Why I'm not buying the Thinkpad Retro

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7 years ago
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👉 DISCORD chat server: https://discord.gg/rossmanngroup
👉 Lenovo Retro is available for purchase: https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-series/ThinkPad-25/p/22TP2TTTP25
👉 Lenovo Thinkpad P50: http://amzn.to/2sY9Md8

👉 Written thoughts on the Retro Thinkpad: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/lenovo-retro-thinkpad-piece-junk/

TL;DW
👉Price
● Starts at $1899. Would be fine if specs were worthwhile but...
👉Terrible screen
● 16:9. Big criticism of modern Thinkpads was widescreen replacing 4:3. Lenovo couldn't even meet us 1/10th of the way at 16:10.
● 1920x1080 - no higher resolutions available at any price. Terrible for schematic viewing.

✖ Apple got LG & Samsung(who HATE them!) to mass produce non-standard LCDs for the A1425 which started at $1299. Yet Lenovo can't get anyone to produce an LCD slightly outside what has been the cookie cutter mold for five years, on a machine costing $1899? Apple not only provided a better screen, but Apple's 2012 A1425 model had an aspect ratio closer to "classic" Thinkpads than the actual Retro Thinkpad. I may crap on Apple a lot, but credit where credit is due. Apple pushed forward and set new standards with their products by having a vision and asking OEMs to design for that vision, whereas Lenovo didn't even try. SAD!

👉U class processor
● No choice for better processor, or quad core, at any price.
● No workstation class version of the Retro - one size fits all.
● Almost half as powerful as a 16 month old P50.
👉Video card
● Geforce 940MX.
● This card is available in laptops less than half the price..
👉Ports
● No VGA port.
● VGA port is STANDARD and ONLY port on many projectors you will find in conference rooms/presentation halls.
● No mini-displayport, only USB-C.
● Less ports than a P50, which is $500 less.

Overall, the lackluster specs might have been forgivable if this were a laptop where Lenovo made it clear they understood what we were looking for. They didn't even budge. The screen is straight up 16:9, with the resolution I would expect from 2011. They took the T470, added a few hundred dollars to it to slap on this different keyboard, and that was it. They didn't understand that we do not see this as some hipster trend, but rather as a bugfix to what has been a terrible design direction that they have undertaken over the past five years. So long as Lenovo sees people who desire a proper Thinkpad as a fringe group to be shut up by a token model that was half assed, they will never return to what made so many so loyal to the line.

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