gfunkdave

As requested, I've made this a new thread for 2016.

Here's the previous thread for posterity and reference:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ultrabook.html

DenverBrian

It's now 2016. Time to retire this thread for a new one? Or re-title this one?

nkedel

Eh, I'm all for leaving legacy threads and titles alone.

That said, if someone really wants to re-title it, the most generic semi-accurate title would probably be "New notebook PCs and processor releases" or something; or more specifically "Skylake-H (6th generation Core i5/i7 quad core) based notebook PCs."

Dodge DeBoulet

Boooooooring

As the OP, I vote for changing the year

DenverBrian

PM Scott - he'll probably do it for you.

Dodge DeBoulet

I found the P50s lineup on PSREF. You were right; no quad core models. The beefiest appears to be an i7-6600U.

*Sigh*

nkedel

Since this has been bumped:
The i7-6870HQ and the i5-6350HQ with the new integrated graphics look like real winners -- and like they could murder the already-dubious value proposition of low-end discrete graphics.

In addition to the graphics, the 128MB of eDRAM is a nice thing for other memory-intensive workloads.

I haven't yet seen any systems selling with these yet; probably at least a month out, but I'm hoping we'll see them in decent business machines and not just the "premium-like-an-ultrabook-but-bigger" systems and the MBP which was what we saw for the first generation ones of these in Haswell.

elCheapoDeluxe

As much as I'd love the ultrabook form factor, I think the Lenovo P50 is by far the closest thing to functional for me. I absolutely will not consider - will not even put on the list - a device without a trackpoint-style pointing device. The very first thing I do when I get a new laptop is go into the BIOS and disable the touchpad in hardware. Drives people who sit down at my machine to dumbfounded blank looks, but better that then the frustration of having that thing go off unintentionally. Still will probably miss the old style ThinkPad keyboard like I have on my T520, but the chiclet on the X1 carbon was the best chicket I'd used so I'll probably deal with it ok - too bad that machine was marred by so many other flaws (2nd gen version with horrendous touchpad-as-trackpoint-buttons and missing PrintScn & Break keys).

I'm going to drive my current system with the old i7-2720qm into the ground. Then I'll probably go sniffing around at the P50.

nkedel

Dell has pointing stick available or standard on a lot of its business-line machines too... although they don't have a hardware over-ride for the touchpad (I'm not sure the newer Lenovos do, either, but the software one works reasonably well in both cases.)

Wasn't that also the one with the membrane function keys?

Odds are it'll be a P50 Mark 2 or something by then. OTOH, if you don't need the additional drive slots or the 64gb of memory, you might look at the T460p, or the Dell E5470 or E5570, which are all a good deal cheaper and lighter.

elCheapoDeluxe

LCD keys which changed function based on your "context". They could be customized slightly, but not programmable enough to make them PrtScn or Break. You could make one come up with the screen snip tool, but nothing as fast as the original.

I may look at the 460p. I'm not sure I need 64gb RAM, but I do use VMware Workstation pretty extensively and it certainly wouldn't hurt to future proof for thirstier guest OS needs in the future.

HP also has trackpoint style pointers on some of their business machines. I think I'd look there before Dell. Too many years of bad juju with them.

nkedel

That's a lot of weight and cost for the future proofing; when I priced the machines on the Dell side and the P50 (the T460p isn't priced yet) the cost of a good configuration of the M7510 or P50 pretty rapidly approaches twice the cost of a good-enough configuration of the E5470.

I've had very good luck with their service -- better than Lenovo's -- and no worse luck with their reliability (not great in either case).

The T460p may still win out for my next machine, depending on pricing and configuration details that have yet to be announced.

I may also just wait 4-5 months for some E5470s to show up as refurbs; I've had very good luck with Dell refurbs (better than with new machines; the quality control is better) and the pricing if you wait for a coupon is superb.

Dodge DeBoulet

The T460P is now showing up on PSREF (may have been there for a while; I wasn't checking for that model previously), and there's a page built on the Lenovo site. CDW has TopSellers listed and some pricing information. However, none of the models shown have anything higher than a 1920x1080 display (although I'm not sure how useful a WQHD display will be in a 14" format), or a processor other than the i5-6440HQ. In fact, all of the models on PSREF are TopSellers. I'm wondering how long we'll be waiting for the i7 models?

CDW gave me the standard "2-3 weeks" delivery when I asked about the listed models, but I'm really wanting to see what the i7 quad-core models will be like.

CPRich

I finally gave up on trackpoint/sticks, and never did use the touchpad. I carry a small wireless mouse everywhere, it's just so much more efficient.

My Surface Pro 4 has an i7-6650U - seems to do pretty well. But MS is still sorting out video driver, power management issues, etc. I'm beta testing for my company, so I accept the issues I've had, but I haven't had issues of this magnitude with an actual in-production laptop in some time. Example - I have to disable the touchscreen to prevent Excel from crashing when I undo a filter.

nkedel

The Lenovo web site still shows "coming soon" without any pricing.

The Lenovo 2560x1440 WQHD isn't too bad on 14", and while I can't confirm it's availability on the T460p I've heard the rumor from more than one source. I wouldn't personally bother with it (the pricier FHD IPS option was worth it on the T440p, and I'd expect it to the way to go on the T460p as well...)

I'm sure the i7 models will be along shortly; one thing I'm really curious about is whether the Nvidia chip will be obligatory or optional.

chx1975

T460p seems to be ... behind. No USB 3.1, no Thunderbolt, nothing modern. Same tired, broken layout, shunned keyboard. Only 3 USB ports anyways, USB-C would've allowed more.