Where? It's 1,299.99 on Amazon.
If you want to get into pricing you could also say the MBA has a student rebate + iTunes gift card for students, and its resale value will be much higher.
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MBA vs Thinkpad X1 Carbon
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Where? It's 1,299.99 on Amazon.
If you want to get into pricing you could also say the MBA has a student rebate + iTunes gift card for students, and its resale value will be much higher.
I have an X1 Carbon ordered. I already have a fresh new 13" MBP.
Having used ThinkPads & Mac laptops for years at work, they are both the best of their respective platforms. In 20 years they've each served me extremely well.
If I had to choose just one, my Mac bias dictates the MBA would be the one.
Honestly, I prefer the Thinkpad. And I have a macbook air, but damn that matte black case is nice!
I've had several Thinkpads (X300, X200, etc) over the past years. Also have had many Mac laptops including the recent MBAs. The Thinkpads are sturdy and have a great keyboard feel. The one thing that I didn't like about the Thinkpads were the screen brightness. Sure, the matte screen is nice if you don't like a glossy screen (MBA screens are less glossy than some of the MBP though) but I always felt I wanted to turn up the screen brightness on the Thinkpad but found I was already at the max setting. Also, if I were to buy the new X1C, I'd wait until it has Windows 8 release (sometime in October?). I have found that Windows upgrades are always a pain compare to Mac OS upgrades.
LOL research is good buddy... don't have to dig too deep to find that the X1C has a backlit keyboard too.
And the screen is marked at 300 nits, which is pretty damn good. Wish it were IPS though... I think it's just going to come down to me trying the X1C in person. No idea where to find one in person though. Microsoft store doesn't carry it, BestBuy, how does Lenovo expect people to get their products?
Although the Carbon X1 is a direct competitor of the Air, I'm rather interested in seeing how the 13" rMBP turns out. If things go as expected, the 13" rMBP will be a clear choice over the other models ( except is someone is really into "ultra portability" and is picky about every additional pound and millimetre ). The OS will surely also be quite an important factor... I for one would not want to go back to working on Windows on a daily basis 
gestures and the trackpad are just way too nice ( + setting up environment variables and other stuff... but of course, if the incompetent slave-masters at Microsoft eventually put their acts together, then I might consider switching back to Windows - hackintosh is out the question ).
gestures and the trackpad are just way too nice ( + setting up environment variables and other stuff... but of course, if the incompetent slave-masters at Microsoft eventually put their acts together, then I might consider switching back to Windows - hackintosh is out the question ).The choice is easy - MB Air. You may run OS X as well as Windows operating systems and software. Try that on a Windows box. I too am bilingual and far prefer Mac OS X because it just works better than Windows.
Read my reply carefully... I said 13" rMBP ( "r" for RETINA ). Of course the normal MBP is not a competitor. As I have already pointed out: The X1C is a direct competitor of the Air, BUT depending on how the 13" rMBP turns out, it might blow both the Air and X1C out of the water ( except if someone is really looking for ultra portability and doesn't care about the rest that much... even so, the 11" MBA or other smaller notebook might still be a better option over a 13" notebook - be it the 13" MBA or the X1C ).
Again, I personally prefer Mac over PC because of the OS ( this after using Windows for more than 15 years ). If eventually the people at Microsoft implement at least gestures and click on tap and notebooks start hitting the market with decent trackpads, I might consider switching back...
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I actually had this same debate when shopping ultrabooks for work. From the Lenovo site it looks like only one model comes with 8GB of memory which we would need for some of the more demanding apps our users have. With that information and some of the other specs, I built the comparable MBA and priced all the options. In the end, the Lenovo wins out with vertical screen space, which is negated once you plug into an external monitor. Everything else seemed to be a draw or fell in the favor of the MBA.
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The i7 in the MBA is most definitely *not* a quad.... Also, Lenovo's warranty is far better than applecare in what it will cover, though not in ease of using it (no Lenovo stores)
You're right. Not sure where I read quad when I made that. That is my mistake.
That being said, I've had the opposite experience with the Lenovo warranty process. Having to wait for them to ship a box so that you can ship the computer, only to have them call 5 days later saying they don't see any problem with the computer and they're shipping it back as-is. We all know some problems don't present themselves on a predictable schedule, and the few minutes of testing they seem to put into their process doesn't come up with an answer. I'd much rather be able to walk into the Apple store with computer in hand and walk out with either a repair slip for the work to be done or a simple replacement system. Of course it is convenient that our LA and NY offices have an Apple store right across the street, but I haven't seen a Lenovo repair take less than a week, so even a long drive to a remote Apple store is worth the time for our needs.
You are in a Mac forum so you are going to get biased results. That being said, I have owned Thinkpads for years. I recently have bought a MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air 11". My Macs are every bit as well built as my Thinkpads. You can not go wrong with either. I prefer my MacBook Air over my Thinkpads. It has an edge in the build quality in my opinion. It is built like a tank, I like OS X and there is just something about the machined aluminum is just looks spectacular. I do miss Microsoft Access and still use my Thinkpads for that. Although, you could of course dual boot for Windows when needed.
No, the screen sucks, read the reviews, don't go by spec's on paper. Lenovo cannot get screens right, it's common knowledge and the reviews reflect this again in the X1C.
Screen is my only concern about the machine ... I'll know better when I receive mine around the end of the month, hope I'm proven wrong.
Listed prices are crazy, if you phone in, use coupon codes etc the price comes waaaay down. Check out notebookreview and you can get an idea of what people are paying. It's also a good read about how Lenovo totally screwed up the launch ... pre-orders started Aug 14 ... no one has received their notebooks yet and ship dates keep getting pushed back ... it's a mess with a ton of angry people cancelling orders and buying Air's or other ultrabooks instead....
The 2012 MacBook Air is an AMAZING MACHINE! Handles everything that I throw at it with ease!
Both nice, really will come down to if you want osx or windows, I would also try out the track pad on the think pad, a lot of newer Lenovo's I've tried have horrible track pads.
My bad. I didn't know. As I have no intention of buying one, I only read a couple of reviews. They raved about the screen and the bigger size and matte finish.
I still think the Air is much nicer, even if it is cheaper.
I really like ThinkPads, always have. I wish Apple would pack a 12" screen in the 11" Air, and a 14" screen in the 13" Air - the bezel is huge! I know it won't ever happen, but Lenovo shows it's possible. Maybe for the Retina 13"....
I also wish they'd make a black Air, like the old black MacBooks.
I also wish they'd make a black Air, like the old black MacBooks.
If the Air had 1) A higher resolution matte screen (IPS would be amazing) 2) Microsoft OneNote, it would be a no brainer for me.
But X1C with another inch of screen real estate in a 13" chassis, and matte, means that it ultimately wins for what I'm looking for in a laptop. But it means I have to try it out first. Just because it wins on paper doesn't mean it's right for me
But X1C with another inch of screen real estate in a 13" chassis, and matte, means that it ultimately wins for what I'm looking for in a laptop. But it means I have to try it out first. Just because it wins on paper doesn't mean it's right for me
The 13" MBP will very much be an option to consider for those buyers looking at the X1 Carbon or the Air.
Unless Apple goes very wrong, it will be nearly as thin, nearly as light, but more powerful. Maybe a lot more powerful.