New X201

Hello!

I just received my new X201, and I had several questions about it.

First, after browsing through this forum, and reading about people who found that some of the upgrades to their laptop's hardware weren't present, I was wondering how they checked the specs of their computer in the first place?

Second, while I haven't noticed many of the other flaws that owners of the X201 have been complaining about, I have noticed that my 9 cell battery doesn't fit particularly snuggly; this is a little bit of horizontal give, and there is a noticeably vertical wobble. Is this something I should be concerned about, and would it justify requesting a replacement battery/laptop?

Third, I ordered my X201 with an SSD. How good is the Toshiba THNS-128GG4BAAA-N?

Finally, I've read a lots of conflicting advice on what to do to maximize your new battery's life. The most common piece of advice seems to be that you should cycle your battery three times after fully charging it the first time, but that afterwards its better to keep your laptop plugged in if there is a power source available, regardless of the charge state of your battery. Is this true?

Thanks!

 

OK, before you get all anal about everything, why don't you just enjoy it for a bit. How much detail do you want about your machine? You can right click and hit properties. Device manager will yield more info. You can get loads of information by hitting the ThinkVantage button.

Every ThinkPad I've owned has had some play in the battery. I wouldn't be concerned about. My own personal philosophy on batteries is you're going to have to buy a new one in a few years, why expend much effort trying eke out an extra five minutes a few years down the road? I usually just set it max battery life in Power Manager and forget it.

Don't know much about Toshiba SSDs. There's probably better ones out there, but is it worth the effort to get them? Probably not. If you want more info on them, you could hit hardware forum.

Congrats on the machine. It's a little powerhouse and a fine piece of engineering. Good luck and welcome to NBR. Feel free to hang out and contribute where you can.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Sorry about being anal; generally I want to make sure that there are no major, easily fixable, problems with a new laptop immediately. Otherwise I get too attached to it, and would rather settle than part with it for another X weeks.

My major concern is with the battery wobble. My previous laptop's battery became so loose after only half a year of use that it'd often fall off while in my backpack, requiring me to reboot the computer every time I stored it in bag, and I don't want a repeat of that. Furthermore, I don't want to have to be constantly worried about damage to the battery, especially because it protrudes from the back.

 

Grats on the new laptop!

Well I kind of noticed missing web cam on mine by visual inspection - it just wasn't there. But I bought my laptop of buy.com as a fixed configuration, not directly through Lenovo, and bought the upgrades on my own.

Good thing to know about the wobble. I have a 6-cell one and it doesn't move at all. Can't say anything about SSDs, I'm not really an expert.

 

Fold a small piece of index card or two in half and place them in the battery compartment before putting the battery in; that'll stop the [vertical] wobble.

 

Like I said every ThinkPad I've owned has had some wobble in the battery. It's never been a problem.