ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th Gen) Owners Lounge

Question to all you that have the Gen6:

I read some owners reporting the van as being louder / more annoying than previous generation models.
I am currently running a Gen4.
Could somebody comment on that?
Is it always on?

Thanks a lot!

Bonus question:
Has anyone had major problems getting it to run smoothly with Linux?

 

I've got a very similar question, if anybody with an HDR-equipped X1C can help answer. I've read that the Lenovo Vantage software can be used to allegedly change the colorspace on the HDR display: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/8fy0zw/x1_carbon_6th_generation_hdr_screen_red_bias_and/

Is this true? Can this "ChromaTune" application limit the gamut to sRGB? Any information will be greatly appreciated.

 

I've got mine sitting in my lap right now, running Audacity editing a podcast, and the bottom is warm but I can't hear a fan. I really haven't heard the fan running since I've owned it. So I would say it's pretty quiet.

 

Not loud, but recommend repasting with good quality thermal paste and undervolt.

There is an inferior fan unit, made by NIDEC. Delta fans on the X1C6 is better.

You can open up the bottom unit to see the fan brand.

Never tried, I only have the fhd screen. Maybe if someone here has the hdr display they can comment on it.

 

Refer to my photos of them, comparison from T460s WQHD Matt screen were more natural while the X1 HDR glossy slightly red and rich colours.
Overall for HDR screen still quite acceptable , the colours not that bad or too over red.

T460s WQHD.


X1 C6 HDR.

 

Regardless fan noise is depends on system update or sometimes when switch on laptop, the fan will running for while only.
The noise not as loud as per some comments on here.

Over the weekend I had done some DIY on my X1 C6 with carbon fibre skin over.

 

can you use the trackpoint properly with that keyboard cover?

 

Yes, that was work fine with keyboard protector.

 

I imagine it would be pretty awkward to use the trackpoint under the silicone cover.

 

This is depend how often you were usage on trackpoint , cause I had another protector come with a hole slot for trackpoint as well.
To me I do all the time on mouse or mousepad as well.

 

Makes sense.

With the X1C6 I tend to just carry the bare essentials to campus with me, just the laptop and adaptor.

The trackpoint eliminates any need to have an on the go mouse anymore at least for me.

 

Thanks @jefflackey @Mobius 1

 

I hope I can explain this problem well enough to be understood. I have the taskbar on bottom set to hide - i.e. it doesn't show unless I move my mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen. But every minute or so the task bar will pop up on it's own. If I'm typing something at the bottom of the screen it will cover that up for a second and interfere with my typing. I'm not sure, but I think it may be happening every time the Lenovo battery gauge is updating time remaining (I don't think this happens when plugged in, I need to double check that.)

Has anyone else noticed this:? If so, is there a way to prevent it? Thanks.

 

Hi @jefflackey, sure, install Linux .
Now on a more serious tone, I do hide the taskbar and I'm not experiencing the same problem. Are you running the "stock" Windows 10 Pro that comes with the machine or did you install from a fresh image?

 

Running Windows as it came. And it appears to be related to the Lenovo battery gauge, as I have removed it and so far the problem is not occurring this morning. However, I really like that big green bar showing me battery remaining (I know I can just hover over the regular battery gauge, but this one is nice and visible. )

 

http://batterybarpro.com/

this is better and you don't need the lenovo vantage

 

Very nice - downloaded and upgraded to Pro (for $8, easy.) Thanks!

 

you don't even have to pay for it, the basic functionality is there even without customizing anything

 

My past notebooks have had a couple of 3.5mm stereo jacks, one for input (microphone) one for output (headphones, speaker, etc.)

Is the one X1C jack output only?

 

combined

you can get adapters that fit this

for me, I'm using a sennheiser pc363d and the adapter is sold separately

 

What kind of adapters?

 

this one in particular is for sennheiser brand headphones, well made

https://en-us.sennheiser.com/pcv-05

not sure if they would work with others, but worth a shot

 

Nice sale going on in Canada: https://www.redflagdeals.com/deal/c...-off-select-lenovo-computers-and-accessories/. You can even find a heavily discounted entry level X1C 6th Gen in the list.

BTW, I finally have my X1C in hands. Photos and first second impressions to follow (when I get back to the UK).

 

Congratulations

 

Hello X1 Owners ;-)

I am currently looking to buy an X1 Carbon and would like to ask for a favour from one of you.

Could please somebody set the maximum processor state to 99% and use the laptop for a few hours or so to tell me how much the fan kicks in and how audible it is?

an image where the processor state can be adjusted in win 10 is here: https://goo.gl/images/hBv3fu

setting the cpu state to a maximum of 99% will prevent the cpu from going into turbo mode, will save battery time and the laptop should run a lot cooler.

background is that i am looking for a new trading laptop which should be as quiet as possible while running during the day.

It would be a great help if one of you could help me! thank you!

it would be great if a person could help me with this and also could provide information on what configuration the test has been done.

All the best,
Mike

 

without turbo on battery the fan noise is zero

once you cross 50c the fan will kick in for a brief period

 

thank you very much for the information!

All the best,
Mike

 

Make sure you get one with a "quiet fan", since my previous X1C6 has a noisy fan which generates a high pitch noise. The replacement I am using now works great

 

Hi guys, as promised here's some pics and a list of impressions of my first few days with the X1C:

Spoiler: Photos

Nothing really new to add:

PROS

• Keyboard
• Keyboard
• Have I mentioned the keyboard?
• The 1440p 500 nits display is fantastic. I'm only upscaling to 125% and it is very comfortable (133% would be a good fit if you are used to 1080p displays, some people will probably prefer 150%)
• Very quiet (haven't heard the fans yet)
• So light and small that it feels somewhat like a toy, but the build quality is great
• PM981, it beats my SM961 on Crystal Disk Mark

CONS

• I've typed Fn + C, Fn + V at least 3 times while writing this post
• No HDR support (and I don't mean no Dolby Vision support, I mean no HDR support at all) yet
• Like the Yoga this is a 2-in-1 device. The display can be used as a mirror.
• Out-of-the-box battery time isn't great (~6.5 hours on Windows 10 / "regular" workloads). I absolutely refuse to spend any time tweaking Windows 10, will report back once I install Linux
• The fact that I can't go back in time and convince myself to buy a X1C one year ago .

 

Wow i7 Vpro so high specs.
Great machines

 

Thanks . The i7-8650u is a decent processor as well. I was surprised to learn that it is faster than the i7-7700hq in single core workloads, as well as math heavy workloads (numbercrushing with integers and floating point variables), it is only around 10% slower than the i7-7700hq in heavy multicore loads. Intel managed to create a 15w CPU about as good as their previous Gen most popular 45w CPU.

 

If you have chance to install Autodesk AutoCAD 2018 version would you realize that fans on in real-time, again the air outlet on your right handed , the heat is blowing direct to you.

Actually this laptop was great , but still cannot do as minimum in usage for temporary workstation.

 

Temps are pretty high indeed. The reason why the warm airflow didn't bother me is that I'm not using a mouse . I wouldn't recommend it as a workstation replacement, of course, but it works pretty well for numbercrushing if you are a software developer.

 

Haha that's right , pretty good for software development.

 

On the feedback on the battery life: While my battery gauge seems to be pretty inaccurate, I've been taking my X1C to work for all day meetings, 7:30 to 5:30, and at the end of the day I have a lot of battery left. Now, I'm not watching movies or playing games, just doing web browsing and using Excel and Word and PowerPoint, work kind of stuff.

And I cannot hear my fan. Even when it is on. FWIW.

 

you can use tpfancontrol to crank the speed to max (setting 64)


the thing about battery gauge, it measures the power consumption when the laptop is on smart sleep which makes the time remaining estimation inaccurate

 

What tweaks have people made in Throttlestop to help with high temperatures and fan noise?

I've undervolted the CPU and iGPU by 100 and 50 respectively, in addition, though I have no experience and limited understanding of package power limits, I'm experimenting with 15 long and 20 short vs. the stock of 25 and 44.

I've also now disabled turbo as the hot air from the vent makes using my mouse uncomfortable when doing anything beyond word processing and internet browsing.

 

Mind to share where can I turn off turbo mode?

Thank you very much

 

I'm running a DAW, basically digital recording software, on my X1C. The signal that I need to feed into the laptop is line level, NOT a mic input.

On a previous computer I had 3 inputs, a mic in, a headphones, and a line in. On this I only have one input. I understand it will figure out if a mic or headphone is plugged in, but will it recognize and accept a line signal or just assume it's a mic?

 

mind downloading the aforementioned software and using common sense?

 

Any software or link can recommended?
I'm really have no idea on windows platform, cause due to switch over from MacOX just less than 6 months only.

 

I was half tempted to wait it out and see if someone would just reply with google.com, lol.

Throttlestop. A number of us have used this program since the earlier days of Intel ULV CPUs with Turbo Boost. The goals have (seemingly) slightly changed since the headier days of youth, but the functionality is still largely present and accounted for.
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

There are probably other ways and hacks to disable turboboost, however. I know on most higher end Dells, the option is there in the BIOS.

 

Thanks for your kindly

Actually can search from Google but, too many virus, if it's accidentally download from unknown website.

 

If it helps, the developer of the program (mostly) started out here on this forum.

This is one of the developer's threads (the current, primary thread) on Throttlestop.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/

 

I'm back in the ThinkPad camp. Previously sold my X1C 4th Gen and got a 2017 Razer Blade which has run almost perfectly...aside from a Windows update killing my system forcing me to wipe and re-install. But I feel the Blade is a ticking time bomb and rely on it for daily work use, and haven't gamed on it in many, many months. I hate Razer as a company, which I won't go into. I love the 6th Gen X1C and pulled the trigger yesterday.

I feel I got a good price through my Barnes and Noble account. Chose the i7 8650/16/512/FHD non touch/W10 Pro + 3 yr onsite for $1700 shipped incl. tax. Almost went with Costco's deal which has the i7 8550 but really want the Lenovo onsite warranty and W10 Pro.

I only "needed" i5 8350/16/256/FHD/W10 Pro + 3 yr onsite, which is $290 cheaper. I rarely keep a laptop for more than 2 years, but want to try with this X1C. I like the higher read speed of the 512gb vs 256gb SSD (I wasn't sure that the 256gb is the same PM981 SSD as the 512 and 1tb) and plenty of storage space. If I plan to keep the laptop for at least a couple years I figured to select the best CPU available at time of purchase. I've wasted $290 on worse things in the past, haha.

Now I will hope and pray that I get a quality screen without dead pixels or other issues. I haven't had good luck with AUO screens.

 

Welcome back to the best team mate. No customer support BS (I'm looking at you Razer), no need to rely on third-party mods or having to put up with egotistic people just to get something patched. The X1C is a plain simple business machine that works. I hope you enjoy it.

 

But you can get warranty upgraded on the costco X1C6.

With the SSD, you can claim defective bsod overheating of the crap ssd (if you got one) and request to a higher tier supervisor an exact FRU of samsung SSD.

As for the screen, the AUO http://www.panelook.com/B140HAN01.3_AUO_14.0_LCM_overview_23640.html that I have on my X1C6 is pretty good, but it really depends on the panel lottery.


As always, claiming defective and unoptimal operation to a manager is key to getting warranty to sending you new (presumably better) parts!

 

I didn't know I could add the Lenovo onsite warranty to the Costco X1C, thanks. But even so, ordering from Lenovo direct through my BN account is cheaper than Costco or when ordering on the regular site w/ the coupon codes that are floating around.

I would feel guilty claiming defective parts to get another one, haha. I'd have to believe they are using the PM981 for the 256gb versions, I know that model exists.

I canceled the order I placed, had second thoughts about whether I need the 512gb ssd, 3 yr warranty, and the i7. I can save a few hundred bucks going with the i7/256 and 1 yr onsite warranty. And then extend the warranty later on if I want to / plan on keeping it for 2+ years.

 

Keep feeling guilty and lenovo would be able to expand their shaft's girth to penetrate you



In this industry it's play dirty or get shafted dry

 

My behinds are still hurting for playing nice the last time. I once was a good boy... Not to Lenovo (I've returned my UK model after one week) but to a small player. Huge mistake, and I will never do it again. My new motto is "Don't try to fix it; RMA this ****!". Also, "when in doubt, keep proof and don't hesitate to expose the f$#@ck#r"
With the Canadian X1C I was lucky enough to get a PM981, the "silent" fans and pretty much everything else I wanted. Otherwise I second @Mobius 1 advice.