ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

Had to trawl through a fair few pages to find the owners thread!

I love my x220, but sadly it appears to have got the "loud fan noise" problem. I'll stick with it I guess and wear headphones, but its a bit dissapointing

 

You may want to check out the latest BIOS
version 1.19 as i remember. it will deal with the fan issue

 

Does any one here just keep the X220 docked and connected to an external monitor? I'm still debating if I should get a T420 or an X220. I like the size of the T420, but the screen kind of kills it for me. On the other hand, I like the IPS screen on the X220 but from pics and videos, it looks a bit small to me (although my wife's Macbook Air looks fine to me).

Either computer will mostly be on a desk. I plan on getting an X220, a dock and an external monitor if I would go the X220 route. It might be more expensive than a T420 (because of the dock and monitor), but if I have to travel, I will still have a great screen to look at. I'm just not sure if getting an X220 and it spending 80% of its time in a dock worth it.

 

I have mine on a dock a lot. I have it hooked up to dual monitors which is really nice for photoshop work. The only downside it the audio-out doesn't work properly (which isn't a huge deal to me). I think it is a known problem that never got a fix. It is also nice to have the portability of it along with the screen to do basic photoshop work away from my desk.

 

Anyone have a good list of tweaks to save battery on a 9 cell? I only get 5 hours with light usage~ which sucks!

 

The biggest battery drainer on any laptop is the screen. The lower the brightness, the better the battery life.

 

It's not that bad...I have the lenovo driver + brightness 9, any lower and it's not that much better battery, maybe 20~ minutes.

 

You need to find the app that is keeping your cpu usage high. Sandy bridge does excellent at idle, but as soon as you start pushing your cpu usage, the power usage goes up pretty quickly.

As long as you stay below 10 brightness with the lenovo drivers, you'll be ok. Sounds to be like you have runaway process in the background.

 

Mine is in a dock 90% of the time. My Vaio Z before it did the same. In my experience it's not worth having a laptop unless it's as light as possible, otherwise I'll avoid taking it anywhere with me. Before the Z I had something super-powerful but heavy and it never made it out of the office.

Getting a small machine that works well though is not easy, and options are limited, but for me the x220 is working out very well.

And that it let me move up to a 2560x1440 monitor was a big bonus. Mine is with an Ultrabase 3 with DVDRW drive.

The screen is a bit smaller than my Z but the IPS is really nice and for the amount of time I use the laptop screen it's fine.

Hope this helps.

S

 

I would add that the screen is very good and I think actually big enough for most things - I am a student and spend alot of time working on it and have had no trouble with the screen at all. I would definitely recommend this laptop

 

When at my desk, I keep my x220 connected to an external monitor. I do some work outside of the office and spend quite a bit of time traveling as well. I would definately prefer a larger screen, but anything larger would be too much of a hassle while traveling.

 

Looks like I have all three wires. Lucky me.
Now what is the best 3x3 WLAN card. intel 6300 or bigfoot 1103?

 

Congrats. No camera must = 3x3 pre-wired.

Using anything other than a Lenovo card will require using a modified BIOS. The 1103 is only worth the trouble if you play multi-player games wirelessly.

 

I'm about to buy the x220, i5 and 4mb ram, over the dell v131 with same specs. are there any add on's that people recommend?

I hear I should get the HD premium screen, is it worth it over the i5 turbo boost chip? Any other things I need to know or buy with the x220?

 

^ Depends if you need the speed boost or not. If you're not sure, probably not an issue, and you'd be better off with the upgraded display. It's also recommended that if you're getting the default integrated wireless, choose the Intel N-1000 over the thinkpad b/g/n. And if you don't need Windows 7 Professional, get Home Premium instead to save cash. (These are actually what I have on my laptop)

Also go through to something like http://www.marketplace.mastercard.com to get employee pricing (meaning even larger discount, and no, you don't actually need a mastercard). Just make an account, search for "lenovo", and follow the links to the official site.

 

Next bios update will eliminate the pulsing issue: See Lenovo forum.

 

BIOS 1.21 has been posted:

Re: X220 - fan constantly on / revving up and down - Page 82 - Lenovo Community

 

If it were me, I would be getting a dock+monitor either way if it will spend a lot of time on the desk. 14" wide still isnt near big enough for constant desktop use. Even 17" laptops are on the small side to be used like that, but it could get by like that in a pinch. Also think about all the stuff you might end up having connected while at home sitting on the desk....like crawling under the desk and unplugging the power chord to pack away....external hard drive...speakers...etc. Granted it wont take long to unplug or set that stuff back up each time, but you also have a small mess of cords and stuff laying around in the mean time. With a dock, its no hassle, everything stays neat and clean, simply pop off the dock to take the laptop on the go, and pop it back on the dock when you get home. I love having that setup as it gives you both worlds between a full desktop and laptop all in 1 machine.

 

Is it TOLUD 3gb or 3.5gb?

 

Can someone tell me the differences between the HD and the premium HD screens? Are they still the IPS screens everyone is raving about?

 

While both have the same resolution (1366x768), the "Premium" HD screens are the IPS panels which has the benefits of increased viewing angles for consistant and better colour reproduction over the standard TN panels which are known to wash out when viewed at a certain angle.

 

Another question, what is the purpose of the antenna that comes with the screen? And is the IPS matte or glossy?

 

both screens are matte. The premium HD/IPS screen is one of the features that really sets the x220 apart, and is a good choice.

there are 2x2 and 3x3 antennas, which connect to the wifi card.

most people choose the 2x2, as the 3rd antenna in the 3x3 takes the place of the camera. The 3x3 will also only give you better reception/bandwith if paired with the upgraded wifi card that uses all 3 antennas (more expensive and for most unnecessary).

 

what's the memory clock? is it 664.7 normal?
idk im just used to seeing memory clocks over 800

 

Have you enabled full rgb range color successfully(0-255 instead of 16-235) ?

 

Gatehouse, this issue only effects YUV to RGB color space conversions. Most desktop monitors function in RGB space only. HDMI and DisplayPort are the only two ports which support YUV color spaces. If someone is using a monitor with DVI or VGA connections, then you'll never have to worry about this issue.

This computer-rgb vs studio-rgb issue is only for professional video production equipment, which expect YUV formats only.

 

Hey Floz. Just bought a new 23" e-IPS monitor but the picture seems a bit grainy using a displayport to dvi cable. Tested it from another PC, dvi to dvi, and its seems sharper. I suppose the obvious culprit is the cable but it's already cost me a fair bit for it and how would I know that another cable would be any better? Any suggestions?

 

I have a 23" e-ips monitor, the NEC EA232wmi. It has both DVI and displayport inputs.

I've used both the DVI and displayport inputs, and they appear to be 100% identical.

Honestly, I need to see pictures of the effect you're seeing. Since you are using the DVI input on the monitor, there can be no RGB -> YUV colorspace issues.

 

Maybe my eyes are playing tricks but I just connected my Dell TN screen via VGA, so that both it and the IPS are on simultaneously- and the IPS looks clearer for the first time!

No idea why..

Edit: Nope, not playing tricks. Previously, I connected the IPS by pressing F7 on the machine but this time turned off the X220 and turned on with both screens connected (no need to press F7). Voila, the IPS is improved.

Anyone know why that might be?

 

You might check the sharpness setting on the IPS screen. I find that many screens come with aggressive sharpening settings. (I actually prefer my screens slightly soft.)

Yeah, windows might have detected the wrong resolution for the screen the first time, or it might have been on clone mode (mirroring your resolution from your laptop lcd), instead of running at your native resolution.

 

Dammit, IPS on a 23" looks amazing and VGA on the other 22", pretty decent too. Impressive that the HD 3000 is able to drive them so well together. The only negative is that the CPU temp has risen a few degrees to 53C (25C ambient) and the fan is fixed on 3k instead of 2k. Hopefully, it won't put too much strain on the machine over the next few years

Wish I could work out how to get both monitors to dim or turn off when idle. Any ideas?

 

My X220 has just recently started giving me BSOD's. I put the computer to sleep, go to bed, then look up when I see the screen come back on minutes later with the blue screen.

 

Can you give us bluescreen stop codes?

You can use this to get them:
Blue screen of death (STOP error) information in dump files.

 

Here they are:

 

You owe me big time, for this

Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) Update Module KB2459268 (WW) - ThinkPad

Enjoy.

 

Your memory clock is 664.7 and because the ram is "DDR" (double data rate), thus it appears as if it is 1333. (which is a number you are more familiar with)

 

After riding through waves and waves of sales, I eventually succumbed to place my X220 order. It's supposed to ship on 9/19, and with the shipping, I probably will have to wait another 2 weeks. They are going to be the longest 2 weeks. Dang!

 

Thank you! I just came back to the computer having done it again after going out somewhere. I do owe you, because I leave this thing always on or in sleep mode in order to record tv shows with Media Center, and one of the shows I watch is starting it's new season tomorrow.

 

small nusance but my x220 dosnt seem to be picking up my combo mic/headphone thing
edit: nvm it works but it's really fuzzy for some reason, it's usually pretty crisp on my desktop...
is there any way to stop it from using the external mic when it's plugged in?

 

How the webcam perform, a descent image quality or is it cheap as often for integrated camera ?

 

The webcam works best in medium to low light. In very bright light, it often produces overexposed images. The resolution is 720p, but with all the noise, its really much less than that. The while balance detection is also pretty weak.

One upside, the sensor works very well in low light.

 

Hi all,

New member! I just received a X220 tablet (i5) from school. I am thinking about retiring my HP Envy 15 Beats edition (i7, USB 3.0) for this small bad boy. Some interesting comparisions:
- Boot time is about the same for both
- Screen color is better on the X220 (little blueish on the Envy--may be a setting)

Learning a lot on this forum. Next steps:
- understand more whats under the hood of my X220
- Get 4G of Ram (bump it to 8)---have to find out where to buy it so it matches
- HD or move to SSD? The ENVY has it, might be interesting in modding it.

Only time will tell!

 

Hi diablonyc2,

I was interested to hear that you recently purchased an X220 tablet. How have you found the stylus accuracy towards the edges of the screen? I too recently purchased an X220t but found that the accuracy of the stylus at the edges was so bad as to be unusable. I've uploaded a youtube video showing how bad it is and comparing it to some other tablets I own:

X220t Stylus Problem: Comparison with TC4200 and T4010 - YouTube

I'm getting my X220t returned for a refund and I'm considering repurchasing it again, as I really like the laptop and I'm hoping that this isn't a common manufacturing defect. But I'd love to hear from another X220t owner about the quality of their digitizer first in order to try and determine whether this is a widespread problem or not.

Amr

 

Anyone try the Windows 8 Developer Preview on their X220 Tablet yet? Touch input is much more smooth!

 

If I order the X220 without camera and fingerprint reader will the top of my screen bezel be clean without any sign of the camera place as so for the finger print reader ?
Thanks, I'm about to place my order, there is an ecoupon running for the weekend here in France.

 

Not sure about the fingerprint reader, but I saw an x220 in store without the webcam, and it looked like there should have been one there. The thinklight is installed in the same place (abOve the webcam).

 

Thanks, just watched some videos on YouTube and figured out that for the webcam it looks like they just clip a patch on the bezel, but use a different palm rest when without fingerprint reader.

 

Hi Amr,

I just tried this with my laptop and I have the same outcome as you. But I did notice that it only occurred when my pen was angled. If it was dead center down it did not occur. Seems wierd....could it be something with the stylus tip and how the screen reads it? I will not be using it for drawing, so I think i am safe, but if I were...that is a serious flaw.

Still have not had a lot of time to seriously play with it....but would LOVE to try Windows 8 on it Maybe when an official beta is released!

 

Hi!

If i order the X220 with the Premium HD screen and 3x3 antenna upgrade (ie no webcam option) is there any patched up hole on the bezel where the camera should have been? Reason is i'll be taking my X220 into a facility where laptops with webcams are NOT allowed (for security reasons), but the X220 without webcam wouldn't be allowed in if it looks very obvious that there could be a camera in the bezel. Basically i'm looking for a nice clean bezel. Does that exist on the 3x3 antenna upgrade?

Cheers

 

my x220 with 3x3 does NOT look like it may have a webcam.