ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

whole inside is plastic and the outer shell (seen without paint as the battery compartment) could be magnesium, but if I had to bet I would bet that that's plastic too.

 

Well, friend, then you would lose that bet, because it is magnesium on the outside.

So, kindly stop spreading disinformation. Thank you.

 

The vast majority of the internal structure is magnesium alloy. The outside is mainly plastic, but the hinges and lid are metal.

 

Insides of the notebook are plastic (as you can seen on the photo). Did you have your x220 disassembled? No? Then just stop confusing people here

 

The top case is magnesium and the bottom case is magnesium alloy.

 

People should be aware that (almost) every notebook out there has metal hinges, so the question should not be IF a specific notebook has metal hinges but how far do they stretch (how long are they) - as thats probably the only quantifiable property of the hinges...

to K2LINOS:
Just to add: when the notebook is closed and pressed/squeezed you can hear pretty cheap squeaking.

Also the matte finish on the corners of the notebook will last 2 weeks at most.

(I'm not complaining, I'm happy with my machine - I'm just providing critical view on a machine that I own, not just bragging about how my THINKPAD IS INDESTRUCTIBLE)

 

The lid has to be magnesium. Notice the strip on the top. That is to allow wireless signals through since magnesium tends to block wifi. Thus the rest of the top of the lid is magnesium. Internal roll cage is metal, if you are convinced it isn't feel free to sue Lenovo for false advertising and tell me how that goes.

I agree that the soft touch finish isn't durable enough though. Surprised your corners lasted 2 weeks.

ZaZ, I wasn't aware the bottom casing was also magnesium alloy.

 

this seems to be a perpetual topic of confusion and misinformation.   the X220's keyboard bezel and palmrest are indeed plastic but the LCD cover and base are in fact magnesium alloy.   the other two major plastic components are the upper LCD frame edge and LCD bezel, both of which promote an improved wireless signal.

here are photos and redundant explanations just for fun:
http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series...ay-frame-bends-in-sun-light/m-p/476701#M27061
http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/Photos/Titanium-Cover-on-older-thinkpads-EXPOSED/m-p/610375#M515

 

Recently ordered my x220.

Here are some part numbers

0B06248 SBB INTCORI3-2350M 2.3GHZ3MB
45M3092 VBB GENWIN7HOMEPREM64
0A59833 SBB GEN WIN7 HOME PRM64 EN
0A69642 SBB 12.5PRMHDLDBCLTDPYMBBBRDAN
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
0A69644 SBB NO FINGERPRINT READER
0A69657 SBB CAMERA, HD 720P
0A69654 SBB 320GB HRDDSK DRV,7200RPM
0A68287 SBB NO MSSDRIVE
0A69647 SBB TP BATTERY 29++(9CELL)
41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0
75Y1724 SBB THINKPADB/G/N
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
0A69659 SBB LANGUAGE PACK US ENGLISH
75Y1544 SBB MOHST2010NA ENGLISH

Im hoping to use it for last two years of college and through grad school. Will I regret or be disappointed with this configuration? I sure hope not.

Meteorology major btw

 

Change your wifi card to at least the Intel 1000.

 

I have the ThinkPad card. It runs just fine.

 

May I ask what do you mean by "internal roll cage"?

http://muf.sk/files/20120326_112311.jpg
really, on a thinkpad?

potentional customers should be aware of such a faults.

 

My laptop is going through the import scan in some town in Kentucky as of 11 am. When can I expect delivery at my doorstop?

 

Depends on how long it takes to pass customs. It took my y460 nearly 3 days to get through customs. Keep checking your tracking number and try to not let it drive you insane.

 

This is my first big purchase I have made for my self in a quiet large amount of time. It's my first thinkpad, and the waiting process has driven me quiet mad, to the point of monitoring it's flight from Kentucky to Miami on a flight tracking site about 5 hours ago. Due to arrive tomorrow. It shall be a long and sleepless night, followed by a very slow day. I just can't wait to look at the IPS screen, feel that nub, and finally type on a thinkpad keyboard, as my current Dell laptop has 3 buttons missing, along with a poor trackpad that works erratically for a few minutes.

The anticipation is just too much.

 

Hello all!

I just ordered a fully-loaded X220 yesterday!

IPS screen (Oh how I wish it were higher res...alas...)
i7 2640M (I hope this doesn't kill my battery life toooo much)
6-cell battery + slice
bluetooth w/ mouse
Intel Wifi
720P camera
8GB RAM
160GB Intel SSD (I wish they had a bigger one...but I can always upgrade later, plus I have lots of conventional HD space on my desktop)
3 year accident warranty
External DVD-RW (just in case)
No fingerprint reader (I have one on my Dell M1330 and I NEVER use it...just a waste of space for me)

I think that's all the important specs...

I was going to wait until the X230 (or whatever the upgrade w/ Ivy Bridge will be), but my company had to make the purchase ASAP so I pulled the trigger - better a Sandy bridge now than nothing later I suppose!

Anything I should look out for in terms of common quality control issues when I get the laptop? Also, should I have ordered the 90W power adapter? I've heard of throttling issues when using the stock 65W adapter - I don't want this, especially given I chose the i7.

Thanks! Can't wait to get my X220!

 

If you can change the order, just get one with a normal HDD. Then buy an mSATA SSD from other places like Amazon US (IIRC the 128 GB size goes from ~US$180 upwards). IE if you are not going to use that particular PCI Express Mini Card slot for a "PCI Express Mini Card for wireless WAN". If you are not sure what the slot is, please google and also go to the Lenovo site and DL the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the x220 from the support pages. Quite simple to replace parts using that manual.

The beauty of such a DIY upgrade is the OS/programs loads much faster. The HDD becomes the storage drive. That's what I did with my i5 x220, except I bought a 64 GB mSATA SSD (IIRC that size is going for upwards of US$80).

You can also get an external BR writer from US$80 upwards (from Amazon)...if you reside in the US! I bought the latest Sony one for US$100, before Amazon US changed their policy regarding shipping OS for that particular product...darn!

Ignore my suggestions if cancelling the order is impossible.

Edit: I do find the fingerprint reader very useful...and quick to wake/boot...rather than typing the passwords.

 

Looks great. Check it has the latest BIOS - sure it will. And just enjoy!

S

 

Thanks for the tips! If I had more time I definitely would have done some more research and likely bought a mSATA SSD separately. However, I am not paying for the laptop so I just went with the best option they had.

Also, I never use optical media, so I don't think the Blu-Ray would be worth it - maybe in the future though!

 

Apologies if others have asked about this issue, but I've not been able to find any information on it. I recently reinstalled the OS on my x220 as well as all of the Lenovo software. I've noticed that my text cursor now "disappears" or is invisible when I am typing in certain Internet Explorer windows. For example, when writing this post if I use the arrow keys to edit previous parts of this message, the text cursor does not appear to move (it stays at the end of the text box) until I start typing. Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution?

 

Anybody know about that throttling issue with the 65W adapter? I didn't order the 90W and I don't want this to come back and bite me.

Thanks!

 

No throttling.

 

I posted this question in the "hdd's fit for x220" thread a week ago but didn't get a response, maybe this time it'll work?

I'd like to know if the momentus xt is modifiable to fit into the x220?

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

I don't think it will, but if there's any chance of it being possible, I wanna know! Also, how do mSATA drives match up with the momentus xt? For example, the OCZ Nocti series?

Newegg.com - OCZ Nocti Series NOC-MSATA-60G mSATA 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, thanks!!

 

The Momentus XT is a 9.5mm drive. It should fit if you're willing to modify the bay on your X220, but I have not seen it myself. If you're going to get the mSATA drive and modify the bay, I'd get a larger 5400RPM drive because speed isn't as important for storage. A 5400RPM drive will cost less as well. If you don't want to modify the bay, the biggest drive you can get is the 500GB Hitachi Z5K500. I have this drive. While not the speediest, it's capable enough.

This might be worth a look. If I were buying a mSATA drive today, that's probably what I'd get.

 

I am waiting for the successor of x220 as well
My hope that it will have thunderbolt & HDMI (instead of DP), and USB 3.0 for all models, and user changeable HDD(I have a spare 256gb ssd). The rest stays the same with me.
Any body here have an idea, what is it going to be?

 

Thanks, ZaZ! The HDD i currently have is a 7200rpm, 240GB stock HDD from Lenovo. I'm kinda nervous about modifying the pay so i think I'll be going the for mSATA option.

Zaz, can you describe why you'd pick the kingston mSATA over OCZ's?

 

It's the least expensive 60GB drive from a well known company. I wouldn't put too much stock in the performance of the drives. The real benefit of a SSD is the near instantaneous seek times. That won't change much from one drive to the next since they're all .1ms. The fastest machine I have right now is my R60e, which is six years old and has a SATA I controller. It uses a Intel G2 drive and runs Linux, which has low overhead compared to Windows. That makes it very snappy.

The mSATA coupled with a the 500GB Hitachi will give you speed and storage.

 

This I agree with. SSD's are bought for the .1 ms latency as well as durability against trauma, both which mSATA offer. However the X220 and many other new Lenovo laptops are different, where you can add an SSD via the mini PCI-E slot, so you can have the best of both worlds, a fast booting mSATA SSD and still have a data drive. And also I find SATA 3 SSD's pointless, as all SSDs already offer .1 ms latency, "more" speed is pointless for the average user.

 

I think it's a website issue. Try Compatibility View for that site in IE. Does that work?

S

HDMI would be a real shame as we'd no longer be able to use high resolution monitors. DP is the way to go at the moment based on the current GPUs.

It already has a user-changeable HDD BTW.

S

 

yeah, I want to mention the user removable hard drive, because x220 must not follow ultrabook style IMO.
With DP, I don't know how many of us can afford a good monitor like yours, and carry an additional adapter everywhere isn't the point of having a portable machine, isn't it?

 

I currently have only a regular HDD in the drive bay running windows 7. Is there an easier way to transfer the OS to the mSATA SSD I'm adding other than clean installing the OS on the mSATA SSD and wiping the OS from the regular HDD?

 

Use cloning software such as Acronis True Image. Check if your SSD manufacturer offers a bundled version for free.

John

 

You can always try the free Macrium Reflect software. Apparently you can clone or image a disc. Haven't tried it yet...but will in the next few weeks.

 

Fair enough - as long as both DP and HDMI can co-exist, as it's no reason to throttle a machine's capability.

You won't have long to wait now though - looks like the x230 might come at the end of this month.

S

 

That's a bold statement. What's it based on?

 

Which of the two statements is bold? "x230 might come at the end of this month"?

 

Ivy Bridge mobile chipsets don't release till June 3.

 

If history is a guide even if Ivy Bridge debuts in June, Lenovo typically does the big boys, the T and W series, before getting to the X series. If that holds true, it'll be August before the new X series is available for order and another month to have one in your hands.

 

I didn't think I was breaking news there. I read something at the end of last week that the x230 had been submitted for some form of regulatory approval, so could be in line for a release to coincide with new Intel processors on 29th April.

Ah, it was this, or another reporting of the same thing, that I read:

Upcoming Lenovo ThinkPad T430, T530, X230 and W530 Get PTCRB Approval

Cheers,

S

 

X220 and the lot released months after getting PTCRB approval last year. Ivy Bridge mobile chipsets don't release till June. There's still much waiting to be done.

 

^ah ok. Sorry if I got anyone excited there!

S

 

This seems to be an old thread but at some point it touched on the topic im wanting to know, what is the difference between the standard display and the outdoor one? The outdoor and the standard model seem to be identical aside from the display type where one lists

1) 12.5" Multitouch HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna

2)12.5" HD Outdoor WW 2x2

 

Outdoor doesn't have touch input, only pen, and has gorilla glass. Multitouch accepts touch input in addition to pen.

 

Got my X220 yesterday. It's damn nice! Little bit of backlight bleed (2 small blotches on bottom left), but no big deal i suppose.

The touchpad was pretty awesome as first...but after some settings adjustment it isn't so bad. I really need to get used to not holding my finger on the click 'button' while using the trackpad. I also got the Lenovo BT laser mouse, so I can use that often.

Any tips on optimizing software? My startup time is about 30 seconds, which seems to be a little long for my setup and 160GB Intel 320 SSD.

 

Turning off TPM in the BIOS if you're not using it will shave about five seconds or so off the boot time. Mine boots in a little under 20 seconds. A clean install with only what you want on there will help too if you're willing to take the time. Congrats, it's a fantastic little machine, which I'm sure will serve you well.

 

Tomorrow I will have my x220!!I want someone to tell me what RAM (4gb) must to buy so as to be the same with the memory that already have???

 

I've been reading the eGPU thread for a while and while I've not got the money to build one at the moment I've been wondering about the available PCIe ports on the x220, or the X220T which I have. I'm aware of the expresscard and mini PCIe slots, but I'm wondering if the docking port has a PCIe passthrough? While the docking station doesn't, the lenovo advanced docking station for certain older laptops does have a PCIe card.

Does anyone know if this functionality has only been left out of the dock and there is still an accessible PCIe connection at the base of the laptop though the docking port?
Alternatively, does anyone know how the SD card reader is physically connected? I've found that electrically it's PCIe, but is this useable?

 

My startup Time with a 320GB HDD is 40 seconds. Yours should actually be around 10-20s. Try opening "msconfig" and disabling the programs you don't need. It helped me.

 

I would suggest an alternative to msconfig: Try CCleaner - it has an option to disable startup items. Or Autoruns, if you know what are you doing.

 

I've got a small question: How many of you can't stand the Speakers on the X220?