Lenovo X1 Carbon Owner's Thread

For the record (those who haven't read the whole thread) it should probably be made clear that the i7 / 8gb combo was only made available in October.

 

Yes, it's there and hidden, BUT as of right now you can't get the i7/8gb with WWAN which is the only thing holding me back.
The Lenovo reps can't give me a clear answer as to if it's a website issue or invalid configuration. I've been waiting over a week for an answer.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

That's great to hear FunkDancer! I am not really a PC guru so a good chunk of what you wrote will not really apply to me (don't plan on an Ubuntu build) but it's great to hear some positive reinforcement on this sucker. I wasn't sure how good of a deal I was getting but it looks like I nabbed it at a decent price! Storage will be rough but I plan on having an external HD. I don't think I will need 8GB of RAM.

The wait has been pretty tough though and judging by some of the other comments I've seen in the shipping thread, I'm not exactly convinced Lenovo will stick to their promised shipping date of 12/17. Still, one can only hope.

A fantastic keyboard, exceptional build quality, lightweight, Windows 8 (which will be included in my order not Win7); these were some of the important factors in my laptop decision. I think I hit the mark... but dang, will it get here already??

 

... which is the configuration that I do have on mine! It's weird how the product is different in different markets.

It's great to have a SIM card in there as a backup should the power go. It happened Friday a week ago, day after I got the SIM card.

 

I agree whole heartedly on the WWAN. I use the WWAN in my T410s a few times a week when I'm somewhere that WiFi is not available or painfully slow (or at clients that have a restricted access to stuff I need).

On another positive note, I finally spoke with a Lenovo rep that said though the website doesn't allow it, it is possible to custom configure the machine. We've done that and now are just trying to come to terms on pricing. It seems I may finally get a 3lb. i7/8GB/256GB/WWAN X1 Carbon after all!

 

Tentative congrats! It's an awesome machine. I think a few battery cycles have helped for me as I can easily get 5.5-6 hours in Ubuntu now doing editing etc. I found the power profile wasn't _quite_ good enough for fullscreen youtube (the training vids I'm doing go up to 720p) so switched to high performance for that, which brought it down to a "mere" 4 -> 4.5h. Would have been a bit better in Win8, but still no drama.

I found fwiw that the proper Ivy Bridge driver has been loaded for Ubuntu. I just had to install another package that helped the OS _identify_ what was installed (sudo apt-get install mesa-utils). This driver doesn't allow for the 3d to be enabled, i.e. it's using basic rendering mode I think, so it would seem there's room for improvement still there.

 

So...the display is still disappointly subpar?

 

For some. I myself find it adequate for my needs, and am currently using it 8+ hours a day with no signs of eye fatigue or any screen door frustrations.

 

Yeah! To repeat what I wrote only 1 page ago, I love the display on mine. Linux looks fantastic in it, and so does Windows 8. The size of it vs the frame is very impressive.

 

Is the X1C now shipping with an IPS screen or is that just more misinformation spread across their site?

 

Most likely misinformation.

 

Well the good news is that we came to an agreement on price and I sent in the wire transfer to complete the order. It's a pain that I have to order and ship to the US and then have the package forwarded up to Canada - but I guess that is the cost of getting the configuration I want. I ordered the X1C i7/8GB/256GB/WWAN and it can't come soon enough. So yes, congrats to me.

 

Out of curiosity were you able to haggle down the price at all? I personally would love the same configuration (minus the WWAN, personally I don't need it as my phone can provide an internet connection anywhere anyway) but it's just a bit too expensive for me (hoping to spend in the ballpark of $1500). The 256GB SSD pricing is insane but there's nothing we can do about it sadly.

Edit: Looking at the X1C Touch options, there you can get a 180GB drive which would be a nice price point between base and 256GB if it wasn't a $170 upgrade. I mean, I'd get it anyway if I could for the regular X1C because I'm fairly certain 180GB is enough for me but 128GB might not be, but that has to be the most expensive 52GB of storage you can buy by far.

 

Hi all,
I got my X1C yesterday and I have to say, there are many things I am loving about the laptop and a lot of things that are extremely disappointing.

First of all, the trackpad is plain terrible. The "rubbery coating" attracts all sorts of strange dust and particle build-up, so it will constantly feel as if you are brushing away at sand particles or other debris when your fingers run over the surface.

Also regarding the trackpad, can anyone please confirm if it is normal for the two-finger scrolling to only work in the middle section of the trackpad?!
I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I was trying to perform the two-finger scrolling on the left and right sections of the trackpad... it simply doesn't work there!

[EDIT] Okay, I feel sheepish. I guess there's a bit of a learning curve. Anyways, the DEFAULT setting is to allow for this bizarre notion to have the scrolling region limited to the middle section but it CAN be adjusted in the Mouse properties!! Whew.

 

Hi Vanquish,

sorry to hear about your frustrations, maybe a few days of use should get you past it?

I'm almost ready to bite the bullet on an i5/8GB/128 that would be around 1500, but the one thing thats been eating at me is whether to go for Win 7 Pro or Win 8 Pro?

I've been using Win 7 Pro on my X301 for 2 years now and am very comfortable with it. After the Vista debacle I'm very very skeptical about going 8. Can funkdancer or anyone else point towards one or the other?

One big possible deal-breaker for me could be the keyboard. I'm a avid blind fanatical, (call it what you may) advocate of the current keyboards and will be moving over to the 'chiclet' type of keyboards for the first time. I absolutely hate the keyboard on the MBA for example, but I've been hearing good things about the X1C KB. Any Thinkpad veterans who have made the move here who could comment?

I won't be doing anything CPU intensive though may have lots of browser tabs/applications running simultaneously hence will definitely need the 8 gigs of RAM, which I also currently have on the x301, as I type this I'm using about 60% of it already

its done me really well thus far and I'm still amazed at its durability and relative low weight, but its time for the upgrade, and my brother will get mine, so it will be in good hands. I am excited to have something that's even lighter, yet very much a thinkpad!

 

hey sheFs. Fortunately, I figured out that the issue can be remedied by going to the Mouse -> Trackpad settings. It isn't intuitive, as there are layers and layers of configurations to tinker with but at least it can be fixed.

I really enjoy/love the X1C keyboard. Highly recommended.

The entire laptop does attract a wealth of fingerprints and oils from your skin but I'll take durability over fingerprint smudges anyday. (Plus, the entire laptop is black so it's not so much a big deal).

I had an issue on the first night where my laptop would NOT wake up from Sleep. I was very disappointed at this bug. I had to hold down the Power button for about 6 seconds and reboot from scratch. I tested the waking up from Sleep functionality two more times today and didn't run into the issue. Hope I never see it again.

The "screen-door" effect on the screen IS apparent and I too, noticed right away. I am certain I would have noticed the effect without having read up on this before the purchase.
HOWEVER, it is not that big of a deal and I am already used to it on Day 2. It is barely notice-able from normal viewing distances and when videos look great on this thing.

Okay, so now that the trackpad is performing a bit more admirably (still have way too many "cursor jumps" that I simply did not have with on my Samsung Chromebook) but things hopefully are looking better. I'm still getting used to Windows 8.

I got this laptop at a decent price, just over $1,000 but I have the minimum specs (128GB SSD, i5, 4GB RAM). It boots up in less than 10 seconds very, very fast. The limited HD space will be mitigated by my external HD and the extra RAM? ehh... the extra cost $ was too much. I'll just close tabs and apps whenever I'm done with them like I'm used to

 

I managed to get that config for ~$1728 which I'm told translates to about 15% off the web-configured price. It's still a solid chunk of change, but I wanted to buy this config when the machine came out in August and frankly, I'm just tired of waiting.

I'm sure an i5/4GB/128GB would also be a solid config, but I couldn't justify the purchase given my current machine. I had to call in and speak with a rep to have the machine custom configured this way - he said it had to be done via the back-end. That might mean that you can configure the 180GB or 240GB SSDs with human intervention.

 

Thanks to iofthestorm, figured out the i7/8GB/128 is just 80$ over the i5/8GB/128, Battery life is important for me, but I guess there shouldn't be such a difference between the two processors?

Now if I can just make my mind up over win7 or 8... *scratches head*

aah delivery times are 5th Jan now!

 

Sorry didn't see this before now. I loved Win7, in fact I have championed getting it into my organisations stuck on Windows XP. However it's now passed the baton as the best Windows OS to version 8 - especially if you're on an Ultrabook. I have under 45 threads running after boot (before opening Chrome..) and the result is something that'll give you 6 hours of battery easily just for normal browsing (fair bit less if also doing video, but still). UI rendering performance is also markedly better, which you notice even more on an Ultrabook than on a desktop.

Battery will last longer on Win8 and it'll also perform faster, especially so if you don't plan on wiping the PC as the very first thing after confirming it works and doing the backup of the installation media (so that you can safely wipe & reclaim that partition).

If after a little while you really miss the start menu, then spend $5 on Stardock's Start8 after trying it for 30 days free first. Also, for shutting down the PC quickly try either
Script Create a Shutdown/Restart/Logoff Windows 8 Tile for the Start menu (PowerShell) or Windows 8 - System Power Shortcuts ( I use the latter, but first should also work).

Regarding the keyboard, whilst not a Thinkpad veteran, I'm doing a lot of typing on mine and absolutely love it. It's not _quite_ as good as the DiNovo Edge full size bluetooth keyboard I have for the HTPC, however that is a lot bigger still and the X1C sure beats my previous laptops and is also better in feel than the Macbooks I've tried (wife has 2010 white one). You should also consider the trackpoint, which is brilliant.

 

I just received my X1C today and want to do a clean install of WIndows 8 but for the lift of me cannot find where the product key is. Can anyone help point me to where i might find this?

 

The product key is embedded in the BIOS/UEFI that came with your system.

Be sure to read http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=HT076024 if you want to backup the factory image.

 

Ahh thanks for the tip. Also, should I be re-installing everything on the Lenovo drivers page? Or are there things that are not important that I can skip?

 

You'll get the cleanest install if you only pick the stuff that you actually need. I'd start with the mouse driver though. Then e.g. audio driver, graphics, power profile etc.

I installed Win8 specifying the rapidstorage driver that I downloaded from Intel during the install. I skipped rapidstart completely, finding it a waste of time on Win8.

 

Sorry, I can't advise you on the Lenovo software for Windows 8. The T430s I ordered came with Windows 7. My understanding is that quite a lot changed on the Lenovo software front.

 

So I just did a clean install on the machine, yet all the bloatware is still on it? I'm a little confused.

 

Oh, so you must have a custom Lenovo installation media kit. If you launch the task manager (ctrl+shift+esc), then click more details, then go to the performance tabs...

Under CPU, how many processes are running, and
Under Memory, how much is "in use"?

This should be done after booting, before launching additional programs. (E.g. Chrome.)

I put my own order in a couple of days before Win8 became the default, so used a Technet subscription key to install Win8 Pro - thus completely virgin / non-branded install.

 

CPU has 85 processes and RAM has 21% in use (i7/8gb system). I would really like a clean non-branded install. How would I get one of those? I don't have another copy of Windows 8 around :S

 

I'm not sure about the how to get Win8 install media in your situation. 85 actually sounds on par with what I got when I installed _all_ the Lenovo drivers - before I accidentally wiped the partition fixing up an Ubuntu install, whereupon I only installed the essentials on the 2nd go. So, you could possibly uninstall a fair amount of the installed software.

Note that for my sub 45 process count, looking through Drivers and software - ThinkPad X1 Carbon , I have neither of these installed:

Integrated Camera Driver for Windows 8 - I found my camera worked without it.
Fingerprint Software for Windows 8 (64-bit), 7 (64-bit) - I touch type and can enter my password a few times by the time it normally takes me to get a correct swipe.
Hotkey Features Integration for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit) - didn't give me anything I needed
Lenovo Settings Dependency Package for Windows 8 - ditto
Lenovo QuickLaunch for Windows 8 - this is definitely bloat.
Lenovo Solution Center for Windows 8 - ditto - plus extra yuck points for 3d interface (what the..). If I need to check my warranty expiration I'll do so elsewhere.
Password Manager 4.1 for Windows 8
ThinkPad Setup Settings Capture/Playback Utility
Intel [AMT] Management Engine Firmware 8.1 - I don't need it
iSCT ACPI Virtual Device - don't need it.
ThinkVantage System Update 5.01 for Windows 8 - I can do it myself.

None of the diagnostics.

SCCM package for Windows 8.

At the time I installed the X1C last, "Intel Chipset Support for Windows 8" download link was broken, but it may work now? Not sure what impact of that one would be.

Hope this helps!

 

Then you didn't install from a retail Windows 8 DVD. The recovery partition that comes on the machines HDD/SSD will be Window 8 + the Lenovo customizations. This includes the Lenovo specific drivers, software, and bloatware.

 

Has anyone else with the X1C on Windows 8 been seeing the internet connection randomly dropping? It's happened to me once a day and it's my 3rd day here.

Very frustrating.

 

I think it happened to me before I reinstalled. I wonder if it's related to their networking stack. I'll check from home tonight (Aussie time) if I have that installed now or I'm just relying on Win8 retail stock drivers, as I'm not seeing any dropped connections there now

I'm spending most of my time in Ubuntu now however and it's solid there.

 

I ended up going to buy an OEM copy of W8 Pro as Lenovo doesn't seem to want me to be able to clean install. Not to worry, I needed the extra key for my desktop anyway.

Now that I have a clean reinstall with only the drivers/software that I want, I can't seem to figure out (and I don't want to trial and error it) which driver will enable the ThinkVantage button (I think Lenovo are calling it the Black Button now). Can anyone help with this?

ETA: Also, it seems like enable reverse scrolling doesn't work...

 

Are you following the instructions at Windows 8 Upgrade Instructions or just winging it?

 

I felt the Thinkvantage thing was bloat, thus I didn't install on Win8. At least it was utterly useless on Win7.

 

I just winged it. But looking at that link, it only seems to provide generic upgrade instructions.

 

I just received my X1 Carbon today - unfortunately it came with Windows 8 preinstalled. How do I downgrade the Notebook to Windows 7?

Thanks

 

If you have Windows 8 Professional, that would include downgrade rights to Windows 7. If not, you're stuck with Windows 8.

 

Wait why are you buying a new copy of W8 OS? Can't you just wipe your computer > Install W8 on USB stick > Boot up with USB stick > W8 will automatically enter your product key since it's in the bios? Than you can download all your drivers?
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I only have 77GB left and am hoping to wipe my X1 any day now.

 

Got the machine for a couple of months....

Everything fine, besides the darn display.

Yes, you get used to it, yes you forget it, but it's at least 20 times per day that I notice the black spaces/lines of that oooh so wonderful screen and then again force myself looking at dark parts of the screen to stop my eyes from noticing.

I am actually willing to pay quite a substantial amount of money to get a nice new screen for this machine, without the darn screen-door effect.

Question:
Has anyone replaced his screen with another one?
Are other people interested in this?
We could setup a bounty. I would be the first to put xxx USD up for a fix.

 

I ordered mine in October from Amazon and it sat unopened for about a week as I was really on the fence about keeping it after reading the forums comments - the screen issue, soldered RAM and slow, not easily upgradable SSD. I decided to keep it as there was nothing better available (weight and battery life very important to me), I didn't want Win8 so the clock was ticking and I prefer the 14" screens. Now I keep this in my bag and replaced my 10" tablet with a 7". This is my fifth Thinkpad starting with the A31p (great IPS screen!).

The screen isn't too bad for me, at times I notice the tiny blocks but I'd rather have that annoyance then additional weight or less battery. I really like the matte screen over glossy, I don't know why glossy seems to be the norm now. So it isn't perfect, but a compromise.

If Apple could charge $2400-2600 for a notebook, I can't believe there isn't a market for that in the PC world with really top shelf components. Keeping the battery and size weight the same, I would have paid more for a nicer screen; maybe one just isn't available without impacting the "highly mobile" segment where this PC is targeted. If I wasn't locked into Windows software, I would have probably made the switch to Apple but I live in a PC world.

 

Same here...can't wait for 'retina' displays to take over the PC/monitor market.

Can anyone comment on whether the new (late 2012) X1C actually uses an IPS panel?? There website says "Premium HD+" which has designated the panels as IPS on the x220 and x520 in the past...if this a different panel from the original X1C (early 2012)? or is it a better IPS panel???

 

Re screen: the "Premium HD+" has been there from the start, at least in the UK, and is what I got when I ordered mine in September. However, the lower end models come with a "14.0" HD (1366x768)" screen, so they might have scaled down on that end rather than up-scale the expensive models.

 

As mentioned earlier on the forum, I'm planning to buy me an x1. How long does the battery hold when using it normally (no heavy rendering, nor gaming (if that's even possible)). Can it last for five hours without 'greening' (display to 20%, screen dimmed at 15s) the machine?

 

I got just under six hours with the with the screen at half and WiFi on, just doing typical stuff. If you can stomach the screen at 20%, you should do better, but of course, this was when the battery was new. Like all batteries, it will degrade over time.

 

Has anyone take delivery of a new X1 Carbon in the last few weeks? Is the "screen door" effect still present? I really need a new laptop, but I ordered one of these when they first cam out and returned it because the screen was terrible.

So, is the screen still exhibiting the same behavior?

Has anyone got a non-touch X1 with the 180 GB or 240 GB ssd?

 

Mine was delivered to my sister-in-law's in Georgia today. I should have it in my hands in a week or two and can report once I get my hands on it.

 

The screen is the same it has been since day one. It's no "behavior" that any patch or otherwise would fix..

To answer your question, yes the screen has somewhat of a screen door effect but you will get used to it.
I love this laptop's resolution and I honestly would take the resolution in this form factor over a bright screen with a lower resolution and weaker battery life.

Owned this laptop for about a month and love it. Only gripes include the trackpad (two-finger clicking is pretty inconsistent and it attracts weird sand-like particles) and the fact that the Wi-Fi connnection gets dropped randomly (not sure if a Win8 issue).

I just hope in 2-3 years the battery life is still as solid as it is now... :/

 

I had the X1C for a month and I never saw any screen door effect at all, though it may be some can see it where other cannot.

 

It is there but not all will be bothered by it. I have to really look for it to see it and even then some times I don't. It doesn't bother me on my X1CT, I just see a TN panel which of course it is. I'm not surprised that you didn't notice it.

 

I think it's a wonderful laptop. The lightweight body is great, the keyboard is amazing, I love the trackpoint and the finger-print always-on is awesome. All in all, I think Lenovo has found the perfect setup in terms of screen size, weight. However, I'm finding that it does have some issues. First, my audio button is broken somewhat; one half of it works perfectly fine, but I have to press really hard on the 'volume up' button. Second, the mini-displayport seems to be broken. It does connect to an external screen, but it is very unstable; it keeps going on and off without me touching it. The problem seems to be the thin metal frame inside the port is cracked.Third, when I have headphones plugged in, the sound seems to be imbalanced. And fourth, I think the soundcard is getting increasingly worse. The sound is starting to crack up to the point of being almost constant now. This might be what's causing the imbalance from the audio jack.

So yeah, all in all I've got mixed feelings. I love this machine, but some parts of it just seem like it was poorly constructed in the factory.

Also, a quick question. I've got this mini-displayport-to-HDMI adapter ( Sandberg 508-29 Adaptor Mini Display Port to HDMI: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories), but how do I run sound through it? I'm running windows 8.