We think it’s a little too early to be marketing the next generation of Ultrabooks when they won’t be available for at least another 6 months but this is CES week where the marketing teams all get a bit over-excited! The Lenovo T430U is supposedly coming in Q3 2012 with a sub $900 starting price and specs that include a 1TB drive, discreet Nvidia graphics and a full set of ports.
The Verge are reporting that the Lenovo T430U will start at $840 [Seriously though – how can anyone set a price 6 months before launch] and that it will be at CES. I can’t imagine we’re going to see a fully working, testable version and if the design is finished 6 months before the Ivy Bridge version is available, why not sell it now with a Sandy Bridge option?
Suffice to say we’re a little confused about this announcement but we’ll be keeping an eye out for it at CES next week. You can check out some more images at The Verge.
Ivy will be available from 8. April. It’s logic to wait because many people are waiting for the ivy bridge. If you don’t need ultrabook right now it’s normal to wait 4-5 months and get really better model for even less money :)
Chippy, I have no doubt next week is going to be absolutely CRAZY for you, but I’d LOVE to hear if there are plans to include 802.11ac cards in the summer Ivybridge Ultrabooks!
-If you meet any Intel Ultrabook reps and can get more info on Intel syncing up the Ultrabook v2 launch with their 802.11ac launch plans that’d be great!
(And whether Ultrabooks will see 3×3:3 1.3Gbps options or just the 488Mbps single stream cards to conserve battery life.)
Adam
Aas far as I understand, there’s no restriction on Wifi modules. If Intel can deliver it on a pci-express mini card, it’s possible! I will be checking into that though.
Lenovo releases their new Thinkpad lines once a year. They usually announce them at CES or soon after. This is normal for them.
That’s why I like buying Thinkpads. They have a fairly consistent product cycle and they provide driver updates for a decent length of time.
Why so much hype around Ivy Bridge, just because of the improved GPU?
I remember this time last year when everyone was going crazy over Sandy Bridge.
20% more energy saving means more battery. Also the 2nd gen ultrabooks will fix the problems of the 1st one :)
We can also look forward to energy savings on the CPU/GPU and (i’ll need to check this) thunderbolt and USB3 support on the comms chipset. Of course, Ivy Bridge may have better Windows 8 optimisations too.
Still waiting for the U300s to be available in Germany (the Core i5 version of it). :(
They should actually sell their products and not just talk about them. -.-
I’ve just posted on Laptoping.com specs of the T430u I found on an Vietnamese website. It says the “ultrabook” comes with a standard voltage i5 Ivy Bridge chip. When you add to this Samsung’s Series 5 “ultrabook” with a DVD burner, it looks like the border between classic laptops and ultrabooks is already blurred.
Interesting. I wonder whether this laptop truly has Intel ‘Ultrabook’ authorization. It looks.like the lines will blurred whatever Intel tries to define! Thanks for the feedback.