Hardware
Microsoft and Lenovo Team Up for College Students
This is a cool promotion that Lenovo and Microsoft are doing for College students — Reduced pricing on some of the higher end ThinkPad computers. Of special note, they have included the ThinkPad X200 Tablet PC into the mix. They don’t call out any pricing in the announcement other than ‘Starting at $999.00′, so figuring out if the deal is really good remains to be seen sometime later this year. It will come preloaded with a full version of Office Ultimate, so all the goodies will be there like OneNote!
Today, Microsoft Corp. and Lenovo announced the availability of the Ultimate Academic Personal Computer promotion with high-powered, highly functional, affordable laptop PCs designed specifically for college and university students, faculty, and staff. As part of the program, initially offered as a pilot by Microsoft, Lenovo will offer four different ThinkPad laptops pre-loaded with Windows Vista Ultimate and Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007.
Update — The last link in the MS announcement linked to a page on Lenovo — Lenovo Pricing
Source: Microsoft and Lenovo announce Ultimate Academic PC
Official Microsoft Announcement: Microsoft and Lenovo Make Dean’s List With Ultimate Academic PCs

John S.
03/03/2009 at 2:52 pm
OK so I logged into my schools site where I currently have been accessing special deals through our school (Notre Dame if it matters).
I then signed up here for this new deal using my schools address.
https://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/Portals/uapc
I configured the two x200 tablet systems to be identical. It came down to a $3 difference…$1981 vs $1978…however, my schools official and specific link for Notre Dame students gave me the following in addition:
-Mobile media base (ultradock)
-DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
The new program offered simply included a version of Office Ultimate…
I can go to my schools IT office and pick up a version of office for free so this is really not a good deal for me…
So for me this deal would make me pay the same price and NOT get an ultradock and dvd recordable slim drive…
John