 01:27:37,760 Thomas: regular switches for your mouse buttons for the track point. 1147 01:27:37,940 --> 01:27:39,020 Thomas: Does that work out okay? 1148 01:27:39,580 --> 01:27:42,540 Christian: That's a good question because I ordered the DIY variant. 1149 01:27:43,140 --> 01:27:49,900 Christian: So mechanical keyboards can be a very daunting hobby if you are living in Germany and you would 1150 01:27:50,010 --> 01:27:51,820 Christian: want to use the German keyboard layout. 1151 01:27:52,219 --> 01:27:52,820 Thomas: Yes. 1152 01:27:52,240 --> 01:27:57,060 Christian: So the most keyboard enthusiasts simply go for the ANSI layout or the QWERTY layout. 1153 01:27:57,900 --> 01:28:04,460 Christian: And I would say very special in that regard that I want to have a German layout on all of 1154 01:28:04,480 --> 01:28:09,740 Christian: So I have something around 10 to 15 keyboards, I would say, and every keyboard has the German 1155 01:28:09,900 --> 01:28:10,020 Christian: layout. 1156 01:28:10,600 --> 01:28:16,900 Christian: And speaking of the text keyboards, you can either get the German layout with soldered switches, 1157 01:28:17,720 --> 01:28:21,540 Christian: which I do not want to have because I like to tinker around with various switches. 1158 01:28:17,920 --> 01:28:18,180 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1159 01:28:22,300 --> 01:28:28,420 Christian: So you would need to get the DIY variant where you can simply click on the switches that you 1160 01:28:28,460 --> 01:28:33,480 Christian: want to have, but you can't get that one with the German keyboard layout. 1161 01:28:34,420 --> 01:28:34,580 Thomas: Oh. 1162 01:28:35,000 --> 01:28:40,660 Christian: and this drove me nuts for several years and then someone told me what's your problem Christian just 1163 01:28:40,860 --> 01:28:46,400 Christian: go ahead and write an email and ask whether they can make a special offer to you and I was like okay 1164 01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:54,640 Christian: maybe I can try that and I sent an email and funny enough maybe 24 hours later I got an answer yeah 1165 01:28:54,780 --> 01:29:01,160 Christian: sure that's no question that's no problem just drop an order and give me your order number and then I 1166 01:29:01,180 --> 01:29:05,780 Christian: I will give you the German layout keycaps with your DIY variant. 1167 01:29:05,790 --> 01:29:07,500 Christian: And then I ordered it. 1168 01:29:07,840 --> 01:29:10,920 Christian: So, very good experience with that job. 1169 01:29:08,840 --> 01:29:09,020 Thomas: Awesome. 1170 01:29:11,330 --> 01:29:13,500 Christian: So, the standard switches of those machines, 1171 01:29:13,670 --> 01:29:16,140 Christian: I think you can select between the normal ones, 1172 01:29:16,280 --> 01:29:18,480 Christian: so black, blue, brown, and red. 1173 01:29:19,840 --> 01:29:22,060 Christian: It depends on what kind of typist you are. 1174 01:29:22,140 --> 01:29:24,480 Christian: Are you more focusing on typing only, 1175 01:29:24,480 --> 01:29:26,880 Christian: or do you also game from time to time? 1176 01:29:27,540 --> 01:29:32,120 Thomas: yeah i do both um but i was just wondering because like you and i are probably so used to 1177 01:29:32,140 --> 01:29:37,960 Thomas: a certain amount of travel uh as well with uh track point buttons and i was wondering if that 1178 01:29:33,680 --> 01:29:33,780 Christian: yeah 1179 01:29:37,960 --> 01:29:41,540 Thomas: was like a barrier that the fact that this is essentially well it is a keyboard switch 1180 01:29:41,280 --> 01:29:42,240 Christian: yeah 1181 01:29:42,240 --> 01:29:46,220 Thomas: and i know you can customize them but like is it something that you're like ah it's not quite 1182 01:29:46,340 --> 01:29:47,960 Thomas: right or have you gotten used to it 1183 01:29:48,320 --> 01:29:52,040 Christian: so the normal switches that tax offers are sherry switches 1184 01:29:52,460 --> 01:29:59,260 Christian: Sherry switches are pretty good switches if you start the hobby, I would say, very politely. 1185 01:30:00,160 --> 01:30:02,740 Christian: Of course, this is always a question of your own taste. 1186 01:30:02,860 --> 01:30:09,420 Christian: So I know a lot of keyboard enthusiasts that still use keyboards with Sherry switches, and that's totally fine. 1187 01:30:09,980 --> 01:30:14,480 Christian: I really like to have a very, very hard tactile bump. 1188 01:30:15,540 --> 01:30:23,180 Christian: I think if I would have been born 30 years earlier, I would have been a very big user of typewriters. 1189 01:30:23,590 --> 01:30:28,860 Christian: Because it's a feeling from a typewriter that I would like to have on my keyboard. 1190 01:30:29,660 --> 01:30:34,840 Christian: So the Noble Cherry switches have an actuation force of something around 40 to 60 grams. 1191 01:30:35,740 --> 01:30:40,220 Christian: And I have switches with nearly 70 grams of actuation force. 1192 01:30:39,580 --> 01:30:41,520 Thomas: Okay, those are pretty heavy. 1193 01:30:41,780 --> 01:30:44,600 Christian: Pretty, pretty heavy, but I really like that one. 1194 01:30:44,700 --> 01:30:49,760 Christian: And I just ordered during Christmas, I ordered a modern remake of an Albia Model F keyboard, 1195 01:30:49,970 --> 01:30:50,780 Christian: if you know that one. 1196 01:30:51,280 --> 01:30:51,300 Thomas: Yes. 1197 01:30:52,180 --> 01:30:52,260 Thomas: Yep. 1198 01:30:52,560 --> 01:30:55,800 Christian: So that's a modern variant that looks like Model M. 1199 01:30:55,850 --> 01:31:01,260 Christian: So it has a modern layout with function keys and the Windows button, but it has the good 1200 01:31:01,460 --> 01:31:06,580 Christian: old buckling springs from Model F, and it has a solenoid from typewriters. 1201 01:31:02,800 --> 01:31:03,360 Thomas: Yes. 1202 01:31:06,180 --> 01:31:06,460 Thomas: Okay. 1203 01:31:07,880 --> 01:31:10,200 Thomas: Yeah, so you get that massive clack sound. 1204 01:31:10,360 --> 01:31:21,740 Christian: Yes, so it's a keyboard that has a weight of three kilograms, has a very heavy metal case, and it also makes noises like a typewriter from the 60s. 1205 01:31:11,440 --> 01:31:11,600 Thomas: Yeah. 1206 01:31:23,360 --> 01:31:23,460 Thomas: Wow. 1207 01:31:23,460 --> 01:31:23,660 Thomas: Wow. 1208 01:31:24,440 --> 01:31:24,580 Christian: Yeah. 1209 01:31:25,540 --> 01:31:26,840 Christian: So, how did we get there? 1210 01:31:28,940 --> 01:31:33,480 Thomas: I derailed you when we were talking about the history of the name of the X300. 1211 01:31:33,700 --> 01:31:36,080 Christian: Oh, yeah, yeah, that's totally fine. 1212 01:31:36,200 --> 01:31:40,520 Christian: I like being derailed to talk about mechanical keyboards. 1213 01:31:41,120 --> 01:31:44,940 Christian: That's another rabbit hole I went down a couple of years ago. 1214 01:31:47,000 --> 01:31:51,140 Christian: So yeah, we do not know whether the text Kodashi keyboard is related to that one. 1215 01:31:51,240 --> 01:31:54,020 Christian: Maybe that's something I could ask the owner of the shop at some time. 1216 01:31:54,720 --> 01:32:00,040 Christian: But you already mentioned that that's one of the most important Thinkpads ever made by Lenovo. 1217 01:32:00,760 --> 01:32:09,020 Christian: Because, as you said, it's considered one of the first big achievements since Lenovo bought the ThinkPad line by IBM in 2005. 1218 01:32:01,020 --> 01:32:01,220 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1219 01:32:09,970 --> 01:32:15,820 Christian: And I think the idea of that project was to show the world what Lenovo was capable of doing, right? 1220 01:32:16,660 --> 01:32:21,920 Thomas: that's a huge part of it i think because let's be real if the x300 came out and it failed 1221 01:32:23,060 --> 01:32:28,460 Thomas: would would there have been any more thinkpads like that's the real question that i have 1222 01:32:29,500 --> 01:32:32,760 Thomas: And it's one of those key moments where it's like, geez, I don't know. 1223 01:32:32,870 --> 01:32:40,860 Thomas: I think that might have scared people away from the new owner of this product or this 1224 01:32:41,060 --> 01:32:41,340 Thomas: brand. 1225 01:32:42,360 --> 01:32:46,400 Thomas: And, you know, it wasn't a laptop that they designed to sell loads of units. 1226 01:32:46,470 --> 01:32:51,300 Thomas: It was very much a halo product in the sense that, like, we are going to show you what we 1227 01:32:51,480 --> 01:32:51,860 Thomas: can do. 1228 01:32:52,980 --> 01:32:59,160 Thomas: And I think a huge part of that was Lenovo had a very different attitude than IBM did toward 1229 01:32:59,180 --> 01:33:04,340 Thomas: end of their ownership, where they're already thinking every time we do something, this is just 1230 01:33:04,520 --> 01:33:09,040 Thomas: costing us more money and making this more difficult to sell to somebody else. And that's 1231 01:33:09,600 --> 01:33:14,660 Thomas: an understandable posture from a business perspective. It's not a very great posture to be a 1232 01:33:15,300 --> 01:33:28,540 Thomas: customer. So they really, really had to get it right. And the amount of design and focus 1233 01:33:29,340 --> 01:33:30,460 Thomas: that came from that machine. 1234 01:33:30,680 --> 01:33:32,220 Thomas: If you look at all the product lines 1235 01:33:33,350 --> 01:33:34,400 Thomas: after the X300, 1236 01:33:33,860 --> 01:33:35,260 Christian: So, 1237 01:33:35,240 --> 01:33:37,460 Thomas: I would argue that a good majority of them 1238 01:33:37,640 --> 01:33:40,240 Thomas: have X300 DNA in them somewhere. 1239 01:33:40,480 --> 01:33:41,760 Thomas: Some of it is very obvious. 1240 01:33:42,480 --> 01:33:43,600 Thomas: Others is a lot more subtle. 1241 01:33:45,120 --> 01:33:48,320 Christian: So it was really a no compromise machine, I would say. 1242 01:33:50,200 --> 01:33:54,480 Christian: I just had a look at one of the test reviews from that time. 1243 01:33:54,540 --> 01:33:59,460 Christian: So we will cover that later because we collected some of the voices about that. 1244 01:33:59,860 --> 01:34:01,300 Christian: But we can see in the pricing. 1245 01:34:01,620 --> 01:34:07,200 Christian: So back then in 2008, this machine costed about 300, 600 US dollars. 1246 01:34:08,060 --> 01:34:17,880 Christian: So in terms of inflation, that would be $5,400 US dollars these days, or for our German listeners, nearly €4,700. 1247 01:34:18,700 --> 01:34:25,400 Christian: That's like a lot. I mean, for that price, I don't know whether I can bump up my ThinkPad configuration to go that high. 1248 01:34:25,560 --> 01:34:30,280 Christian: Maybe if I pick a PSeries and I put in 128 gigs of RAM or something like that. 1249 01:34:30,760 --> 01:34:33,700 Christian: But that was not a cheap machine back then, I would say. 1250 01:34:34,480 --> 01:34:34,540 Thomas: No. 1251 01:34:34,560 --> 01:34:34,780 Thomas: No. 1252 01:34:35,700 --> 01:34:39,080 Thomas: And Lenovo pricing has always been a bit fluid. 1253 01:34:39,700 --> 01:34:42,100 Thomas: So that might be the highest price that it ever sold for. 1254 01:34:42,760 --> 01:34:49,160 Thomas: But we can probably say with a great deal of confidence that they were selling machines for under that before too long. 1255 01:34:49,960 --> 01:34:50,520 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 1256 01:34:50,640 --> 01:34:56,240 Christian: I mean, those are where prices when the machine was released, and if you wait a couple of months, 1257 01:34:56,280 --> 01:35:01,440 Christian: then usually those prices go down, and Lenovo also has some special offers from time to time. 1258 01:35:01,640 --> 01:35:06,280 Christian: So my daily driver at home is a P14G3 AMD. 1259 01:35:06,980 --> 01:35:10,480 Christian: And I think I bought that three years ago before Christmas 1260 01:35:10,620 --> 01:35:14,920 Christian: and I had a 800 euro discount code available on the Lenovo website. 1261 01:35:15,360 --> 01:35:19,960 Christian: So I think usually those prices aren't that high anymore. 1262 01:35:20,880 --> 01:35:23,840 Christian: So maybe let's focus on when Project Kodashi started. 1263 01:35:24,060 --> 01:35:28,380 Christian: And as far as I'm concerned, they started less than two years earlier, right? 1264 01:35:28,560 --> 01:35:36,200 Christian: So the time to market wasn't that high like for the butterfly ThinkPad, but it was nearly 1265 01:35:36,230 --> 01:35:36,800 Christian: two years. 1266 01:35:37,720 --> 01:35:41,260 Thomas: Yeah, it was quite the development cycle from what I understand. 1267 01:35:41,360 --> 01:35:48,340 Thomas: And like any product and design team, you're designing like several products all concurrently. 1268 01:35:48,560 --> 01:35:52,940 Thomas: You're not just being like, I'm only working on building this one machine for two solid years. 1269 01:35:53,530 --> 01:35:57,180 Thomas: You have to build multiple product lines. 1270 01:35:57,440 --> 01:36:04,280 Thomas: But that isn't to say that the X300 wasn't a very special and important machine, because 1271 01:36:04,420 --> 01:36:08,200 Thomas: it's not like they were going to completely reinvent the wheel with like the T-Series, 1272 01:36:08,290 --> 01:36:10,200 Thomas: the X-Series, etc. 1273 01:36:10,960 --> 01:36:32,200 Thomas: But there were a couple of machines where it's like, no, no, no, we have to focus on this because it's either a brand new kind of machine or we're starting a new product category like the W series, for example, which is kind of replacing the A and the G series, those larger workstation behemoths with another workstation behemoth. 1274 01:36:34,240 --> 01:37:03,640 Thomas: But yeah, it was obviously quite clear that this was something that they had in the work for a while. And I think even on the final product, you can see some of the stuff that survived early versions. Like, to my knowledge, and I'm shooting from the hip here, it's the only ThinkPad outside of the S30, and I don't even think the S30 had it, that has piano black hinges and a piano black bezel around the display. 1275 01:37:04,740 --> 01:37:21,040 Thomas: And I think those are actually leftovers that because at some point they were looking at having a piano plaque or a Mirage black lid and they got rid of it because it was going to be too difficult to manufacture. 1276 01:37:21,090 --> 01:37:26,060 Thomas: But the bezels on some of these machines and the hinges are piano or Mirage black. 1277 01:37:26,820 --> 01:37:29,360 Thomas: And I think that they probably already had them built. 1278 01:37:30,200 --> 01:37:36,620 Thomas: And they're like, well, we're not going to retool the hinges and the display bezel because that's just going to cost money. 1279 01:37:37,840 --> 01:37:39,400 Thomas: So they're they're still aware of that. 1280 01:37:39,420 --> 01:37:44,700 Thomas: But they're like, it also doesn't look bad either to have these like really shiny piano black hinges. 1281 01:37:44,900 --> 01:37:48,760 Thomas: But it is one of those things that you can kind of see how long this took. 1282 01:37:49,260 --> 01:37:59,200 Thomas: If it was designed over a short period of time, I think that we wouldn't have these little, you know, pieces of history that still made it on the launch machines. 1283 01:37:59,880 --> 01:38:00,040 Christian: Definitely. 1284 01:38:00,240 --> 01:38:09,500 Christian: I really like that those display hinges are piano black because they give this device an even more special look. 1285 01:38:09,720 --> 01:38:12,060 Christian: So it looks very interesting. 1286 01:38:12,200 --> 01:38:14,420 Christian: I would say very, very mystic. 1287 01:38:14,820 --> 01:38:21,040 Christian: We don't know what we will see if we open up the display lid and then we see this piano black Lenovo logo. 1288 01:38:21,980 --> 01:38:26,320 Christian: So it's not too much because I'm not a big fan of glossy piano black, to be honest. 1289 01:38:26,520 --> 01:38:32,560 Christian: And the S30 also was available for a short time in Piano Black. 1290 01:38:27,200 --> 01:38:27,780 Thomas: Oh, it's terrible. 1291 01:38:32,660 --> 01:38:35,820 Christian: And I also have the SSL series devices in my collection. 1292 01:38:35,860 --> 01:38:39,000 Christian: So the SL300, 400 and 500. 1293 01:38:39,940 --> 01:38:44,380 Christian: And boy, they are so glossy that you see every fingerprint. 1294 01:38:44,700 --> 01:38:48,500 Christian: It's really, really hard to keep those devices good looking. 1295 01:38:48,560 --> 01:38:52,740 Christian: So that's just the right amount of Piano Black, I would say, on the X300. 1296 01:38:53,920 --> 01:38:55,760 Thomas: Yes, I'm very glad 1297 01:38:56,160 --> 01:38:57,360 Thomas: that even a special edition 1298 01:38:57,430 --> 01:38:58,120 Thomas: was not made 1299 01:38:58,120 --> 01:38:59,200 Thomas: with a piano black top. 1300 01:38:59,260 --> 01:39:01,900 Thomas: because we still haven't quite figured out 1301 01:39:02,760 --> 01:39:07,200 Thomas: the absolute perfect way to make a scratch-resistant piano black 1302 01:39:07,200 --> 01:39:10,980 Thomas: just because of how reflective or refractive that material is, 1303 01:39:11,060 --> 01:39:11,540 Thomas: the acrylic. 1304 01:39:12,840 --> 01:39:13,700 Thomas: So, yeah. 1305 01:39:14,900 --> 01:39:20,260 Christian: So, when the X300 was designed, David worked together with, and I hope that I pronounced 1306 01:39:20,440 --> 01:39:28,900 Christian: it correctly tomoyuki takahashi i would say that's one of the designers at lenovo and i think they 1307 01:39:27,120 --> 01:39:27,860 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1308 01:39:29,160 --> 01:39:37,760 Christian: really did a great job so the design is very very special and the former plan was to sell 130 000 1309 01:39:37,920 --> 01:39:45,439 Christian: units in 12 months but they only could sell 60 000 units in accordance with the research that 1310 01:39:45,460 --> 01:39:49,180 Christian: somebody did because it's a kind of a niche product. 1311 01:39:50,180 --> 01:39:50,680 Christian: I don't know. 1312 01:39:51,090 --> 01:39:51,980 Christian: Do we have any numbers? 1313 01:39:52,170 --> 01:39:58,480 Christian: How many machines were actually sold during the whole lifetime of the X300 series? 1314 01:39:58,700 --> 01:40:01,460 Christian: It's hard to get those information these days, I'm afraid. 1315 01:40:01,660 --> 01:40:09,360 Thomas: yes to my knowledge those numbers are not published um i i don't know how accurate 1316 01:40:09,450 --> 01:40:16,160 Thomas: those numbers would be i don't know the source um usually things like that sometimes will leak out 1317 01:40:16,160 --> 01:40:25,099 Thomas: and it has a monochrome of accuracy we know again that it wasn't a product that they expected to sell 1318 01:40:25,160 --> 01:40:33,520 Thomas: in large volume like 130 000 units is not a large amount even for lenovo at the very beginning and 1319 01:40:33,600 --> 01:40:42,280 Thomas: in 2000 um and and eight when it was released so to to move that many units is still not bad 1320 01:40:43,200 --> 01:40:47,920 Thomas: and it's it's not about who owned one it's about the fact that it was out there in the press 1321 01:40:48,960 --> 01:40:53,820 Thomas: that that machine got was mission critical, I think, 1322 01:40:55,180 --> 01:40:57,720 Thomas: for Lenovo and the future of the ThinkPad brand. 1323 01:40:57,820 --> 01:40:59,700 Thomas: That it's like, okay, you know what? 1324 01:41:00,160 --> 01:41:01,000 Thomas: I don't need that machine. 1325 01:41:01,180 --> 01:41:02,040 Thomas: I don't want it. 1326 01:41:02,900 --> 01:41:04,220 Thomas: But the fact that you built it 1327 01:41:04,980 --> 01:41:06,320 Thomas: and it doesn't fall apart immediately, 1328 01:41:07,480 --> 01:41:10,160 Thomas: which the real enthusiasts are worried about, 1329 01:41:11,060 --> 01:41:14,640 Thomas: they were getting information about the screws 1330 01:41:15,040 --> 01:41:16,760 Thomas: and where the paint was being manufactured. 1331 01:41:17,220 --> 01:41:26,820 Thomas: Like everything was being so heavily scrutinized by those devices that, yeah, it doesn't matter if a whole lot of people bought it. 1332 01:41:26,900 --> 01:41:29,060 Thomas: What matters is that they made it and they didn't screw it up. 1333 01:41:30,420 --> 01:41:30,560 Christian: Definitely. 1334 01:41:30,760 --> 01:41:34,800 Christian: Yeah. Is there any part of the design that you appreciate the most? 1335 01:41:36,020 --> 01:41:36,680 Thomas: Well, let's see. 1336 01:41:37,960 --> 01:41:40,080 Christian: I'm also having a look at mine right now. 1337 01:41:39,700 --> 01:41:39,900 Thomas: Yeah. 1338 01:41:44,040 --> 01:41:56,360 Christian: I really like the keyboard, to be honest, because it has a very, very nice touch and it has a very good amount of key travel that's decreased over the last years, I would say, for the most of the Thinkpads. 1339 01:41:46,700 --> 01:41:47,180 Thomas: Uh... 1340 01:41:56,420 --> 01:42:04,760 Christian: I don't know whether this machine still has 1.7 or 1.8 millimeters of key travel, but it feels very high quality and it's fun typing on it. 1341 01:42:05,440 --> 01:42:12,200 Thomas: yes the um the kind of paint that they used is it felt more premium than everything else 1342 01:42:13,540 --> 01:42:15,960 Thomas: that Lenovo and IBM was using at the time. 1343 01:42:16,140 --> 01:42:21,720 Thomas: I would say one of the small features that stands out to me 1344 01:42:22,460 --> 01:42:24,960 Thomas: is actually the lid and hinge mechanism 1345 01:42:25,160 --> 01:42:29,760 Thomas: because I think this was one of the first thinner ThinkPads. 1346 01:42:29,760 --> 01:42:32,080 Thomas: I don't know if it was the very, very first ThinkPad 1347 01:42:32,440 --> 01:42:34,660 Thomas: that you could open with one hand. 1348 01:42:36,220 --> 01:42:36,340 Christian: Yeah. 1349 01:42:36,280 --> 01:42:37,480 Thomas: So when it's sitting on the desk, 1350 01:42:37,680 --> 01:42:40,180 Thomas: you can disengage the latch, lift the lid, 1351 01:42:41,060 --> 01:42:45,860 Thomas: and the computer itself will stay in place and not lift up off the desk. 1352 01:42:46,960 --> 01:42:52,220 Thomas: And it just closes with a very premium click. 1353 01:42:52,980 --> 01:42:56,040 Thomas: And for our ASMR friends, I'm just going to put this up to my microphone. 1354 01:42:58,280 --> 01:42:59,060 Christian: That's lovely. 1355 01:43:00,140 --> 01:43:00,900 Thomas: Like, what a sound. 1356 01:43:00,820 --> 01:43:01,680 Christian: Yeah, totally. 1357 01:43:02,210 --> 01:43:10,320 Christian: And I mean, they managed to have this kind of closing mechanism for a device that's that 1358 01:43:10,520 --> 01:43:14,300 Christian: thin, because later models didn't have this mechanism anymore. 1359 01:43:14,450 --> 01:43:18,160 Christian: And that's also one of the features that I would like to bring back to newer Thinkpads, 1360 01:43:18,780 --> 01:43:20,580 Christian: because we covered it in one of the questions. 1361 01:43:21,239 --> 01:43:24,080 Christian: And yeah, I can totally relate. 1362 01:43:24,340 --> 01:43:25,720 Christian: That's very satisfying to hear. 1363 01:43:27,820 --> 01:43:28,220 Christian: Very nice. 1364 01:43:29,620 --> 01:43:31,080 Christian: Yeah, I really like the machine. 1365 01:43:31,400 --> 01:43:37,180 Christian: Also, I like that they put the privacy button on the back of the machine for the wireless networking. 1366 01:43:38,220 --> 01:43:38,320 Thomas: yes 1367 01:43:39,340 --> 01:43:46,140 Christian: And I like the very small detail that you also shared that the power port needed to be trimmed down, 1368 01:43:46,200 --> 01:43:48,140 Christian: that it fits the lower footprint of the machine. 1369 01:43:48,440 --> 01:43:50,520 Christian: That's a very, very, very tiny detail. 1370 01:43:51,280 --> 01:43:52,300 Christian: That's very lovely. 1371 01:43:53,220 --> 01:43:58,640 Thomas: yeah but again it shows an attention to detail because we're talking about a part that is universal 1372 01:43:58,720 --> 01:44:01,040 Thomas: on a ThinkPad is the power port. 1373 01:44:00,300 --> 01:44:00,380 Christian: Yes. 1374 01:44:02,080 --> 01:44:03,800 Thomas: But they felt it was important enough 1375 01:44:04,250 --> 01:44:05,420 Thomas: to the design of the machine 1376 01:44:06,410 --> 01:44:07,840 Thomas: to shave the top and the bottom 1377 01:44:08,300 --> 01:44:09,840 Thomas: and produce a custom part 1378 01:44:10,660 --> 01:44:12,820 Thomas: where they didn't really have to, 1379 01:44:13,760 --> 01:44:15,700 Thomas: but somebody cared enough to do it. 1380 01:44:16,760 --> 01:44:17,460 Thomas: So I don't know. 1381 01:44:17,720 --> 01:44:18,580 Thomas: It might seem silly, 1382 01:44:18,610 --> 01:44:21,320 Thomas: but I can imagine five or six people 1383 01:44:21,760 --> 01:44:22,280 Thomas: around the table, 1384 01:44:23,040 --> 01:44:25,080 Thomas: designers, material engineers, 1385 01:44:26,360 --> 01:44:27,120 Thomas: product engineers, 1386 01:44:28,000 --> 01:44:29,860 Thomas: and they're like, okay, we got two options here. 1387 01:44:29,860 --> 01:44:31,120 Thomas: We can make the chassis thinner 1388 01:44:31,230 --> 01:44:32,820 Thomas: and go with a full circular port 1389 01:44:33,260 --> 01:44:34,320 Thomas: and it's going to do all of this. 1390 01:44:34,540 --> 01:44:37,040 Thomas: Or we take the existing part, 1391 01:44:37,170 --> 01:44:38,920 Thomas: we do a cast of the mold 1392 01:44:39,400 --> 01:44:42,120 Thomas: and we produce a specific power plug for the X300. 1393 01:44:42,480 --> 01:44:43,660 Thomas: It's going to cost this much money, 1394 01:44:44,260 --> 01:44:44,960 Thomas: but it's going to do this 1395 01:44:44,970 --> 01:44:45,680 Thomas: and it's going to do this 1396 01:44:45,690 --> 01:44:46,420 Thomas: and it's going to do this. 1397 01:44:47,360 --> 01:44:48,580 Thomas: And then rather than being like, 1398 01:44:48,660 --> 01:44:49,860 Thomas: we're going to go with the cheaper option, 1399 01:44:50,100 --> 01:44:52,700 Thomas: somebody said, no, this is important. 1400 01:44:53,120 --> 01:44:53,800 Thomas: We're going to do this. 1401 01:44:54,420 --> 01:45:02,160 Christian: Yeah, definitely. I highly appreciate that kind of enthusiasm and going big and make this 1402 01:45:02,920 --> 01:45:09,860 Christian: ThinkPad really outstanding. I also like that if we have it closed in front of ourselves, 1403 01:45:10,400 --> 01:45:17,139 Christian: then we see that the status icons are on the left. So usually they can't be seen at all and they are 1404 01:45:12,920 --> 01:45:14,320 Thomas: Yes. 1405 01:45:17,160 --> 01:45:22,060 Christian: part on the left side of the screen. And you can see there whether the machine is in standby, 1406 01:45:22,360 --> 01:45:27,280 Christian: whether the power supply has been added or the battery is running low. That's a very nice detail. 1407 01:45:28,340 --> 01:45:33,400 Thomas: yep and then you also had like on the top case it would say like what ports were on the side 1408 01:45:33,710 --> 01:45:37,960 Thomas: so you didn't have to look to see where your usb ports was there was a little indicator 1409 01:45:38,220 --> 01:45:46,520 Christian: Yes. You're right. Yeah, yeah. Totally forget about that. That's also pretty good. Yeah. 1410 01:45:38,310 --> 01:45:43,440 Thomas: that tells you right on the the top bezel where to plug stuff in 1411 01:45:47,600 --> 01:45:57,520 Christian: Yeah, so maybe speaking of how other people like that machine, I think the voices out there had the same opinion like we two guys have. 1412 01:45:58,120 --> 01:46:01,180 Christian: The design was considered to be a revolution at its time. 1413 01:46:01,900 --> 01:46:03,380 Christian: And you cover this in one of your videos. 1414 01:46:01,980 --> 01:46:02,220 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1415 01:46:03,800 --> 01:46:10,000 Christian: So Richard Zapper once said in an interview, if the design doesn't respect the function, then it's a mistake. 1416 01:46:10,740 --> 01:46:22,340 Christian: But if a product only has this function of being functional and it doesn't have some formal impression that wakes your interest, if you look at it, that helps create a human relation between you and the product, it's not a good design. 1417 01:46:22,880 --> 01:46:33,720 Christian: And I think they did a very good job for the X300 because I can look at this machine for five minutes and I still like looking at it because there are so many details that are just lovely put in the right place. 1418 01:46:34,820 --> 01:46:38,380 Thomas: Yeah, like people will not look at a T-60 1419 01:46:38,410 --> 01:46:39,880 Thomas: and have that same conversation. 1420 01:46:40,480 --> 01:46:41,520 Christian: No, not really. 1421 01:46:41,640 --> 01:46:47,600 Christian: And yeah, I can totally see why they want to go big with that machine, because it's 1422 01:46:47,660 --> 01:46:54,900 Christian: the first ThinkPad that had to be a success after Lenovo bought out the PC computing line, 1423 01:46:53,600 --> 01:46:53,780 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1424 01:46:54,980 --> 01:47:00,820 Christian: because otherwise people wouldn't have trusted that Lenovo can make awesome ThinkPads as well. 1425 01:47:01,600 --> 01:47:01,780 Thomas: Yep. 1426 01:47:02,600 --> 01:47:02,800 Thomas: Huge. 1427 01:47:03,460 --> 01:47:08,600 Christian: Did you have a chance to have a look at the S70 prototype that exists of the X300? 1428 01:47:09,680 --> 01:47:30,540 Thomas: Yeah, we've actually over the years exchanged a couple of emails because when I was looking at the X300, I was made aware that he had one of the S70 prototypes. So we've talked maybe once or twice over the years. Really, really kind, kind person. 1429 01:47:13,420 --> 01:47:13,439 Christian: Mhm. 1430 01:47:21,760 --> 01:47:22,400 Christian: Oh! 1431 01:47:31,280 --> 01:47:38,440 Thomas: And he actually sent me a couple of extra photographs and things for my use of his S-70 model. 1432 01:47:39,480 --> 01:47:41,660 Thomas: And it's on his S-70 model. 1433 01:47:41,730 --> 01:47:45,540 Thomas: You can see a lot of the stuff that they wanted to do. 1434 01:47:45,750 --> 01:47:52,200 Thomas: They almost got to do, but then they either dropped or had to phase out. 1435 01:47:52,820 --> 01:47:59,700 Thomas: Like some of the port covers, I think on the S-70 prototype you see didn't make it. 1436 01:47:59,800 --> 01:48:01,620 Thomas: Although they would come back on the X1. 1437 01:48:02,150 --> 01:48:07,540 Thomas: The X1, I think, has pretty much all of its ports covered behind little doors and flaps. 1438 01:48:07,670 --> 01:48:10,840 Thomas: And that was very much something that Sapper was pushing for. 1439 01:48:10,970 --> 01:48:15,720 Thomas: He didn't want the X300 to look like a computer when it was closed. 1440 01:48:15,750 --> 01:48:21,820 Thomas: That was one of the things that he wanted to make this object rather timeless by doing that. 1441 01:48:22,660 --> 01:48:34,200 Thomas: So yeah, there were a couple of things on that S70 prototype that were different, but it was also pretty far along because it's functional. 1442 01:48:35,040 --> 01:48:42,200 Thomas: Like you'll have models and prototypes that are not functional that would look much more different than the finished product. 1443 01:48:42,500 --> 01:48:49,100 Thomas: But once you have a prototype or a pre-production model that has a board in it that turns on, 1444 01:48:49,940 --> 01:48:55,260 Thomas: you're not really going to be changing the board and kind of a lot of the case parts at that point. 1445 01:48:56,120 --> 01:48:58,880 Thomas: It is interesting, though, that they called it the S70, 1446 01:48:59,680 --> 01:49:04,620 Thomas: because it really tells you how late they were in deciding that this is going to be part of the X line 1447 01:49:04,700 --> 01:49:11,900 Thomas: and it's going to be a 300 series machine and how all those decisions kind of came toward the end. 1448 01:49:12,160 --> 01:49:20,220 Thomas: And I do wonder, I don't know, but I do wonder if they called it an S because it originally was going to have those piano black parts. 1449 01:49:20,880 --> 01:49:20,940 Christian: Hmm. 1450 01:49:21,000 --> 01:49:26,840 Thomas: And the last machine to have all the piano black parts was the S30 and then the SL line. 1451 01:49:26,980 --> 01:49:31,280 Thomas: And well, the SL line was kind of made concurrently for the most part. 1452 01:49:31,480 --> 01:49:35,140 Thomas: But I think it might have been a callback to that where they were still using two digit numbers. 1453 01:49:36,220 --> 01:49:39,760 Thomas: But then, of course, when that series of machines came out, they were all three digit numbers. 1454 01:49:40,740 --> 01:49:51,320 Thomas: And I think they also did that to help differentiate between this is a Lenovo machine that's been Lenovo developed versus the IBM era, which is all two digit. 1455 01:49:51,760 --> 01:49:54,600 Thomas: Again, I can't confirm that, but it seems to make sense. 1456 01:49:55,300 --> 01:50:00,040 Christian: It definitely makes sense, because as you mentioned, the S30 with the glossy piano black design and 1457 01:50:01,020 --> 01:50:06,800 Christian: maybe an idea of having the whole machine in piano black that totally would make sense, 1458 01:50:07,120 --> 01:50:13,400 Christian: that it would be part of the S-series. And I mean, revitalizing or feigned model series is something 1459 01:50:13,600 --> 01:50:20,119 Christian: the ThinkPad brand is known for. As you mentioned the S-series, for example. But did you have the 1460 01:50:15,780 --> 01:50:16,060 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1461 01:50:20,140 --> 01:50:24,340 Christian: chance to have your hands on one of those prototype machines because they are pretty rare. 1462 01:50:25,300 --> 01:50:28,260 Thomas: The only one that I know of is the one that Exos has. 1463 01:50:28,380 --> 01:50:31,140 Thomas: I've never seen another one, not photographed online. 1464 01:50:29,660 --> 01:50:29,880 Christian: Yeah. 1465 01:50:32,240 --> 01:50:36,800 Thomas: And understanding what often happens to pre-production and prototype devices, 1466 01:50:37,620 --> 01:50:38,760 Thomas: one of two things happens to them. 1467 01:50:39,580 --> 01:50:42,940 Thomas: They're either scrapped or they used to. 1468 01:50:42,990 --> 01:50:44,860 Thomas: It probably happens a lot less now. 1469 01:50:46,110 --> 01:50:49,060 Thomas: They were, and this is true of some machines, 1470 01:50:49,490 --> 01:50:50,740 Thomas: definitely in the early days, 1471 01:50:51,330 --> 01:50:53,680 Thomas: they would be put out on tables for people to take home. 1472 01:50:54,360 --> 01:50:55,000 Christian: Wow, okay. 1473 01:50:57,140 --> 01:51:03,240 Thomas: at least that's the rumor that I've heard that these machines would be like yeah just take them 1474 01:50:57,150 --> 01:50:57,420 Christian: Okay. 1475 01:50:59,540 --> 01:50:59,720 Christian: Yeah. 1476 01:51:04,080 --> 01:51:08,000 Thomas: keep them don't try and sell them like there there would be some like stipulations but it was 1477 01:51:08,720 --> 01:51:13,680 Thomas: they uh they went out into the wild and I'm pretty sure that's cracked they've cracked down on that 1478 01:51:14,060 --> 01:51:20,019 Thomas: significantly since then but there was a time I think where um they were just taken home because 1479 01:51:15,520 --> 01:51:15,600 Christian: Yeah. 1480 01:51:15,600 --> 01:51:15,780 Christian: Yeah. 1481 01:51:20,040 --> 01:51:24,120 Thomas: they were going to be scrapped anyway. And there might have been even a few that like, well, once 1482 01:51:24,160 --> 01:51:29,800 Thomas: it's in the scrap bin, no one's going to check. They're just heaving these things into a crusher. 1483 01:51:27,560 --> 01:51:27,680 Christian: yeah 1484 01:51:30,440 --> 01:51:33,860 Thomas: They're not going to count every single machine that goes into a crusher and be like, oh, 1485 01:51:34,500 --> 01:51:36,960 Thomas: this serial number is missing. We better go look. No, they don't care. 1486 01:51:39,100 --> 01:51:45,860 Thomas: So, yeah, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if Exos's example is the only one 1487 01:51:46,000 --> 01:51:46,680 Thomas: that's still out there. 1488 01:51:46,960 --> 01:51:52,340 Christian: interesting because during the research for this episode i found a video on youtube of a 1489 01:51:52,660 --> 01:51:58,140 Christian: young person that gives also an overview about the s70 prototype and has one in his hands 1490 01:51:58,920 --> 01:52:06,260 Christian: and i was like wow those machines still exist so maybe that machine was given to that person by a 1491 01:52:06,370 --> 01:52:11,979 Christian: family member that worked at lenovo or something like that it's hard to to find out where the machine 1492 01:52:12,000 --> 01:52:18,680 Christian: come from. But I think those machines are pretty hard to get because only 425 were assembled and 1493 01:52:18,840 --> 01:52:25,520 Christian: distributed within the company, as you mentioned. And they did some testing. So I heard this in your 1494 01:52:25,590 --> 01:52:32,520 Christian: video about the machine, that it was possible to assemble this machine in 25 steps just in 10 minutes. 1495 01:52:32,880 --> 01:52:35,920 Christian: So you have all the parts on your desk and in 10 minutes you have a working machine. 1496 01:52:33,800 --> 01:52:34,000 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1497 01:52:36,500 --> 01:52:38,560 Christian: That's quite interesting for such a complex device. 1498 01:52:39,500 --> 01:52:39,820 Thomas: It is. 1499 01:52:40,100 --> 01:52:45,240 Thomas: I think they actually did that as part of a demo at CES when they announced it. 1500 01:52:45,560 --> 01:52:50,180 Thomas: I want to say that I remember one of their demo guys might have done that. 1501 01:52:50,830 --> 01:52:52,100 Thomas: And I think they blogged about it. 1502 01:52:52,800 --> 01:52:54,440 Thomas: I think that was something that actually did happen. 1503 01:52:55,340 --> 01:52:58,760 Thomas: And it was something that they featured in some of the promotional material, like the 1504 01:52:59,840 --> 01:53:06,560 Thomas: cover story of Businessweek that featured the X300 featured it disassembled, which it was 1505 01:53:06,890 --> 01:53:11,740 Thomas: an interesting choice because you wouldn't necessarily immediately recognize it for what it is. 1506 01:53:13,060 --> 01:53:17,120 Thomas: But that was the cover picture that they went with was the machine disassembled. 1507 01:53:17,160 --> 01:53:18,540 Thomas: So they were pretty proud of that too. 1508 01:53:19,420 --> 01:53:22,780 Thomas: They could throw pretty much the whole chassis together so quickly. 1509 01:53:23,620 --> 01:53:27,820 Christian: There are some other differences between the prototype and the file product. 1510 01:53:28,820 --> 01:53:33,280 Christian: Are there some things that you can share with our listeners that might be interesting? 1511 01:53:34,360 --> 01:53:38,800 Thomas: Yeah, a lot of stuff that they wanted to do on the X300 we saw later. 1512 01:53:39,960 --> 01:53:42,100 Thomas: There were some things that didn't make it. 1513 01:53:42,400 --> 01:53:50,540 Thomas: I mentioned earlier when we were talking about the ThinkLight that they were going to use a luminescent paint on the keycaps. 1514 01:53:51,080 --> 01:53:55,260 Thomas: So when the ThinkLight turned on, it would actually light up the keys on the keyboard. 1515 01:53:57,260 --> 01:54:06,860 Thomas: They didn't go with it, probably because either they couldn't get it to work right or they couldn't get it to work well enough for it to be a viable solution. 1516 01:54:07,740 --> 01:54:19,840 Thomas: Or the cost of the special super awesome paint would have been poor, or maybe the durability of the paint was going to be problematic because if it's like you have to seal the key cap with the paint underneath. 1517 01:54:19,990 --> 01:54:22,480 Thomas: But as soon as you do that, the light's not going to get through. 1518 01:54:22,620 --> 01:54:22,860 Thomas: Who knows? 1519 01:54:24,000 --> 01:54:26,100 Thomas: So they had things like that. 1520 01:54:26,190 --> 01:54:33,280 Thomas: We talked about all the piano black components that they were going to have, how the ports were going to be like concealed and covered. 1521 01:54:33,430 --> 01:54:35,320 Thomas: And they would kind of do that on the X1. 1522 01:54:35,840 --> 01:54:43,280 Thomas: They were originally going to have the red LED light on the eye of ThinkPad light up on the X300. 1523 01:54:44,280 --> 01:54:46,220 Thomas: But that got pushed down the roadmap. 1524 01:54:46,880 --> 01:54:48,840 Thomas: But it was originally slated for the X300. 1525 01:54:49,640 --> 01:54:51,940 Christian: Interesting, because they did it for the SL series. 1526 01:54:52,380 --> 01:54:55,160 Christian: That's where I saw it the very first time. 1527 01:54:55,160 --> 01:55:00,440 Christian: I mean, nowadays all the Thinkpads have that feature, but the first one was the SL series. 1528 01:54:58,660 --> 01:54:58,780 Thomas: Yep. 1529 01:55:01,440 --> 01:55:08,180 Christian: Because right at the time in school where one of my colleagues had the X300, another 1530 01:55:08,430 --> 01:55:16,400 Christian: colleague had the SL300, which is all piano black, but it had that blinking eye on the 1531 01:55:16,400 --> 01:55:16,960 Christian: ThinkPad logo. 1532 01:55:17,880 --> 01:55:22,040 Thomas: yeah and i think they had more room to do it in that machine it wasn't a non-ish it was a non-issue 1533 01:55:20,570 --> 01:55:20,760 Christian: Yeah. 1534 01:55:22,180 --> 01:55:28,840 Thomas: right whereas in this thing it's like where do we put it is a part of the actual problem whereas 1535 01:55:27,619 --> 01:55:28,300 Christian: Yes. 1536 01:55:28,320 --> 01:55:28,340 Christian: Yes. 1537 01:55:28,860 --> 01:55:39,620 Thomas: cell series you've got room um and yeah that whole think pad light that pulsing breathing led 1538 01:55:40,720 --> 01:55:48,460 Thomas: is uh it's a very persistent design choice that is very iconic and i know david is quite proud of it 1539 01:55:49,220 --> 01:55:58,000 Thomas: as he should be um so we had uh that which was pushed to other models until they found a way to 1540 01:55:58,020 --> 01:56:02,100 Thomas: build it slim enough and i think it also became part of the brand identity so it's like well if 1541 01:56:02,100 --> 01:56:07,620 Thomas: you're gonna have a think pad the expectation is that the that light lights up and it also tells you 1542 01:56:08,320 --> 01:56:14,680 Thomas: the status of the computer in a very humanistic way it's not an indicator with the moon anymore 1543 01:56:15,100 --> 01:56:20,740 Thomas: like it used to be on the old models it's this oh it's breathing like it's like quietly sleeping 1544 01:56:15,940 --> 01:56:16,020 Christian: Yeah. 1545 01:56:20,980 --> 01:56:27,980 Thomas: like you understand it without being told um and if it's blinking it's like shutting down and if it's 1546 01:56:28,000 --> 01:56:34,320 Thomas: off then it's off and if it's on then you know it's on um so yeah i'm sure that there was probably a 1547 01:56:34,420 --> 01:56:38,740 Thomas: lot of research that went into that but it just didn't make it onto the x300 probably due to space 1548 01:56:38,860 --> 01:56:43,660 Thomas: and the time because if it came if they came up with the idea when they've already tooled up the 1549 01:56:43,820 --> 01:56:49,580 Thomas: case it's too late right and that's just an issue with product design in general you can come up with 1550 01:56:49,580 --> 01:56:56,160 Thomas: the best idea but you came up with it too late so it's gotta wait until the next product um so yeah 1551 01:56:56,180 --> 01:57:02,340 Thomas: had the rubber port covers things like that um there was a product at the time being developed 1552 01:57:02,840 --> 01:57:09,660 Thomas: that i don't think was this machine but they were they were trying to find a way to at that time 1553 01:57:09,740 --> 01:57:18,760 Thomas: bring back the track right keyboard that dr john kareidis uh invented but again too complicated 1554 01:57:19,200 --> 01:57:24,340 Thomas: it's not meeting that need of how do i get a keyboard which is this aspect ratio into a display 1555 01:57:24,360 --> 01:57:30,740 Thomas: that's a four by three. Like we don't have to solve that problem anymore. So why are we spending a lot 1556 01:57:30,740 --> 01:57:36,060 Thomas: of money solving a problem that doesn't exist? So even though it's beautiful and it captures 1557 01:57:36,320 --> 01:57:40,220 Thomas: everybody's attention and there was a lot of excitement about when the patent for the new one 1558 01:57:40,400 --> 01:57:46,260 Thomas: came out, outside of a specific instance, I couldn't imagine where that would be applicable. 1559 01:57:47,080 --> 01:57:51,540 Thomas: I thought it would be on a foldable actually, because of the aspect ratio issues there. 1560 01:57:51,680 --> 01:57:59,340 Thomas: have a full-size keyboard on a foldable like the x1 fold um but again didn't didn't make it to 1561 01:58:00,310 --> 01:58:10,520 Thomas: production and then i know that in the original they were only going to have one speaker and they're 1562 01:58:10,560 --> 01:58:17,560 Thomas: like no no we gotta have two speakers because speakers were becoming a more important part of 1563 01:58:17,580 --> 01:58:23,860 Thomas: the design and this is a small thing um but i'll illustrate it by pulling out my example here 1564 01:58:25,160 --> 01:58:32,200 Thomas: they had to strategically place the speakers here because they didn't want to repeat a mistake they 1565 01:58:32,360 --> 01:58:39,060 Thomas: made i think it was with the either thinkpad 570 or 600 where the speaker was right where you put 1566 01:58:39,160 --> 01:58:46,920 Thomas: your palm so it's like well how do how do we balance that and if you put place your hands 1567 01:58:39,980 --> 01:58:40,220 Christian: Definitely. 1568 01:58:46,920 --> 01:58:49,520 Thomas: on the keyboard deck on this, 1569 01:58:50,100 --> 01:58:51,680 Thomas: with the intent of using the track point, 1570 01:58:51,960 --> 01:58:54,680 Thomas: especially your hands are free 1571 01:58:55,020 --> 01:58:55,900 Thomas: and away from the speakers. 1572 01:58:57,000 --> 01:58:58,880 Thomas: So thankfully that is a change. 1573 01:58:57,870 --> 01:58:58,220 Christian: Definitely. 1574 01:58:58,920 --> 01:59:00,140 Thomas: They were able to slip in there. 1575 01:59:01,580 --> 01:59:03,500 Thomas: But yeah, I think those are the big highlights. 1576 01:59:04,660 --> 01:59:09,420 Christian: I mean, it's just fascinating how many hardware they put in that very small footprint and even 1577 01:59:09,560 --> 01:59:14,780 Christian: have stereo speakers, because I think it would have been the wrong decision only to go for 1578 01:59:14,920 --> 01:59:15,360 Christian: mono speakers. 1579 01:59:16,420 --> 01:59:19,200 Christian: And those speakers are really, really small. 1580 01:59:19,940 --> 01:59:28,200 Christian: So you only see them if you have a very detailed look at the palm rest, and they are not very 1581 01:59:20,580 --> 01:59:20,660 Thomas: Yes. 1582 01:59:28,200 --> 01:59:31,680 Christian: in terms of that you will see them in the first place. 1583 01:59:31,960 --> 01:59:37,040 Christian: So they are black and they are just looking like they are part of the design. 1584 01:59:37,960 --> 01:59:44,520 Thomas: yeah very very intentional they're not part that's supposed to stand out you just expect it to be there 1585 01:59:42,880 --> 01:59:45,280 Christian: Yeah, exactly. 1586 01:59:46,330 --> 01:59:49,880 Christian: And they had some problems with the SSD during the product design phase, right? 1587 01:59:50,840 --> 01:59:56,720 Thomas: i believe they did um they had a lot of reliability issues with that there was some issues with the 1588 01:59:56,780 --> 02:00:03,940 Thomas: centrino modem yes like and again i'm gonna point back to ham's book because he goes into great 1589 02:00:04,180 --> 02:00:10,640 Thomas: detail on all of the little bumps that they ran into on the x300 but yes there were there were 1590 02:00:10,760 --> 02:00:18,540 Thomas: quite a few issues with several uh hard hardware manufacturers at the time uh to get that thing 1591 02:00:19,320 --> 02:00:26,740 Thomas: running reliably and that's to be expected like you are you are pulling off the shelf these 1592 02:00:26,760 --> 02:00:34,280 Thomas: really thin cutting edge components like these aren't components that have been around for a long 1593 02:00:34,520 --> 02:00:40,800 Thomas: time these are things that are being developed and in niche batches like we should be probably 1594 02:00:41,200 --> 02:00:47,720 Thomas: surprised that there isn't issues with the super slim dvd drive because if you think about the r&d 1595 02:00:47,840 --> 02:00:52,060 Thomas: that went into it and the amount that the company produced i want to say it was hattachi that built 1596 02:00:52,080 --> 02:00:59,780 Thomas: the drive, that's not a large volume of drives to test for reliability. So when you're building 1597 02:00:59,840 --> 02:01:03,380 Thomas: all these customized parts, or when you're using these parts from vendors that are not 1598 02:01:04,300 --> 02:01:10,820 Thomas: often used, you're introducing a bit of risk, especially when it's outside of your supply chain. 1599 02:01:12,060 --> 02:01:15,460 Christian: So let's focus on how the machine was recepted out there. 1600 02:01:15,500 --> 02:01:20,180 Christian: And let's start with the phrase that Richard Zappa said during an interview. 1601 02:01:20,430 --> 02:01:22,680 Christian: He said, it is so thin, it shocks you. 1602 02:01:23,060 --> 02:01:24,840 Christian: And I would definitely agree on that. 1603 02:01:23,640 --> 02:01:23,860 Thomas: I have. 1604 02:01:25,340 --> 02:01:28,040 Christian: That's like the thinnest ThinkPad I saw back then. 1605 02:01:28,960 --> 02:01:31,700 Christian: And he also said, it has a striking appearance. 1606 02:01:31,980 --> 02:01:34,780 Christian: It's a classical box design in a very thin footprint. 1607 02:01:34,890 --> 02:01:37,340 Christian: And I would say that they really did a great job on that. 1608 02:01:38,340 --> 02:01:43,760 Christian: And in January 2008, that's one month before the X300 was released, 1609 02:01:43,900 --> 02:01:49,260 Christian: a leak was published on gizmodo and yes you can hear that we are on a retro computing podcast 1610 02:01:49,540 --> 02:01:54,320 Christian: because we're talking about gizmodo nobody talks about gizmodo these days anymore yeah 1611 02:01:56,020 --> 02:02:03,100 Christian: that was a very popular blog back then who focused on on technical information so somehow 1612 02:02:03,560 --> 02:02:07,740 Christian: a leak was published on that website and the reactions on the internet were very strong 1613 02:02:08,500 --> 02:02:13,800 Christian: and the exposure of the x300 was excellent i would say so maybe we can start with some 1614 02:02:13,860 --> 02:02:19,140 Christian: opinions that some magazines had. And I will start with Notebook Review. They wrote, 1615 02:02:19,330 --> 02:02:25,880 Christian: the X300 is much more practical than the pretty but port-challenged MacBook Air. We'll focus on that 1616 02:02:26,500 --> 02:02:31,540 Christian: soon. But what did Digital Trends and PC World Australia say about the machine? 1617 02:02:27,660 --> 02:02:27,900 Thomas: Uh-huh. 1618 02:02:32,640 --> 02:02:39,599 Christian: So, Digital Trends said, while Apple had to make a number of compromises on the Air to get it down 1619 02:02:39,620 --> 02:02:44,500 Christian: to its remarkable size, Lenovo took the opposite approach and have crammed as many features 1620 02:02:44,590 --> 02:02:48,320 Christian: as possible, including an optical disk drive, into the X300. 1621 02:02:48,680 --> 02:02:54,520 Christian: And that's a very good sentence about how they designed the X300, because they really 1622 02:02:54,720 --> 02:02:55,280 Christian: did the opposite. 1623 02:02:55,700 --> 02:02:59,900 Christian: They didn't want to slim down, they want to go big and have everything that's needed in 1624 02:02:59,930 --> 02:03:00,360 Christian: that machine. 1625 02:03:01,140 --> 02:03:01,320 Thomas: Uh-huh. 1626 02:03:01,740 --> 02:03:03,320 Christian: Lastly, PCWorld Australia. 1627 02:03:03,870 --> 02:03:08,560 Christian: I will quote them: "The X300 is not a cheap notebook, but it only costs the sum of the 1628 02:03:08,580 --> 02:03:14,020 Christian: the components it offers, so you're getting what you pay for. And I think that's also good to point 1629 02:03:14,020 --> 02:03:21,200 Christian: that out. And maybe we forgot that earlier, that when the X300 was released, and Arimasa Naito said 1630 02:03:21,250 --> 02:03:26,300 Christian: this once during an interview, that the machine offered cutting-edge technology, and it was still 1631 02:03:26,330 --> 02:03:32,000 Christian: too expensive because it was released during a financial crisis and recession. So that's also 1632 02:03:32,180 --> 02:03:37,740 Christian: maybe one of the reasons why the machine was not a commercial winner in that regard. 1633 02:03:41,120 --> 02:03:46,740 Thomas: released during a recession, would the numbers have been higher? Thankfully, I think the impact 1634 02:03:47,140 --> 02:03:54,800 Thomas: remained unchanged because we still had people talking about this machine a lot. If it was released 1635 02:03:55,260 --> 02:04:00,080 Thomas: earlier and maybe the internet wasn't as developed and people couldn't exchange information as freely 1636 02:04:00,210 --> 02:04:03,920 Thomas: as they could even back then, I think that would have been a much bigger problem. 1637 02:04:01,260 --> 02:04:02,660 Christian: charts. 1638 02:04:05,100 --> 02:04:12,720 Christian: And you already mentioned the Business Week February release 2008 had a cover story about the X300 by Steve Hamm. 1639 02:04:12,800 --> 02:04:14,800 Christian: And he later dedicated a whole book on that machine. 1640 02:04:15,260 --> 02:04:19,200 Christian: So I think he has a lot about the machine to say. 1641 02:04:19,280 --> 02:04:22,260 Christian: And we're happy that he covered all the stuff in a book. 1642 02:04:22,920 --> 02:04:29,040 Thomas: yeah Steve Hamm is a phenomenal guy I was really thankful I actually got to sit down and talk to 1643 02:04:29,100 --> 02:04:35,200 Thomas: him, not only about that book, but a couple of other books that he's written. And yeah, kind of 1644 02:04:35,420 --> 02:04:40,240 Thomas: informed me about a few things that were just important about like journalistic style that I've 1645 02:04:40,340 --> 02:04:48,720 Thomas: tried to take away from. So very, very appreciative of his time all those years ago to talk to me to 1646 02:04:48,800 --> 02:04:54,940 Thomas: like what it was like to have that opportunity because he had all these NDAs signed. So he was 1647 02:04:54,960 --> 02:05:02,960 Thomas: talking to everybody about anything that he wanted to and i can't think of a book like it since 1648 02:05:03,800 --> 02:05:05,460 Christian: I really need to get that one from my collection. 1649 02:05:07,080 --> 02:05:11,200 Thomas: yes you do yeah tell them in the comments everybody go get the book 1650 02:05:07,440 --> 02:05:07,920 Christian: Yeah. 1651 02:05:11,220 --> 02:05:11,780 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 1652 02:05:12,680 --> 02:05:17,480 Christian: It's available from time to time on the usual places in the internet, but I think there are 1653 02:05:17,500 --> 02:05:22,720 Christian: no reprints available. So you need to get old copies of it by these days. 1654 02:05:23,440 --> 02:05:27,000 Thomas: Yeah, I think you can get it digitally too, but there is something nice about a paper copy. 1655 02:05:27,300 --> 02:05:32,180 Christian: Same for me. So I really like to have the books in in paper form and sitting on my couch, 1656 02:05:32,940 --> 02:05:42,120 Christian: while having the TCLM over me and reading the book. Yeah, so I think we can summarize the 1657 02:05:35,620 --> 02:05:36,900 Thomas: Ha ha ha, yes. 1658 02:05:42,540 --> 02:05:46,800 Christian: x300 got the feedback the team has hoped for. And they really did a good job. 1659 02:05:47,220 --> 02:05:47,700 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1660 02:05:48,800 --> 02:05:55,940 Christian: Anyhow, when we have a look at the media back then, then a lot of misconceptions were that 1661 02:05:56,140 --> 02:05:59,640 Christian: the X300 was considered a MacBook Air killer. 1662 02:05:59,990 --> 02:06:01,260 Christian: But that's not true, right? 1663 02:06:02,180 --> 02:06:03,140 Thomas: No, not at all. 1664 02:06:04,340 --> 02:06:07,540 Thomas: It was a very easy thing for journalists to say at the time 1665 02:06:07,670 --> 02:06:10,200 Thomas: because of the release of both of these machines. 1666 02:06:11,380 --> 02:06:13,560 Thomas: And both of them were thin and light, 1667 02:06:14,300 --> 02:06:16,380 Thomas: what would become Ultrabook computers. 1668 02:06:17,020 --> 02:06:18,800 Thomas: So the comparison was inevitable. 1669 02:06:20,360 --> 02:06:38,400 Thomas: And it was so important that it's actually how Steve Hamm opens the book with them talking about what it was like to be in the Lenovo office when they're seeing this keynote by Steve Jobs dropping the MacBook Air. 1670 02:06:39,360 --> 02:06:42,940 Thomas: And their first thought was, does ours fit in an inter-office envelope? 1671 02:06:45,020 --> 02:06:45,560 Thomas: And it did. 1672 02:06:46,340 --> 02:06:55,800 Thomas: And I actually have a picture from David's collection of the envelope that they stuffed it in as a point. 1673 02:06:55,920 --> 02:07:01,520 Thomas: And even where I display this on a shelf, I have an inter-office envelope right next to it. 1674 02:07:01,760 --> 02:07:04,960 Thomas: And people will say, why is there an envelope next to that computer? 1675 02:07:05,040 --> 02:07:07,160 Thomas: And it's like, well, let me tell you. 1676 02:07:07,320 --> 02:07:08,320 Christian: Let that you ask. 1677 02:07:08,390 --> 02:07:11,080 Christian: Let me tell you in the next 40 minutes 1678 02:07:11,350 --> 02:07:12,400 Christian: the story behind it. 1679 02:07:12,740 --> 02:07:13,040 Thomas: Yeah. 1680 02:07:14,280 --> 02:07:14,440 Thomas: Yeah. 1681 02:07:14,580 --> 02:07:15,840 Thomas: But what a story. 1682 02:07:16,240 --> 02:07:20,040 Thomas: But yeah, the MacBook Air is a technical achievement. 1683 02:07:20,210 --> 02:07:26,480 Thomas: I will not rob Apple of that pinnacle moment of their history. 1684 02:07:27,300 --> 02:07:39,620 Thomas: That brought back the idea that laptops don't have to be, you know, constantly plugged in, that they do have mobility and they have function and purpose and all that good stuff. 1685 02:07:39,860 --> 02:07:43,940 Thomas: But yeah, it was a very interesting time. 1686 02:07:44,360 --> 02:08:01,640 Thomas: The media, I think, elevated the X300 because it was the only machine, really, to combat the MacBook Air. Like, there wasn't anything else that anybody else compares the original MacBook Air to. It is always the X300. And it's for good reason. 1687 02:08:02,460 --> 02:08:09,180 Christian: Yeah, but I mean, it totally makes no sense that one month after Apple released the very 1688 02:08:09,300 --> 02:08:17,800 Christian: first macbook air lenovo comes up with a macbook air clone in in form of the x300 because how would 1689 02:08:17,800 --> 02:08:24,460 Christian: they design a machine in that short time or maybe when they started six months earlier they wouldn't 1690 02:08:24,540 --> 02:08:29,940 Christian: have made a machine that's that awesome so that was a very low-hanging fruit for journalists to 1691 02:08:30,080 --> 02:08:34,380 Christian: pick on that and it's a common misconception as you just pointed out 1692 02:08:35,160 --> 02:08:41,400 Thomas: Yes, one that over the almost 10 years that I've been running the YouTube channel, I have 1693 02:08:41,460 --> 02:08:44,020 Thomas: to constantly remind people. 1694 02:08:44,110 --> 02:08:45,060 Thomas: And it's like, no, 1695 02:08:46,240 --> 02:08:47,940 Thomas: this machine was long in development 1696 02:08:48,260 --> 02:08:50,420 Thomas: before we knew about the MacBook Air. 1697 02:08:50,940 --> 02:08:52,280 Thomas: Now, were both of these machines 1698 02:08:52,450 --> 02:08:53,380 Thomas: probably started designed 1699 02:08:53,540 --> 02:08:54,520 Thomas: around the same time period? 1700 02:08:54,840 --> 02:08:55,940 Thomas: That I can certainly believe. 1701 02:08:57,360 --> 02:09:01,140 Thomas: But yeah, Lenovo was still brand new 1702 02:09:01,930 --> 02:09:03,300 Thomas: to PC manufacturing. 1703 02:09:04,280 --> 02:09:06,180 Thomas: Let's say for sake of argument 1704 02:09:06,400 --> 02:09:08,160 Thomas: that this rumor was actually true 1705 02:09:08,960 --> 02:09:10,360 Thomas: and they were able to produce 1706 02:09:10,360 --> 02:09:14,080 Thomas: the X300 in that short amount of time, which they did not. 1707 02:09:14,640 --> 02:09:15,660 Thomas: But let's say that they did. 1708 02:09:16,340 --> 02:09:20,840 Thomas: That still says more about Lenovo's ability to produce a computer than it does Apple, because 1709 02:09:21,040 --> 02:09:24,700 Thomas: that means that they had the answer to Apple's question in a matter of months, which they 1710 02:09:24,900 --> 02:09:25,080 Thomas: didn't. 1711 02:09:25,320 --> 02:09:25,400 Christian: Yeah. 1712 02:09:25,820 --> 02:09:31,200 Thomas: But even if they did, we can't stop and be like, oh, well, it's not impressive because 1713 02:09:31,500 --> 02:09:36,920 Thomas: if that were even true, it's like, no, if that were true, it would almost be more impressive 1714 02:09:37,540 --> 02:09:37,780 Christian: Definitely. 1715 02:09:38,200 --> 02:09:39,460 Thomas: if you stop and think about it. 1716 02:09:40,050 --> 02:09:40,180 Christian: Yeah. 1717 02:09:40,900 --> 02:09:46,560 Christian: So maybe just to summarize what the first MacBook Air looked like in comparison with the X300. 1718 02:09:47,000 --> 02:09:51,320 Christian: As you mentioned, it was announced by Steve Jobs as the thinnest notebook in the world. 1719 02:09:51,390 --> 02:09:59,000 Christian: It also had the 13.3-inch display, but with a lower resolution of 1280x800, we had soldered 1720 02:09:59,020 --> 02:10:05,840 Christian: memory, 2GB of DDR2 memory, so the X300 had the better memory option by going up to 8GB. 1721 02:10:07,160 --> 02:10:14,320 Christian: The CPU was more powerful, because it was a Pendron-style Intel Core 2 Duo non-Ulv CPU. 1722 02:10:15,150 --> 02:10:21,100 Christian: But it also had the 1.8-inch hard disk drive or SSD, so you could also get that one with 1723 02:10:21,240 --> 02:10:22,560 Christian: spinning rust these days. 1724 02:10:22,800 --> 02:10:22,880 Thomas: Yep. 1725 02:10:23,800 --> 02:10:26,600 Christian: We had Wifi Bluetooth, Micro DVI. 1726 02:10:26,880 --> 02:10:28,520 Christian: That's a port I do not miss these days. 1727 02:10:28,920 --> 02:10:30,720 Christian: Very, very special form factor. 1728 02:10:29,060 --> 02:10:29,320 Thomas: No. 1729 02:10:31,670 --> 02:10:32,040 Thomas: Yep. 1730 02:10:33,000 --> 02:10:36,280 Christian: We had Audio Out, but only one USB port. 1731 02:10:36,630 --> 02:10:41,440 Christian: It was 70 grams lighter and something around 4 millimeters thinner. 1732 02:10:42,320 --> 02:10:44,380 Christian: But I think it was designed for a different audience. 1733 02:10:44,550 --> 02:10:49,660 Christian: So if you just want to have a sleek device that you can put on your backpack and go wherever 1734 02:10:50,020 --> 02:10:52,360 Christian: wherever you want to carry your PC with. 1735 02:10:52,720 --> 02:10:55,000 Christian: That's a fine machine, but for the professional user, 1736 02:10:55,140 --> 02:10:57,840 Christian: you have very different requirements. 1737 02:10:58,400 --> 02:11:02,260 Christian: So you want to have a variety of ports and standards 1738 02:11:02,560 --> 02:11:05,960 Christian: that you would see in corporate setups and so on, 1739 02:11:06,200 --> 02:11:09,340 Christian: which leads into that Lenovo did several advertisements 1740 02:11:09,720 --> 02:11:10,340 Christian: about the machine. 1741 02:11:11,080 --> 02:11:13,780 Christian: I think the most prominent one is a parody 1742 02:11:14,020 --> 02:11:15,600 Christian: of the Apple MacBook Air announcement. 1743 02:11:15,660 --> 02:11:17,460 Christian: We will link that in the show notes for our listeners, 1744 02:11:17,800 --> 02:11:20,600 Christian: but during the announcement of the MacBook Air, 1745 02:11:21,020 --> 02:11:24,060 Christian: I think it was also shown right after Steve Jobs showed the device, 1746 02:11:24,780 --> 02:11:27,580 Christian: then you could see that envelope that you just mentioned 1747 02:11:28,020 --> 02:11:30,020 Christian: and somebody is putting out the MacBook Air 1748 02:11:30,440 --> 02:11:34,740 Christian: and opening it with one hand and it's a very thin device, 1749 02:11:35,100 --> 02:11:37,980 Christian: but it lacks all the ports that business users like. 1750 02:11:38,180 --> 02:11:42,360 Christian: So Lenovo did a parody and I really like that the music 1751 02:11:42,580 --> 02:11:44,640 Christian: is nearly the same of the Apple clip. 1752 02:11:45,140 --> 02:11:54,760 Christian: yeah yeah it's it's really really very much the same i would say and of course they're opening an 1753 02:11:45,800 --> 02:11:47,820 Thomas: It definitely has the same feel, doesn't it? 1754 02:11:55,260 --> 02:12:01,740 Christian: envelope with the macbook air and then they put in usb hub with a lot of devices and usb stick 1755 02:12:01,980 --> 02:12:07,800 Christian: optical drive and so on and then the person tries to put all that stuff back in the envelope so the 1756 02:12:07,960 --> 02:12:14,760 Christian: notebook and the adapter and the hub and of course he completely destroys it by that and then they have 1757 02:12:13,620 --> 02:12:13,840 Thomas: Mm-hmm. 1758 02:12:14,760 --> 02:12:20,660 Christian: second big envelope on the desk and they pull out an X300 and they have all the ports and optical 1759 02:12:20,860 --> 02:12:27,240 Christian: drive and they have a text mark that no compromise ultra portable we don't add stuff on and I think 1760 02:12:27,400 --> 02:12:33,040 Christian: that's kind of active aggressive rather than passive aggressive I would say 1761 02:12:32,760 --> 02:12:49,840 Thomas: Yes. Yeah, I think they understood what they had. And I think they understood their customer. And the other part that I wonder, at that time, and again, like, neither one of these machines would have been in my price bracket at the time they were being released. 1762 02:12:44,540 --> 02:12:44,740 Christian: yeah 1763 02:12:50,940 --> 02:13:05,180 Thomas: But I also wondered that when like journalism is making this comparison, but are consumers actually making that comparison? Because I feel like if you're going to buy a MacBook, you're going to buy a MacBook. And if you're going to buy a Windows laptop, then you're going to buy anything over here. 1764 02:13:07,180 --> 02:13:21,320 Thomas: So I feel a lot of that comparison was manufactured by media. I don't know how many people were actually being like, oh, do I buy a MacBook Air or do I buy the X300? I think that was certainly played up. 1765 02:13:21,520 --> 02:13:31,880 Thomas: But yeah, you're absolutely right that they did a very good job of showcasing all the stuff that Apple chose to leave out for the market they were targeting. 1766 02:13:33,300 --> 02:13:38,560 Thomas: That Lenovo was like, no, we're going to we're actually going to work, you know, in their mind, they're working harder to leave it in. 1767 02:13:39,340 --> 02:13:41,860 Christian: Yeah, it's one of my favorite clips, to be honest. 1768 02:13:41,980 --> 02:13:48,620 Christian: So one older clip that I really always have in mind is not an advertisement. 1769 02:13:49,380 --> 02:13:53,680 Christian: It's a recording that shows a Lenovo salesperson. 1770 02:13:54,160 --> 02:13:57,040 Christian: I think it's part of a meeting at a big customer site. 1771 02:13:57,340 --> 02:14:03,100 Christian: So he has a T61P with an aluminum case behind the display. 1772 02:14:03,630 --> 02:14:10,100 Christian: And he has this 500 grams metal bull ball that you would use to play the bull game. 1773 02:14:10,900 --> 02:14:16,920 Christian: and then he just lists down the specs of the t61p and the display cage and why it's so awesome 1774 02:14:17,440 --> 02:14:25,080 Christian: and then he simply puts the machine on the floor and takes his 500 gram uh bull ball let it crash on 1775 02:14:25,160 --> 02:14:30,080 Christian: the on the floor and it's very loud of course because it's a heavy heavy ball and then he does 1776 02:14:30,080 --> 02:14:36,739 Christian: the same on the display and nothing happens and then the video ends with when you go to buy your 1777 02:14:36,760 --> 02:14:38,600 Christian: next computer don't forget the 1778 02:14:38,700 --> 02:14:39,140 Christian: bull ball 1779 02:14:40,910 --> 02:14:42,480 Christian: yeah of course I'm going to a retail 1780 02:14:42,710 --> 02:14:44,580 Christian: market with the bull ball and let it crush 1781 02:14:44,440 --> 02:14:44,520 Thomas: yeah 1782 02:14:44,700 --> 02:14:45,440 Christian: on all the notebooks 1783 02:14:47,900 --> 02:14:48,420 Christian: yeah 1784 02:14:48,160 --> 02:14:53,880 Thomas: that reminds me there this this did happen but there's no clip of it on the internet but it has 1785 02:14:53,880 --> 02:15:01,080 Thomas: to do with the x300 there was and i know about this from david churbuck um there was a broadcast 1786 02:14:59,880 --> 02:15:00,400 Christian: yeah 1787 02:15:01,140 --> 02:15:04,220 Thomas: on an American news network 1788 02:15:05,140 --> 02:15:08,080 Thomas: where the CEO of Lenovo 1789 02:15:05,970 --> 02:15:06,100 Christian: yeah 1790 02:15:06,590 --> 02:15:06,720 Christian: yeah 1791 02:15:08,600 --> 02:15:10,680 Thomas: had the X300 1792 02:15:11,780 --> 02:15:13,280 Thomas: and he was talking about 1793 02:15:13,620 --> 02:15:14,760 Thomas: the spill-proof keyboard. 1794 02:15:15,960 --> 02:15:19,400 Thomas: And the host of this interview segment 1795 02:15:19,980 --> 02:15:21,600 Thomas: was like, can we try it? 1796 02:15:22,560 --> 02:15:25,060 Thomas: And what he did is he took his water bottle, 1797 02:15:26,020 --> 02:15:27,380 Thomas: which was, I think, two-thirds full, 1798 02:15:28,260 --> 02:15:30,500 Thomas: and he, like, dumped the whole thing 1799 02:15:30,200 --> 02:15:30,720 Christian: Wow. 1800 02:15:31,140 --> 02:15:36,380 Thomas: not just like a little bit like he dumped the whole thing on on the keyboard and i guess the 1801 02:15:36,640 --> 02:15:41,320 Thomas: ceo was like you know i thought you're just going to spill some water on it not uh not give it a drink 1802 02:15:42,800 --> 02:15:52,000 Thomas: um and it still worked and unfortunately that clip no longer exists um because i actually reached out 1803 02:15:52,160 --> 02:15:59,120 Thomas: to the outlet that did the interview and i said that they no longer had the tape um whether or not 1804 02:15:59,140 --> 02:16:02,640 Thomas: They were just telling that to me, but it's no longer accessible at the very least. 1805 02:16:02,660 --> 02:16:10,840 Thomas: But it is a fun kind of media piece that has been mostly lost, except for the story. 1806 02:16:11,380 --> 02:16:15,720 Christian: Yeah, we really need to create backups of those awesome advertisements, because there 1807 02:16:15,820 --> 02:16:20,300 Christian: were many IBM and Lenovo advertisements back then that were just very, very funny. 1808 02:16:20,900 --> 02:16:21,420 Thomas: Uh-huh. 1809 02:16:22,520 --> 02:16:27,160 Christian: So in summary, I think we pointed that out in the last two hours that the X300 is a lovely 1810 02:16:27,340 --> 02:16:31,380 Christian: device, it has a very slim form factor, and the quality is also pretty good. 1811 02:16:32,320 --> 02:16:38,740 Christian: Even though I read that some models have problems with the base cover though, so if the display 1812 02:16:38,980 --> 02:16:47,000 Christian: hinges are too hardly screwed during the manufacturing process, then the parts around 1813 02:16:47,110 --> 02:16:48,480 Christian: the display hinges could break. 1814 02:16:49,090 --> 02:16:50,900 Christian: Did this happen with one of your devices? 1815 02:16:51,240 --> 02:16:55,320 Christian: I only heard about it on the internet that some of those machines have problems with it. 1816 02:16:55,620 --> 02:16:59,200 Thomas: Yes, you and I have probably heard it in the same place. 1817 02:17:00,240 --> 02:17:08,019 Thomas: And I have not experienced the issue, but I can certainly understand why people would experience the issue. 1818 02:17:08,960 --> 02:17:14,960 Thomas: And the issue is primarily on the right-hand side of the machine where the Kensington lock slot is. 1819 02:17:15,340 --> 02:17:15,480 Christian: Ah. 1820 02:17:16,019 --> 02:17:32,519 Thomas: And you can see that when that hinge opens, if the hinge is too stiff, or if the hinge is not doing exactly what it needs to, that there's nothing to stop that piece from flexing because of where the bezel sits. 1821 02:17:32,639 --> 02:17:40,480 Thomas: The bezel's not connected to the bottom cover, and that can cause the machine to flex. 1822 02:17:35,760 --> 02:17:35,860 Christian: Hmm. 1823 02:17:40,639 --> 02:17:45,639 Thomas: And I have seen the flex, but I've never seen the break, but I can understand where that might occur. 1824 02:17:46,540 --> 02:17:56,460 Thomas: looking at the x300 and 301 side by side i don't well actually i'm going to take that back i think 1825 02:17:56,460 --> 02:18:02,340 Thomas: there is a very small tooling difference between the 300 and 301 where they might have reinforced 1826 02:18:02,620 --> 02:18:07,519 Thomas: the case just a little bit differently it's so hard to tell because these aren't new machines 1827 02:18:08,099 --> 02:18:14,160 Thomas: you don't know if those parts have worn down differently but no thankfully i have not had 1828 02:18:14,179 --> 02:18:15,280 Thomas: breakages on either one. 1829 02:18:16,000 --> 02:18:22,580 Christian: yeah i mean that's something that also can happen to other older thinkpads that you might 1830 02:18:23,240 --> 02:18:30,500 Christian: have repaired on your own. So if you're after 20 years you think now is the right time to fix the 1831 02:18:30,559 --> 02:18:35,219 Christian: display hinges because they are kind of worn out that's okay but you really need to double check that 1832 02:18:35,340 --> 02:18:42,099 Christian: you do not add too much force to the screws when fixing those. That's one of my personal nightmares 1833 02:18:42,440 --> 02:18:46,540 Christian: that I crash one of my machines by tightening the screws too much. 1834 02:18:47,439 --> 02:18:51,200 Thomas: Yes, I'm not, uh, I don't have all the talent that polymat does. 1835 02:18:51,300 --> 02:18:53,780 Thomas: So if I take apart something and break it, I'm in real trouble. 1836 02:18:54,519 --> 02:18:58,200 Christian: oh yeah I just saw that you happened to interview Polymed 1837 02:18:58,290 --> 02:19:00,940 Christian: who is known for the 701c.org website 1838 02:19:01,250 --> 02:19:02,960 Christian: very interesting I need to watch that interview 1839 02:19:04,099 --> 02:19:05,400 Thomas: No, he's a phenomenal guy. 1840 02:19:05,840 --> 02:19:10,040 Thomas: I love talking to him and I'm very appreciative, uh, of everything that he does. 1841 02:19:10,280 --> 02:19:12,080 Christian: and I think he's also from Germany right 1842 02:19:12,090 --> 02:19:15,800 Christian: I read that somewhere that he might be living in Germany 1843 02:19:16,259 --> 02:19:17,260 Thomas: I don't know 1844 02:19:18,040 --> 02:19:18,500 Thomas: maybe he is 1845 02:19:18,599 --> 02:19:18,980 Thomas: maybe he isn't 1846 02:19:19,019 --> 02:19:19,480 Thomas: I'm not sure 1847 02:19:20,340 --> 02:19:26,160 Christian: so let's focus on the legacy i think we pointed out that this machine is pretty outstanding and 1848 02:19:26,309 --> 02:19:30,960 Christian: one of the quotes from the laptop magazine 2017 is the first laptop that was developed 1849 02:19:31,340 --> 02:19:37,740 Christian: exclusively after lenovo bought the brand 2008's thinkpad x300 is one of the best laptops ever made 1850 02:19:37,740 --> 02:19:45,780 Christian: by any brand i think that's a really really good statement about the brand and the x300 1851 02:19:45,800 --> 02:19:45,900 Christian: itself. 1852 02:19:47,889 --> 02:19:49,800 Christian: So what came after the X300? 1853 02:19:49,970 --> 02:19:52,340 Christian: You just mentioned we have the X301. 1854 02:19:52,760 --> 02:19:57,180 Christian: That's the second and the last model of the X300 series that was released in August 2008. 1855 02:19:57,881 --> 02:20:00,180 Christian: Manufactured until May of 2010. 1856 02:20:00,630 --> 02:20:07,640 Christian: It had new CPUs, so still ultra-low voltage CPUs, but at least we have now the Core2Do 1857 02:20:07,860 --> 02:20:17,520 Christian: SU 9000 series. We have 1.2 up to 1.6 gigahertz, up to 8 gigabyte of DDR3 memory. And, and I think 1858 02:20:17,640 --> 02:20:23,260 Christian: that's a real game changer, when I have a look at my X301, it has a display port, which is lacking 1859 02:20:23,340 --> 02:20:47,420 Christian: on the X300, right? Yeah. Yeah, very good, because otherwise this machine only has VGA, 1860 02:20:25,400 --> 02:20:31,360 Thomas: uh yes so what they did is they moved the usb port on the back and they added 1861 02:20:32,040 --> 02:20:37,780 Thomas: uh the display port so you can see on the top that's the 301 with the 1862 02:20:37,980 --> 02:20:43,140 Thomas: or with the um display port here and then they shoved the usb port over here 1863 02:20:48,120 --> 02:20:52,800 Christian: And VGA can be quite daunting if you want to go higher than 1080p. 1864 02:20:53,000 --> 02:20:56,060 Christian: I think it's not possible to have a higher resolution than 1080p, 1865 02:20:56,720 --> 02:21:00,400 Christian: or at least not if you want to have proper display quality. 1866 02:21:01,560 --> 02:21:07,120 Thomas: No, and forward thinking to go with DisplayPort full size, not mini DisplayPort, looking at 1867 02:21:06,580 --> 02:21:06,800 Christian: Yes. 1868 02:21:07,180 --> 02:21:09,540 Thomas: you Apple and 1869 02:21:09,780 --> 02:21:10,840 Thomas: HDMI was not 1870 02:21:11,100 --> 02:21:12,360 Thomas: like fully spread 1871 02:21:12,400 --> 02:21:13,140 Thomas: as the standard 1872 02:21:13,220 --> 02:21:13,760 Thomas: at that point 1873 02:21:14,020 --> 02:21:14,620 Thomas: especially on like 1874 02:21:14,860 --> 02:21:15,520 Thomas: projectors and 1875 02:21:15,720 --> 02:21:16,500 Thomas: other high-end 1876 02:21:16,600 --> 02:21:17,120 Thomas: displays that you'd 1877 02:21:17,220 --> 02:21:17,860 Thomas: see in workplaces 1878 02:21:18,760 --> 02:21:20,140 Christian: I mean, it's still up these days. 1879 02:21:20,260 --> 02:21:26,360 Christian: So a lot of notebooks have HDMI right now, but back then, DisplayPort was more widespread. 1880 02:21:21,120 --> 02:21:21,300 Thomas: yeah 1881 02:21:27,720 --> 02:21:31,800 Christian: Did you know that DisplayPort does not require a license fee while HDMI does? 1882 02:21:32,220 --> 02:21:38,340 Christian: That's the reason why a lot of special interest hardware such as single-board computers tend 1883 02:21:36,179 --> 02:21:37,140 Thomas: mm-hmm 1884 02:21:38,580 --> 02:21:45,080 Christian: to have sometimes only one HDMI port and also try to have other ports like DisplayPort. 1885 02:21:45,940 --> 02:21:51,120 Thomas: yeah and it's just a i don't i don't have the science to back it up but i feel like it's a 1886 02:21:51,120 --> 02:21:56,780 Thomas: more reliable port and that's probably why on the back of your gpu you always have more display 1887 02:21:52,460 --> 02:21:52,620 Christian: Yes. 1888 02:21:56,920 --> 02:21:58,160 Thomas: port than you do HDMI. 1889 02:21:58,920 --> 02:22:05,120 Christian: So after the X301 we had the X1, not to be confused with the X1 Carbon, so that also came later. 1890 02:22:04,240 --> 02:22:04,740 Thomas: Uh-huh. 1891 02:22:05,570 --> 02:22:14,940 Christian: But the X1 was released in 2011 that offered new CPUs, new chipsets, but we had the 16:9 display ratio instead of 16:10. 1892 02:22:15,580 --> 02:22:19,640 Christian: And I'm happy that we do not have those 16:9 displays anymore. 1893 02:22:20,310 --> 02:22:25,060 Christian: Do you have some personal notes on the display form factor? 1894 02:22:25,760 --> 02:22:30,100 Thomas: I use so many display form factors. 1895 02:22:30,900 --> 02:22:32,940 Thomas: Like I've used 3x2, 4x3. 1896 02:22:34,300 --> 02:22:36,120 Thomas: 16x10 I think is a good compromise. 1897 02:22:37,200 --> 02:22:40,580 Thomas: But I do like a good 3x2 or 4x3 still. 1898 02:22:41,340 --> 02:22:43,180 Thomas: Just because of the content that I'm working on, 1899 02:22:43,180 --> 02:22:44,700 Thomas: I do like that verticality. 1900 02:22:45,960 --> 02:22:48,420 Thomas: We all know why 16x9 won, 1901 02:22:48,580 --> 02:22:51,600 Thomas: and it had to do with DVD formats and stuff like that 1902 02:22:51,700 --> 02:22:53,560 Thomas: being a huge push. 1903 02:22:54,580 --> 02:23:01,100 Thomas: But yeah, I am not sad to see 16x9 go. 1904 02:23:01,699 --> 02:23:07,940 Christian: Yeah, another thing the X1 had was Gorilla Glass and unfortunately, depends on your personal 1905 02:23:08,300 --> 02:23:11,220 Christian: opinion, but we do not have clamshell design anymore. 1906 02:23:11,560 --> 02:23:15,780 Christian: So that's a break in terms of the ThinkPad design language, I would say. 1907 02:23:16,600 --> 02:23:20,160 Christian: Also we do not have ThinkLight anymore and we have a built-in battery. 1908 02:23:21,000 --> 02:23:23,160 Christian: So what do you think about the X1? 1909 02:23:23,300 --> 02:23:25,460 Christian: Did you have your hands on one of those machines? 1910 02:23:26,339 --> 02:23:33,140 Thomas: yes very early in the channel's lifespan and i actually would love to get one again and review 1911 02:23:33,320 --> 02:23:39,000 Thomas: it again because i just know so much more about thinkpads and their history that i look back at 1912 02:23:39,000 --> 02:23:42,780 Thomas: my own video on it and i was like oh my gosh there is so much that i did not know and i have 1913 02:23:43,020 --> 02:23:50,159 Thomas: missed or i have learned since then and i actually have a i have a really big soft spot for the x1 1914 02:23:50,740 --> 02:23:52,180 Thomas: because what they were trying to do is like, 1915 02:23:52,190 --> 02:23:52,840 Thomas: well, we need to, 1916 02:23:53,640 --> 02:23:55,840 Thomas: we want to keep up the same level of innovation 1917 02:23:56,600 --> 02:23:57,600 Thomas: that we did with the X300, 1918 02:23:57,870 --> 02:23:59,940 Thomas: but we don't want it to be as expensive. 1919 02:24:01,020 --> 02:24:04,660 Thomas: And the X1 was one of two avenues 1920 02:24:05,180 --> 02:24:07,660 Thomas: that things went in terms of trying to solve that problem. 1921 02:24:08,540 --> 02:24:12,220 Thomas: The S Suffix series, 1922 02:24:12,350 --> 02:24:13,400 Thomas: which we'll talk about in a bit, 1923 02:24:13,860 --> 02:24:14,560 Thomas: is one of them. 1924 02:24:15,160 --> 02:24:17,900 Thomas: But yeah, the X1 in a lot of ways 1925 02:24:18,120 --> 02:24:20,120 Thomas: had a lot of the stuff that was left out of the X300. 1926 02:24:20,180 --> 02:24:25,040 Thomas: It had the port covers and all of the other details. 1927 02:24:25,320 --> 02:24:35,880 Thomas: So I look back at that and I want to get one in my shop again to look at because the carbons 1928 02:24:35,880 --> 02:24:37,520 Thomas: that came after it don't look like it. 1929 02:24:37,960 --> 02:24:39,380 Thomas: And it doesn't look like an X300. 1930 02:24:39,580 --> 02:24:42,060 Thomas: It is a very, very unique machine. 1931 02:24:42,260 --> 02:24:48,080 Thomas: And unfortunately, because of how it is named, it is so hard to look up information because 1932 02:24:48,080 --> 02:24:53,820 Thomas: of how modern internet search engines work. You pretty much always have to search that machine 1933 02:24:54,620 --> 02:25:00,180 Thomas: with the date that it came out, or you get X1 carbon something else. Like, no, I just want the X1. 1934 02:25:00,580 --> 02:25:03,600 Thomas: Well, what do you mean? And it's like, no, no, no, there was this thing called the X1, 1935 02:25:03,760 --> 02:25:06,980 Thomas: Google. I'm telling you, you got to believe me. Show me the pages. 1936 02:25:08,140 --> 02:25:15,060 Christian: yeah it's it also hard to find those machines online first of all because it's an old machine 1937 02:25:15,440 --> 02:25:22,340 Christian: by these days and as you mentioned even search engines on ebay and all those other sources where 1938 02:25:22,400 --> 02:25:28,160 Christian: you get your used hardware do not understand that you want to get an x1 without a carbon in the name 1939 02:25:28,340 --> 02:25:37,080 Christian: so what i did is that i looked up the type that's written on the back and i created a search interest 1940 02:25:28,920 --> 02:25:29,020 Thomas: Yep 1941 02:25:31,739 --> 02:25:33,140 Thomas: Yes 1942 02:25:37,150 --> 02:25:45,100 Christian: on various websites where you can find old hardware because sometimes people find old thinkpads in the 1943 02:25:45,240 --> 02:25:51,160 Christian: basement of a family member that that died or something like that and they do not know about the 1944 02:25:51,180 --> 02:25:56,680 Christian: machines and they just turn it over and see aha Lenovo type okay I'm going to put this in the 1945 02:25:56,160 --> 02:25:56,540 Thomas: Yes. 1946 02:25:56,750 --> 02:26:03,640 Christian: auction title and by that I managed to get an X1 without the carbon but I think it took me several 1947 02:26:03,820 --> 02:26:10,920 Christian: years to get one in a in a decent shape and at a fair price so yeah been there done done that 1948 02:26:11,360 --> 02:26:11,500 Thomas: Yeah. 1949 02:26:11,380 --> 02:26:18,240 Christian: fingers crossed that you will get a good looking X1 in your collection. So after the X1 we reached 1950 02:26:14,730 --> 02:26:15,100 Thomas: Yeah. 1951 02:26:18,260 --> 02:26:25,800 Christian: the level of X1 Carbon series and the Novo called that one the grandfather, the X300 was the 1952 02:26:25,960 --> 02:26:32,820 Christian: grandfather of the X1 Carbon series. So it's the 14-inch successor of the X1 and it was announced 1953 02:26:32,890 --> 02:26:33,300 Thomas: Yeah. 1954 02:26:32,920 --> 02:26:39,880 Christian: as an Ultrabook in 2012. So just one year after the X1 was released and they are still produced 1955 02:26:40,080 --> 02:26:45,601 Christian: these days. So as we heard, the 14th generation is the very latest addition to that family 1956 02:26:46,540 --> 02:26:53,800 Christian: and it looks very different from the X300 as you mentioned, but some of the ThinkPet's DNA can still 1957 02:26:53,800 --> 02:27:00,580 Christian: be seen. So the clear design language, the black looking device and so on, that's still part of the 1958 02:27:00,680 --> 02:27:08,180 Christian: design, but it's a way more modern design approach, I would say. And then you have a lot of other 1959 02:27:08,520 --> 02:27:11,080 Christian: machines as you just mentioned. Which ones would that be? 1960 02:27:12,360 --> 02:27:18,680 Thomas: so the the the family of machines that if you want to talk about like i don't know 1961 02:27:19,620 --> 02:27:26,540 Thomas: direct successor of the x300 it's like the t400s the t410s t420s that sort of thing 1962 02:27:27,260 --> 02:27:34,540 Thomas: And the reason that I say that, and I've got a T410 here, and I'm going to put them on top of one another. 1963 02:27:35,440 --> 02:27:37,040 Thomas: Let me do it the right way around. 1964 02:27:37,940 --> 02:27:44,220 Thomas: Is if you look visually at the back of these machines, the port layout is almost the same. 1965 02:27:44,500 --> 02:27:46,560 Christian: Wow, yeah, you're totally right. 1966 02:27:46,560 --> 02:27:46,780 Christian: Right. 1967 02:27:47,560 --> 02:27:56,180 Thomas: And then if you look at the optical bay situation on one side, with the exception of the thickness, it is the same. 1968 02:27:55,120 --> 02:27:55,380 Christian: Yeah. 1969 02:27:57,321 --> 02:28:01,620 Thomas: and the other piece is that if you look at the bottom of the machines 1970 02:28:02,820 --> 02:28:12,540 Thomas: the battery and ram placement i'll back up is identical so if you want to talk about what like 1971 02:28:05,120 --> 02:28:05,360 Christian: Yeah. 1972 02:28:07,560 --> 02:28:07,800 Christian: Definitely. 1973 02:28:07,980 --> 02:28:08,080 Christian: you 1974 02:28:12,540 --> 02:28:18,160 Thomas: they didn't just drop i don't think the x300 design what they did is they said okay well 1975 02:28:18,260 --> 02:28:26,220 Thomas: what if it doesn't have to be that like that thin um what can we do with it and i truly believe that's 1976 02:28:26,240 --> 02:28:33,540 Thomas: the the s line uh for the time that they ran it and i think they ran it because they still wanted 1977 02:28:33,650 --> 02:28:39,780 Thomas: the x1 and the x1 carbon to be the super duper thin and light you know cutting edge machine 1978 02:28:40,880 --> 02:28:45,720 Thomas: but i think they also understood that there is this in between customer that doesn't want to spend 1979 02:28:45,980 --> 02:28:52,439 Thomas: that kind of money um for the you know bleeding edge tech and bleeding edge tech especially then 1980 02:28:52,460 --> 02:29:15,980 Thomas: I don't know if it's necessarily the case now. Like people did not want to be early adopters because they got the sense that I am, I am part of your testing cycle and I do not like this. I want to buy a product that is reliable, that has been tested, that's got components in it that are well understood by manufacturers and assemblers, that sort of thing. 1981 02:29:16,220 --> 02:29:26,900 Thomas: And it did create this intermediary market where it's like, well, I don't want a full-sized T-series, but I also don't have enough money to buy an X1 Carbon. 1982 02:29:27,820 --> 02:29:34,500 Thomas: So, like, it's like, oh, well, I don't have enough money to buy a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but I do have enough money to buy a Rolls-Royce Ghost. 1983 02:29:36,079 --> 02:29:36,520 Thomas: Yeah. 1984 02:29:36,980 --> 02:29:39,260 Christian: Yeah, that's a good point. 1985 02:29:39,640 --> 02:29:45,440 Christian: Yeah, I also have a T400 and T400S and T410 in my collection. 1986 02:29:45,580 --> 02:29:47,240 Christian: And those are really lovely machines. 1987 02:29:47,340 --> 02:29:49,260 Christian: And they're completely different from each other. 1988 02:29:49,840 --> 02:29:54,700 Christian: Because if you don't know and you hear, okay, there's a T400 and a T400S, 1989 02:29:55,160 --> 02:29:57,540 Christian: you would just think, okay, it's a slightly slimmer variant. 1990 02:29:57,760 --> 02:29:59,280 Christian: But no, it's a completely different design. 1991 02:29:59,880 --> 02:30:01,820 Christian: The mainboard layout looks completely different. 1992 02:30:02,160 --> 02:30:04,900 Christian: The spare parts aren't compatible with each other. 1993 02:30:05,340 --> 02:30:12,640 Christian: So it's a completely different design and therefore we can see a lot of the X300 series DNA in it. 1994 02:30:12,760 --> 02:30:16,140 Christian: I never had the idea of comparing those two machines. 1995 02:30:16,480 --> 02:30:19,860 Christian: That's kind of mind-blowing that they are so comparable to each other. 1996 02:30:20,900 --> 02:30:26,240 Thomas: yeah it's it's the uh the benefit of what i do is i've got to look at like hundreds of laptops 1997 02:30:27,160 --> 02:30:30,860 Thomas: and so you start to be like oh this kind of looks like this and this kind of looks like that 1998 02:30:31,560 --> 02:30:35,020 Thomas: and when you're dealing with manufacturers that are the same and it's like you know 1999 02:30:35,040 --> 02:30:36,760 Thomas: So this isn't an accident. 2000 02:30:36,930 --> 02:30:39,940 Thomas: Like there's probably some, a story here. 2001 02:30:40,160 --> 02:30:45,300 Thomas: And sometimes I can talk to the people that were there to tell me, yes, what you see is 2002 02:30:45,370 --> 02:30:50,300 Thomas: true, or let me tell you about the trouble we got in or something like that. 2003 02:30:50,380 --> 02:30:53,940 Thomas: And, you know, sometimes you don't get the opportunity to confirm that. 2004 02:30:54,010 --> 02:30:56,800 Thomas: But at the same time, the evidence can be very, very strong. 2005 02:30:57,230 --> 02:31:04,100 Thomas: And I think it is for the T400S that if you really wanted a successor to the X300, that's 2006 02:31:04,260 --> 02:31:04,780 Thomas: what it is. 2007 02:31:05,460 --> 02:31:13,580 Thomas: the the x1 and x1 carbon was continuing the journey of making the craziest and coolest 2008 02:31:14,100 --> 02:31:20,040 Thomas: and thinnest and whitest machine that we possibly can that's going to resonate with 2009 02:31:21,061 --> 02:31:29,520 Thomas: what people expect the best ultra portable to be and i think that's the best way to look at the x1 2010 02:31:29,520 --> 02:31:37,180 Thomas: series is that it's the best that an ultra portable can be at that time and that's a really 2011 02:31:38,020 --> 02:31:42,740 Thomas: difficult thing for some to look back at and be like uh they were so much better back then 2012 02:31:43,060 --> 02:31:47,200 Thomas: and it's like well it's not that simple but okay enjoy your nostalgia 2013 02:31:49,160 --> 02:31:49,640 Christian: Yeah, definitely. 2014 02:31:49,890 --> 02:31:50,240 Christian: Definitely. 2015 02:31:50,280 --> 02:31:57,620 Christian: I was just thinking about what the differences between the T14 and the T14S series might be these days. 2016 02:31:58,140 --> 02:32:03,300 Christian: I have a T14 G3 and a T14S G3 that are nearly the same. 2017 02:32:03,910 --> 02:32:06,980 Christian: I would say that most of the parts are changeable between those two machines. 2018 02:32:07,690 --> 02:32:14,400 Christian: But I think the difference between T14 and T14S isn't that huge anymore like it was for the T400 and T400S, right? 2019 02:32:15,160 --> 02:32:15,200 Thomas: Yeah. 2020 02:32:15,240 --> 02:32:25,480 Thomas: Yeah, so what I can tell you about that, because those were machines I was looking at when I was when I bought the X1 Nano, is the T14S is an X13 motherboard. 2021 02:32:26,160 --> 02:32:26,980 Christian: Ah, okay. 2022 02:32:28,200 --> 02:32:33,380 Thomas: Like it's like the parts are I don't think they're quite interchangeable, but it's practically the same. 2023 02:32:33,530 --> 02:32:34,400 Thomas: Like that's what they did. 2024 02:32:35,530 --> 02:32:35,980 Christian: Okay. 2025 02:32:35,980 --> 02:32:44,720 Thomas: And I was like, okay, so what I'm really doing is I'm making a decision there between, do I want my X13 to have a 14-inch display? 2026 02:32:36,000 --> 02:32:36,020 Christian: Okay. 2027 02:32:48,280 --> 02:32:59,860 Thomas: And I think the only way that they were able to allow that category to persist in terms of it not costing more is because it's, yeah, it's the same system board in both machines. 2028 02:33:00,240 --> 02:33:05,040 Thomas: And I believe at the time, I don't know if they've differentiated it now, the maintenance 2029 02:33:05,310 --> 02:33:06,180 Thomas: manual was the same. 2030 02:33:06,630 --> 02:33:11,300 Thomas: So you'll know how they combine maintenance manual products with similar products where 2031 02:33:11,400 --> 02:33:17,120 Thomas: like, you know, the certain P series had the same maintenance manual as the T series, because 2032 02:33:17,130 --> 02:33:19,880 Thomas: it was the same, just the system board was different. 2033 02:33:20,640 --> 02:33:25,840 Thomas: So they would combine it and it would say like T blah, blah, blah, comma P series service 2034 02:33:26,250 --> 02:33:26,360 Thomas: manual. 2035 02:33:27,040 --> 02:33:33,460 Thomas: And it was the same for the T and the X or the TS series and the X series at one point. 2036 02:33:34,560 --> 02:33:35,960 Christian: So 2037 02:33:35,980 --> 02:33:39,240 Christian: having a look at it, because in the hardware maintenance manual we see all those details. 2038 02:33:39,590 --> 02:33:45,780 Christian: And yeah, it also would totally make sense, because I can remember that the T14S variants 2039 02:33:45,990 --> 02:33:52,960 Christian: at some time had used before, while the normal T14s still had no use before for the AMD variants. 2040 02:33:52,990 --> 02:33:57,320 Christian: So it totally would make sense, because the X13 had a different update cycle. 2041 02:33:58,070 --> 02:33:58,760 Christian: Very interesting. 2042 02:33:59,779 --> 02:34:04,500 Thomas: yeah it's it's kind of weird what you read in there and it's like all of a sudden this stuff 2043 02:34:04,660 --> 02:34:10,400 Thomas: makes sense like it was a maintenance manual where i discovered that the lg ibm thing in corio 2044 02:34:11,120 --> 02:34:11,540 Thomas: was something 2045 02:34:12,340 --> 02:34:15,520 Christian: Oh yeah, that's a very interesting rabbit hole. 2046 02:34:16,010 --> 02:34:16,160 Christian: Definitely. 2047 02:34:16,590 --> 02:34:17,700 Christian: I saw this on your website. 2048 02:34:18,030 --> 02:34:21,460 Christian: I didn't know that before I had it in my eyes on your website. 2049 02:34:21,979 --> 02:34:24,601 Thomas: yep there's a whole other story there for another time 2050 02:34:24,760 --> 02:34:25,120 Christian: Definitely. 2051 02:34:26,080 --> 02:34:28,980 Christian: Do we have any closing thoughts about the X300? 2052 02:34:30,280 --> 02:34:35,300 Thomas: I mean I think at the beginning we we started off by saying it was probably one of the most 2053 02:34:35,590 --> 02:34:40,240 Thomas: important ThinkPads that they ever made but I think at the end of the conversation I've certainly 2054 02:34:40,640 --> 02:34:46,120 Thomas: convinced myself I don't know about you that it was I think I can double down on that with a lot 2055 02:34:46,200 --> 02:34:53,101 Thomas: more confidence after talking to you about it that if we look at all of the things that that did 2056 02:34:53,120 --> 02:34:56,900 Thomas: not only just for the company, but all these product lines that we still have with us today 2057 02:34:57,880 --> 02:35:04,760 Thomas: and all of the things that were either planned for the X300 or that were on the X300 that are still 2058 02:35:05,000 --> 02:35:13,540 Thomas: here. I think it's really hard to point at a machine older that is still as significant 2059 02:35:14,230 --> 02:35:21,200 Thomas: in terms of longevity. Like, yes, the 700C was the first black thinkpad with the track point. 2060 02:35:21,560 --> 02:35:24,300 Thomas: You're never going to take that away from the 700C. 2061 02:35:24,980 --> 02:35:32,180 Thomas: But beyond that one feature and the color, not anything else really persists. 2062 02:35:32,220 --> 02:35:36,060 Thomas: And that's not to say that those are not very iconic and very important things. 2063 02:35:36,160 --> 02:35:39,160 Thomas: You always know where the ThinkPad in the room is. 2064 02:35:39,960 --> 02:35:47,600 Thomas: But when you talk about like the design language and some of the features and how these things are built like that, 2065 02:35:47,640 --> 02:35:49,780 Thomas: I think the farthest you can go back 2066 02:35:50,460 --> 02:35:52,220 Thomas: definitively is the X300 today. 2067 02:35:53,160 --> 02:35:53,300 Christian: Definitely. 2068 02:35:53,540 --> 02:35:58,740 Christian: I learned very much about the X300. 2069 02:35:59,190 --> 02:36:03,960 Christian: I hadn't looked that deep at the machine by now, 2070 02:36:04,680 --> 02:36:07,700 Christian: maybe because I have way too much ThinkPads in my collection 2071 02:36:07,770 --> 02:36:11,240 Christian: and it's impossible to have that in-depth view 2072 02:36:08,000 --> 02:36:09,840 Thomas: Ha ha ha ha ha ha. 2073 02:36:11,400 --> 02:36:13,680 Christian: at all the machines like you had for the X300. 2074 02:36:14,050 --> 02:36:14,840 Christian: So thanks a lot. 2075 02:36:14,850 --> 02:36:16,820 Christian: I really learned a lot about those machines 2076 02:36:17,060 --> 02:36:20,800 Christian: and about all the things that weren't part of the X300 2077 02:36:21,200 --> 02:36:23,200 Christian: but that were parts of later notebooks. 2078 02:36:23,600 --> 02:36:30,160 Christian: as we just mentioned. So I totally agree on that, that this is a very significant machine, 2079 02:36:31,140 --> 02:36:37,240 Christian: and it had to be a success. Otherwise, I think the ThinkPad history for Lenovo would have gone 2080 02:36:37,260 --> 02:36:42,680 Christian: in a completely different direction. And I'm so glad that it went that road, and that we have a 2081 02:36:42,980 --> 02:36:49,000 Christian: very awesome X300 and a lot of awesome slim notebooks that came after that machine. 2082 02:36:49,940 --> 02:36:53,880 Christian: So Thomas, thanks a lot for sharing all the nifty details about the machine. 2083 02:36:54,030 --> 02:36:59,500 Christian: It was very interesting and I was really glad that we finally managed to set up a conversation 2084 02:36:59,740 --> 02:37:02,440 Christian: and talking to you in person and not just watching your videos. 2085 02:37:04,620 --> 02:37:05,580 Thomas: No, absolutely, Christian. 2086 02:37:05,620 --> 02:37:06,820 Thomas: This was a long time coming. 2087 02:37:07,140 --> 02:37:11,620 Thomas: I'm really glad that we did it, and I hope we can have the opportunity to do it again in the future. 2088 02:37:12,060 --> 02:37:15,180 Christian: Definitely, I would highly do this once again. 2089 02:37:15,580 --> 02:37:17,440 Christian: Definitely had a lot of fun with it. 2090 02:37:18,320 --> 02:37:38,560 Christian: So, dear listener, if we didn't lose you in one of the last two hours and you made it that far in the podcast episode, thanks a lot for listening. That's awesome that you listened to all the details that we just had looked at. Check out the show notes. Definitely make your way there because we have a lot of interesting links to share. 2091 02:37:38,620 --> 02:37:43,340 Christian: of course we have Thomas website in his YouTube channel we have all the interviews about the x300 2092 02:37:43,760 --> 02:37:49,220 Christian: we have all the hardware information and the advertisements and so on and the successors so 2093 02:37:49,240 --> 02:37:55,200 Christian: if you really want to go deep that role and want to see all the devices that came afterwards just 2094 02:37:55,420 --> 02:38:00,420 Christian: have a look there you will find anything you didn't know that you would need it if you have 2095 02:38:00,980 --> 02:38:07,199 Christian: constructive criticism or feedback feel free to drop me a mail at podcast at thinkpad-museum.de 2096 02:38:07,880 --> 02:38:11,140 Christian: I also like to see ratings via the podcatcher of your choice. 2097 02:38:11,460 --> 02:38:16,180 Christian: And if you're in the Ferryverse, then feel free to follow me on Mastodon. 2098 02:38:16,640 --> 02:38:20,860 Christian: You can find this on thinkpadmuseum at podcasts.social. 2099 02:38:21,560 --> 02:38:23,080 Christian: So thanks again, Thomas. 2100 02:38:23,200 --> 02:38:24,220 Christian: It was a pleasure. 2101 02:38:24,780 --> 02:38:27,180 Christian: And I hope that we can continue this at some time. 2102 02:38:27,260 --> 02:38:29,140 Christian: And dear listener, thanks a lot for listening. 2103 02:38:29,920 --> 02:38:30,680 Christian: See you next time.