May 11th, 2007
Lenovo adds anti-lidflex 'roll cage' to new Centrino Pro-based Thinkpad
Lenovo's Thinkpads have apparently had an anti-flex roll cage under their keyboards for some time. But with this week's launch of Intel's Centrino Pro brand, the company is not only introducing a new Thinkpad based on the Intel technology bundle (which includes Intel's Core 2 Duo "Santa Rosa" chip), Lenovo is also adding a similar roll-cage to the Thinkpad's lid. Right away, the old notebook-display-caught-in-the-airplane-seatback-lip trick comes to mind. I can't tell you how many times of rescued my notebook from that guy sitting in front me who is certain that if he just rams his torso into his seat a little harder, he will finally get his seat to recline (even though he doesn't know that it's the lid of my notebook that's stuck in cavity of the seatback-tray that's the problem).
I once watched as this person who must have weighed 400 lbs. leaned back with everything he had while my notebook's LCD panel took on a surprising amount of curvature without busting. I was terrified. One of the few technologies that I've never disassembled is LCD technology. As I watched the lid flex, I thought for sure that the episode was going to end with some skin-melting steaming hot gel sprayed on my face. After all, the L in LCD is for "liquid," isn't it? If you know what happens when an LCD is flexed to the point that it ruptures, please tell me what happens next. Fortunately, that didn't happen and in fact, my display continued to work just as it did before. For me, the bigger problem with LCDs when it comes to my notebooks (invariably Thinkpads) has been electrical. They simply stop working which is a MAJOR problem if you need to go on the road.
But Lenovo apparently felt it was necessary to add a roll cage to its lids now and here's a video of the company's director of Thinkpad Marketing Tom Ribble tell us about the system that features it:
