Lenovo X1 Carbon Owner's Thread

Reputable reviewers have commented negatively about the X1C's poor screen quality.

Engadget's X1 Carbon review

"If there's a fault to be found in the X1 Carbon it lies here:
the LCD panel that you'll be staring at just about whenever you use this thing. On paper the 14-inch unit has it where it counts, clocking in with a 1,600 x 900 resolution.
But, dig a little deeper and you'll find a few reasons to be disappointed.

The first time you look at the panel you'll notice what seems to be an excessively high dot pitch -- that is to say, there's a lot of space between pixels."

Everyone should decide what's acceptable for themselves. Like ZaZ said, people should buy whatever suits their needs, but at least now you have clear pictures of what to expect from the X1C's screen.

 

Still waiting for you to post the scale ratio of those pictures.

 

You're welcome to calculate it yourself by downloading the pics, set your screen res to 1600 x 900 and compare them to your Win 7 start menu and cursor as reference points.

 

I received my x1c last Wednesday. Screen is ok so far. Nice ultrabook. The only issue to me is the trackpad. It works ok, but the more I use it, the more it turns colors. From a grayish color to almost white in certain areas. Looks like they just painted some bad black spray paint on it. All the black paint will be gone by the end of the month. Anyone else have this problem? Also disappointed in the wan card they use. Why no gobi 4000? This one is errison. You have to pay at&t $50.00 / month to use it. (Not going to happen.)

 

X1 C and MBP are in different categories.

If you take out the logo out of the Air and many people would say its creen is pretty much identical to the X1 C.

 

You forgot to emphasize that you had bought it for $750.

 

Different categories? Like What?

As for the screen, I seriously doubt most people would think they are identical. One is matte, the other is glossy. One is 1600x900 and the other is 1440x900. The MBA screen shows no screen door effect and I am sure it will be a Retina screen before this time next year.

Is there really anything else that can be said about the Carbon that hasn't already been said?

I assume the next volume of discussion will be around the X1 Carbon Touch. It would appear from the specs I've seen that it will likely have the same screen but with a touch and Gorilla Glass layer. Should be an interesting device for Windows 8 users.

 

The trackpad is the best one I have ever experienced.

Clean it with fine cotton cloth. then it looks like new (evenly black) again.

 

I would not say they're identical, but close quality wise, at least that was my experience.

 

I said this once in another thread, but I'll say it again here. You absolutely have to calibrate the colors on the X1C. It is plagued by a huge blue bias. The resulting look post calibration is fantastic.

 

Thanks steve8191, I will give it a try.

 

Sorry, but nothing short of an exorcism is going to make the X1C's screen look fantastic.

 

The MBP isn't an ultrabook whereas MBA and X1C are.

Google Andrew's side by side comparison.

 

Considering Apple defined the ultrabook class machine three years before anyone else, that's laughable. I mean really, the trademark Ultrabook(tm) was created specifically to compete with the Apple MacBook Air and only now are there any real competitors.

 

QFT.

Shame that the ThinkPad X30x laptop was in many ways a better machine. But it just didn't have the design edge of the ancestor of Ultrabook.

 

Yea, the X301 deserves an honorable mention for sure. It didn't capture the imagination like the Air but it was groundbreaking for it's day. Still is in many ways. I miss mine.

 

Nano -- Concur with you on all counts -- except boot time, mine still takes over 60 secs. Same config i7/4/256. Have mcafee av and have not udpated bios or drivers but cant think why that would matter. Any hints would be appreciated
Sam

 

Click on "Start" menu, type "msconfig" then look under "startup". Uncheck all the bloatware you don't need.

 

Hmm, over 60 sec? 25 sec is routinely achievable. Set boot timeout to 0 and uncheck GUI boot (disable Windows logo animation) to shave off some time. Also, uncheck all Adobe and certain programs in startup list.

 

I have found in the past that mcafee av takes ages to load up - AVG is much faster. My time from starting the machine with a fingerswipe to scrolling around in Windows 7 is 35 seconds. I5/8/256, only thing I have changed is the AV.

 

Is the SSD on the X1C really slow? I've read this in a few places and this is a concern. I need to get a new machine for work, and am leaning towards an X1C Touch which I believe should be out in a matter of weeks. I think with a fresh install of Win 8 the boot time should be <15s.

 

I received my i5/8gb/256gb x1 carbon today. I love the machine but the screen door effect is obvious. I have had a T61 for 5 years and wanted something lighter. I'm currently making recovery media and in the past hour I have gotten a *lot* more used to the screen. I wish the effect weren't there but the machine is otherwise great. I ordered in 1 month ago and got a good turnaround for delivery. There are no loose parts or anything.

I played with screen calibration to get rid of the blue tint and worked on the Gauss and brightness which decreased the screen door effect a big. My little sis said she's got a Toshiba tablet at work which has a bit of a screen door effect which she got used to. To be honest, I'd probably get a 13" MBP Retina if it weren't for the fact that I'm a trackpoint addict. It is hard for me to use a laptop without a trackpoint. And at the the end of the day the screen is totally decent, and I use my iPad (retina) for most visual intensive stuff. This laptop is mainly for work and I think I'm gonna give myself a shot at getting used to the screen. Brightness, saturation, and contrast are great.

Would love to hear about others who have gotten used to the screen door effect and what specific changes to settings they felt helped the best at reducing it.

Cheers!

 

I have been working on my x1c for 1 month and while the screen door effect bothered me at start, I'm now totally used to it

I'm using redshift ( https://launchpad.net/redshift) to automatically adjust the temperature of the screen and I think it really helped me getting used to the screen.
(It's a linux only software, maybe a windows equivalent exists)

 

F.Lux does something similar in Windows - stereopsis.com/flux/

 

I have had mine for about a week today. What is the screen door effect and what do I look for ? Any particular theme or Wall paper?

 

If you are not doing extremely disk-heavy operations you should be very fine. For me the SSD in this machine feels incredibly snappy; there is virtually no load time for most applications.

 

If you don't see it, then don't worry about it. You'll be better off.

 

Thats rediculous and incorrect. The Air's screen is MUCH better than the X1C. Just compare them side by side.

 

In fact the screen is very similar.

 

I still cannot fathom how they didn't include a 1080p IPS display option for this laptop. Spending $1,500-1,800+ on a full spec'd out X1 Carbon, without a 1080p IPS display, borderlines on absurd.

This looks great, and it's Lenovo, but spec-for-spec it doesn't hold a candle to the Sony Vaio Z (which is similarly priced, if not lower-priced [especially with some recent sales Sony has had on their site]).

Lenovo needs to announce a spec-bumped successor to this laptop with the following options:

1080p Full HD Resolution
512GB SSD option
8-16GB RAM options

And they'd probably have my money in a hurry.

 

Quick question for you owners. The top row of keys (Esc-Delete) on my T430s seem to sit up slightly higher than the rest of the precision keyboard keys. As a result, there is more light bleed from those backlit keys. It also appears the key caps are angled a little differently.

Do you see the same thing on the X1 Carbon?

I like the keyboard. This is minor but I was wondering if it's the same across all of the machines.

 

No need to be an owner, it seems to be not higher than the rest of the keys:
http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/pics/222c99455f.jpg
In comparison to T430s:
http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/pics/6bf3fc379a.jpg

 

In fact, in real life put the two side by side and then tell me which one is easier to look at for hours everyday. The MacBook Air by FAR.

The pixelated fonts and screen door effect make the X1C the poorer screen, put it beside the Air and read a few PDF's and you'll see what I mean.

 

I've been using my X1 Carbon now for a few days. The screen door effect is far less obvious to me now. My wife has a MacBook Air 13" and I like that her screen has no screen door effect but the X1 screen is brighter and more contrasty so all in all I think it is probably even between the two screens. But it is obviously a personal issue and of course I'd rather have a retina screen than either of these!

Having just come back from a flight with my carbon, I must say I love it. I'm forgiving the screen for now. I'm still glad to have replaced my T61 with this. This thing is fast and has a trackpoing :thumbsup:

 

Fwiw, due to my ETA being open because of supply shortages, I _almost_ went ahead and ordered the XPS 12 / cancelled the X1C/i7/8/256. Fortunately after a few days of grueling wait I got word from Lenovo Australia (who are very good at answering my questions) that it's back on track.

The FHD IPS display of the 12 was tempting, however in the end the overall build quality of the X1C kept me hoping they'd come through soon. Looking past the screen door (which works both figuratively and literally), the display is actually very sharp with great colours and contrast - and in particular it's easy on the eyes being a 14" in a 13.3" form factor. That and the keyboard plus weight and feel of the case is what kept me coming back to it.

I'm still amazed by the 10 second hard boot to lock screen - 10s Lenovo X1 Carbon 8/256 Windows 8 RTM boot to Lock Screen - YouTube (my own video, please excuse my horrible accent) - and that's on the _i5_ / 8 / 256.

 

I had my X1 carbon (4GB, 256) for a week now.

Overall I'm happy with my purchase, my trackpad is rubbery, but very very smooth, I actually like it. It also clicks when I press on the lower part, but to me that is a feature of the laptop more than a defect, I like it too.
About the screen, I don't see the "screen door" effect, maybe it's my tired eyes, but I really don't see it. What I can see though is a yellowish tone of the whites.
Even when I bring it to its maximum brightness, a white scren does not have a perfect white like my latitude has, it has a very faint yellow undertone.
That is my only complaint so far, did anybody else notice? otherwise I love the speed, the quiet operation, the looks...

 

there is a long discussion about getting the best colors from x1c

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thi...20e-sl-l/691923-x1-carbon-color-settings.html

 

I used an electronic microscopic with 300x magnification and had a look at the pixel structure of the ThinkPad X1C, T430s (1600x900), T430u, E320 HD LCD, i think i know what is the causing the screen door effect/griddiness that everyone is talking about.

<--- X1 Carbon HD+

<--- Edge E320 with HD LCD (also have screen door effect).

<--- ThinkPad T430u HD LCD (no grid problems).

<--- ThinkPad T430s (HD+ LCD no grid problems).

 

So, has anyone found a sleeve that snugly fits the X1C yet? The official lenovo one, I think I've seen, seems to be designed to also fit thicker laptops and fits pretty loosely. Has anyone found anything better?

 

I also got the Lenovo one, which I have no idea why they associated with the X1C...

Currently waiting for my DOA replacement X1, upgraded to the i7/8/256 from the i5/8/256, and have put an order in on a Targus 13.3 which is brand new. Once it comes in I'll let you know how well it fits. X1C exceeds width and length by a couple of mms, but hopefully that won't matter too much - I'm thinking it should be spot on. TargusAustralia|TSS56004AU&ndash;Targus 13.3" Pulse Laptop Sleeve for MacBook Pro® / Ultrabooks™

I already tried a random sleeve I found on eBay for a Macbook air but those are just too small.

 

Guess I'm a bugger for punishment because I ordered another X1C. Here's hoping for a better display this time and no defects. Finally it should arrive at the latest Tuesday.

 

I'm using one of these:

MacBook 13/13" Laptop-Numbat #1263M

it fits very nicely.

 

How did this end up for you?

I'm seeing the same problem from top to bottom of my screen.
It's present in both Windows, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Chrome OS...

Definately hardware.

Will call Lenovo next week...

 

This is making me see cross eyed.

 

Just to post my impression after having the X1 Carbon for over 10 days now. I'm totally used to the screen door effect and hardly notice it anymore. I love this laptop!

 

Question: I'm receiving my replacement unit (i7/8/256) tomorrow or in the next few days. I am wondering if I went about the Windows 8 upgrade the right way last time, when I just nuked all the partitions and created one big for Win8, leaving some space for a Linux one.

This didn't include any partitions for hibernation, which the Win7 did have. Still, it fast booted in about 10 seconds, and performance otherwise was most excellent - quite unlike the base Win7 one which was so bloated it hurt.

The page on Lenovo Support Express - Windows 8 Upgrade Instructions has absolutely zilch on recommended partitions. Do we have anyone here who knows the ideal partitioning for a Windows 8 install?

 

The answer depends largely on whether you are using legacy BIOS or UEFI. There are other dependencies like Intel RapidStart that use funky caching schemes. As you have alluded to, it would be best if Lenovo documented their supported designs in order to take the guess work out of this.

For comparison, the Samsung Series 9 notebook I recently received came with Windows 8 Pro using UEFI and secure boot. The Windows 8 implementation was a bloated mess. So I blew it away and reinstalled. It's now using legacy BIOS, no secure boot or UEFI, Windows 8 fast start is turned off. It has two partitions. One for Bitlocker (200MB) and the rest for the OS, apps and user data.

Cold boot to modern desktop is right at 11-12 seconds. I can live with that.

 

Great, thanks for that - it helps narrow down my question: How do you enable Intel RapidStart on a wiped X1C SSD, using UEFI boot?

Granted, I will agree it may not be the biggest of wins to improve it any further - however I'm rather interested in seeing how it would work for nothing else. The X1C boots to the lock screen in 10 seconds which is pretty similar to your Samsung (although it sounds like your 9 might be a fraction faster as mine got there using UEFI bios, and this was to the lock screen only - anyway they both sound pretty fast! ).

If I find the answer I'll post back here.

Edit: I understand it involves setting up a hibernation partition and getting it configured to work with the RapidStart driver. Would it maybe be an idea to not wipe all the partitions and leave the hibernation one when doing the wipe of the stock Win 7 install?

Edit2: The following provides a healthy set of clues - http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad...d-Yoga-hard-disk-allocation/m-p/913425#M13007 , and also http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad...epartition-AND-Get-RapidStart-amp/td-p/910731 . Will try it out when I get the X1C (should be either today or tomorrow).

 

I found this link which seems to have a generic recipe - not sure if it is helpful to you.

UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with

 

Thanks, I'm pretty sure I installed it with UEFI last time as I had normal mode disabled, but will use that as a guide to make sure I've got it right.

Good news - my X1C i7 / 8 / 256 just arrived. Everything looks fine, and their stock, bloated Win7 build makes it sluggish as per last time.

WEI numbers on stock install with nothing done other than booting it for the first time are:
7.1 - 7.4 - 5.7 - 6.4 - 7.9

Here's a pic: http://tinyurl.com/bpy9ydh

Will let you know how I go after I've put Win 8 Pro on it.