Updated Lenovo Z Series Info

[Andrew]

I posted an article and some pictures here:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2534

We talked to Lenovo today and if you have any questions outside of what's posted I should be able to answer them. Overall I think this series looks very sweet. The build is better than ever, keyboard has improved, stereo speakers on top of the laptop, bundled 3G (EVDO) antenna with the ability to sign up through Verizon, 300 NIT MAXBright screen option, Titanium lid option, Magnesium Formula One Chassis standard, multi-card reader, firewire, widescreen, touchpad + pointing stick, great docking station, modular slimbay of course, and they've added even better ThinkVantage software features too.

I should be getting a unit the end of next week. Fingers crossed.

:buyIBM:

[Goren]

aww, only the 15.4" will have a video card
also i'm guessing M22 = x300, and m24 = x600?

[HamTard]

Originally Posted by Goren

aww, only the 15.4" will have a video card
also i'm guessing M22 = x300, and m24 = x600?

Yup, that's right. I'm glad to hear they didn't cheap out on the Z60, and are still trying to improve durability, even if it makes the thing a little bit heavier. A magnesium chasis and a titanium scratch resistant lid, and a more water resistant keyboard sounds really good to me. New better speakers on top of that too! I'm pretty sure I'm buying a Z series when they get a 64 bit processor.

I ended up buying an Inspiron 9300 because the T43 was equally expensive, but came with much fewer features that I wanted. The Z series is my dream come true, fairly portable, ThinkPad quality with a widescreen and a mid-range video card. I'm giving the Inspiron to my sister next year when she goes to university, so hopefully a Merom Z series with much improved battery life will be available.

[Goren]

I was really hoping the Z60T (the 14" model) would have the x600. i would've bought it in a heart beat

[Andrew]

It is a bit disappointing on the 14" not having a dedicated graphics card, i wish i had remembered to ask them why not push the envelope on graphics there too, but will try to talk to the product designers again next week and ask that -- we did ask if they'd be coming out with a widescreen ultraportable (a la the X series) and putting some consumer oriented features in that and the designers said, "yes, if Intel does something about cooling it's processors down." They said that as they scale down the size of a laptop and still have to put 4 fans in to keep heat down they lose room for other features...it might be the same thing with the graphics card here, or at least a factor. IBM/Lenovo won't manufacturer a laptop that goes outside certain specs on heat generation.

[duffyanneal]

Any idea of the case thickness and battery life? Kinda curious if Lenovo is going to tame the fan noise a little (or at least change the settings where the fan will turn off). This looks like a nice series. I just spent nearly two months waiting for the the X41T...I really don't want to do it with a Z series.

[jasondavis]

Glad to finally have some real information on this series, though the lack of dedicated graphics card on the 14" seems to have some people dissapointed.

[magic168]

I would love to know the weight of the 15.4 model...

[775]

ya dimensions and weight of the 15.4 would be nice to know

[Henry Su]

Didn't some source somewhere mention that the 14" is around 4 lbs and the 15.4" around 6 lbs? I don't have proof though; just thought I saw it somewhere.

EDIT: OK, according to the front page on this forum, it's 4.4 lbs and 6.6 lbs, respectively.