Just bought a Lenovo X1 with HDR WQHD for 800 Euros

I just bought a fully specced out X1 Carbon 6th gen with 8550U, 16gigs of RAM and the very nice HDR WQHD Display. I paid 800 euros for it and bought it used. Additionally it is still under warranty until August of 2021.

I put so much research into the current generation of laptops, I was really toying with the Idea of a T14 or T14s. But my absolutely biggest priority is display quality, then build and keyboard quality. Since I only need the laptop for coding I dont need the latest perfomance.

I haven't received the laptop yet but I will in a few days. The deciding point for me was the HDR WQHD 500 nits display plus that the laptop still has warranty.

Now my question to you guys: Am I stupid for doing this? It is a serious question since 800 Euros will get you some pretty good newer laptops (looking at you E14).

Just wanted to get some input from you guys.

 

Performance-wise, it is definitely acceptable, especially since you should be able to hook up eGPU if you ever want to run something GPU-intensive or game on it. That screen is a dream, WQHD is the best resolution for 14" in my opinion. Would I follow your example, though? Definitely not, because 16GB RAM is an absolute deal-breaker for me, so I'll have to settle for E14G2. Bottom line, if 16GB RAM works for you, I believe you've made a good decision.

 

Thank you for your input.

I understand that soldered 16gb kinda sucks but its a trade-off I was willing to accept for the better display.

Originally my plan was to go for a used T480s. But the displays used on those models, even the WQHD one, are average at best.

I made the mistake once already of buying a cheap laptop with a mediocre display because of its outstanding perfomance.

Now I value display and build quality nearly above everything else. I appreciate some of the older macbook pros for that reason, those were really solid machines.

 

@gamba66 I also pay a lot of attention to displays, but for me the list of priorities is a bit different:

1. Lack of PWM
2. Resolution
3. Matte surface
4. Brightness
5. Color coverage

Of course I use calibrated profiles for my displays, but also have night light turned on unless doing color-sensitive work, thus color coverage is irrelevant for my usual workflow. I typically use ~20% brightness unless working outside, which became scarce with lockdowns, thus don't care about max brightness as much as I used to. As a result, I would settle for a matte display over glossy even at the cost of lower brightness and/or color coverage, to save myself from applying a third-party matte screen protector, which is terribly hard to do perfectly.

My current Thinkpad has 12.5" FHD display that ticks all boxes except color coverage, and it's great overall - but I wish so much it was WQHD...

 

Well I just got the laptop yesterday and I can give you my honest opinion.

First impression: Amazing. Never have I ever owned such a quality piece of tech. Build quality is impeccable, the fan is very quiet even when turned up a bit (its a lower frequency hum instead of the high-pitched one) and the laptop feels and works great

Now, it could certainly need a new battery (20 percent loss) and a repaste job, which I will do myself.

The laptop is still under a 3 Year Warranty, that ends in august next year, with the fix-at-home option (whatever its called in Europe) but no battery warranty, so I am afraid its not of much use. In the worst case I will buy the battery myself and fix it.

Now to the Display.

1. Its amazing. Incredible quality and comparable to OLED (I have owned a few oled devices including a TV)
2. Its super glossy. More glossy than anything else, even more than the macbooks. The brightness does make up for it.
3. I expected WQHD to be super small, at 125 scaling its perfect for me.
4. According to notebookcheck it has no PWM

You are absolutely right about glossy Displays. I personally have not put much thought into it, for me display metrics such as brightness and overall quality were always more important. I understand that the glossy Displays are a bit distracting but I got used to it pretty quickly.

I love this laptop and use it solely for working purposes. I think I will keep this one for a very long time

 

I bought a very similar (8350U instead - 16GB, 1440p HDR) unit, new, about 1 1/2 years ago and paid almost twice as much. Get the battery replaced, if needed. My 11 hr battery life under Fedora Linux is one of the aspects I love about this computer. 10 out of 10, I would not hesitate to buy it again. You will like it. The X1C6 is one of my favorite all time computers.