My experience with build quality of x220

I've been using my x220 for half a year now.
During it's lifetime it had the following problems.

1. Palmrest flex and creaking above the expresscard slot. This is pretty bad, plastic is very thin and could easily break under pressure. I put a dummy expresscard and a few pieces of paper to make it stronger. Now it's rock solid.

2. Palmrest creaking on left and right side. The problem is solved by putting pieces of paper below it or between two pieces of plastic that are put together (palmrest and the base).

3. Keyboard flex and annoying noises. Fixed in the similar way.

4. Left mouse button creaking. Reseating the keyboard fixed it.

5. Volume buttons and power button flexing and creaking. Put a piece of paper below the plastic that covers them and superglued it so that it doesn't move (this causes creaking).

6. The lid in X series models (unlike T series) is made of two pieces of plastic. The smaller one (on top) on the left part broke and could be easily twisted (quite scary!). Fixed with some superglue.

7. Battery not sitting tight in place. Put a piece of paper above it.

8. Screen ripples can be caused just by slightly tapping the left part of the screen cover. Fixed by putting a piece of electrical tape below it so it doesn't touch the screen.

9. A small piece of plastic (palmrest) on the edge near the expresscard broke and fell off. Superglued.

10. Top edge of the screen cover not sitting properly and causing creaking. Fixed with some superglue.

Does that sound normal or too bad for a thinkpad? Currently, my x220 despite all these issues still feels much stronger than before, when it was brand new. No matter how hard you push the palmrests, there's no flex and absolutely no noises.

What are your experiences? Did you face any of these problems? Have you tried fixing them? What do you think about my solutions?

 

Other than a bit of the coating rubbing off the bottom of my X220i, I've not had a single issue with my X220i.

 

I've got 5 of them and the only issue I would say is that the touchpad buttons on some are "a little loose" -- still work fine, but there's a little gap between the button you press and the sensor beneath.

 

This bothers me enough to make this post. Haven't found a good EC blank.

Haven't had any of the other issues, though.

 

You might "kill two birds with one stone by purchasing one of these USB3 ExpressCards for around $16 from Amazon. It gives your X220 full USB3 speeds and it nicely fills the entire "void" in the EC slot. There are many other models of this but the AKE has the distinction of being both the most reliable and least costly. Stay away from 2 port hubs, though, unless you are ok having a second cord to plug in to the wall.

 

My x220 is rock solid. I have a couple of issues with my x120e. And, of course, my t60 is a tank. It has been drop on a ceramic tile floor twice without concern. I was more worried about the floor to be honest.

 

Wow that sounds awesome. I don't think x220 could survive this with no cracked plastic.
How does build quality of x220 compare to t60 and x120e in your opinion?

 

Hmmph. I've had my X200 for 3 years now. Dropped it twice, both were pretty hard falls but it's doing fine.

Idunno, I could go around squeezing my laptop in every place imaginable with lots of force to make anything bend or squeak a little. I don't understand the fuss, but to each their own.

 

I read somewhere that x301 has much better build quality than x220, which is also an explanation for the huge price despite so-so specs.
Could someone who owns it tell what are the real differences? Is the plastic different? What is so different?

Does x220 have cheaper materials than the old ThinkPads? It is very cheap in comparison to x201 and x200.

 

no issues here, even after quite a few drops and banging around.

 

Someone I know stepped on their x220 (it was under a blanket) and it survived. Then, their water bottle broke inside the laptop bag, with the x220's lid also cracking a little. When he took the x220 out of the bag, it was dripping water. Had to reformat the HDD, but otherwise its still fine.

I think the fit and finish of the x220 isn't great and there is a bit of creaking/flexing in a few places. The overall durability is great though.

 

Not unless Lenovo's lying on all of their spec. sheets.

Edit: See below.

 

No. that isn´t right. The X220 has a Magnesium Lid too. You can see that here: http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/X220/index.html

 

to add to ibmthink's post, it seems a lot of people initially thought the X220 had a plastic or composite lid.   it's in fact no different than the X60 or X200 series.

here's a photo for reference: http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series...ay-frame-bends-in-sun-light/m-p/476701#M27061

 

Well damn. Serves me right from going from memory instead of from the PSREF.

Am I right in remembering that the X200 s did not have a magnesium lid? I never actually popped open the lid assembly on mine when I had one...

 

I haven't had any problems with my X220. Though, the I have the issue with the palmrest of the ExpressCard slot, but it doesn't really worry me much. I have to exert a lot of force on the left bezel to get any ripples, though my lid bezel bulges when in direct sunlight for a long time.

I'm pretty sure the battery being loose is intentional.

 

correct.   the WXGA+ X200s/X201s had a CFRP lid where the standard X200/X201 (including 's' models with WXGA panels) had magnesium alloy.

 

I believe I speak for almost everyone here by stating the obvious, that those ThinkPad's can go through a lot of beating! My current work consists of repairing the old IBM/Lenovo machines and restoring them back to the new self by replacing several parts, and the problem I've encountered the most is the palmrest flex/creak above the express card (it happens a lot) and the top of the screen becoming "loose" or sits bad because of the bad condition its in. Nothing out of the ordinary, these machines are meant to experience the hardcore manners and surviving like a boss!

I haven't worked with the x301 nor the T60.

EDIT: Everything beyond that is just bad assembly, you can't give bad credit to the manufacturer if you ordered something custom made by someone else and they've done a poor job, I can tell you that as a fact!

 

The motherboard on my X220 died after 3 weeks of use. Lenovo UK have no spare X220 motherboards in the country -> many X220 motherboards in the UK must have failed in the last month or so! I'm still waiting for repair two weeks later, so in my case this laptop has been a disaster. I would not recommend buying it if you actually have to work on it day in and out.

 

It seems there's been a bad batch of motherboards.

X220 - no post and green light around power button... - Lenovo Community

If I don't get the replacement and decide to keep the X220 I'll be extending the warranty. Aside from the ghosting that's been there since day 1 (and supposed to be fixed in a revised part that I never bothered send it in for) this screen has also developed a few bright spots on the right in the last few months.

No complaints about the build quality so far.

 

I've used 3 x220s and they've all developed bright spots over time. Is this something that has been fixed with newer panels? If not, then extending the warranty past the first year is kind of necessary because the spots seem to keep increasing and growing in intensity.

 

Which date did you order?

 

i got a bright spot on my X220.

 

I think I had two faint bright spots, one on the lower-left and the other on the left-middle of my X220t, but the lower-left spot is gone now. Nowadays I notice a faint upper-left bright spot. Very strange, but I think I notice the spots less and less these days. Either I'm going blind less gradually than normal aging would cause or these backlight bleeds have oddly dynamic behavior.

 

I'm worried I'm gonna get bright spots on mine!

 

I purchases Lenovo x220 beginning of February 2012. Battery a little loose, some screen bleeding on bottom of the screen most lcd have some degree of bleeding can't OCD over it and 2 dead pixels. Changed the background image hard to detect now. Once I find a third dead pixel will be going to depot for new display. Beside minor issues overall very satisfied with purchase.

 

I've had my x220 for about 5 months now and have not had any problems. I do agree that there's a bit of flex with the volume/power buttons area, but I didn't really notice much flexing elsewhere. But to be perfectly honest, I can't really rest my palms on the area below the keyboard because it's too small; my palms would rest on the desk.

My only complaint is not necessarily a quality but design one; the clickpad STINKS. That said, I'm loving the little red nub.