Lenovo Thinkpad X120e User Review

Thx. I also own an external DVD/CD 5.25" with an ac power brick and usb so I will try it later.

 

Great review. Thanks!

 

A general update on several issues I and other posters mentioned earlier:

Screen has white flickering lines
Although no BIOS update specifically addressed this issue, after updating to AMD Catalyst 11.4 and flashing to BIOS 1.12, the issue has not occurred for me at all. Not sure if it's entirely resolved, or if I'm just getting lucky so far.

Brightness controls disabled on AC/battery power state change
Again, not officially addressed in any BIOS updates, however, as of BIOS 1.12, this issue seems to be resolved. The issue reappeared once after the BIOS update, however, but I've been unable to reproduce it.

Webcam unreliable (says in use by other application)
Update to the latest ThinkVantage Communications Utility for the X120e, and this issue seems to have been resolved. Applications interface with the webcam reliably. Also, a new, simple webcam snapshot feature has been added.

Webcam white balance acting up
Update to the latest webcam driver: the latest driver seems to handle both low light and brighter environments a lot better, and shift between the two much faster and more reliably.

And one new issue:

Not entirely sure when it started popping up, but sometimes, after resuming from sleep, graphics and CPU performance seems to be lower, as if the laptop were on battery settings. Power cycling the laptop between AC and battery does not help, and putting the laptop to sleep and resuming again also does not resolve the issue. A reboot, however, always seems to fix the issue.

It's happened maybe four times to me so far. Anyone else having this issue?

 

I updated to the 1.12 BIOS, and I'm still having the problem with the brightness controls (as I'm typing this message, they don't work -- I'm about to do a reboot to fix it).

I haven't seen the later problem though.

 

please can someone recommend optimum settings for TP FAN control or a similar application which sorts the fan noise problem thanks so much.

 

Aww come on guys. I just ordered this thing. Do I need to cancel this?

 

Why would you need to cancel?

 

Because I want an AMD E-350. I have a VAIO YB right now and it sucks. To get away from this problem, I ordered an x120e. The ppl above me are posting issues. The fan noise is of particularly large concern.

 

The fan noise not very loud. You barely notice it, however it is on all the time. What is your major problem with the VAIO? If you have the extra income, get the X220 with IPS, it is overall a way better machine.

 

The only other Lenovo I'd get is the T420s. Waiting on the VAIO SA also, but that's likely to disappoint.

 

It's hard to gauge "fan noise". My old Presario 1200 was truely noisy. My Toshiba netbook typically didn't turn the fan on. The x120e does not have a noisy fan in my book. It is audible and seems to run a lot. However, it's not what I would consider a noisy fan and I only notice it if the room is otherwise silent. In even at it's loudest my Toshiba netbook is the only computer I've ever had that was more quite.

 

Play with the settings and see what gives you a good balance of heat/noise. Someone else's settings may not be the best for you.

Here are my settings:

Code:

Level=56 0
Level=63 1
Level=68 2
Level=73 3
Level=80 7
Level=90 128

Generally, my X120e hovers between 56-63 on light use.

Every laptop has issues. Why does the YB "suck"?

The fan is loud, compared to my entirely-silent T500. That said, the main sound is air whooshing--there's not really an annoying pitch to it. On BIOS settings, temperatures are very low (cool to the touch), but the fan is always on. With my TPFanControl settings, the base becomes slightly warmer, but the fan is off most of the time.

It's more than double the cost from a moderately configured X120e to a moderately configured X220, but the latter is a more-powerful-in-pretty-much-every-way laptop with better battery life. Choose your balance between that and $.

What version of Power Manager are you running? I have the latest revision.

 

Midnight sun, sir could you help a newbie out here and explain the code for the fan control and where to insert it? Thanks so much.

 

I'm using the latest version (3.52). It doesn't happen as consistently as before, but it still happens -- in 1.11, it happened just about every time, but with 1.12, it probably happens about 10% of the time -- other people are reporting the same thing on the Lenovo forums.

I actually thought it was fixed too, until it happened when I made that post .

 

Sure; go to your TPFanControl install directory, probably:

Code:

C:\Program Files\TPFanControl

Right click on the file called "TPFanControl_ini.exe" and click "Run as Administrator."

After hitting Yes, scroll to the bottom of the text file and find the line that says

Code:

MenuLabelSM1=Smart Mode 1

Under that label, there should be two lists of values, one to the left and one to the right preceded by comment tags (//). You need to edit the ones to the left, not preceded by comment tags.

You can either read the directions and change those values, or if you would like to use my values, you can edit the existing levels to the ones I posted earlier:

Code:

Level=56 0
Level=63 1
Level=68 2
Level=73 3
Level=80 7
Level=90 128

Note that I added a line for another increment, which is not present in the default Smart Mode 1. These temperatures are in degrees C, which should be default unless you changed a setting.

Once you're finished editing, press Ctrl + S to save, then close the text file. Then, restart TPFanControl, make sure Smart Mode 1 is selected (right click the icon), and you should be good to go!

Same--so far, I've had the problem happen once after the BIOS update, which reveals that obviously, it's not entirely fixed. I've been trying various things to try to reproduce the issue reliably, but I haven't really found anything useful yet.

 

You hit the nail on the head. The AMD chip is very, very cool. Yet, these manufacturers unnecessarily put in noisy fans. I'm banking on TPFanControl to fix it. To the best of my knowledge, I cannot use that program on the YB. I've listed others reasons as to why the YB sucks in the YB thread. It has nothing to do with the AMD portion of these systems, which is awesome.

 

Thank you so much midnightSun. I love you! Can someone confirm if SATA III SSD would work on the x120e? Thanks.

 

I don't know whether I'd bank on that. I've yet to read any review of a 11.6" AMD Zacate machine that is described as "quiet." The small fans that are used in ultraportables, particularly smaller and cheaper ultraportables, are often loud at high speeds and have annoying whining noises. The X120e doesn't seem to have the latter, but the fan is far from quiet.

No problem! A SATA III SSD would work, but the X120e (and the rest of the AMD Zacate ultraportables) can only take advantage of SATA II SSDs, I believe.

 

Even if it take advantage of the Sata III it will still feel somewhat sluggish because of processor.

 

I'm thinking about getting an OCZ Agility 3 SSD which has SATA III and will use it in the x120e for now. The 60 gig version is £99 online. Thats all I need really for now in terms of disk space.

OCZ unveils Agility 3 and Solid 3 SSDs for thrifty speedsters -- Engadget

Then as and when the newer Lenovo comes out, no doubt with SATA III compatibility I can simply add the OCZ to that at a later date.

 

Hi MidnightSun (David) please can I ask you and everyone else a question. I'm looking for the colour calibrated file someone had posted. I find the colours are too cold, I'm looking for a more vibrant saturation. Can you help? Thanks.

 

I believe there were a few that were posted in the X120e Owner's Thread, but both were far too over-red for me. I prefer using AMD's Catalyst Control Center/Vision Engine (or whatever it's called) and tweaking colors there. You'll want to decrease brightness and up contrast, until the colors seem more "normal" compared to a higher-quality and more accurate display (I calibrated according to my T500's display).

 

Hi I managed to find the profiles. They didn't seem to have changed much on my display. I noticed that CCC is buggy and doesnt even load up. Now my computer goes black at loading and flashes a few times. Then windows itself takes longer to load up. What could it be? I've taken off the custom profile and reverted back to default and installed ATI Catalyst Engine thingy and it still hasn't helped. Any ideas oh learned one? Thanks

 

It was probably me . I've attached my latest color profile to this post (which is slightly different that what I've posted before), but I should make the disclaimer that if you're not accustomed to a 6500k calibrated display, you might not like it. Also, it was calibrated at a brightness of 11 or 12 (I can't remember), so brightness levels other than that may look off (I think it's fine throughout the entire range, but YMMV). And just for even more info, my x120e has the LP116WH1-TLP1 panel, which may differ from yours.

Also, there's a fairly cumbersome procedure to actually get windows to use the profile (it's not as easy as just picking it in the color management control panel). You have to go to the "Advanced" tab, click the button that says "Change system defaults", then go to the "Advanced" tab in the dialog that pops up. It'll look the same, except now you can check the box "Use windows display calibration".

 

An update on temperatures and fan speed:

I recently undervolted my X120e's E-350 CPU, which helped noticeably to reduce operating temperatures both at load and at idle, and thus reduce fan noise.

For more information, see this thread and the SilentPCReview thread I referenced.

 

Has the undervolting improved battery life?

 

Not too noticeably, from what I've seen in the last few days. I think the issue is that at idle, the E-350 consumes so little power as is that undervolting doesn't really make a radical difference in the total power consumption. I'd imagine, though, that if you tested the battery life using Orthos to place 100% load on the processor, you would find a battery life difference between nonundervolted and undervolted.

 

I just wish that this laptop had come from the factory with all these tweaks. I wasn't too impressed with it to begin with I must admit, now about a couple of weeks later I'm actually happy with it.

 

Can you undervolt the graphics portion of the chip?

I would expect that to have a larger effect than the CPU alone, as it seems that Zacate is more of an x86 core attached to a GPU than the other way around.

An 80 core Evergreen based GPU has a die space of about 60mm2, Zacate has a die size of 75mm2, so its about 85% GPU in size.

 

There is some talk of that in the original SPCD thread, on page 2. SPCR's thierryg did some work on that in Linux, but results were pretty inconclusive--the lower voltages may not have actually been applied.

 

Quick question folks, when I use a 2 finger scroll it sometimes seems to continue itself after I've stopped scrolling. This is really annoying. Can't work out how to turn it off. Can any kind soul help? Thanks

 

Press Fn + F8, and navigate to UltraNav > TouchPad Settings > Scrolling > Two-Finger Scrolling. If "Enable Coasting" or "Enable EdgeMotion when scrolling" are checked, untick them--that should fix that problem.

 

thanks again

 

Hi, I need some advise.

I can get a very good deal on a Thinkpad X120e E-240 (half price with company's disccount).

The problem is that I can only get the X120e with the E-240 processor (that is my only option to get the half price discount).

Is it any worthy?

I currently use a Samsung NC10.

Would I see a performance improvement from one to other?

Hope to get some advise form Thinkpad X120e E-240 owners.

Note: I am just looking to replace my nc-10 which the screen is not working too well. I mainly use this netbook for surfing the net and watch movies/videos. I dont do any gaming or heavy laptop tasks.

 

The single core is going to be very anemic. From the reviews i've seen, it only scored 2.5 on WEI cpu.

 

depends wht you are going to use it for, if its just a secondary laptop to surf the net and do office work like you say you want to do, it will be fine. dont expect to do hardcore multitasking. its certainly going to be more powerful than your NC10

 

Yes, but actually, the difference may not be all that great, as seen in some of NotebookCheck's CPU benchmarks. You certainly won't feel that the E-240 X120e will run rings around your N270 NC10.

The largest benefit in performance, though, will be the integrated Radeon 6310's improved hardware acceleration capabilities over the N270's integrated Intel 945 graphics.

@Galego: When you say "half price," what price are we looking at? The E-350 X120e can often be found for barely over $400, so unless you're getting the E-240 model for significantly cheaper, it's probably not that great of a deal.

 

How much is half price? Half off MSRP is basically a standard sale price. Half off $380 or what ever the e-240 runs is not a bad price at all. The graphics are much better than the basic Intel integrated and the larger, higher resolution screen would also be nice. I suspect, if your NC10 performed like my Toshiba netbook this would be an upgrade in all areas save for screen color quality and battery life.

 

Thanks everyone for the advise.

Because I have Amazon vouchers from my company for 180 USD the X120e E-240 would cost me 180 USD.

I can only redeem these vouchers with products which Amazon.com sells and Amazon only has available for sale the E-240.

Therefore I'd save 325 USD buying the E-240 instead of the E-350.

I possibly dont need multitasking and will just be happy with something a bit more responsive than my current Samsung NC10, which I cannot really complain about it.

Would you go for the X120e E-240 if you were me?

 

For $180, I'd say the E-240 X120e is a good deal--that's below the price of the vast majority of single-core Atom 10" netbooks. I think you'll find the screen space, ergonomics/usability to be the largest improvements over the NC10. Performance will be a better, particularly in video playback, web page rendering in hardware-accelerated browsers like IE9, etc.

 

Does sold through Amazon count?
Amazon.com: ThinkPad X120e 05962RU 11.6" LED Notebook E-350 1.6GHz - Matte Black: Computer & Accessories

 

I wouldn't, but $180 is really cheap. The question is how useful will that notebook be for you? It's going to feel like an older gen netbook. The E-350 doesn't feel like a netbook at all. With an SSD, it runs like a regular notebook for most things. Lenovo's keyboard is a good size.

 

Unlucky for me not. Amazon.com has to sell it for me to be able to redeem those amazon vouchers.

I am now thinking about just paying for the E-350 and use the vouchers for something else in the future.

I saw a deal in Amazon.com for the E350 4G RAM for 505 USD + delivery and that is gone! The price I find now in Amazon for the same specs is 575USD + delivery.

A part form Amazon.com and Lenovo.com where else could I buy the X-120e E-350 from?

Cheers.

 

Found this deal on the eBay for $489.98 (free shipping).

AMD Fusion Processor E-350
2 GB PC3-10600
320 GB Hard Disk Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium 6
6 cell Li-Ion Battery 56 Whr

Guess Lenovo.com could do it cheaper but they wouldnt accept my irish MasterCard. :-(

 

The x120e with the e-350, 4GB of ram, and Windows 7 Professional is still $431.04 on Lenovo's site using the student discount.

They don't even verify that you're a student. Of course you shouldn't abuse this though.

 

Excellent review!

I read through this before I became a member on here and it was a big reason that helped me decide to finally pull the trigger and get it!

 

Picked up my X120e (E-350) with 4GB ram from Abes of Maine for $463 shipped.
(quick shipping, easy order, but they suck since they called me twice trying to sell an in house warranty. one time is understandable, don't bug me twice)

Installed a Samsung 256gb SSD and 2x4GB sticks of Corsair DDR3 1066 (CAS7).

Couldn't be happier.

 

^ same place I ordered mine for with the $15 off coupon. They took 9 days to ship my order even though they called me after 2. I love the thing so far, I need to read the undervolting guide when I get some time. My fan is always on. I downloaded a custom screen profile and it looks good to me.

 

Hi guys, just bought this machine and with it 2x4GB 1.3V low voltage RAM GGS38GB1066C8DC http://www.geil.com.tw/products/show/id/322. So i replaced the 2x2GB that came with the notebook.

Now i wonder if this ram is driven 1.3 volt anyway. i tried using aida64, system information viewer, HWmonitor and SpeedFan.

some of this tools gave me information about the voltage (look at the screenshots), but im not exactly sure how to interpret them.

is it possible that the spd information got read by the bios and applied?

do you have any idea?

 

just compared an 1x4GB 1.5V ram module against an 1x4GB 1.3V module using memtest's test number 0. die power draw is basicly the same. so this let's me assume that the ram voltage of the x120e is fix and not depended on what the spd (which holds values for timings and voltage) says.

greetZ