That's terrific. The last few seconds are the best.

It's nice to see some clever Windows-based marketing.

If only PCs could be on the offensive rather than on the defense trying to counter the snazzy marketing of Apple.

I love the way the guy is trying to stuff everything into the envelope, like it's an actual worthwile thing to continue doing after it's ripped to shreds.

Alright GBM community. I need some help. I forwarded the video to a good friend of mine who is Mac zealot. The following is his response. I am guilty of not knowing the specs of either machines since I'm not in the market for either, but if what he states is true, then he does have a point.

"Excellent advertisement. That computer has 2 more USB ports and a heavy DVD drive. The commercial fails to mention that it is 10 percent heavier than the MacBook Air and that people today probably use a disk drive once per year and almost never use more than one USB port, especially since today we have something called Blue Tooth. It also fails to mention that the standard processor on the ThinkPad is 1.2 GHz whereas the baseline MacBook Air processor is 1.6 GHz. The last and probably most important message they fail to say in the commercial is that the starting price for that machine is $2500 versus the $1700 for the Macbook Air. So you really have to ask yourself, is the extra 2 USB ports plus the disk drive (which you will rarely use) worth an extra $800? I think NOT! :-D Plus..... Macs are just cooler :-D

Nonetheless, the commercial was very funny!"


Obviously the one USB port comment just isn't true, but I don't have a CD drive on my x41T and it hasn't bothered me one bit.

The price point is a major problem in my book.

What do you all think?

Yonatan-
I think your feidn is spot on...
then again, I wrote this from my MacBook Air.
Cute commercial though.

*friend* sorry-
keyboard- great
typing- not so much

He actually forgot to mention what the 400 extra megahurtz actually buys him... NOTHING except less battery life. It's an ultraportable the the processor is only part of the equation. He must have forgotten the 1440x900 resolution screen, or maybe user replacable battery (or the possibility for a higher capacity batter), or maybe putting a battery in the cdrom slot for more battery life, things that ACTUALLY MATTER to an ultraportable.

How about this

Apple Air
Hold on a second my battery is dying, crap, I need to find a power socket.

x300

Hmm, I've still got 3 hours left...

He actually forgot to mention what the 400 extra megahurtz actually buys him... NOTHING except less battery life. It's an ultraportable the the processor is only part of the equation. He must have forgotten the 1440x900 resolution screen, or maybe user replacable battery (or the possibility for a higher capacity batter), or maybe putting a battery in the cdrom slot for more battery life, things that ACTUALLY MATTER to an ultraportable.

How about this

Apple Air
Hold on a second my battery is dying, crap, I need to find a power socket.

x300

Hmm, I've still got 3 hours left...

Yonatan, here's what I'd tell your friend.

At 3.1 lbs, the x300 only weighs 3% more than the 3.0 lb. Air. I'd be hard pressed to call that extra tenth of a pound "heavy." If
you want to get down to it I can say the Air is 4% thicker than the x300 (.76in vs .73in, and no, I don't consider the Air's taper illusion as it's thickeness), but that's a silly point.

The added features which contribute to such a small weight differential add a lot of value for the x300's target market, which is mobile business professsionals (I'm not really sure who the target market for the air is. Mobile apple users I suppose).

Furthermore, while I don't know any statistics on USB port usage, this average of one port you mention is on devices which are fully featured and have ethernet ports, modems, wireless broadband, and disk drives. While bluetooth is a great alternative, it is limited by bandwitdh (3 Mbit/s) and range (a few meters). To make matters worse, it is impossible to use any USB device while the Macbook Air superdrive, since the drive only works on the Macbook Air port, and not a hub.

While it's true that the Macbook air can have up to a 1.8Ghz processor, the 1.2GHz chip in the Lenovo was chosen for battery life rather than performance. Also, the Air can only have a maximum of 2GB RAM, which is fine, but if we want to point out arbitrary shortcomings, there's one for you.

With respect to price, the Lenovo comes standard with 64GB solid state drive, a $999 ad-on for the Air. When the machines are similarly configured they have similar prices.

Other things the ad doesn't mention are wireless USB and wireless broadband available in the x300.

I must say that I'm the poor sap who is Yonatan's friend and made the initial comparison of the Air and Think Pad x300. Part of the reason why I did this was because Yonatan and I have an ongoing Mac/PC battle. My e-mail to him was biased because of this. But now that I've been placed in a public format, let me cite my sources. The place where I took the specifications for the Think Pad is below:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4270

I'm not sure how credible the site is, but they claim that with the actual disk drive and 6 cell battery pack, the unit weighs 3.32 lbs and truly is 10% heavier than the MacAirbook. Because the commercial is addressing the fact that the Air doesn't feature an internal disk drive and the x300 does, then this is a fair point.

Your point about the thickness comparison is well taken. The Air's taper shouldn't be considered in the overall thickness, but it makes for a more ergonomic design. I admit I have never held the Air, but I'm sure it's more comfortable to carry than the x300 because of this taper.

The rest of your points are well taken, and I cannot rebut them. Thanks for all of the good points.

Roger,

Good of you to drop by! I should note I think the comparison between the x300 and Air is silly to begin with, since these two machines are targeted toward completely different markets; the air seems to be targeted toward people who already have a desktop (probably a mac) who need aren't away from that computer for extended periods of time (frequent business trips) and who have all the modern wireless ammennaties (hence no ethernet and the wireless cd drive solution). Of course these people also appreciate the lustrous Apple styling (despite design decisions which compromise usability, such as the built in battery).

This market starkly contrasts Lenovo's market, who are almost fully business professionals. Hence the classic and rugged IBM styling, the array of connectivity options (ethernet, modem, wireless broadband, UWB, wireless usb, bluetooth), and the various battery removable battery options.

This last point brings me to the difference between weights; there are various battery configurations which each have a different weight. In some cases, a battery can be put in the DVD drive bay. You lose the DVD but you gain hours of operating time.

3-cell + Space: 2.93 lb (4 hours)
3-cell + DVD: 3.13 lb
6-cell + Space: 3.12 lb
6-cell + DVD: 3.32 lb
3-cell + 3-cell: 3.32 lb
6-cell + 3-cell: 3.51 lb (10 hours)

So with the x300 you get the flixibility of choosing between weight (between 2.93 lb and 3.51 lb), battery life (between 4 and 10 hours), and media (DVD or no). So while the Air seems to impose a lifestyle (you need wireless internet and peripherals, a desktop, only one battery), the x300 accomodates yours (flexibility of configuration options).

All this aside, I reiterate the fact that I think it's a silly comparison to begin with. I only bring all this up beacause it's the topic at hand.

nice to see a commercial that makes fun of Apple for once.

only the problem of lenovo is that they support beijing olympic. :-(

Lenovo is a Chinese company... what do you expect?

I loved the commercial; Lenovo is edgier than I expected.

lenovo "officially" supports beijing olympic. not all chinese companies "officially" support their olympic. besides, lenovo (and other beijing olympic sponsors namely samsung and coca-cola) hid their brands in nagano torch relay to protect their brands. they are scumbags.

also lenovo is a chinese company but thinkpad line is a mutltinational product. brand was made in usa by ibm. the actual design was/is done by former(and still?) yamato laboratory in japan. i think many non-chinese workers were/are involved to make thinkpad.

i remember us representatives hammered japanese products in public when us and japan had a trading war many years ago. i'd like to see some tech geeks hammer thinkpad to protest beijing olympics. :-)