ThinkPad X1 Carbon (3rd Gen.) Broadwell

You'll only get the SM951 if you order the X1 Carbon with a PCIe SSD.

 

I know! Unfortunately given the choices at the time of configuration it was 256gb and if there was a option for PCIe I would have selected that. It just wasn't clear from the selection that it wasn't a PCIe drive.

 

What is your configuration (cpu, ram and screen)?

What is your first opinion about the x1?

Thanks

 

Hi all, I am still lurking. The X1 is interesting even with no SD card reader. But, battery life reports are awful. A 50 Wh battery should get more than 5 hrs. Has anyone done a rigorous battery life test? Set screen brightness to a low but bright setting, used a balanced power plan, etc. Also, has anyone checked power consumption for various tasks. Say with a web browser open and reading a web page, and maybe downloading a file or doing a windows upgrade?

Five hours battery life with a 50 Wh battery would mean the average power consumption is 10 watts! My Asus UX303LA gets about 7.5 hours with a 50 Wh battery, which is about 6.7 watts average. I can't imagine what Lenovo is doing with the X1 that would result in 10 watts power consumption, especially with a Broadwell processor.

Best regards, Jim

 

I configured:

i7 5600u w 8gb
QHD Multitouch
256 gb opal 2.0 ssd

My thoughts: Having come from the x1 gen 2, Really impressed with the new keyboard layout, more like a relief that that they fixed the odd layout. It didn't bother me as much but again it's hard to change what people are used to (see windows metro)

Love the trackpad. I like the idea of the previous gen trackpad but it is much much better with a physical key. I had so many button pressed that did not register on the older gen 2 model, problem is solved on this one.

Screen is about the same as before (still wish it was a tiny bit brighter) but you won't notice much in real world. Still having trouble getting the perfect text size ( i fall just in between the Larger/2nd largest options)

Still have mixed feelings about the battery life, assuming it would be better though I already knew that real world was a lot closer to 6 hrs, i can't figure out what the exact power settings are optimal. It fluctuates quite a bit between 3 hrs - 7hrs depending on what i'm doing so i never have a accurate read on how much I can use. I will probably start using a batter monitor to see usage.

 

Update on Text DPI scaling... I found a registry hack that allowed me to get the perfect scaling in between 200% and 150%.

DPI - Change for Modern UI in Windows 8

My LogPixels setting is 165, in between the two dpi settings. Display is perfect now!

 

I got the 30 day delayed notice email last night as well. At this point I won't worry about it anymore and just move on. At some point it will ship....

I've been buying Thinkpads for quite some time and this is nothing out of the ordinary for them.

 

Times like this that I really wish they'd gone with a 3200x1800 panel, so you could just do 200% scaling and get 1600x900 usable out of it. For me, at least, 1600x900 is the ideal resolution for a 14" laptop.

 

Got mine on Monday.

Got the WQHD non-touch display.
Great, no screen door effect.
Compared to the brightness of the X1C Gen1 that I have sitting next to it, the brightest level on the Gen3 is like 80% of the Gen1.
Screen is a bit yellowish, compared to the blueish Gen1.
But so far I can live with it.

Today is Wednesday, the cursor right button starts to stick inside and is tilted.
Fumbled with it a bit and will probably take it apart to try and repair the keyboard myself as I need the machine and will be leaving for work soon.

The 512 PCIe SSD is crazy fast:

hdparm -t /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 242 MB in 0.22 seconds = 1099.02 MB/sec

Build quality is ok, not as good as Gen1.

I couldn't get the latest Kubuntu to run stable without the fonts screwing up when using dpi scaling, so I reduced the resolution a bit.
Getting the trackpoint buttons to work was also a bit of a mess, requires:

/etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf
(with this inside)
options psmouse proto=imps

The always on Green fn key light, in order to have functioning F-keys is a bit annoying.
No HD activity light too.
Fan is super quiet, when required(which is seldomly the case).

One thing about the display that is quite annoying, is that you cannot turn it down as much as the one of the Gen1, which means that working in a semi dark room can be really annoying.

Overall I am happy because I wanted to get rid of that darn screen door effect.

If I were somebody NOT in a hurry, I would wait at least 2 months, as I normally always do, to let them work out the early production faults, like the keyboard (hopefully I will experience no more).

 

Same problem with the brightness on mine. I couldn't take it..

 

Finally got my credit card and placed my order,

I7 5600
IPS non touch
512gb
With JANTHINK20 discount code came to £1796

They do seem to offer a 256 pcie hard drive on the UK store but since I would hope to use this for the next 4 years extra storage space is useful.
No specific information on delivery the confirmation email said 1 - 2 weeks for custom build.

 

Well, after seeing the estimated ship date pushed back, then getting the 30 day delay email, I was settled in for a wait. Imagine my surprise when I wake up this morning to a "shipped" email, and on the original estimated date no less.

 

How did you get this discount code to work? I've just tried it on the UK website and it says it isn't valid.

 

Sorry meant JANTHINK12

 

Took the plunge and ordered i7-5600, QHD touch, 512Gb SSD. I was going to buy a 2015 Dell XPS 13 as they are 15% off in Australia, making them around $800-900 cheaper than the X1 Carbon with the same CPU and same size SSD. However, I called Lenovo and was pleasantly surprised that they were able to offer a small discount.

I deliberately avoided the Gen 2 X1 Carbon, as the lack of physical keys for the trackpoint, and unusual keyboard layout was a killer. The main reason I'm sticking with Lenovo is the trackpoint; otherwise would have ordered the Dell. I've used T series Thinkpads for over a decade now, and it's too hard to change habits.

 

All this talk of disappointing screens in the 3rd gen has me considering ordering a 2nd gen instead, especially with the sale they have now... Would be about $600 cheaper than a 3rd gen all else equal except broadwell vs haswell.

 

The day after I submitted the cancellation, it shipped. So I cancelled the cancellation order. It's due to arrive on Feb 4.

 

The Gen 2 and Gen 3 appear to be using the exact same panel--and I wouldn't say that's a lot of talk over the screen not being bright enough? (one user sent his back because it wasn't bright enough). I'm sure there are a lot of X1's already out there (as there are Gen 2's) and I don't see a groundswell of complaints.

One the Gen 2 I was using with the WQHD, the screen did have to be at full brightness or one click down, unless it was a very dark room--but at full brightness it was fine, as bright as my X230 IPS screen--or a touch brighter.

 

This is good to know. I've enjoyed the Gobi WAN capability on my Toughbook CF-31, but it is a beast in the civilian business world and draws too many looks.

 

Hi everyone,

I'm on the fence between the i5 and the i7 with 8gb of ram because of battery, what do you guys think the impact on the battery will be with the i7 vs the i5?

The screen is the regular one 1080.

Thanks

 

Probably proportionally similar to what happens when you get an i7 versus an i5 in the 13" MacBook Air. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/4 has a good number of comparisons. Or, in other words, minimal impact under low load, noticeable impact under high load.

Keep in mind, you can always set your 'Max CPU speed' to operate at a different max speed on battery versus via AC. So if you want to keep the performance headroom while plugged in, but not sacrifice as much battery life, that is possible. "Max processor state" of 98% seems to keep the i7 from exceeding 2.5GHz.

 

Thanks! So if I set it I will get the same battery performance as the i5? Or will I still be sacrificing battery life?

 

Don't take my words as an exact science, but a lower clock speed should result in lower power usage. If you are just looking to extend your run time, capping your max processor speed on battery will achieve that.

You could argue, of course, that by forcing the CPU to remain out of an idle state and making it essentially take longer to complete tasks could counter some of the power savings. But in reality that does not seem to be the case.

 

I ordered on Jan. 21. My credit card was charged yesterday, which usually indicates that he item has shipped. Instead of getting a shipping notification, I got a 30 day delay email. Pretty frustrating that they now have my money but don't plan to send me my device for another 30 days.

 

Charged, or just temporarily authorized? Could be good or bad news either way.

Really wondering what they would have ran out of to make these things that caused a delay. It's not like there have been any major sites posting reviews of them yet, and I doubt a few forums posters could have influenced so many people to run out and order them in a massive quantity.

 

They definitely charged my card, ended up getting the shipping notification moments ago. Seems their system just doesn't have everything in sync as far as notifications go. The 30 day delay email was probably auto-generated when the original ship date was not met. They probably charged my card when it was set to ship but it then took awhile for the actual shipping notification to get sent.

I will continue to *try* to wait patiently.

 

Same thing happened to me. I got an email saying it was delayed 30 days. I called them and told them to cancel it, and then next day I got a shipping notification. It's on the way now. Last showed in Alaska.

 

Apologies for this being a bit off topic but does anyone have any thoughts, insights or perspectives on the upcoming Lenovo LaVie Z HZ550 1.72 lbs and HZ750 2.04 lbs thin and lightweight notebooks that are supposed to be coming out in May? Any ideas on the IGZO display panel? I'm not familiar with it.

 

Can someone help me with the HDD Options? Are there two or just one m.2 slots? Or is there an m.2 and a PCIe? The killer for me on this laptop is the limited 8gb of ram - but I could overlook it if I could really expand the HDD capacity. Trying to make this my full time laptop and workstation. Otherwise the HP zBook 14 G2 may have to be the solution.

 

In fact, there are three M.2 slots:

• one with a length of 80mm, attached both via SATA and PCIe for the SSD
• one with a length of 30mm for the WLAN card
• one with a lenght of 42mm for the WWAN Card

Unfortunately, I fear that you can't use the WWAN M.2 slot for SATA SSDs because I don't think that they changed that compared to the previous generation: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/X1C2-M-2-SSD-upgrade/m-p/1491096#M56575

There are no 42mm PCIe M.2 SSDs available yet, so you can propably use only one SSD.

 

Can you take a picture of the slots? 700$ is a steep price for the PCIe SSD so I am thinking of getting a SATA disk for the moment and upgrade to PCIe later on if it is possible.

 

Not quite true. The M.2 port for the WLAN card has a length of 32 mm, which means it comes in the smallest M.2 formfactor, 2232.

 

Thank you for the correction.
However, I think you mean M.2 2230 with a length of 30mm. http://ark.intel.com/de/products/83635?_ga=1.25053561.2144411623.1422945116

 

In Amazon it's only 500$, and I'm sure you can find it even cheaper.
Very easy to change it.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-XP941...8&qid=1422952356&sr=8-3&keywords=m.2+ssd+pcie

 

Lenovo uses the faster Samsung SM951.

 

I think the slot is only PCI 2.0 and not 3.0.
Therefore, the difference between SM951 and XP941 are not that big.

SM951:
The company claims the drive will also be compatible with the older PCIe 2.0 standard, and will achieve only slightly slower results with 1,600MB/s read, and 1,350MB/s write.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...ve-blows-doors-off-competitors/#ixzz3QfgWkLKE
Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook

XP941:
Samsung didn't reveal many details about the XP941 and all we knew was that it was capable of speeds up to 1,400MB/

 

Friends,

The laptop is going back, thankfully Lenovo service is quite good. I noticed two problems (though honestly i love this laptop so i will reorder another one):

1) the screen and top panel is not flush together. there are 2 large noticeable gaps that stick out like a sore thumb! I have pics.
2) When holding laptop upright....walking around the office the lid does not sit flush and stay together, rather it opens because the hinge is slightly not level. The reason I know this is because i had 2 gen 2 x1 carbons and neither had this issue.

I really like this laptop and will reorder but I am dissapointed that it came with such annoying build issues, Isn't this supposed to be a flagship model?

 

It would be great if someone who owns a broadwell x1c, a onelink pro dock and a 4k display could test if the displayport of the onelink dock is capable of driving the 4k display @60hz.

see https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Option...k-put-out-4k-60hz/m-p/1856645/highlight/false

 

My X1C is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, it is still a long way from my town, but it says tomorrow, so I will hold out hope.

I am still trying to stay patient.

 

Mine was delivered yesterday.

Some thoughts/comments/observations.

I'm not a huge fan of the thin chiseled look, give me the boxy T series with regular ports any day, but it's fine. Nice and light. I tried my WWAN card from my T540P and it was a no go, 1801 error or whatever. Can't believe that card won't work, and it's not easy getting those little antenna's connected! Then I tried the M.2 SSD from the second port on my Thinkpad Yoga in the WWAN slot, it didn't recognize it. I thought since it was new I might as well try Windows 10. It loaded up fine but wasn't impressed and didn't want to hassle with it, so did a reset.

I must say after having a Thinkpad Yoga and Thinkpad 10 and Surface Pro 3 with no dedicated LAN Port, having the little Lan Adapter for the Carbon is pretty nice. I have to copy over all of my data and it sure goes faster over LAN.

I then ended up just cloning my T540P drive onto the X1C so I didn't have to reinstall everything.

It seemed to come with native resolution and 200% text scaling which was a little large, so after several adjustments I wound up at 1600x900 with no scaling.

It seems really fast, everything really pops up / flys on apps and windows. I have the i7/256gb and Touch, but rethinking the config. I love the touch on the Yoga but that's because I can flip the screen back and use like a tablet, not sure "reaching" over the keyboard all the time is very productive, plus I notice marks on the screen now.

The main reason I purchased this was the new keyboard layout with dedicated Trackpoint buttons. That along with an IPS display is nirvana for me, and after having to suffer through the W530 (great keyboard but awful screen) and the T540P (great screen but awful keyboard) I feel like it's been years since I had a real Thinkpad. Well, the X1C finally fills that spot. It's expensive when configured out, but will be worth it IMO. As long as you can live with the drawback of limited ports, no SD, no VGA, etc. it's really a great machine.

No build issues that I can detect. Heat minimal, fan kicks in sometimes on heavy tasks, nothing out of the ordinary.

Oh, and the keyboard is incredible.

 

I got mine today. I repartitioned and did a clean install of win 8.1 and then linux on the second half.

So far I am very happy with the fit and finish, the keyboard, screen and everything else.

I especially like how light it is, and easy to carry around.

I am so glad they brought the trackpoint buttons back.

The trackpad is the best I have used on a non-Apple. Normally I would disable it on a Thinkpad, but it is really nice on this machine. I will definitely be using it.

I'll get to configuring the linux partition more in the coming days, but so far everything seems to be working perfectly.

The thing is very snappy with the i7, 8GB ram, and the 512GB SSD.

I've already got a minidisplay to vga adapter in my backpack, so I won't miss having a vga plug.

I am perfectly happy with the balance of features and performance, with the compact package. This is the laptop I have been waiting for.

I really hope it turns out that the WWAN slot turns out to support some models of SSD in the future. It would be nice to have the extra disk space, but at least I've got enough space for now.

 

To those of you who are lucky to have one of the first X1 2015: could you please report on battery life? Thanks! I am deciding between T450s and X1 Carbon and if battery life is sufficient for my usage pattern, I will probably go for the X1 Carbon in full spec.

 

Got my replacement x1 already and it "seems" to be much much better build quality than the first one.

geas, I get about 7-8 hrs with normal surfing/using office/dropbox 80% brightness settings. On battery it is set to not exceed 50% CPU.

My config is the i7 56oou/touch/256gb/8gb ram

 

That sounds promising, out of interest how long has it taken people from order to shipping.

 

In case anyone is wondering I received a LG Panel this time

http://www.panelook.com/LP140QH1-SPA2_LG Display_14.0_LCM_overview_21977.html

Looks like its the same screen used in the gen 2 model.

 

I get 5-6h on Linux, with 100% brightness and no CPU restrictions, doing normal web/email/text file work

(edit: an on 20% brightness I get 8h)

Should be better on Windows, given that there are specific drivers switching off unused components etc...

And that's the i7 with 512GB SSD and bluetoth and trackpad turned off.

 

I also noticed that the battery life improved with a week or so of usage. Possibly from cycling the battery.

 

Thanks for your reports on battery life. Sounds good to me! Anything >6-7 hours is fine for my usage scenarios.

Sounds promising! How much does 50% CPU reduction affect performance on the i7 5600 in office/browsing usage?

 

It's not noticeable at all. I can even play youtube videos in full screen without any hiccup.

 

I got the non-touch WQHD 2560x1440 panel and everything seems big, from icons to text. I thought the larger resolution would have a lot more room when browsing the internet. I looked around in Windows 8.1 and I found that it's set at 'Extra Large 200%'. Are you guys using Extra Large or Large?